Red Bull's latest viral film starring Danny MacAskill is an extremely late contender for this week's #PureAdOfTheWeek (albeit tenuous as it's not really an ad ... just 7 minutes of great footage).
The video is executed in such a captivating way that it has accumulated over three million views in less than ten days!
As we say, although it's not an "advertisment" per se, the video has generated such popularity that this week we have selected it as an extremely strong contender for the title of #PureAdOfTheWeek.
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.
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
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?
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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!!
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!?!?
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.
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!
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
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.
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.
