TURN REJECTION INTO ATTITUDE
Instead of pretending the audience liked advertising, the campaign agreed with them and used that tension as its creative engine.
CASE STUDY / SLAYER ENERGY / SPECULATIVE CREATIVE
HOW DO YOU
ADVERTISE
TO PEOPLE
WHO HATE
ADS?
Slayer Energy is a South African challenger brand with an audience that rejects conventional advertising.
I developed a speculative creative campaign around that contradiction, turning the audience’s anti-advertising attitude into the idea itself. The client responded positively to the work.
SPEC
PROJECT
PROJECT
Self-initiated speculative creative work
POSITIVE
RESPONSE
RESPONSE
Campaign concept well received by the client
HYPE-FREE
HIT
HIT
One creative platform across multiple executions
THE CREATIVE CHALLENGE
SELL THE
DRINK.
WITHOUT
SOUNDING
LIKE AN AD.
Slayer Energy’s audience is independent, community-led and sceptical of hype. Gaming, music, extreme sports and street culture are part of the world around the brand.
That creates an interesting creative challenge: how do you build an advertising campaign for an audience that actively dislikes being sold to?
The answer was not to disguise the advertising. It was to call advertising out with them.
THE THING THAT LOOKED LIKE
THE PROBLEM BECAME THE IDEA.
THE BIG IDEA
SAY WHAT
THE AUDIENCE
IS THINKING.
THE HYPE-FREE HIT.
I created and wrote “The Hype-Free Hit” as the central campaign line. The platform let Slayer reject the usual energy-drink hype while still selling the product. Anti-advertising headlines became the campaign’s voice, turning scepticism into attitude and attitude into potential brand memorability.
THE THINKING
DON’T FIGHT
THE AUDIENCE.
The creative work is built around the community’s worldview rather than asking them to accept a traditional brand voice.
SOUND LIKE THE COMMUNITY
The tone is direct, street-smart and irreverent, designed to feel closer to the culture around the brand than to conventional marketing language.
MAKE EVERY EXECUTION HIT
Bold colour, product-first layouts and punchy lines give the concept a consistent presence across billboard, poster and social formats.
THE CREATIVE WORK
ANTI-ADVERTISING.
VERY ADVERTISING.
The campaign concepts use the conventions of high-impact outdoor advertising while verbally rejecting the category’s usual hype. That contradiction is the point.
THE RESPONSE
THE IDEA
LANDED.
01
Positive client reaction
The speculative campaign route was received enthusiastically by the Slayer team.
02
Strong creative feedback
People shown the concepts responded positively to their attitude, simplicity and fit with the brand.
03
A clear demonstration of the strategy
The work shows how an audience objection can become the organising principle of a distinctive creative platform.
WHAT I DID
FROM
CONTRADICTION
TO CAMPAIGN.
STRATEGY
Turned the audience’s rejection of advertising into the central creative opportunity.
BIG IDEA
Created “The Hype-Free Hit” as the campaign platform.
COPY
Wrote the central line and developed the wider anti-advertising headline system around it.
ART DIRECTION
Created the bold outdoor visual language and product-led execution style.
Slayer Energy was a speculative creative project created by Mip Phillips. The work was presented to the client and received a positive response. It is shown here as a demonstration of strategic and creative thinking, not as a commissioned or live advertising campaign.
YOUR NEXT BIG IDEA
GOT A BRAND
THAT NEEDS
AN ATTITUDE?
Bring me the audience tension, the brand problem or the brief nobody has cracked yet. I can turn it into a BIG IDEA and build the work around it.