Turning real customer reviews into ads is one of the latest ad trends, but this one by UltraSuperNew Singapore for online marketplace, Carousell, stands out brilliantly. It has embraced the potential for humour in the idea. Fully.
The digital and OOH campaign highlights Carousell’s home services offering. While it is well known in Asia as the leading classifieds group in the Greater Southeast Asian region for second-hand and new items, Carousell wanted more people to know about its home services category, a network of service providers customers can speak to directly, instead of going through intermediary companies.
The spots feature Andrew Marko and Zulfiqar Izzudin, members of up-and-coming theatre collective, Patch & Punnet, who act and sing the reviews.
Heng Xiao Qi, Singapore country marketing manager at Carousell, explained that the problem they faced was how to make a functional yet generally perceived as unexciting category such as home services fun and also stand out against competitors. “When USN suggested using reviews as a creative concept, we were instantly sold as it really doesn’t get more authentic than to hear straight from the users’ mouths.”
Senior account manager at USN, Haziq Hussain, added, “The task at hand was to tell Singaporeans about how Carousell, other than being an online marketplace, had this amazing Home Services offering that not many people knew about. The solution was surprisingly enough, right in front of us in the form of the actual reviews. And of course, we just had to turn them into full-blown song and dance performances in true USN fashion.”
The films are running across YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.
Credits
Client: Carousell
Client Team: Heng XiaoQi, Pinky Chng, Lam Xin Ni
Agency: UltraSuperNew Singapore
Directors: Tomo Murakami, Marc Wesseling
General Manager: Sarah Emmanuel
Senior Account Manager: Haziq Hussain
Senior Account Executive: Veknesh Rajasekaran
Creative Director: Shivram Gopinath
Senior Art Director: Widad Ismail
Art Director: Jessica Heng
Senior Copywriter: Ming Swee Koh
Production House: AMOK
Director: Lynn Tachihara
Executive Producer: Nicholas Guan
Producer: Mervyn Yap
Production Coordinator: Ng Weng Yao
Production Assistant: Tey Xue Qu
Editor: Darren Baker
Colourist: Chin Wen Khien
Director of Photography: Ashley Tan
Camera Assistant: Leong Wei Ching
Set Designer: Albee Yeo
Prop Master: Kayon Kwa
Art Assistant: Kok Jian Liang
Wardrobe Stylist: Amer Mok
Make Up Stylist: Eric Tan
Lighting Team: Kayson Lau, Muhammad Afiq Bin Aris
Sound Design: Fuse Adventures in Audio
