The Martin Agency is famous in recent years for its innovative preroll ads for Geico, beginning with “Unskippable” (which won the Film Grand Prix at Cannes) and continuing up through the current “Crushed” campaign. Now, the agency’s London office is getting into fun preroll pranks for a different client—Barclays. The shop hired 1stAveMachine director Bob Partington—who’s no stranger to elaborate and fanciful productions—to create a Rube Goldberg machine that delivers a frantic commercial message for the bank, then amusingly skips itself at the very end. Check it out here: The props in the 20-second ad allude to different industries that Barclays corporate banking works with—including automotive, agriculture, aerospace, manufacturing, retail and fashion—Dan Fisher, executive creative director at The Martin Agency, says in the making-of video below. “What we wanted to do is do a preroll that actually gives you the message and then gets out of the way,” Fisher says. “This ad is going to run shorter than other preroll ads,” Partington adds. “We’re doing the viewer a favor by skipping their ad before a normal ad would play out.” See the full making-of video below:
Barclays has partnered with the Martin Agency to come up with a novel pre-roll ad that skips itself before the viewer has a chance to. The 20-second commercial features a Rube Goldberg machine, a humorous device that accomplishes a simple task in a complicated way, designed by 1stAveMachine director Bob Partington, which showcases the sectors covered by the bank, including automotive, retail and fashion, aerospace, manufacturing and agriculture, before ending. "We’re doing the viewer a favour by skipping their ad before a normal ad would play out," said Partington.