Pure Retrospective 2013

As we hurtle towards the end of an action-packed 2013, we thought it would be a good idea to draw breath and take a moment to think back over what has been a pretty interesting year. That perpetual  myth of ‘The Year of Mobile’ wasn’t realised (again!) but there does continue to be an ongoing shift in engaging consumers through multimedia campaigns and an added social media element. As our blog on the social media frenzy around Christmas campaigns showed, things are becoming ever more about engagement and less about just spot and space.

We decided to relive some of the highs (and lows) of the year which has seen some great ads and some really inventive placements. 

 

Definitely Love It

This is a classy and perfectly-pitched combination of placement, topic, creative....everything. The Guardian used a smart but sensitive ad to promote their review of Margaret Thatcher and her life. The clear divisions that Thatcherism stood for were supremely expressed in an understated and simple fashion. 

Love It...and Hate It

To keep on the Marmite theme, the controversial TV ad based on a faux-animal neglect team. This split opinions in the Pure office and led to some heated debate - which is exactly what the creative was designed to achieve. The tag line was 'Love It Hate It. Just Don't Forget It.' and the campaign ensured that this was precisely what happened.

Just HATE It

Santander's employment of Rory, Jenson and Jess (who we've nicknamed 'The Wooden Tops') creepily appearing in people's homes was one of the most appalling ads in recent memory. Three supremely wealthy sports stars selling their incredibly poor acting skills.


And one more thing - Jess' t-shirt is pink not red. Which MAKES NO SENSE! Aaaaaaand breathe....

Great Ikea

One of our favourites is the gnome campaign by Ikea - it used TV and print as the mass media platforms to generate interest and then successfully coupled this with social media for the conversation/story.

It also created a positive amount of PR by being controversial and showing “gnome slaughter” - there were over 50 complaints to the ASA (!)

 

Share a Coke:

Positives and negatives abound when looking at the Coke summer campaign. It was a fantastic and original idea, with lots of PR, #ShareaCoke social media presence and tactical print forays including Wills and Kate & Sir Alex Ferguson and David Moyes (pictured). 

 

There were supposedly 150 different named bottles, which increased our expectations when looking for ads - but it appears the reality of production costs got in the way as the lack of variety in the creative copy (e.g. only 3 names on the bus sides) left us feeling slightly like an old Coke - a bit flat. 

 

There was also 2 or 3 other campaigns running at the same time for Diet Coke and Coke Zero, resulting in mixed messages

Brian The Robot

Brian dominated our Summer - across radio, outdoor, TV, print, social media and anywhere else that he could try and "save us pounds". One of the truly multimedia campaigns of 2013, this was catchy (irritating) and ubiquitous - definitely at the forefront of the nation's consciousness! Although the controversial dogging ad (137 ASA complaints) left us all somewhat confused.com?!?!?




Big, Blue, Prickly Ad

More than just the memorable creative – a really interesting use of bus sides coupled with the strip ads which acted as high impact fractionals in press (although swiftly replaced with a more subtle creative we noted).

Should arid plants be used

for penetrative impact more often?!




BT's Struggle

Of course, how can we forget the seemingly never-ending Summer of Sports battle between BT Sport and Sky Sports.

Lesson learnt: no matter how much money you have for a campaign, no matter how high profile the celebs involved, if the relative interest isn't there the results will fall short of the ambition. Especially when trying to take on Sky!

Despite the 100's / 1'000's of ads BT Sport ran .... There was only ever going to be one winner.

 

Game changing? We think not.


Landmark lights

Quite simply a phenomenal use of the iconic London skyline to promote the launch of the Playstation4 to a mass audience and garner huge media attention - reworking the OXO Tower to feature the famous PS games console.

Christmas Ads 2013

Take a look back at the blog over recent weeks to see what we had to say about John Lewis, Sainsbury's and the likes ... Big budget, big Impact and divided opinions.

In the meantime - links below to some of the top 10 Christmas Ads featuring Aldi, Boots, John Lewis, Harvey Nichols, M&S and Waitrose.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/video/2013/nov/29/christmas-ads-2013-john-lewis-marks-spencer-Video


Have a fantastic Christmas and New Year from Pure Media

So there you have it! Our high- and low-lights of 2013!

We'll be back in 2014 with our eagle eyes peeled for all advertising things weird and wonderful, clever and lazy, silly and poignant.

In the meantime, Check out our little dance and  have a fantastic Christmas and New Year!


#PurePoint

Round 3....

...Ding Ding!! .....There is seemingly no end to the exhaustive budgets and sporting rivalry between BT Sport and SKY Sports ... with SKY producing a power punch in the latest round by introducing David Beckham to front their current advertising campaign.

Probably the most recognisable British sportsman, certainly in the world of football, a mass ad campaign launched this week across Sky and terrestrial TV channels as well as outdoor, print and digital activity.

WPP agencies Maxus and MediaCom must be loving the ongoing battle as the budgets continue to get ploughed in to multi media campaigns.... Just how many rounds can they afford to go??

Initial contender for #PureAdOfTheWeek

Sky vs. BT Sport

There can be no ignoring the current battle between SKY and BT Sport for Premier League fixtures and we've been following how this war has evolved in the media, especially advertising tactics.

"BT sparked a price war with Sky last month when it launched free live Premier League action to football fans for the first time - if they buy its broadband starting at £10 a month" (The Independent). This came just days after BT launched its excessive £100m+ campaign which bought ubiquity within commuter press.

But now it seems as though Sky isn't going to sit back and let this happen. In today's Metro, ads from both BT and SKY attempt to have a pop at the rival:

The big broadcaster rivalry can only be a good thing for media owners. But in the long-term, will this be just as beneficial for consumers or are we just paying for excessive advertising budgets to fund media spats?

#PurePoint

BT Sport: Putting the B and T in 'ubiquity'

Fact:

BT Sport have run 1,132 press ads in the UK since activity launched on May 9th (33 days ago).

The £100m+  campaign launched with a nationwide press takeover in the nationals and regionals, running multiple consecutive ads in main news as well as the sports sections.

Added to this is TV, radio, outdoor and digital activity, delivering a truly ubiquitous multi media campaign across the piece.


How much is too much?

Taking a London commuter as an example - If you had picked up and flicked through The Metro and The Evening Standard on your way to and from work every day between May 9th and today, you would have come across an astonishing 82  BT Sport print ads ranging from strips to 1/2 pages and pages in these 2 titles alone.

Using one day as an example - the following ads were all in the Metro on the 23rd May, well in to the launch :

But how effective is this?

There's impact, ownership and brand building, tactical and synergistic placements ...and detail...now the ads have started to include more information relating to the pricing, packages and proposition ...but how many times do we need to be targeted to get the message?

Too many!! It certainly makes a relative mockery of the the average campaign planning coverage and frequency measures and caps...as well as considerations re. the laws of diminishing returns etc.

Just how long can the BT Sport advertising omnipresence continue for??  Too Long!!

#PurePoint

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. 

#PurePoint