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

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

Cover Up?

Another contender for #PureAdOfTheWeek .... we've just noticed this rather clever press ad for AIG Direct - Female Cancer Cover - in the Classified section of the Daily Mail.

Subtle, sensitive, smart and creative use of press ... without incurring any incremental costs.

Buy a Proper Cola!

Fentiman's cheeky attempt of a #ShareACoke parody has earned a place among the contenders for this week's #PureAdOfTheWeek:

This simple and creatively impactful ad was snapped in today's issue of The Metro and although the ad sits within a modest quarter-page positioning in the middle of the paper, we fully appreciate Fentiman's audacity of attempting to hi-jack a global campaign executed by one of the world's largest brands, Coca-Cola:

Fingers crossed for Fentiman that the ad can spark nationwide curiosity to try out its Cola alternative!

#PureAdOfTheWeek

Big Blue Cactus.

We are wondering how many members of the agency team were holding back giggles in the meeting room after the creative / account director got the go ahead from the client to run the following ad currently running on Bus supersides for Boots 'inhibitif' ... hair removal brand.

The answer? Not nearly as many people as those who have had to double-take at this 'large blue thing' flying around London.

For comedy value and for interesting, phallic use of "shock messaging", we're considering this as a #PureAdOfTheWeek.

#BigBlueCactus.

That's a lot of wonga

Despite the fact we are confused by the campaign messaging wonga are currently running ....they have at least got us talking about it.

Primarily because we can't get away from the campaign ... which is currently dominating the streets of London with highly visible multi executional activity running on bus supersides.

This really was a case of 3 buses all turning up at once, with different creative running on each.

It's a bit like playing bus Bingo - in this shot we have got; Straight Talking Money, No Hidden charges and Cash loans you can control .... the aim now is to get a shot of four in a row to include the £154 creative too.

#PurePoint

ARGGHH!! ZOMBIES!! Wait.....What?

During our weekly meeting, we all decided it would be a great idea to get our own Pure Media office zombie.

Yep, you guessed it. But not just any zombie, a giffgaff zombie from its latest ad campaign and this week's #PureAdOfTheWeek.

The Don't Be Scared campaign kick-started on 5th June with a series of short teaser TV ads showing a rotten foot and a chicken with #DontBeScared written beside them. Following the teasers, giffgaff purchased entire commercial breaks on E4 and a number other channels perfect for targeting its younger audiences.

Why is this in contention for our #PureAdOfTheWeek? Well, giffgaff has done a fantastic job of subverting horror to deliver its messaging; "Not everything unusual is scary". Plus, the mobile network has changed our perception of zombies. They only want to help out!

Congratulations giffgaff. #PureAdOfTheWeek ??  #DontBeScared

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

wonga's irony

The recent wonga campaign which can be caught moving around London on bus supersides has a huge connotation of irony in our opinion.

At first it appears the creative has suffered a bit of a posting blunder, with the panel obscuring the line .... but surely by hiding the words "no hidden charges", this suggests that actually, there are?

Other creative executions include the line "straight talking money" - which doesn't mean anything.... as well as "£154 loan for £154" which is equally as confusing!?!?

#PurePoint

Magnifying Glass anyone??

Highly impactful use of colour and visuals for this new outdoor campaign running on 48 sheet posters targeting commuters on station platforms.

So confident is the TV Channel promoting the new drama that starts next week - that they have omitted to highlight what channel the programme will be aired on ... oh, unless you can see the microscopic URL in the bottom left hand corner.

Given there are currently 250+ stations available to view in the UK - this clearly is a brand that believes in itself.

#PurePoint

Eagles!!

Topical ad and tactical placement for Barclays; running 48 sheet posters across the South East congratulating Crystal Palace FC for the team's recent victory in the Play-Offs and their resultant promotion to the Barclays Premier League.

We're sure all the local Palace supporters will be very proud!

#PurePoint

teletextholidays.co.uk 1 : Wayne Rooney 0

Great tactical topical ad placement by teletextholidays.co.uk last night on the perimeter boards at the Maracana stadium during the England vs Brazil match.

In light of recent stories - teletextholidays.co.uk ran digital activity throughout the match asking the question - "Desperate to get away like Wayne?" with the answer "Escape with teletextholidays.co.uk"

Click below to see the footage - totally brilliant idea!...

Definite initial contender for this weeks #PureAdOfTheWeek

Sponsorship extension

Spotted a simple yet effective ambient media sponsorship extension last week in an Indian restaurant.  Everton FC Sponsors Chang beer branding pint glasses with the Club logo.

#PurePoint

Confused brand messages ??

  Saw this ad on the OBC of Look Magazine recently advertising the RIHANNA collection for River Island.... but not featuring Rihanna herself, - instead, a model who somewhat resembles Naomi Campbell.....slightly confused??

  

  

But to  add to the confusion, it was an interactive blippar ad - inviting me to download the free blippar app and blip the ad to unlock exclusive content....so I did.

But when I hovered over the ad with my phone - the blippar images that appeared were of Kelly Brook  ... inviting me to go behind the scenes with Kelly and seemed to be advertising make up as opposed to a clothing line designed by RIHANNA as per the print execution....

    .....Very confused????? I wonder if this was a technological error .... with the wrong blippar code -  or whether River Island were just trying to do too many things - resulting in very mixed messaging. 

  

#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

150 Bottles sitting on a wall ....

So far we have spotted James, Dan and Laura ....only 147 more to go. How many names did they print?

Have you spotted yours yet?

#Shareacoke

#PurePoint

Personal PR ... Profile Management!

Great use of media from Roberto Mancini ... who took a full page ad out in the MEN newspaper thanking his fans for their support over the past 3 years.

So simple... yet so very effective....if you Google it there are posts from all the Nationals as well as Sports channels ... Now that's what we call value for money!

 

 

Last minute contender for #PureAdOfTheWeek !!

Harbouring #ShareACoke

On the 10th and 11th May Coca-Cola made a splash to mark the launch of its summer campaign #ShareACoke by displaying a live, water-based spectacle in Dublin's Grand Canal Dock.

Following the display, onlookers were encouraged to harbour warm thoughts as the wall of water projected personal messages tweeted in from viewers.

The campaign, which will be running until the end of the summer, has already created a global ripple with its tailored packaging marketing thrust; the iconic Coca-Cola symbol has been removed from bottles and replaced with popular names.

This week will also see the introduction of a string of TV ads showing five teenagers discussing who they would most like to share a bottle with.

Who will you be sharing yours with?

#ShareACoke

Side Assist lacking an Angle?

The latest multi-channel VW campaign has really grabbed our attention, but we're struggling to see the angle?

Firstly, Volkswagen has cleverly used YouTube's timeline picture preview in a simple and straightforward way to express its latest Side Assist technology.

However, elements of the same campaign seem to be completely disconnected!

VW has also created a range of print ads that are brilliantly simple and straight to the point (pun intended!) but have a completely different theme. The print ads show a variation of larger vehicles, namely a fire engine and a haulage lorry, that have been manipulated into forward pointing triangle. They Read: "Surprising, what can fit into a dead angle. Volkswagen side assist." 

The campaign also involves a range of historic events that could have been avoided.

Although the individual components of the campaign are brilliant, we're scratching our heads as to how (and even 'if') the different parts of the campaign compliment each other?

Is this an extremely clever variation of ads that target different audiences, or is VW throwing ideas at the wall to see what sticks?

We'll be following this campaign and will be tweeting new creative as it emerges. 

Keep an eye out for our conclusive verdict!

Lenticular Brilliance

  

A very powerful outdoor campaign went live recently for Spanish organization the ANAR Foundation (Aid to Children and Adolescents at Risk), using what was once a revolutionary creative format in OOH advertising, in the days before the evolution of digital outdoor ....super smart Lenticular printing delivering an even smarter considered creative idea.

When viewed from a normal adult height, the poster reads .....“sometimes, child abuse is only visible to the child suffering it.” But when the poster is viewed from the average height of a 10-year-old (4'5"), the shot of the boy in the image shows a bruised faced and an alternative message reading .... “if somebody hurts you, phone us and we’ll help you” with the foundation’s help line number.

Pure Brilliance #PureAdOfTheWeek