AD WATCH: The founder of Pontac's most/least favourite ads

AD WATCH features marketing industry figures providing their opinions on what they think is some of the most inspiring and disappointing work they've seen. As long as it's not their own!On this edition:Anson Leung Founder, business director PontacHOT: IKEA REAL LIFE SERIESIKEA has once again brought imagination and creativity into full play. By recreating iconic rooms from famous TV shows – both new and classic – using its own furniture, IKEA has created resonance with different generations.In contrast to the continuous trend of digital usage in marketing campaigns, IKEA has gone back to the basics. The IKEA Real Life Series consists of only a few static images, nothing more.This really inspires me because marketers nowadays are trying so hard to impress their audiences with fancy, flashy and interactive digital technologies – VR, AR, projection mapping, you name it. Such a clean and simple campaign is becoming rare.Don’t get me wrong, I am a big fan of interactive technology, it certainly brings engagement to a whole new level. It is just the IKEA Real Life Series reminds me of the fundamentals of marketing: imagination and creativity. They are the soul of every marketing campaign; no amount of technology can save a campaign without a soul.NOT: THE TRUMPET BRAND SEIROGAN TV ADIt is not uncommon for a TV advertisement to have its own theme song. A catchy theme song creates a strong and long-lasting brand association; while a poorly composed song can do just the opposite.The Trumpet Brand Seirogan simply has the worst ad theme song I have ever listened to. The completely out of tune lyrics, in combination with the unrecognisable mumbled singing of its actors, meant I could barely catch a word. I cannot see how it got approval to be aired and how it does any good for the brand.A good TV ad theme song is extremely difficult to come up with: catchy lyrics, a simple, but memorable melody, an appropriate performance, etc. A perfect combination of these can create a classic (for example, the Vita Chocolate Milk theme song), but Trumpet Brand Seirogan just showed us how TV ad theme songs can go very, very, wrong.This article was produced for the July issue of Marketing Magazine. For more features and other magazine-exclusive content from this and upcoming issues, you can subscribe to receive your free monthly print copy here or you can read our digital version in its entirety here.