This specific form might get overused and burnt out, but spending time on learning about the company and finding out and explaining why you are a great candidate for the opening will always require some time investment that not everyone will be ready to make. How you present it might change, but I'd think that it will always make you stand out.

However, at the end of the day, the only thing it does is calling attention to your resume/portfolio, and making sure the company knows you're very interested. (rather than being one company out of tens to which you sent your resume) But if the resume/portfolio doesn't interest them, it won't change much.