Creativi-tea

We spotted some cracking outdoor activity from Fortnum and Mason by The Shard at London Bridge last week - we loved both the concept and the execution.

F&M were looking to attract customers to buy tickets to their newly available, exclusive picnic experiences located at The View from The Shard, but were also offering the opportunity to grab a cup on the way past.

In a creative mix of sales and branding, they had set up the sales cabin in the shape of one of their classic hampers, leaving bypassers in no doubt about which brand it was.

This is a great partnership between an iconic building and a quintessentially British brand synonymous for tea and hampers.

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Big, Bold Search Tactics

A couple of Summers ago, we posted a blog piece based around a huge, blue, phallic object that was flying around London on the side of buses. We saw it emerging from clusters of trees, hurtling round corners and generally tainting innocent streets with its long, un-ignorable and somewhat intimidating presence:

Call it Déjà vu, but a similar creative tactic has been used by Ch4 this month with a large format outdoor campaign to promote its set of three new series running across their portfolio of channels, that launched last night:

But wait…there’s more:

There appears to be no pre-requisite for knowledge or understanding of these ads – they are purposefully sensational, high impact, phallic food objects promoting the latest C4 programmes.

We believe there is a smart and clear approach here is to drive interest, frequency of messaging and – ultimately – engagement through Search activity. They have done this by only giving a minimal amount of information.

There are TV and press ads running as well, which help identify these as two interlinked, cross-channel series (Banana and Cucumber) that focus on LGBT characters, alongside the 4oD offering of Tofu, an online documentary which looks at modern sex in all its forms.

Not suggesting that the proposed search activity would have determined the names of the respective series, but by restricting the likely (and indeed possible) search terms, Channel 4 would be able to run an extremely focused – and most likely cost-effective – set of keywords.

This is an excellent example of how the medium of outdoor - used to help create a broad reach campaign - can use a lack of information to effectively drive a digital response.

Whatever you think, it’s certainly been eye-catching!

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ROOOOOAAAARRRSOME Bus ads!!

We’ve posted previously about some impressive bus advertising but the latest offering from Sky has to be deemed a roaring success.

Utilising an innovative mega “T-Rex” T-Side, Sky has created a highly impactful ad that achieves fantastic stand-out and cuts through the traffic in a crowded marketplace.

Bus advertising offers excellent opportunities for street level advertising targeting urban shoppers and commuters across towns and cities where other outdoor formats are few and far between.

The eye-catching effect of these Roarsome ads makes some of the competitors look distinctly pre-historic, while ensuring that the message is remembered with fun and catchy creative.

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Simply a Skinful Effort

Well-known skincare brand Simple recently launched its ‘Kind to City Skin’ campaign, with the aim of educating consumers about the detrimental effects urban living can have on our skin.

It’s an interesting push for the brand, eschewing the usual skin-type-based advertising in favour of products tailored to lifestyle. Based on the amount of on- and off-line discussion generated, the campaign has so far been performing well.

Simple has set up an ‘Advisory Board’ on their website, consisting of dermatologists, nutritionists and psychiatrists, and is shedding articles providing skin-care advice. This is combined with considerable paid-for media presence on TV and in print, as well as various outdoor formats, with ads and content videos also running on social media.

The campaign has been targeted geographically, with a presence at core high footfall commuter hot-spots, running in free-sheets and across multi-format key placement outdoor sites. It highlights the skin detriments which can result from daily commuting – or, as Simple call it, ‘commuter skin’. With an estimated cool £7m laid down for this campaign, this appears to be a well-rounded strategy, thoroughly considered from all angles. 

Which makes it simply confusing to see that, having chosen to take over the huge 40x3m digital motion site at Waterloo Station, Simple have then decided to run with 4 consecutive copies of the same ad.

Given the size and advertising power of this giant digital surface – and the 17-minute average dwell time of its captive audiences – it seems a real waste to feature 4 repeated consecutive creatives. There is so much that can be done here!

http://www.jcdecaux.co.uk/rail/rail-digital/motionwaterloo

This is even more a pity given generic content of these particular ads in the first place. The irony of using a highly-polished digital surface to advertise a ‘city skin’ campaign could have been used to great effect here, but it appears lost to the advertisers. Lazy, Simple, lazy!

Or was it, perhaps, a touch… over-Simplified?

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Adidas goes 'all in'

A fully liveried bus ad is an impressive piece of outdoor marketing that will usually receive a fair amount of attention due to the sheer impact of the format. The reach opportunities are increased by the obvious mobility and also the ability to access retail areas where there are little or no other OOH formats available.

As with most media, it is especially effective when tied into events, such as the recent ‘All in or Nothing’ message from adidas which was timed to maximise their presence along the routes of the no.38 and no.8 buses during the World Cup.

These fully wrapped buses are high cost in terms of production which encourages longer campaigns to maximise value for money and lower media costs pro rata. There is the risk, however, that the message soon becomes stale and the impact diminished.

The latest Adidas activity is for their new Predator boots, timed perfectly to coincide with the start of the upcoming season. It’s both refreshing and intriguing to see a brand follow up on successful bus branding rather than using it as a ‘one-off’ impact piece. This willingness to spend big on the on further production augments the Adidas brand stature, especially given the assumed association with the cutting-edge Routemaster buses.

It’s good to see the use of the large format hashtag. It’s being used to pinpoint a particular product (and potentially help measure response) rather than being used for the sake of it.

Adidas has definitely kicked on and let their #predatorinstinct take over, giving them familiarity in the space and the potential to score a victory over rivals in owning the medium within London.

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Setting the benchmark

These branded park benches were a part of the Nike's 2012 #makeitcount ethos. 

Though a couple of years old, this is a still a GREAT piece of advertising - definitely setting the benchmark.

Simple. 

Effective. 

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Wall-ter into Wine-dow

From the eyes of a media agency, there is nothing worse than seeing abandoned or derelict ad space not being put to any use.

So, when we walked past ABC Imaging the other morning we fan-girled over the brilliantly creative use of window space. Take a look:

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"Unbelievable"

 

Ok, so the Pepsi Max bus T-side creative is a tad basic, and relatively non-distinct given the almost identical look and feel of the ad to the Coke Zero one currently running as commented on last week .... but the use of the 'Unbelievable' proposition really does play out in the 3-d interactive 6 sheet panel they are currently running at a bus stop on Oxford Street.

Rigged up with smart technology and a digital camera facing up the street behind the panel, real-time moving images of tigers prowling the street, stomping robots and curly tentacled squids can be seen along side unknowing pedestrians.

Truly engaging, interactive and impactful .....  'Unbelievable' indeed ... see video below

 

 

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Collaboration of Creative and Media

They say "the Medium is the Message" - and campaigns similar to the following for Swansea Bay are illustrative of this.

Headlines such as "Make the call" placed on the side of a phone box indicate a well considered and planned campaign, rich in attention to detail of message and placement that big money campaigns executed by larger brands often don't have.

The creative and media teams have clearly collaborated to construct a tailor-made message to suit the medium delivering it.

Another great example of this (for one of our clients) is Boss Revolution:

An international callling card available to buy in select convenience stores in key areas across the country with certain pockets of international ex Pat residents.

Ads were created to be placed on phone boxes situated in proximity to point of purchase with tactical relevant messaging relating to 'A new way to make International Calls' targeting select audiences by location.

Rather than splashing £100m on a blanket blitz of all media (which is currently being done by BT Sport), smaller companies often work harder to ensure their ads and media selection are tailored more specifically to maximize budgets and resultant effectiveness;

A far more considered approach in terms of cost and creativity. No matter how big or small the budget may be. 

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