It’s a while since we’ve delved into the wonderful world of ambient advertising.
The examples below aren’t just creative, they all hit home with a very simple and powerful marketing message.
Now that’s what you call quick drying nail varnish
Probably shouldn’t have had that 5th doughnut
The worst job in advertising?
One of those ideas you wish was in your portfolio
So that’s how they do it
If you want to see more ambient advertising ideas have a look at a post from a while ago
Our wall is bursting with inspiration yet again. This means it’s time to pull it all down and start over again…
Wall number 3 features Audi, Yorkshire miners and some lovely pink paint.
We’ve enjoyed collecting these nuggets of inspiration. If there is anything you’d like us to add next time then please send it to us:
The Wall,
Remedy Creative
17, Mount Ephraim,
Tunbridge Wells
Kent
TN4 8AE
Or email us: inspiration@remedycreative.com
If you’d like to be refreshed, you can check out the original wall here. Also, it’s sister, wall number 2, here.
After a 3-way pitch back in October, we picked up the Marshall-Tufflex Energy Management (MTEM) account.
The brief was threefold: to position MTEM as a brand leader, offering a full energy management package to commercial and industrial clients; to convince Energy Managers that MTEM could help them meet CO2 targets imposed on them by The CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme and to build brand recognition.
Energy management is a hot topic, with lots of companies vying for a slice of market share. So it’s the age old problem – how do you make sure potential customers hear what you have to say in a crowded marketplace?
MTEM’s products are seriously impressive, in some cases helping to reduce energy bills by up to 70%, but with many competitors in the same trade titles, it’s not easy to stand out. So once we had agreed on a campaign strategy, we developed a bold illustration style to give the ads a distinctive look and help establish the brand.
Brand ad
Sinergy illustration
Voltis illustration
We are currently in the process of rolling out ads in the energy management trade press for the overall MTEM brand and all of their products.
Katie Smart, MTEM’s Marketing Promotions Coordinator, had these kind words to say:
“We chose to work with you because you had a great attitude and were genuinely excited about our company – and we haven’t been disappointed. Working with you has been a pleasure and you’ve made the process easy. You’ve designed a strong, confident and engaging campaign which meets our brief perfectly, building brand awareness of Marshall-Tufflex Energy Management in the energy management marketplace.”
Now that’s the kind of response we like!
I never got the chance to meet him, but I grew up with many of his creations.
John Webster was possibly the greatest TV commercials writer and art director in the UK, if not, the world. He was born December 17, 1934 in Paris and after attending Hornsey College of Art, spent most of his career at Boase Massimi Pollitt (now DDB London), having helped set up the agency in 1969.
As Creative Director, he gained a reputation as one of the most talented advertising creatives in London and won more creative awards than anyone else. To put this into perspective, let me quote leading ad man Dave Trott:
“One year I won a Cannes Gold Lion for a commercial that I’d written. I felt pretty good. The same year John won three Gold Lions for commercials he’d written, another three for commercials he’d art-directed, and another three for commercials he’d actually directed himself. Nine times as many as me. Or, to put it another way, three times as many as anyone else in any field in our business. And that was just one year.”
But ironically, winning awards was the last thing on John Webster’s mind. Unlike many of his contemporaries who had been sucked in by the back-patting world of the London ad scene, John knew there was more to life than advertising. He knew that people switched the box on to watch Hollywood blockbusters, sitcoms and soaps. That’s why he pitched his ideas to the ‘normal’ people in the agency; the tea-lady, the odd-job man and the receptionist.
He couldn’t care less what his peers thought about his work. After all, they weren’t who he was selling to.
One of John’s colleagues, James Best, says that one of the things that made John Webster’s work so powerful was that he knew “Nobody’s asked you in… John’s particular magic was to realise that if you’re going to communicate with people, rather than shouting at them, why not amuse them and even charm them? If they like you and enjoy what you’re about, then they might be prepared to listen to what you’ve got to tell them.”
John Webster’s advertising creations read like a Who’s Who of advertising icons:
The Cadbury’s Smash martians, the Honey Monster, George the Hofmeister bear, The Cresta Bear, John Smith’s Arkwright and my all time favourite, the ‘It’s too orangey for crows’ Kia Ora ad.
Now, there are some rather bizarre rumours going around that the characters in this commercial reinforce racial stereotypes. Maybe I just see the world through orange-coloured spectacles, but the idea that this commercial has any racist overtones is beyond me. I would like to take this opportunity to (s)quash any such nonsense!
According to anyone who knew and worked with John, there wasn’t a bad bone in his body.
Advertising luminary, Winston Fletcher says:
“John was the antithesis of the caricature advertising man. Though supremely confident of his own talent, he was never arrogant, did not push himself forward, dressed unexceptionally, threw no tantrums and accepted good ideas from others gracefully, including ideas from clients, something few advertising creative people will countenance… He was immensely popular and a team player, both literally and metaphorically. He played cricket and golf for his agency – though even he would not have claimed to be great shakes at either – and he was generous to a fault in devoting time to the encouragement and training of young people.”
And to quote Dave Trott once more:
“He was a typically eccentric Englishman. He approached multimillion-pound campaigns as if he were tending prize leeks in his allotment… of all the creative greats in the UK, John was the only one not to have his name above the door of an advertising agency. And yet, at BMP, John was the agency.”
Some Webster facts:
– He is responsible for ‘Watch out, there’s a Humphrey about’ and ‘Gertcha’
– He introduced Gary Lineker to the world as the face of Walkers crisps
– In a poll of the UKs top 100 TV commercials, 11 were created by John Webster
– He won two Cannes Grand Prix awards and the D&AD President’s Award
– His Cadbury’s Smash Martians commercial was voted TV ad of the century by Campaign Magazine in 1999, and Best Ad Ever by ITV in 2005
– There is now even an award named after him – The John Webster Award for Best 30 second Commercial (British Television Advertising Awards).
And finally, to quote the man himself:
“I always know a piece of work is really good when I feel angry. It’s a sort of resentment that someone else has done it.”
John Webster, 1934 – 2006. An inspiration for two generations of creatives.
When your 17, you know exactly where you stand on politics (load of rubbish) and capitalism (evil … Mum, can I have some pocket money). Ain’t nobody gonna change me!
Then you get a job, a mortgage and a paunch.
It even happens to the most ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ amongst us.
Stand up John Lydon (Country Life Butter), Iggy Pop (Swift Cover) and now the baddest of the bad guys, Mötorhead’s front man, Lemmy.
That’s right, even Mr Kilmister has succumbed to the call of the adman’s cheque book. However, it is a particularly neat commercial and at least it’s for beer, not butter – not that he gives a $$$$ what we think.
Looking forward to Pete Doherty selling the benefits of Shake ‘n’ Vac in 20 years.
Jane is expecting a baby, Adam is virtually speechless and BT are reveling in the success of their recent crowdsourcing / social media experiment.
In the past 5 years, BT’s interpretation of a modern family has appeared in over 35 ads and is one of the longest running plot-based ad campaigns to run on UK TV. Back in July, viewers were asked to vote for alternative endings to a dramatic new storyline by visiting a website – should there be a new addition to the BT family?
A Facebook page dedicated to the Adam and Jane saga encouraged fans to sign up to vote for their favourite ending and a chance to preview the ad before it was aired this week. The response was 72% in favour of the pregnancy with over 1.6 million people voting.
Fans were also encouraged to submit their own endings to BT’s scriptwriters – which apparently ranged from the couple having sextuplets through to aliens invading the family home.
The ad has had over 86,000 views (at time of writing) on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_tGduIg-S0&feature=channel but personally I prefer the outtakes..
Whilst Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, the agency behind the campaign, are no doubt cracking open some well deserved champagne, other brands are experimenting with user-generated ideas as a means of bypassing traditional ad agency fees. On Monday (23rd August), Unilever will air its first crowdsourced ad, featuring their animated Peperami character ‘Animal’.
After placing the brief online with crowdsourcing platform www.ideabounty.com, over 1200 entries were posted. The winners – Kevin Baldwin (advertising copywriter) and Rowland Davies (art director) were paid $10k for their idea. The ad was produced by London-based BPL Marketing.
You can sneak a preview of the ad at http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/video/2010/aug/13/peperami-nibblers-ad
Unilever reckon the ad cost 60% less to make than if they had used a traditional advertising agency – but of course the writers had the advantage of working with an established brand and character that have been on our screens for quite some time.
However, the big debate raging around this campaign doesn’t concern the actual quality of the finished commercial – but rather whether or not this is a true example of crowdsourcing.
Both creators are professional freelance creatives – not members of the public, so it could be argued that this is simply ‘freelancing’ rather than crowdsourcing.
User generated content, better engagement and interaction with consumers through social media is all good stuff that needs to be embraced by design and advertising agencies. In fact, as the Peperami case proves, crowdsourcing does offer opportunities for smaller agencies and creatives to get their ideas in front of the big guys for a change. We can only hope that more brands are brave enough to experiment in this way and to take advantage of the engagement opportunities offered through crowdsourcing and social networks.
Go Compare and Compare the Market. I know which one I’d prefer knocking on my door
Go Compare is launching its 2nd TV campaign featuring their opera singer ‘Gio Compare’ and according to Technology Weekly, the first round of ads raised brand awareness by 450%. Not bad for an advertising campaign that has annoyed more people in the UK than England’s World Cup performance (OK, slight exaggeration).
This got me thinking about advertising that makes people wince; stuff that’s so bad, you just can’t help singing along and wandering along zombie-like into the high street to buy one. Remember ‘Shake ‘n Vac’. My guess is that 99% of you can still sing the jingle.
A poll on www.mirror.co.uk lists the ads that “make you want to put your foot through the telly”, and no surprise, Go Compare comes top. Interestingly, out of the top ten, there is one other insurance comparison site, Confused.com and two insurance companies, Churchill and Swift Cover. Personally the Swift Cover ads featuring Iggy Pop don’t make me angry, they just make me wonder whether I’m actually asleep and having a bad dream.
Back to GoCompare. OK, brand awareness is up, but do we have to offend people to get noticed? I don’t want people just to remember a brand, I want them to remember it fondly. Go Compare’s number one competitor, ComparetheMarket.com is completely bonkers and everyone has fallen in love with Aleksandr the meerkat. This campaign is witty, it’s memorable and it gives you a nice warm feeling about the brand. Everything that decent advertising should be – simples (sorry, couldn’t resist)! And if you haven’t already seen it, check out comparethemeerkat.com, it almost makes me like insurance companies. Enjoy.
The idea is king, but the right media choice can really drive the idea home.
If you don’t believe us, check this out…
An ad in ‘The Young Ladies’ Journal’ of 1877 for Righton’s Dress Fabrics reads:
‘Ladies are respectfully invited to write at once for patterns of these beautiful and fashionable materials for Summer wear. The newest and most varied stock in the Kingdom to select from.’
The ad goes on to list ‘… Suitings, Tennis and Seaside Materials, Canvas Cloths, Zephyrs, Cashmerettes, Cambrics, Lawns, Satteens… and many other Novelties, all of which are unequalled in every respect.’
It would be safe to say that this was written before the golden age of advertising, however, 132 years ago, this was probably perfectly acceptable and possibly even quite compelling.
By the 1940s, the language was no less whimsical. Under the headline ‘Like Paris in the Spring’, this Coty press ad tells us:
‘Coty brings you the heart-stirring warmth of its fragrant air, the vibrant charm of its bright-hued flowers… in a series of lovely make-up aids, color-related in Springtime shades and fragranced with Coty perfumes.’
By the 60′s and 70′s, the copywriter had blossomed into a true commercial wordsmith (Fay Weldon, Len Deighton and Salman Rushdie all came out of advertising agencies). Great copywriters like Bill Bernbach, David Ogilvy, Tony Brignull and David Abbott lovingly crafted their copy, to not only sell, sell, sell, but to instill belief and trust in a brand. They helped convey a product’s intelligence as well as its points of difference.
David Abbott famously wrote a beautiful press ad for Chivas Regal with 265 words across 50 perfect paragraphs. His award winning ad for the RSPCA ‘When the Government killed the dog licence they left us to kill the dogs’, had 460 painstakingly honed words in the body copy. Not that Abbott was a slave to long copy – he once said “Think visually … sometimes the best copy is no copy”.
I couldn’t agree more, but us modern-day hacks may have taken this a little too literally. Have a look in the colour supplements, how many decent ads have more than a couple of words squeezed in under the picture?
Has the craft of copywriting had its day? We are all constantly bombarded by SMS messages, programme sponsorships, HTML emails, viral movies… Maybe no one really has the time or patience for long copy any more. However, I think the issue is not how many or how few the words, but whether they are the right words.
Driving along recently, a poster caught my eye (for all the wrong reasons). The headline was ‘OMG’ – my immediate reaction was “UGH”. This sorry blight on the landscape then went on to inform me that ‘My chunky just got funky’. What are they talking about? Funky? Are they serious?
Is it rubbish (OMG, I think so), is it lazy (Like, duh!) or is it a brand that knows its audience? – presumably 14 year-olds who learned to spell on a Sony Ericsson C905. Argh, I’m starting to sound like my Grandad, but this ad made my blood boil! After seeing it, I needed a break, but the last thing I needed was a Kit Kat – Thank Crunchie it was a Friday!
Would this offering from Kit Kat make the great writers of yore turn in their graves, or would they sagely say that it is an ad of its time that the ‘YOT will <3′?
If you managed to get beyond the first sentence, I’d love to know what you think (but I guarantee if you write ‘LOL’ without even a modicum of irony, the blog police will show no mercy).
Watch it here: Sloth meets girl
Sloth meets girl, girl plies sloth with alcohol, sloth meets another girl, first girl doesn’t seem to mind… It’s a strange love story. Stranger still, it’s a viral movie for Alfa Romeo by director, Lorenzo Fonda. It’s charming and completely bonkers!
You can find out more about the crazy world of Lorenzo Fonda here: http://www.cerberoleso.it/
And if you think the viral is a little odd, you should see the commercial. It’s for the Alpha 147, and is just as out there: