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

Our Royal Baby Media Snapshot

The Royal Baby has finally arrived!

And as to be expected, the media are all over it like a rash .........

We've picked out a handful of our favourite, tactical press ads and custom made print media offerings. Starting with the front page of The Sun today:

They have published possibly the most momentous front page adaptation of all the dailies; no plugs, no ads and no editorial. The issue has gained huge traction within social media and other top media platforms: 

Our weird, little friend #BrianTheRobot is also making the most of the birth with a unique creative execution in the papers this morning. Often associated with creating awkward situations, here Brian harmlessly holds a "Baby on Board" placard and a patriotic flag and asks in regal speak - How he might save us pounds?

No controversy caused this time as another footnote in the Life of Brian is executed. Just a simple tactical ad idea, planned to feature in print in a very timely fashion.

The flexibility of the #ShareACoke campaign enables Coke to adapt the names on the bottles shown to take advantage of situations. 

We have seen Coke execute similar tactical ads a number of times since the #ShareACoke campaign started and each time it works incredibly well! Let's see how quickly they publish another tactical ad (or produce a limited edition bottle) featuring the name of the 3rd in line to the throne.

We love Jelly. We really love clever, sweet and thoughtful Jelly!

Over the past few weeks Bassetts Jelly Babies have been executing a series of small fractionals within newspapers, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Royal newborn.

This was finally topped off with a larger page dominant fractional ad this morning - Celebrating the new arrival.

A great example of how a bespoke smaller budget campaign can be created to deliver tactical associated messaging and make the most of positive news events!

Plenty more examples running online ... where the flexibility of the digital space allows for quicker turnarounds and greater opportunties for multiple executions and updated creative.

From the team here at Pure Media, congratulations to the Royal Family!

#PurePoint

Life of Brian (the robot)

Since Confused.com decided to scrap Cara, the scruffy haired cartoon karaoke singer, Brian the robot has been introduced to spearhead the price comparison website's re-positioning with a backing of approximately £28million, according to CampaignLive.

Although Brian has been programmed with a lack of social skills, his charming nature adds to what is unfolding to be an extremely clever multimedia integrated campaign.

The campaign first started with the inception of Brian, who we saw being brought to life in a 40" TV spot called 'Lab', during the semi-final of Britain's Got Talent earlier this month.

The campaign then unfolded across other media - with simple and impactful ads running in print, outdoor, on the radio and across multi digital routes.

The outdoor campaign appears to be dominating key cities with heavy presence by running a generic money saving ad on T-sides across the bus network ....

.... as well as location specific large format ads tailored to the area and audience they are placed in.

A further TV execution is now running - where we get to see and hear more of Brian's personality and sound effects as he traverses around a car boot sale, conversing with some slightly bemused folk.

This adds impact and association to the radio ads now running, due to the immediate (robotic) voice recognition of the audio.

Added to all of this there is digital activity running across the piece, with some virals, Facebook and Twitter profiles - inviting us to find out more about the Life of Brian.

So how effective is a socially inept, fictional character in the world of social media? 

Answer: extremely effective so far. Aided by the interactive elements and the #BrianTheRobot hashtag running across other elements of the campaign.

Could this be the start of a battle for FB friends and Twitter followers; Brian the Robot vs. Aleksandr the Meerkat in a price comparison, fictional, loveable character war?

We hope so - but it will take some time (and more marketing investment) for Brian to catch up given he has only received 302 likes for his Facebook page and 1,068 Twitter followers to date vs the plethora of likes Aleksander has amassed - a meer 797,000 as well as 60,519 Twitter followers to date.

#PurePoint