Native Alibi

The concept that consumers of digital media have acquired 'banner blindness' to traditional online formats has meant that native advertising has become more and more noticeable...or not as the case may be (!).

OK, more acceptable...or at least, more clickable.

Digital aside, we saw something interesting in this morning's Metro, where a neat native print execution from TV channel alibi promoting a new series of crime drama "Crossing Lines" contrasted dramatically with a conventional 25x4  press ad featuring 'Anger' from Inside Out (Disney Pixar's latest offering).

Which is more effective though?

Perhaps it could be said that the Disney ad will attract the attention of those flicking through the middle pages of the paper, especially given its bold colours, commuter-relevant copy and right hand outside-edge placement.

On the other hand, the alibi creative will most likely draw the attention of those who are more interested in the editorial content found across the rest of the spread. This may well be those with a greater interest in gossip and TV.

Although native advertising is nothing new (especially in print, where "advertorials" or "edvertorials" have been around for many a year), these two different ad formats found in close proximity highlight that it's not just a trend in advertising but rather another weapon in the marketer's armoury...

#PurePoint

Timely Advertising

Tick-tock, tick-tock! Turn back your clock!

Yes indeed, daylight saving’s time is up for another year. At 2am on Sunday 26^th October, the UK’s time zone will drop back an hour, giving us seemingly longer darker evenings and earlier brighter mornings.

To capitalise on the annual time change, it looks like a fair few clever brands have been working around the clock to prepare for this moment, having been targeted with a flurry of timely ads on the way to work this morning.  

The first was a tactical and highly impactful set of fractional ads running across a DPS in the Metro for B+Q lighting.

Just Eat also used Metro to capitalise on the moment, taking a break from their normal ‘Don’t Cook’ advertising to target a slightly different family demographic.

But our favourite so far is from the stop smoking supporters at Quit.org, who took this timely opportunity to target a new campaign running in the ‘EXTRA TIME’ section of Sport magazine this week. The Clock ad features cigarette hands and the backwards copy line –

“SUNDAY YOU GET ONE HOUR BACK. QUIT AND YOU’LL GET YEARS BACK.” with the end line “SEE HOW  MUCH TIME BACK YOU COULD GET AT QUIT.ORG.UK.”

They are also running an interactive version of the ad online with the hands winding backwards and the opportunity to find out how much #TIMEBACK people can get if they quit.

Our only disappointment was that they didn’t link in to the NHS’s #Stoptober effort – as we feel some cross-promotional advertising could have been really effective here!

Ah well – there’s always time next year...

#PurePoint 

And Me, And You, Android

Click here to see the 'And You' film from Android

The party’s not over ‘til the fat robot sings! Except, well, Android’s ubiquitous icon has been spotted doing just that – but according to the manufacturer, the party is only just beginning.

This week Android launched a new multimedia campaign focussed on revamping and repositioning their image. We noticed their new catchphrase, “be together. not the same.” calling to us from a bold double-page spread on the inside front cover of City AM this morning. Further investigation discovered it in the middle of Metro, splayed across the top of www.android.com, and stuck in a dozen other places around the web. 

Android is of course an open-source system, developed in private by Google until its periodic releases to the public. Other manufacturers can then pick up the platform and modify it to run on their own devices. Largely for this reason, Android dominates the smartphone OS market, with roughly ¾ of all smartphones sold using a variant of its code.

This latest campaign is designed to coincide with the release of Android’s new update, Android 5.0 or ‘Lollipop’.

It’s also timed to promote the announcement of two new Nexus products, the Nexus 6 smartphone and the Nexus 9 tablet. These bigger, more expensive versions of Google’s flagship mobile hardware (which of course run Android) aim to capture a larger slice of the top-end mobile market and its affluent consumers.

However, none of Android’s advertising makes any mention of either the update or the new devices. Instead, it focusses on the crowd-sourced and inclusive nature of the platform and all the people who use it, showing a quirky, cool image, complete with re-dressed robot icons.

Make your own android here!

Several different web ads are running and the new ‘Androidify’ app lets downloaders customize their own Android character and an initially dead link promoted during Walking Dead on Monday now points to Android’s homepage, tagged with ‘#betogethernotthesame’ and populated with new information on all Android works. The advertising successfully directs attention away from the hardware debate to the platform powering these pieces, and all the possibilities it contains.

So KISS your preconceptions goodbye, and keep an antennae out for more Android news. Hopefully it doesn’t get too robotic…

#PurePoint

Creatively compromised ?!?

Whilst we are all for media creativity and generating IMPACT and STAND OUT in conventional, traditional newsprint environments - we can't help but feel that the Metro has somewhat overdone it today and 'sold out' on the less conventional creative formats they offer.

On pages 26/27, Halifax has made the most of running CHECKERBOARD placements across the spread to deliver multiple messages and amplify their EXTRA proposition.

Turn the page and we see that Ryanair has adopted the break-out creative ZIG-ZAG format. Rather than being impactful, this actually appears overly busy and - confusingly - almost an extension of the Halifax EXTRA ads due to colour similarities and as a result of running these formats consecutively...

As if that wasn't enough, turn the page again and another ZIG-ZAG format is running across the spread on pages 30/31.

Usually, we would deem this to be a highly effective use of space, demonstrating media and creative teams working in synergy to deliver the Relish ad within newsprint. Instead, with today's spreads the concurrent 'unconventional' media formats have far less impact - and frankly look conventional!

This has resulted in a sequence of busy spreads, with a mish-mash of editorial squeezed in throughout. 

It seems as though Metro has lived up to its front page headline and forced the advertisers into a constricted space; no Extra value and hardly something to Relish!  

#PurePoint

The Big-Top Bungle

We have pointed out a few unfortunate online, outdoor and print ad placements in the past, where context and content have been uneasy and inappropriate bedfellows.

This has predominantly been as a result of advertisers booking ads that have fallen foul of being placed in contextual environments online that happen to have a negative context. They are therefore being caught out by algorithmic oversight as opposed to natural human instinct to place ads correctly, with positive synergy.

Or print ads running as per the guaranteed position booked ie. colour fractional right hand outside edge - omitting to consider the consequences of the editorial proximity ie. facing inappropriate current affairs and news stories in print - example below:

However, this week in the Metro, there was an internal editorial conflict between the image and cover headline of the ‘Life and Style’ section and a sad topical news story that ran earlier in the paper.

Surely there was an editorial flat plan assessment ahead of sending the paper to print?

Whilst ad misplacements are an oversight that can occur due to fulfilling guaranteed positions or trusting the

technological systems that associate ad context and placements - this editorial faux pas seems far less

understandable as there should be much greater flexibility to move things around from an editorial perspective and avoid such overt negativities.

#PurePoint

Down the Tube

On 29th April 2014, a 48-hour tube strike started after talks broke down between London Underground and the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT). It was predicted by BusinessZone that the strike had cost businesses "£600m in lost working hours, business and productivity" alone; without even considering the cost of wasted advertising spend.

Underground advertising is typically bought in 2-week cycles, and it doesn't come cheap. Meaning, 2 of the 14 days of ad space occupancy were totally useless during the strike, because nobody could see them! 14.5% of wasted advertising spend throughout the underground.

Another point to consider is the huge decrease in freesheet newspaper circulation / readership:

In retrospect, the prediction of £600m is a lot lower than the true impact and wastage caused.

Those losing out include names big and small:

Especially Virgin Trains - an outside back cover never to be seen

And as reported by CityAM last week - Gatwick certainly didn't Bank on the major Tube strike either - The

airport had staged a week-long advertising takeover in both Bank and Westminster Tube stations but with the Tube strike, which spanned much of two days, it’s likely to have had far less of an impact than they’d hoped.

#PurePoint

Supermouse and Rory: Unfortunate Ads

It is extremely difficult to predict negative PR, especially as daily papers such as The Metro and The Telegraph give advertisers little or no time to react to issues. Added to this is the issue of avoiding placing ads near brand-deterring features, which in itself is a challenging feat.

Here at Pure we’re massive ad geeks; we don’t miss a thing! And every now and then we’ll empathise with advertisers who have been incredibly unfortunate with their ad placements.

Today there has been two cringe-worthy mis-haps:

1) Supermouse vs. Picnic Club

On page 9 of today's Metro reads an article about Tesco's apparent "Supermouse" issue with the headline: Tesco failed to clean up droppings, grease and filth after failing three inspections.

With a Tesco “Picnic” ad on the following page:

Ouch! A perfect example of why it is important to liaise with editors around current issues to avoid this situation.

2) Terrible round...Great watch nonetheless!

Poor Rory McIlroy had a "miserable" opening round at the Open yesterday, finishing 13 shots behind the lead. The Telegraph did not let him off lightly with a series of unflattering photographs and write-up which evokes a cringe of sympathy:

To add insult to injury, an abject post-feature Omega ad endorsed by, you guessed it, Rory McIlroy.

It is incredibly unfortunate to have an ad placed so closely to a feature which achieves the absolute opposite to the brand goals. Using celebrities as brand ambassadors increases the risk, another example is our Sharapova-Evian #PurePoint. 

It's just one of those things all of us in the industry have nightmares about!

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