Thorne Travel - Thorne Travel Advert (2014) 2:54 (UK)

Fresh in the viral video charts and currently doing the social media rounds in the UK, Thorne Travel – a Scottish travel agency based in the town of Kilwinning – has created something of a buzz with their new ad. Within one week it’s blown up on YouTube; when I first saw this on my Facebook feed it had just over 250,000 views, now that figure is tipping into 1 million.

The ad is almost indescribable, as if they’ve tried to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. It features a marching band of Thorne Travel advisors, flashmob dancing parties, an (honest to god) black and white sequence, cheering crowds, acrobatics, and of course that final closing shot of a happy couple discovering Thorne for the first time. It's magnificently retro, and magnificently unencumbered by any agency involvement whatsoever.

But what does that say about our industry when a home-made ad can get 1 million views on YouTube with zero budget for paid media? Are people so sick and tired of polished advertising ‘content’ and meticulously crafted ‘brand communications’ that this represents something more than just a ‘so bad it’s good’ ad? Or is that simply all there is to it - the advertising equivalent of what Rebecca Black did for the music industry in 2011? We all remember Friday, and how for one summer it became a cultural phenomenon.

Feedback over social media seems to be unanimously positive, although it’s telling that comments have now been disabled on YouTube, which was not the case a few days ago. Deesa Morrison writes on the Thorne Travel Facebook page ‘Liked & shared! You've put Kilwinning on the map that's for sure.’

We reached out to Thorne Travel for an interview, but were told they were ‘currently too busy’ to comment. This isn’t really surprising given all the allegedly new customers they’ve been getting, which if I remember correctly was the point of this whole advertising business. If we want to judge something as a success or failure, we rarely have to look further than the balance sheet.

This won’t win Lions, but it’s certainly winning hearts.

Thorne Travel