SNCF, Distance, RATP, Twitch
My favorite brand campaigns in France (Q3 of 2021)
I know the third quarter of 2021 is over since a looong time but I could not resist posting my favorite and super creative brand marketing campaigns for July, August, and September. So without further ado, let’s go back! ⤵
SNCF released a new slogan: “For all of us” 🚆
August is famous for being the month when nothing happens in France. Everyone is gone, Paris is deserted and all businesses are closed until September. Nevertheless, on August 25, SNCF, the national railway company of France, released a brand campaign highlighting their new slogan: “Pour Nous Tous” / “For All of Us”.
Stéphanie Rismont, SNCF Group Communication and Brand Director explained that this new slogan “wants to express the place of the SNCF in the daily life of the French and show a human company where diversity is an asset.”
Part of this campaign, a commercial named “Hexagonal” directed by the media agency of Publicis has been released on TV and online.
Paced by Gaël Faye’s slam, the advertisement shows past and present images of the French society mirroring the SNCF. The French, culture, landscapes are interlaced with the brand. A legitimate and authentic campaign since this company has existed since 1938 and now has more than 1 billion passengers per year. A beautiful campaign mixed with humor and poetry as reminder that the SNCF is a little piece of France.
Distance and their outlaw runners 📸
A recent law has limited the traffic in Paris to 30km/h. Distance, a running store based in the heart of Paris in collaboration with the advertising agency BETC, has decided to challenge this new law in an unorthodox way.
On August 31, a group of runners went outside for a nighttime rodeo, going from speed camera to speed camera with the goal of being flashed. On a video, we can see them sprinting and triggering the devices to become “outlaw runners”.
The speed camera images were then used to carry out the Distance campaign on points of sale displays, posters, social media, etc. A few days later, the brand and BETC even organised a speed contest at the end of the Paris half-marathon with a radar especially installed for the occasion to allow as many people as possible to get flashed.
I have worked for the sports and fitness industry, and have seen many sports brand campaigns, and I can say that they are very often copying each other, following what is trending. Anyway, I like a lot of sports brands, and I had never heard of Distance before September so they clearly surprised with this ad. Playing with the latest local news and promoting their products in such an inexpensive and innovative way, well that’s a 10 out of 10 for me.🥇
RATP: 1 forgotten bag = 1 hour of disturbed traffic 👜
Have you ever forgotten your bag in the Paris metro? If so, RATP, the public transport company in the Greater Paris area, wants you to remember!
From September 13 to 26, they deployed a poster and social media campaign to encourage travellers to be more vigilant to help them not to forget their bags during their daily journeys and thus to facilitate traffic conditions during the back-to-school period.
Created with the Havas Paris agency, the campaign messages, friendly and benevolent, aim to attract everyone’s attention. The media plan included particular places and times when bags and luggage are forgotten: on board, on the platforms, and on their owned social media. An intelligent and colorful way to communicate on an issue that can impact the daily life of travellers.
Twitch: “Everything goes live on Twitch!” 💻
Twitch is an American video live streaming service owned by Amazon. In France, Twitch has had great success since 2020 with the first wave of Covid-19 cases. I personally discovered many French streamers back in March 2020 and spent time watching their lives. Among my favorites were the show “Popcorn” hosted by Domingo, the numerous gaming sessions of GeoGuessr byAntoine Daniel, and the PUBG nights of LittleBigWhale. All have set the pace of my lockdown months.
“Tout part en live sur Twitch” / “Everything goes live on Twitch!”: this is the slogan chosen to assert the identity of the brand with an outdoor and digital poster campaign in the cities of Paris, Marseille, Nice, Toulouse, Lille and Bordeaux. Social media also largely relayed the message with a short film.
Narrated by Djimo, this advertisement shows that beyond gaming, Twitch has become much more diverse, with livestreams dedicated to music, art or talk shows. In my opinion, the editing of this video is flawless because it perfectly succeeds to transcribe the dynamic and spontaneity of the entertainment created 24/7 on the online platform. And to top it off, this ad is a great recognition for these streamers and their own universe, because they are clearly the essential content creators for Twitch in France.
That’s it! 👏 If you missed my favorite brand campaigns for the first half of 2021, you can find them here:
- January, February, March: Lacoste, Orange, Le chocolat des Français, Fight for Dignity
- April, May, June: Leboncoin, Play-Doh, Tinder, Fnac
