When Ads Disappear
What WhatsApp’s new Formula 1 doc on Netflix teaches us about the future of brand storytelling.
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Imagine for a moment:
You’re sitting in a boardroom. The Chief Marketing Officer stands in front of a whiteboard labeled Brand Objectives.
Someone says the word “synergy.”
Heads nod in agreement.
There's a slide showing WhatsApp’s security features. A montage of engineers sending emoji-filled group messages ends with a voiceover: “WhatsApp: connecting champions.”
😬
Thank goodness for the folks at WhatsApp, Modern Arts, and Mercedes AMG Petronas; we don’t have that.
Instead of a boring sponsor advert featuring a driver, we get a cinematic, emotionally intelligent piece of beautiful content that features a brand. That’s the holy trinity.
Modern Arts CEO Brooke Stites said it best:
“You have to have an amazing story and quality of cr…
