#WearTheRose: Make Them Giants

With the Rugby World Cup now in full flow, a ruck has formed among brands keen to showcase their products and services to mass audiences. One campaign that has emerged from this scrum and stood taller than most is that of O2’s “#WearTheRose: Make them giants”.

Launched by Pure’s sister agency VCCP with a TV ad in Gogglebox on the night of the first game, the multimedia campaign has been skilfully constructed to garner support from the nation for England Rugby.

It has taken only two weeks of the World Cup for the campaign to achieve more than 4,200,000 “Acts of Support” using the #WearTheRose on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The engagement has been gathering momentum and in order to maintain this, they have increased the frequency of the O2 ads across media channels to correlate with and build on the positive awareness.

By centring on the atmosphere and anticipation around the country, the brand has sought to hook an already engaged nation and hope that response will reach fever pitch.

With a giant match tomorrow night, we simply had to choose this as our ‘Pure Slogan of the Week’.

Come on England!!! Swing low, Sweet chariot…

Other Great Rugby World Cup 2015 Ads

Lucozade made it clear that the sports drink is Strictly For The Home Nations Only while Beats by Dre has used some emotional videos featuring stars such as Chris Robsahw, Richie McCaw and Wesley Fofana to promote their headphone range.

“Too big to miss” featuring Charles Dance is a genuine mix of spine-tingling sentiment and humour but as it is an online-only spot, it has perhaps been missed by a fair few..!

Samsung School of Rugby featuring Jack Whitehall alongside some past England legends has been a massive hit. It has focused on connecting the wider (perhaps less rugby-savvy) public with the sport through an amusing series of videos. 

One of the simplest, but more impactful ads has come from that grizzled veteran Guinness, who used this simple yet powerful image to sum up the unity of the Japan team that shocked South Africa (and the world) in the opening round of matches. Bravo! 

Should've gone to Specsavers

This week’s Pure Slogan of the Week is Specsavers’ “Should’ve gone to Specsavers”.

“Should’ve gone to Specsavers” slogan was launched in 2002 by their in-house creative agency. Their ads have a humorous approach, often portraying members of the public with unattractive glasses or in outlandish situations due to bad eyesight before advising them that they “Should’ve gone to Specsavers”.

One of the great things about their campaign is that it has evolved with the times; thanks to their “shgts” hashtag that allows Twitter users to post their own “Should’ve gone to Specsavers”, inspired photos and tweets.

We love the Specsavers campaign because it does what all great marketing strategies should do, it creates something that is memorable through humour while still maintaining a solid brand identity. The message of what they’re promoting never gets lost or distorted despite how eccentric their adverts can get, and to top it all off, customers can engage in the campaign by upload their own funny stories. 

#SHGTS #PSoTW

"Does exactly what it says on the tin"

 This week’s Pure Slogan of the Week is Ronseal’s “Does exactly what it says on the tin".

Ronseal, a wood stain paint and preserver, began working with ad agency HHCL in 1994 in an attempt to “de-mystify” the product and move away from marketing campaigns that Ged Shields, Ronseal’s then marketing director, felt were “trying too hard”.

Created by Liz Whiston and Dave Shelton, they decided not to use puns or elaborate creatives but to create something that was simple and straight to the point instead, much like the product itself, resulting in “It does exactly what it says on the tin”.

  

Initially, it was poorly received by the public and industry when sent out for market research.  Whiston and Shelton chose to trust their instincts and with Ronseal’s support decided to run the ad anyway.

Surprisingly the ad was a huge success; Ronseal saw an increase in sales and became a brand leader. “Does exactly what it says on the tin” is one of the rare examples when a slogan becomes bigger than the brand it’s promoting.  Also immediately after its launch, it was the focus of a number of spoofs by other brands, including an anti-smoking campaign and soft drink Irn Bru showing how influential it was from the beginning.

  

In the years since, the phrase has become a part of British pop culture and the vernacular. It was entered in to the Oxford Dictionary of Idioms. We love this iconic slogan because of how it was able to create something that is fresh and innovative out of a relatively simple idea, an example of great marketing.

@Ronseal

#PSoTW, #PurePoint, #NoNonsense