Posts tagged ‘ad’
M&S and X Factor – which brand are they actually promoting?
So, I said I’d deal with the M&S X Factor Finalists Christmas Commercial in a separate post.
Now obviously, this is part of a much wider M&S / X Factor tie up that includes sponsored airtime competitions, behind the scenes films and so on.
I assume the brief was about repositioning M&S for a wider, younger audience, but with a touch of festive fuzziness thrown in.
God knows how much they’re spending on re-edits as finalists drop in and out of the competition like yo yos and heaven help the poor agency account managers if Clearcast have insisted on re-approving each version.
The behind-the-scenes film looks they filmed all the original finalists – including the four who were dropped prior to the public voting. Which ended up being rather handy when Amelia Lilly came back in following the Frankie Cocozza drugs malarkey. In fact, a cynical type might suggest that having an extra four ‘maybes’ known to the public but not in the final was designed to deal with just this kind of commercial problem.
exhibit A: the origional ad (I think):
exhibit B: the latest version (we’re due another one about now):
I did a side-by-side comparison and all the edit changes currently happen between 30 and 45 secs. It’s a cunning plan – put the good acts likely to stick around at the beginning and end and the ones likey to get voted off in the middle to simplify editing.
Anyway, is the ad actually any good? IMHO, not particularly. It doesn’t have enough warn and fuzzy family stuff to jerk the heartstrings a la John Lewis and the X Factor lot aren’t big enough yet (singly or together) to endorse as huge a brand as M&S. So it ends up as more of an ad for the TV show than the retailer.
I wonder if this December’s trading (and viewing) figures will bear me out?
xmas ads – Christmas Crackers and Festive Flops
There are some great Christmas ads already airing…and some not so great ones too.
Boots has continued the Here Come the Girls theme with a crack team of women getting Christmas sorted while everyone else is asleep. It’s engaging, funny, on brand and totally relatable. It also stands up to repeated viewing, which is a good job since it has been on air for several weeks already:
John Lewis has done it again with their ‘thoughtful kid’ ad, that judging by twitter seems to have reduced most Mums to tears on first viewing. I’m not sure how this one will stand up to weeks of airing though:
Waitrose’s School of Christmas Magic is great too – another double hander from Delia and Heston but interestingly focusing on semi-scratch solutions to Christmas catering:
There are, however, a few less impressive festive ads out there as well.
Argos use blue aliens to demonstrate why you should avoid stressmas shopping and ‘check and reserve online’ all your gifts and then pop down to Argos to pick them up. I’m not sure that slagging off high street shopping then suggesting you would be better off doing all your shopping by reserving online then shelpping down to the Argos store to pick it all up is actually a winning strategy:
I found the Argos ‘making of’ ad on youtube (why do so many brands feel the need to add a Making Of ad as if they’ve just made a major movie, complete with director, cast and client interviews?) and the client talks of how the campaign is brave, bold, arresting and “really bringing to life the dichotomy of the high street at Christmas”. I think you might be overthinking it a bit love – and that’s coming from a Planner…
I posted about the Littlewoods Christmas ad the other week (it seems to be to be rather heavily inspired by a scene in Love Actually), but even after having viewed the ad several times and written about it, talking to an agency bod this week I merrily misattributed the ad to Argos, which doesn’t say much for its memorability. I’m also not sure in Austerity Britain that ‘make your family happy by buying them lots of stuff’ is the way to go:
So some Christmas Crackers and a few Festive Flops. Let’s see what the next four weeks brings.
PS I know I haven’t mentioned the M&S X Factor ad, but I think it deserves a whole post to itself…
is the Range Rover Evoque a designer handbag?
I was wondering round Leeds the other week when I saw the new baby Range Rover Evoque on display in the middle of an upmarket shopping arcade.
Of course I had a nosey – I’m always on the lookout for my motoring holy grail, an automatic that’s good on the motorway, is small enough to park easily and can get down a 1in3 snow covered track in one piece.
Unfortunately, it also has to come in under budget, which I quickly realised ruled out the Evoque. It’s still on my list should my premium bonds come up next month, but it nearly lost it’s place when I saw this:
So it would seem Range Rover are not going after a target market like me. More like footballers wives, Essex girls and drug dealers. It suddenly feels like owning one of these cars would be like owning a particularly garish designer handbag.
Oh well, in my more affluent fantasy life I suppose I could always get it debadged…
What’s going on with sausage food styling?
I seem to keep seeing rather a lot of ads focusing on the humble British sausage.
But what surprises me about them all is that the food stylist / art director / director / client chose to illustrate the all-round awesomeness of the sausage with a plate of grilled sausages, mash and peas (or sausage, chips, peas and carrots in the case of Walls).
I don’t know about you, but sausage & boiled vegetables say ‘school dinners’ to me, not ‘reliable and tasty meal option’. Where’s the gravy? The Full English Breakfast? The Toad-in-the-Hole (explanation for overseas readers here)? The sausage casserole?
I’ve never actually seen a real, live person tucking into sausage, mash and peas on their own (minus gravy) with gusto. It doesn’t feel like the benchmark for perfect sausages, so I’m wondering why they keep using it?
what happens when designers and printers don’t talk to each other
I was at spectating at Bramham Horse Trials last weekend and in the official programme I found a classic example of what happens when designers and printers don’t talk to each other.
This is the map of the cross country course:
No less than eight of the jump locations were hidden in the binding. I’d already broken the spine for a better view before I took this shot at home, it was actually even worse when I first opened it.
Surely someone should have wondered whether putting vital bits of the course in the middle of the map (and hence hidden from view) was such a good idea?
On the upside, the programme also threw up this rather lovely ad for Land Rover that anyone who has spent time with dogs and horses will appreciate:
It’s exactly what my horse would do, given half a chance :) Weeeee!
Matalan’s Spring TV ad – looks lovely, but who was it for again?
I can’t say I’m mad keen on the new ad I saw for Matalan last night (by BBH I think).
I love the idea of Feel Good Fashion, I’m just not as keen on a 60sec ad that leaves me feeling a bit queasy and is devoid of branding until 50secs in.
If you’re going to do an amazing piece of advertainment (Sony, Old Spice, Evian etc.), then you can leave the branding ‘til the end because people are going to be engaged and anyway it’ll probably go viral and become known as ‘that Evian dancing babies ad’ or whatever.
But if you’re just going to show me lots of beautiful people having a lovely time in a park in nice clothes then perhaps you’ll need to ram the branding down my throat a bit more – however complicated and impressive the effects shots are.
The ad is undoubtedly doing a good job in persuading shoppers to reappraise Matalan as a fashion destination for all the family, but that rather relies on them remembering who the ad was for in the first place – and I’d be willing to bet that brand recall for this ad (in it’s current form) won’t be very impressive.
A quick google reveals that the ad has only just started airing so perhaps there are lots of shorter versions to come that will be more brand driven and ram the point home.
Thumbcats are go
Cravendale’s thumbcats is a lovely idea from Wieden+Kennedy and brilliantly executed across not only TV but twitter, facebook and so on.
The voiceover did give me slight sense of déjà vu though, so I tweeted:
seen @Cravendale Cat ad by @W2Optimism Does W&K have secret stash of gravelly honey V/O men locked in their basement (Honda, Lurpak etc)?—
gemma teed (@gemma_T) March 02, 2011
And W+K replied:
@gemma_T Yes, we keep them in a cage and feed them on Lurpak, Cravendale and, er, gravel…—
Wieden + Kennedy (@W2Optimism) March 02, 2011
If they haven’t already seen it, I bet the W+K creative team would appreciate Eddie Izzard’s views on cats (the good bit starts at 02.28):
(hat tip to Marcus whose title I only realised I’d nicked when I finished typing and I can’t think of better one)
lose yourself in a Chrysler, imported from Detroit
Awesome Super Bowl Chrysler ad from W&K Portland that will send every hard man down to his local Chrysler dealership.
I bet the folks in charge of regenerating Detroit are thrilled. I’m not sure about the choir at 01.32 though. It feels a bit Glee / some kind of Oscars musical medley moment…
Update 08/02/11 - I had a lovely email from Carol reminding me about the large African American community in Detroit and the cultural significance of choirs in that context. She also pointed out I spelt Chrysler wrong (oooops…I’ve now corrected it). I obviously need to spend more time research/proof reading my posts. Thanks Carol for putting me straight on both counts :)
John Lewis Christmas ad – have I found another version or perhaps a work in progress?
I’ve been doing a little online detective work this evening.
I regularly pop over to AdAge to check out their Best Ads and the John Lewis Christmas ad is currently one of their top picks.
Except it wasn’t the ad above. ‘Your Song’ had been replaced by ‘How Deep Is Your Love’. I have to say I prefered it!
I can’t seem to embed the version I’m on about, but you can view it here at Creativity Online (who seem to supply AdAge with content). I think the track used is by The Bird and the Bee, from the Sex and the City soundtrack:
Can anyone from John Lewis, agency Adam and Eve or production company Partizan shed some light on this?
Putting my finger on an art direction trend
I’ve noticed a new trend in TV art direction recently – the Touchscreen Finger Effect.
Watch how we slide seamlessly from one product benefit to another! That’s how cool and relevant to your tech-savvy life our brand and product is!
Recent offenders include:
Recover Energy with ..
and, of course, Nokia (but seeing as they’re flogging a smart phone we’ll let them have this one)
