The 2024 Oscars ceremony has just gotten underway (7:11pm EST).

Shout out to Vincent René-Lortie’s short film “Invincible”. Based on a true story of a teenage boy and inspired by his desperate break from juvenile detention, it’s beautiful and surely a winner.

There were two (very different) video ads that made an imprint on me this week, see below to watch them and marvel at some numbers and impact. Keep scrolling and you’ll find 5 of my favorite video shorts from nonprofit Orgs.

$0 Production

Plenty of commentators have been breaking down Kanye’s Super Bowl (video) ad since it ran. Though terrible it’s a masterclass in the power of lo-fi content.

Filming himself on an iPhone in the back of a vehicle, he hmmmd and hahhd, spelled out his website address, and then said he’s “got some shoes and that’s it”. And that actually was it.

The Numbers

• Media placement: $7 Million to run
• Production cost: $0
• Running time: 30 seconds
• Revenue: Widely reported to be $19.3 Million in less than 24 hours
• ROI: just shy of 3:1

“God Made a Farmer”

The simplicity of Kanye’s execution reminded me of the 2013 ad “God Made a Farmer”. The spot was created by ad guru Jimmy Bonner who hired 10 photographers. He gave them an epic speech titled “So God Made a Farmer” (written and delivered by legendary broadcaster Paul Harvey at a 1978 Future Farmers of America Convention), and asked them to photograph real farmers and ranchers.

The short ad video featured:

• Almost 0 shots of the product
• No celebrities
• No motion picture, it was all stills
• No music, just a little known speech playing in the background
• Brand willingness to donate up to $1M to the “Future Farmers of America” ($10,000 for every 1,000,000 views that the ads YouTube video received)

Then the ad folks created a photo reel, and overlaid it with the powerful VO and speech. Here’s the finished product:

I think it’s stunning. “For the farmer in all of us” is the tagline it ends with. A+.

The Numbers

• The 2 minute ad spot cost $12 Million, roughly $1M for every 10 seconds in the commercial
• The Super Bowl itself had 113 million viewers that year
• Winner of Nielsen’s Automotive Ad of the Year (based on the results of ad effectiveness surveys)
• As of March 2024 the ad on YouTube has 24 million views
  • therefore, raising $240k+ donation dollars as a result of the YouTube viewership deal

Be Inspired

Check out these 5 favorite examples of Orgs who took storytelling to another level. (They’re all just a minute or two).

Rainforest Alliance: “Follow the Frog”

World Food Program: “A Billion for a Billion”

Drug Policy Alliance: “What is the Drug War?”

St John Ambulance: “The Chokeables”

Save the Children: “Still The Most Shocking Second a Day”

Awards Season, and specifically the Oscars, always reminds me of the power inherent in storytelling and raw simplicity. There’s innovation, braveness and authenticity beating through all of these examples. Sometimes the most powerful messages can be delivered in the simplest packages. And in under 3 minutes!