Pure Media launch Similac on iconic landmark Piccadilly Circus site

Bright lights in the big city marked the launch of Similac in UK Boots stores yesterday, with Pure securing the iconic ad site strategically placed above Boots in Piccadilly.

The global instant milk formula brand arrived in the UK this week where it is exclusively available in Boots stores. The statement 23 x 5 meter digital ad site should ensure the likes of key competitors SMA and Aptamil know it has arrived.

The launch will continue with further outdoor activity booked later this month, running on 6 sheets in proximity to Boots stores as well as targeted digital display and social media.

Pure won the account earlier this year after demonstrating strong creative media solutions and smart targeting strategies.

Sticking to good Twitter protocol

Last week we wrote a blog piece and tweeted about the Posterscope site under London Bridge that had become a bit unstuck for Nestle

Primesight responded the following day with a light hearted and receptive tweet to acknowledge the issue - demonstrating how easy it is to manage the situation accordingly.

#PurePoint

Good Food, Good Life, Bad poster site

Here is a sorry example we spotted under London Bridge of how traditional large format paper poster sites can look toe curlingly shabby ... with the creative execution unintentionally designed to amplify the paper peeling inevitability of this over posted site.

#PurePoint

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!

#PurePoint.

The Gruffalo Continues to Crumble

You might have seen our post back in April, remarking the 81 day old ad as ‘past its sell by date’. Well 232 days later, it’s still there, hanging on by its turned out toes, like a wart stuck on the rear of the London bus.

The Gruffalo is promoted as being ‘Live in the West End’ at the Lyric Theatre until 12th Jan.

It’s about time little mouse piped up and inhaled this crumbling OOH ad.

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.

#PurePoint

Great Western Super Bear...

Great Western has had a bit of a nightmare...

The presence of Hiscox has "insured" that the Great Western outdoor campaign, featuring stunning imagery and located perfectly outside Paddington station, is somewhat...well...stuffed! 

In what can only be described as a bit of an oversight, GW has failed to secure 100% share of voice and dominate the entire row of 48 sheet poster sites, with the Hiscox ad proving more disruptive than leaves on the line.

Another question: why would you not make sure that you took all the available sites? There's one 48 sheet sitting totally free at the end of the row, looking fairly unloved - like Paddington Bear..!

What could have been a contender for the coveted #PureAdOfTheWeek has become a disappointing example of an 'almost' campaign. #PurePoint

Morrisons' Pun-tastic New Outdoor Cre-eat-tive

The Morrisons (more reasons) pun team have been at it again, this time setting the bar even higher by using iconic pictogram puns as the premise of their latest geo-targeted outdoor campaign ‘Up Your Street’:

…a feast for any pun-lover!

The cre-eat-ive can be spotted on multi OOH ad-formats across London, promoting Morrisons’  dot com su-pun-market delivery service which is now available to customers across London.

Designed by DLKW Lowe, the campaign launched this week and will be out on the streets throughout July/August 2014.

Because we love puns so much, the campaign has been awarded our humble #PureAdOfTheWeek award.

#PureAdOfTheWeek.

Plane and simple

We've noticed some really nice outdoor ads on our respective commutes to Pure Towers recently(which will obviously please the advertisers!) but it's not just pretty pictures that have caught our eyes...

Emirates recently launched a series of ads which tap in superbly to the aspirational, flighty (pun intended) side of people's daily lives - they are telling us that it's not as far as we think to our dream holidays as we wait to embark on our not so dreamy daily commutes.

The clever bit from our perspective is how they have tied in targeted personalisation/ geo-targeting using station names in the Headline. Not least because the sites are all good old fashioned paper posters as opposed digital sites that offer so much more targeting and creative flexibility these days.

Although the 'personalisation' is important and very effective, there is something to be said for keeping it simple - the clear messaging ensures that the brand campaign is easily absorbed cross platform....unlike the effort below from Mitsubishi.

Whilst the creative idea is a good one in terms of salience of commuter messaging and location, the somewhat clunky copy and text-heavy ad makes for difficult reading...which in turn means the clever location targeting gets a tad lost and in turn loses impact.

#PurePoint

KLM - (Kings of Limited Media?)

One of the key benefits of media takeovers (of any kind) is that you are able to make use of the different shapes, sizes and formats available to showcase the business's creativity and use different creative assets to deliver brand impact and messaging. Much like the (simple) Microsoft Office 365 example below:

Sometimes, however, brands shamelessly fail to make the most of media takeovers by executing THE SAME CREATIVE over and over (and over and over and over...) again!

KLM, the Royal Dutch Airlines company that "works to provide innovative products" recently executed a Paddington Station takeover. Please see snaps below:

...what a waste! Why wouldn't you make the most of all the different ad spaces and run at least 2 or 3 different creative executions? Possibly something to display how "innovative" you can be? We're baffled. *Shakes head in disappointment*

#PurePoint

Past its sell by date..

He has knobbly knees and turned out toes. And a poisonous wart at the end of his nose. His eyes are orange, his tongue is black. He has purple prickles all over his back. Oh help! Oh no! It's an 81 day old Gruffalo ad! 

Another sighting of an outdoor campaign that is well past its sell by date.

The Gruffalo is promoted as being ‘Live in the West End’ at the Lyric Theatre until 12th Jan … which was 81 days ago

Campaign over show publicising a show that is in fact over #PurePoint

Remember, remember Movember happens in November

The perils of over-exposure?

Additional time and/or space is usually seen as a bonus in media – ‘free’ space achieved due to campaign overshow and exposure to extra sets of eyeballs seeing ads can only be a good thing, right?

Not always... Consider these Movember messages that were snapped on a train side last night (March 7th).

Movember is a hugely popular ‘event’ and really makes the most of raising awareness of its core proposition with some catchy creative and smart executions.  However, the tips are definitely starting to droop on this pomade-stiffened train placement. 

The concept is to make Movember / November synonymous with ‘tache time’ so seeing this message still chugging around in March is slightly confusing in our opinion.

Pure Quest ... Outdoor Art Bingo

 What do David Hockney, Lucian Freud, John Constable, LS Lowry, Tracey Emin, Sir Christopher Blake and many more artists have in common??

Their works are among over 50 pieces of British art selected by the general public to feature in the World's largest outdoor media 'Art everywhere' campaign that launches today.

The artwork will be shown on 22,000 digital outdoor poster sites across the UK - in a joint collaboration between the art world and the advertising and media industries....with sites donated by major outdoor contractors including CBS Outdoor, ClearChannel UK, JCDecaux, Ocean Outdoor & Primesight....no hidden agenda, just the opportunity to celebrate 'Art'.

 

At Pure we are always on the look out for interesting outdoor campaigns - as well as a challenge amongst the team, so we have taken it upon ourselves to try and spot all 50+ pieces of artwork in situ.

Our last quest was to capture the 150 names that Coke claimed to have used in personalised products and ads earlier this year, only to have seen very few of them in the outdoor ad campaign due to the fact the reality of the production budget clearly outweighed the creativity of the multi executional delivery.

Dabbers to the ready .... we're hoping the digital nature of this campaign and the promise of over 50 creative exections will enable us to get a collaborative 'full house' over the coming weeks.

 BINGO!!

#PurePoint #PureChallenge #PureAdOfTheWeek

Bus advertising reaches new heights!

Early contender for this weeks #PureAdOfTheWeek ... Pepsi Max, who launched a campaign over the weekend announcing their new brand ambassador - magician 'Dynamo' suspended (quite literally) from a the bus superside ad with the hash tag #LIVEFORNOW

#PureAdOfTheWeek