Google: Ogilvy Sydney wins The Skippys 2020

This year, The Skippys challenge was to create the most unskippable two minute ad for YouTube answering a brief for Bumble’s friend-finding mode, Bumble BFF, to help the platform conquer increasing loneliness in some younger generations. The YouTube TrueView ad needed to use new and creative techniques that addressed the stigma people felt in admitting they felt lonely or wanted friendship.

Ogilvy’s winning entry was Bumble BFF: Break Every Excuse.

https://youtu.be/ZXx0brB1g48

Jenny Mak, creative director, Ogilvy Sydney, commented, “We made a creative decision to stick to the guiding principles outlined by Google when we designed the story arc for our TrueView film. Understanding the key moments when people usually stop watching and the fundamentals to keep people engaged gave us a clear plan not only for our concept, but for the final edit. It was an interesting exercise to trade conventional storytelling for the science of numbers, but we trusted the process and it ultimately paid off. Plus who doesn’t love watching stuff being smashed in super slow motion?”

The Skippy Awards, now in their fourth year, challenge leading creative agencies to experiment in making the most unskippable video content for the YouTube platform. The winner is judged on YouTube’s performance metrics of view through rate, average watchtime and ad recall. The four ads were created prior to the sudden global spread of COVID-19 earlier this year. With subsequent restrictions on social gatherings in response to COVID-19, the brief’s focus on human connections took on further significance when the ads ran throughout March.

The agencies that participated were Leo Burnett Sydney, Ogilvy Sydney, R/GA Sydney and TBWA Melbourne.

Fiona Walford, head of creative development at Google Australia, stated, “In these times, it’s important we continue to recognise our agency peers and colleagues who bring exceptional creativity, passion and innovation to their work. It has been a privilege to work with Bumble and the agencies involved to help bring attention to the importance of human connections through this competition. Congratulations to Ogilvy on being this year’s Skippys winner.”

“Young people in Australia are often reluctant to admit they are lonely and there is a stigma attached to admitting you need a friend. At Bumble we want to show young Australian women that it is healthy and necessary to form new friendships throughout life, and to support women in finding new ways to do so,” added Lucille McCart, associate director, APAC PR + comms, Bumble

The three other entrants were:

R/GA: