Britney vs Lily
Interesting spin on Britney’s big comeback track.
Lily’s cover has the edge. Just…
Enjoy.
Iain Morrison is a senior marketer in the British Tourism Industry. And is still unsure as to how Lily Allen managed to become more famous than her Dad…
Chocolate anyone?
Balloon optional...
Now, I wasn’t keen on the TVC, but this is great piece of work from Cadbury, a home page take-over on MSN UK. Good online display ads are few and far between, but this one is a corker as its;
- Engaging, the playability factor is high (watch lots of people move their ‘brows, just like the ad)
- Technically brilliant, the simple web-cam synch is seamless (at the click of a button, the ad synchs to your webcam, allowing you to show us what you’re made of. If you’d rather, you can watch the kids ‘brows dance instead)
- Simple. The spot has been aped by people from all over (including Lilly Allen / Alan Carr of the Sunday night project, and a host of other celebs). Giving Joe Punter an official brand forum to do the same is a wise move.
Only downside?
Its a bit late, as people have been aping the spot for weeks.
Just spend 5 minutes on youtube and see how many you find. I appreciate Cadbury may have wanted to encourage a second outlet to engage with the brand after the initial wave of interest, but the gap between the TVC launching and this could have been a little shorter…
Still great work that utilises the power of the channel incredibly well.
Iain Morrison is a senior marketer in the British Tourism Industry. And is still sticking with Green and Blacks…
This one goes past bad ad onto ‘the wall of shame’…
This has to be the worst ad of 2009 to date. By a very, very, very long way…
And the endline, ‘Hello you?’. Just don’t get me started…
Iain Morrison is a senior marketer in the British Tourism Industry. And thinks the panel should relieve Duffy of her Brit awards. Sharpish…
Amnesty International…
Amnesty International
Saw a rather abruptive poster on the London Underground this morning on the way to work (better image to follow when I can get a hold of one).
It was for Amnesty International, who have a great track record of producing emotive, hard-hitting work (which no doubt ensures much needed donations allow them to carry on their good work).
Be aware, the campaign site is quite raw (not one for the faint hearted), but then, that’s exactly why Amnesty International do what they do. How else can the unheard find a voice?
Evocative, and simply in its delivery, amnesty rarely get it wrong…
Iain Morrison is a senior marketer in the British Tourism Industry. And an avid supporter of amnesty internationals great work…
Leave Britney alone…
Under 18’s or those of a mild disposition beware. This Britney lover swears. Rather a lot.
An oldie, but a goodie…
Iain Morrison is a senior marketer in the British Tourism Industry. And thinks that this is almost as funny as Britney’s famed UK X-Factor appearance…
In the night garden…
In the night garden
Kids love it.
Some adults moan about the use of ‘improper language’ encouraging kids to keep up the googoo gaagaa speak (both sides can quote stats, for what it’s worth, I think it’s positive), but you can’t ignore the fact for legions of parents and children, In the night garden has affirmed itself as one of the top kids TV programmes in a very short space of time…
In the Night Garden is best described as; ‘a modern televisual interpretation of a nursery rhyme picture book’. Quite a tall order, but when you consider that this is a staple in the ‘bedtime hour’ on cbeebies (BBC’s dedicated children’s TV channel), it presents itself as the modern day equivalent of a bedtime story. Its about a magical place that exists between waking and sleeping in a child’s imagination.
We even have Knight of the Realm David Jacobi narrating. Perfect pre-bed time fodder.
The whole programme is executed flawlessly. Gentle intro, upbeat story / crazy funtime, and as we start the wind-down, a recap of the story, all the characters slow, and pack themselves off to bed. And then at the end, it’s your turn to go to bed too little one. Genius…
Carry this through into every possible merchandising opportunity going, and we have some very happy creators, and some parents lighter in the wallet.
The BBC / Virgin cynically deleting all shows from store-able hard drives in the build up to Christmas aside (ensuring everyone bought the DVD box set to keep up the bedtime routine), we have a shining example of how to make money from the pre-school market, without being seen to be aggressively marketing to them. After all, none of us want the Daily Mail brigade up in arms calling on tighter government regulations…
Hats off chaps, well done.
Iain Morrison is a senior marketer in the British Tourism Industry. And a massive Pontipinites fan, even though they haven’t got the gravitas to carry an entire episode all on their own…
The new stars of commercial radio?
These two are funny.
Some of the best talent comes up through the ranks. Hospital radio, community stations. They have produced some corkers over the years.
Check these guys out.
I’m sure we’ll they will be breaching the airwaves with a bigger audience sometime very, very soon. Pete and Al on www.gtfm.co.uk every Friday night from 10-11pm. If you can’t listen live, catch them on youtube, at http://www.youtube.com/carryonfriday
They are destined for bigger and better. You heard it here first…
Iain Morrison is a senior marketer in the British Tourism Industry. And wouldn’t mind being a guest with those talented boys soon…
Facebook climbdown…
spy
It’s embarrassing.
For a brand that empowers its users in such a way they can instantly unite against against the ‘enemy’, issue a rallying cry to the like-minded and deploy the troops with amazing speed, you’d think facebook would know a lot better than to try changing the privacy rules by the back door…
I managed a textbook case of this in 2008 (when an international bank with local aspirations their ads would have you believe), and they did what most big brands chose to do. Ignore the facebookers, they can’t damage my brand, it’ll blow over in a few days. Against all my advice, the brand dug in, only to suffer at the hands of the mobilised minority.
After it hit the BBC 6 o’clock news a day or two later, a rather hasty about turn was arranged…
So facebook. A brand that provides the very battlefield, that truly gets the potential of 2.0 (having harnessed it from day one), should have known better than to bite the hand that feeds it. That of its users.
A foolhardy situation the board should have seen coming a mile off. An alienated user base will now watch its every move, and cry foul the moment they put so much as a privacy related foot out of line.
It wasn’t a smart move, deletion of a profile in the users eyes means everything comes off. A brand that prides itself on the sense of ‘community’ it facilitates really shouldn’t have scored this type of own goal, however great the need to further monetise the site is…
The privacy battle will rage on.
But I can’t help but feel if brands use consumers personal data to bring information / content / advertising / offers to them that is of genuine interest, they won’t mind a jot…
After all, it worked for Tesco…
Iain Morrison is a senior marketer in the British Tourism Industry. And would encourage brand managers to watch what happened to facebook. It’s probably happening to your brand right about NOW!
Celebrate originality…
celebrate originality
Talk about an interview howler.
I interviewed a candidate recently for an upper middle-management role. When asked what their favourite ad was, their answer was astounding.
‘I love all the Reebok work. Their tagline ‘impossible is nothing’ really, really works for me. It’s really motivating, and I now always buy Reebok trainers’…
There were 3 major things wrong with this answer:
- This was not Reebok’s tagline
- The candidate did not demonstrate any strategic / creative insight in their answer
- The line belongs to Adidas…
Which rather conveniently brings me onto the adidas ad which is really rather lovely. A blinding track, a celeb spattered house party (executed well, full uncut version here), all culminating in a celebration of their streetware range.
Celebrate originality indeed.
Iain Morrison is a senior marketer in the British Tourism Industry. And would encourage all candidates to prepare properly for interviews…
Simply genius…
The Guru
Royal Mail are renowned for often getting it very wrong (Consignia anyone!?).
But they have a cute little site that helps small and medium sized businesses (on the face of it), generate high-quality direct mail which they can then send to their prospects / existing customers for a very modest outlay.
Whilst I can’t imagine this will keep many direct / integrated agencies awake at night, I’d love to know what Steve Harrison, one of the industries most renowned creative minds thinks of this latest innovation from Royal Mail (who in case you didn’t know, were the organisation that coined the phrase integrated marketing. One of the many ways in which they keep trying to ensure snail mail stays popular against the instantly deliverable / trackable e-alternative).
I’m sure Steve 99.9% of the creative output from this would fall well below Steve’s high standards. The real art (as all good creative directors know), comes from nurturing a thought rooted in a real insight, allowing it time and room to gestate, to be shown love, attention, and carefully managed in order to generate that killer execution that has a great, motivating idea at it’s very heart.
Still, well done Royal Mail for giving those that cannot afford an ad agency a vehicle that produces professional looking direct mail, that doesn’t look like it came from the printer at the petrol station…
Iain Morrison is a senior marketer in the British Tourism Industry. And somewhat proud to have worked with Dr. Harrison during the glory years…
