Jersey Mike’s “Wakey wakey”

Welcome to the AdMiration newsletter! Each week we analyze new and noteworthy ads from brands around the world to give you our 3-2-1 snapshot of the ad (3 facts, 2 learnings and 1 reflection).

This week’s ad: “Wakey wakey”???

The ad opens to Danny DeVito in bed, waking up to the sound of an alarm clock and smelling freshly cooked bacon. He opens his bedroom window to reveal he has been living in what seems to be the extractor fan of a Jersey Mike’s shop and greets the staff saying, “Good morning everybody! Nothing like the Jersey Mike’s morning prep.”?

As DeVito narrates the “morning prep” to a soothing tune, the audience sees shots of “sizzling bacon,” “slicing of tomatoes” and the “bopping of fresh lettuce.” A Jersey Mike’s employee interrupts the music and narration to ask Danny DeVito what he is doing up there (in the extractor fan), to which he replies “I’ve been living up here for months!” A mailman then comes in with a package addressed to DeVito which he immediately recognizes as his “bacon-sniffing horn.” Excited, DeVito takes the package and pulls out the horn straight away to better smell the freshly cooked bacon he woke up to.?

The ad concludes with the voiceover: “Freshly prepped every morning, it’s a Jersey Mike’s thing: a sub above” to additional shots of ingredients and a ready-to-go sub.?

3 facts

• The ad scores in the top 5% of all US ads in potential to drive immediate sales and top 10% in potential to build brand equity in the long-term.?

• It has strong emotional engagement, eliciting high peaks of different positive emotions from start to finish.?
• People find it highly distinctive and unique, communicating a core brand message in a creative yet compelling way.

2 learnings

• Creating different feelings for your audience to experience over the course of an ad can be very powerful. It’s often easier to drive different feelings through the inclusion of different executional elements within the story, rather than relying on one to do it all.
• Celebrities can be a great asset to gain attention. If you are using a celebrity, use them choicefully. Leverage what they are famous for to add to your communications and ensure the story still makes your brand or product the star of the show.

1 reflection

When starting the ad development process, make sure you are clear about the single most important message you want to land and how this ties to important category entry points. This allows creative freedom to execute in an engaging way which brings that messaging to life.?

For more data & analysis

How do you best consume information??

• Reading: Go to the Zappi blog for a more detailed look at this ad’s performance — including how audiences reacted to Danny DeVito in this ad.?

• Watching/listening: Check out our video below where I walk through the data within the Zappi platform with Isabella Franzini Monteiro, Zappi’s insights manager.

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Until next week,

Kim Malcolm