SG boutique agency runs campaign to warn marketers of common unsavoury adland tactics

Singapore-based digital marketing agency JET.AVE has launched a "public awareness campaign" for marketers to make a more informed decision when appointing marketing partners and agencies. Titled “#CheckThatQuotation”, the campaign features a series of creatives that highlight sales tactics used by the agency community such as use of jargons, clickbait promotions with hidden fine prints, as well as inflation of contract value through embellishment.

The visuals include the use of juxtaposition and hyperboles for added impact, along with cheeky, questioning taglines. For instance, one visual featured an “ad” of the local dish char kway teow, being sold for SG$0.10, along with a fine print of “Terms & Conditions” section which listed the food items that would not be included in the meal – leaving diners with just the noodles. The ad also included the caption, “Good deal, sure boh (Good deal, are you sure)?”

Another visual comprises of two images: A house floating away with one big balloon, and another house firmly planted to the ground despite the ample number of balloons attached to the house. The visual also captioned "Are you getting quality or quantity?"

Other visuals included comparisons between two similar products. One such comparison was between two identical burgers. On the left, it was marketed for under SG$10, with a simple tagline, "With everything you love and a patty of your choice." The burger on the right, however, marketed the burger at a whopping SG$99.99, along with a detailed explanation on why that burger is more special, such as the use of "freshly plucked vegetables", "air-flown cheese" and a "secret recipe sauce".

The agency said the campaign which was created in-house is about education for marketers, rather than pointing fingers at industry players. It added that as the marketing industry is growing and evolving rapidly, it is unsurprising that there are service providers with different business models, price structure, and method of itemising its deliverables every other day. “What one may deem as unethical, others may say is creative, an attempt at transparency, or even a business strategy. While it’s difficult to standardise quotations, I believe, as agencies, what we can do is to educate client-side marketers on how to assess them," said the agency.

Most importantly, at the end of every creative, there is a tagline that tells marketers the question they should be asking themselves when seeing a sales pitch like that and not take it at face value, it added.  The campaign is currently being rolled out across JET.AVE’s social media accounts and website today, and will be further amplified through media buys on Facebook and Instagram over the next three weeks. 

Launched in 2016, JET.AVE specialises in content marketing and social selling. In April last year, Children’s Cancer Foundation appointed JET. AVE as creative agency for its Hair for Hope campaign, which was also the year the event went full digital. In addition to media planning and branding duties, JET.AVE created  Hair for Hope’s first AR filter, branded stickers and Facebook DP frame. The Persatuan Pemudi Islam Singapura (Singapore Muslim Women's Association) also appointed the agency in October that year to handle creative duties for it's month-long fundraising campaign, held in conjunction with World Mental Health Day. 

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