The Whisky Welcome

Global drinks powerhouse Diageo has just launched the first ad campaign for its whisky brand, Haig Club. The 90-second short, titled Welcome, is directed by none other than Guy Ritchie, and stars David Beckham amongst others. It revolves around a series of separate journeys, following a group of friends as they travel by various means through the Scottish Highlands, finally meeting at an old castle to suit up, drink up and take some photos.

Lots of people have been confused by Beckham as the personality of choice for this campaign – after all, what does Becks know about whisky, and how does his association with the brand resonate? It’s important however to recognise what the advertisers are trying to achieve here – and in our opinion, this campaign is all about style, distinction, and looking good.

It’s shot by a director renowned for producing great-looking movies. It features sweeping, airborne vistas of some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world. And it shines the spotlight on Becks, who the Mail Online claims is still one of the world’s most handsome men. Admittedly, he does scrub up pretty well here.

Upon seeing this campaign, we couldn’t help but recall another glamorous whisky ad we’d seen recently - Johnnie Walker Blue Label’s short film The Gentleman’s Wager, featuring Jude Law and Giancarlo Giannini. In fact, we wrote an article about it just a couple of months ago...

Johnnie Walker, interestingly, is also owned by Diageo. Seems the global brand likes the strategy of coupling their whiskies with famously good-looking faces. As an expensive luxury alcohol, advertising that highlights the associated glamour lifestyle of the product certainly makes good sense; however, are these ads competing with each other a little too directly? Will Law and Becks trip each other up on the way to the club, or will they pull a group together for whiskies all round? Only time will tell if this tactic pours success for Haig Club. 

If you want to watch the full video, click here

#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

The (Rowan) Atkinson's Diet

In January 1990, ITV introduced Mr Bean, "a child in a grown man's body".  24 years on the character devised by Rowan Atktinson is now the comic face of Snickers' latest phase of the "You're not you when you're hungry" campaign.

That's right, the sequel to 'Joan Collins "zip-it shrimpy" commercial features teddy loving Mr Bean. The most awkward man alive.

The series of ads, made by Daniel Kleinman, who directed six of the last seven James Bond title sequences, show a martial arts gang-member in various scenarios who isn't quite feeling himself due to his troublesome hunger (see video's below).

The ad series created by AMV BBDO marks a fourth year of using this marketing tag-line, following Mr. T's predecessing "get some nuts" promotional thrust.


We think the latest series is hilarious, and not only leaves us craving a Snickers but also a Mr. Bean marathon.

#PureAdOfTheWeek



http://www.yourenotyouwhenyourehungry.com/

Dirty Money

Metro Bank PLC, ‘the love your bank at last’ financial establishment that launched in 2010, kept their promise of ‘Surprise’ when Metro Dry Cleaners popped up in Farringdon (just down road from our humble abode).

When Metro Bank promised ‘unparalleled levels of Service and Convenience’ we honestly weren’t expecting them to do our laundry. But after a Poodle took over the front desk, who knows what they’re up to!

After a tumble of tweets to @Metro_Bank @MetroUK and @My_MetroBank the confusion was ironed out. Metro Drycleaners is in fact not related to Metro Bank. But who’s to blame us for thinking it was? The logo is undeniably similar!

Over summer Metro Drycleaners separated their colours from their black and whites, tailoring their branding away from Metro Bank.

However, just as we thought the money laundering had finished… we were highly amused to see a cash machine has now been fitted into the window. Oh the irony!

#MoneyLaundering      

#MetroBank    

#PurePoint    

Brand Match-up

Sainsbury’s new CEO, Mike Coupe, described the current state of the supermarket industry as ‘a perfect storm’ yesterday. Turmoil exists with the traditional powers being threatened by brands such as Aldi, Lidl and Asda, who are seeing rapid growth. This has been exacerbated primarily by the high-profile troubles of Tesco, whose senior finance team is still in disarray and whose shares are the worst performer on the FTSE 100 this year.

The media has, of course, reflected this strife, led by Private Eye’s delightful satire of the ‘Every Little Helps’ ads; the core messaging of Tesco’s marketing strategy that helped them to become market leaders way back in 1995. This will undoubtedly have provided much mirth in the finance departments of their competitors. With the annual battleground of Chr*stmas (shhhh!!) fast approaching, open-season has been declared on Tesco (and indeed the other bigger names in the sector).

A prime example of this is the media feeding frenzy in this morning’s Metro. This is one of the finest collections of reactive ads that we’ve seen – certainly since the Royal birth last year.

It starts with Lidl, who (once you get past a somewhat baffling ad for a hydraulic jack on page 5), has a pop at Sainsbury’s, who are still reeling from the fallout of Postergate where a staff member inadvertently put a staff room poster on public display…

Lidl later continue with their push for an increased share of wealthier customers by promoting their Wine Cellar with the examples at a healthy price point (£8.99 - £16.99). 

Sainsbury’s, who appear with a full page ad on page 10, has chosen to completely disregard Tesco as a traditional competitor and instead turn their focus – and they hope, their customers’ focus - onto price comparison with Asda.  

Asda, in turn, has peppered the paper by taking space on four separate spreads, with four different ad formats. The most impressive of these is the sublimely timed full page ad on page 23, which confirms their price-point as a key USP and hints that Sainsbury’s are a little late to the game.

Morrisons has an unremarkable ad in an unremarkable place, while Tesco, inevitably trying to keep a low profile, yet needing to show its face at the party, has shuffled in quietly with a non-contentious, almost anonymous looking ad hidden away deep in the middle of the book.

So, who are our winners in all this jostling? 

Well, Sainsbury's has put itself firmly on a path to demonstrating value, while Lidl and Asda have both taken very effective swipes at them with some great quick reaction creative. 

All three have failed to recognise Tesco as even being a competitor, which is perhaps far more damning. 

#PurePoint