Terrible Marketing Defeats a Suave Secret Agent in Adobe's Advertising Week Spot

Latest Cautionary Tale Warns of Lack of Connection Between Channels

Published On
Sep 26, 2016

Editor's Pick

Adobe's ongoing campaign centered on marketing fails shows no sign of running out of steam, with the brand launching a new spot today for Advertising Week in New York.

The latest spot features a suave secret agent (is it a coincidence or does he look a little like Tom Hiddleston?) who's trying to check into a hotel having executed a dangerous mission. True to the genre, the glamorous receptionist responds to his smoothness and flirts with him at first -- but then falters as she fails to find his reservation on the system. There follows the kind of scenario we're probably all familiar with.

"But you texted a confirmation to my watch," he complains, to which she replies "Oh, marketing handles emails," and when he says he booked a room on the app, she responds, "Oh we have so many apps." As both start to lose their cool, the bad guys turn up looking for our agent and he's taken away, still shouting about his name. The spot ends with Adobe's Marketing Cloud logo and the tagline: "How's your customer experience?"

"When cross-channel marketing goes wrong, it's bad news for businesses and consumers alike. We wanted to show that all the bad guys in the world couldn't defeat a secret agent, but a bad customer experience could," said Will Elliott, creative director at agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners, in a statement.

Steve Rogers at Biscuit Filmworks / Revolver directed the spot, which will be shown ahead of several Advertising Week live sessions as part of the media plan. Adobe is also planning targeted advertising to reach marketers searching for movie content on YouTube, in line with the ad's cinematic tone.

Credits

Date
Sep 26, 2016
Agency :
Goodby Silverstein & Partners
Brand :
Adobe
Client :
Adobe
Co-Chairperson :
Rich Silverstein
Co-Chairperson :
Jeff Goodby
Chief Creative Officer :
Margaret Johnson
Creative Director :
Will Elliott
Creative Director :
Patrick Knowlton
Associate Creative Director :
Andrew Livingston
Associate Creative Director :
Simon Bruyn
Production Director :
Tod Puckett
Senior Producer :
Benton Roman
Managing Partner :
Brian McPherson
Account Director :
Theo Abel
Account Manager :
Chelsea Bruzzone
Assistant Account Manager :
Zack Piánko
Director, Brand Strategy :
Bonnie Wan
Brand Strategist :
Etienne Ma
Brand Strategist :
Andrew Mak
Communications Strategy Director :
Christine Chen
Communications Strategy Deputy Director :
Dong Kim
Senior Communications Strategist :
Victoria Barbatelli
Communications Strategist :
Tara Hughes
Junior Communications Strategist :
Nicole Bruno
Junior Communications Strategist :
Catherine Kim
Business Affairs Manager :
Heidi Killeen
Production Company :
Biscuit Filmworks/Revolver Film
Director :
Stephen Rogers
Managing Director :
Shawn Lacy
Executive Producer :
Holly Vega
Producer :
Kathy Rhodes
Head of Production :
Mercedes Allen Sarria
Head of Production :
Rachel Glaub
Director, Photography :
Nicolas Karakatsanis
Production Designer :
Tunde Csaki
Editorial Company :
Arcade Edit
Managing Partner :
Damian Stevens
Executive Producer :
Crissy DeSimone
Head of Production :
Kirsten Thon-Webb
Editor :
Geoff Hounsell
Assistant Editor :
Laura Sanford
Producer :
Alexa Atkin
Telecine Company :
The Mill
Colorist :
Fergus McCall
Senior Color Producer :
Natalie Westerfield
Executive Producer/Visual Effects :
Leighton Greer
Senior Visual Effects Producer :
Will Unterreiner
Production Coordinator :
Alex Benavente
Shoot Supervisor :
Chris Mortimer
Creative Director :
Tim Davies
2D Lead Artist :
Tim Davies
2D Artist :
Edward Black
2D Artist :
Kelsey Napier
Music Company :
Woodwork Music
Sound Design Company :
Barking Owl
Sound Designer :
Michael Anastasi
Sound Creative Director :
Kelly Bayett
Producer :
Ashley Benton
Mix Company :
Barking Owl
Mixer :
Morgan Johnson

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