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*
Picked up a newspaper today? If so, then chances are that you've seen M&S's premium-position, DPS press roadblock activity running inside front covers in all of the Broadsheets, Mid-markets and Freesheets.
Marks & Spencer's Leading Ladies campaign, endorsed by (from left to right) Lulu Kennedy, Rachel Khoo, Alek Wek, Rita Ora, Emma Thompson, Annie Lennox and Doreen Lawrence, launched 31st March 2014 to promote the outlet's spring/summer fashion range. Four creative executions can be spotted throughout the nation's press today running in The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Independent, i, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, Daily Express, Metro and The Evening Standard
Based on rate card costs, the accumulative amount would equate to over £500,000 ..... for ONE day only. So c. £250,000 in real terms ... More money than sense?
That said, it's probably just a drop in the ocean vs the budget they would have spent signing the Leading Ladies to commercially collaborate with them. We haven't seen a big-money newspaper splash like this since BT Sports' almighty £100m multimedia campaign launch back in Q3 2013 - which eventually led them into a mighty battle with SKY Sports. However, fingers crossed that it will be a fruitful summer for M&S, it would be a shame for such a budget to go to waste! #PurePoint
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
Ok, so the Pepsi Max bus T-side creative is a tad basic, and relatively non-distinct given the almost identical look and feel of the ad to the Coke Zero one currently running as commented on last week .... but the use of the 'Unbelievable' proposition really does play out in the 3-d interactive 6 sheet panel they are currently running at a bus stop on Oxford Street.
Rigged up with smart technology and a digital camera facing up the street behind the panel, real-time moving images of tigers prowling the street, stomping robots and curly tentacled squids can be seen along side unknowing pedestrians.
Truly engaging, interactive and impactful ..... 'Unbelievable' indeed ... see video below
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.
The Pure Team were asked to work with a local Primary School this month to help inform a group of Year 5 students about the postive benefits of key learning in school and how this may help them in the future to go on to secure (fun & enjoyable) jobs.
We explained how a mix of skills learnt in school such as teamwork, maths, languages, communication, writing, creativity, and problem solving can all be used to great effect ... and challenged them to work together to answer a creative and media brief we set them.
They demonstrated various skills such as literacy, strategy, creativity, numeracy, negotiation and team work - above and beyond all expectation - making us proud to have been a part of the educational programme they are currently on....and hopeful that we may have been instrumental in inspiring at least one of them to go on to do well at school and more importantly get a job in the future.
Due to recent changes, new business wins, and ambitions to grow our company this year we are hiring for various roles.
We're looking for short and long term Interns & Graduates, as well as more experienced Planner Buyer, Media Manager & Account Director roles....There are no defined roles and requirements ..the right candidates will determine our ongoing recruitment plans. #Pure2014
So if you are interested in joining us - please send your CV and covering letter to :- recruitment@puremedia.co.uk
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.
Intel has spent a reported £15million on a four and a half year deal to sponsor the INSIDE of the Barcelona football kit!
At first glance, you'd be forgiven for thinking that they've been hitting the mulled wine a bit too hard, but there is a really clever angle to this - promoting the 'Intel Inside' brand message through the propensity of Spanish footballers to put shirts over their heads when celebrating.
They are under no contractual obligation to lift their shirts or show the logo. This is Intel's first venture into football sponsorship and as part of the deal they will also provide technology to players and coaching staff.
We wait to see if it will be money well spent! #PurePoint
We are fans of the latest Sky Movies campaign currently running on Bus T sides ... The creative synergy of using Wreck-it Ralph bursting out of the modified 'SUPER' T is a simple yet effective way of grabbing the attention of an urban audience (much like the guy in the photo below who should probably be watching where he is going!)
The bespoke format covers up the bottom left window pane with a tightly-woven mesh enabling advertisers to utilise space without the loosing the benefits of a window - which has one slight drawback:
At night the back-lit mesh makes it hard to see the extra impact! Which could mean losing key messages. Especially with creative similar to the below where the message is written on the mesh.
All-in-all, the ad looks great from a distance and is an effective, creative solution for driving the message.
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