Posts tagged ‘TV’
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…
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.
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 :)
PCWorld and Currys meets Star Wars – I want to love it, but I don’t, quite
I was rather looking forward to seeing the new PCWorld-meets-Star Wars ad.
Since I don’t do X-Factor (where it first aired on Saturday night), I tracked down the director’s cut on youtube:
I think I was expecting something with a little more upfront warmth and humour and less shots of endless rows of product.
The ad really seems to split into two parts, the first 25 secs feels like the stuff the client insisted went in – the exterior store shot (brand recognition!), the bank of flatscreen TVs (product breadth and depth!) and so on, while the engaging creative stuff that is going to make people connect with the brand takes up the second half.
Perhaps the 30 second edit will keep my favourite bits like R2D2 meeting a pink Henry vac and shooting-the-shoot-em-up-game and have less of the kind of store shots that feel like they were shoehorned in at the client’s request.
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)
Sherlock and three patch problems
I’ve been enjoying Sherlock on BBC1 (first episode AMAZING, second one merely gripping) and it struck me as Sherlock gazed intently at a load of data stuck on the wall and tried to make sense of it that he’d make a great Planner.
Well, obviously not great in the being-nice-to-clients and empathising-with-Asda-Mums sense, but in terms of deduction, ethnography and insight leaps he’s certainly got it covered. And which Planner hasn’t stared at a wall of data hoping it will somehow all make sense if I just squint a bit…
Sherlock’s solution seems to be three nicotine patches to help him think but I think I’ll stick with a bar of Dairy Milk.
Say hello to a good night with Mr Sleep and the Zzz Squad
Travelodge’s new campaign featuring ‘Mr Sleep and the Zzz Squad’ breaks tonight.
It comes courtesy of Mother (I think) and apparently marks Travelodge’s return to TV after 10 years. According to this piece in Marketing Week the new campaign is focused on positioning the company as a ‘retailer of sleep’
In the ad, a crack team of cuddly toys do whatever is necessary to ensure a good night’s sleep (youtube link here):
(big shout out there to Begbie in Trainspotting and every film Guy Ritchie has ever made)
Its cute, memorable, I like the ‘sleep tight’ line (see what they did there?) and it’s undoubtedly got legs to run and run. But…
…in this article in The Times, Travelodge MD Guy Parsons says that the success of Aleksandr Orlov, the star of comparethemarket.com’s advertising campaign, had influenced Travelodge: “The criteria was to have a campaign that was as memorable and successful as the comparethemeerkat campaign. Like him or loathe him, everyone has heard about him.”
[ bangs head on desk repeatedly ]
If I had a quid for every time a client has asked for a campaign that was “more like that Meerkat one” I’d be typing this on an iPad. If you added in the client requests for communications campaigns “more like Virgin / Apple / Innocent” I could retire tomorrow. Don’t get me wrong, VCCP did an amazing job with Aleksandr and Virgin, Apple and Innocent are brands that inspiringly zig when others zag, but it doesn’t mean that what’s right for them is right for your high volume retail business or B2B catalogue.
Just sayin’.
Good week for M&S as they keep it real
It’s been a good week for M&S. Their new telly ad seems to have gone down well, with loads of positive online buzz and the track featured (Got to Be Real by Cheryl Lynn) is inching its way up the itunes chart:
The casting of the latest batch of M&S Girls seems pretty spot on too. Twiggy obviously stays on as National Treasure, then we have Dannii Minogue cast as Mum to Be, Lisa Snowdon as the Girl Next Door, Ana Beatriz Barros as Girl in Underwear and V V Brown covers off the ‘we’re really quite cool, honest’ factor.
On top of this, M&S have done a deal with Kellogg’s that will see not only Special K on shelf in the M&S food hall, but a Special K Red Dress (as seen on t’telly) on sale in store. 
I love M&S for t-shirt type basics, but I do tend to shy away from their more stylish, stand out pieces (like the jacket on the right as modelled by Lisa Snowdon) because I know that I’m buying the same top as thousands of other women. I might as well leave the M&S tag hanging off it. How about putting some really limited edition stylish pieces in the Limited Collection?
On the first day of Christmas, my agency plagiarised for me…
The Argos Christmas Ad is here. Scamp loved it – and then the rest of the world pointed out that it was pretty much a direct rip off of the Rowan Atkinson scene from Love Actually.
Now I like a good RomCom as much as the next girl but this ad seems to be taking the old adage that ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’ a bit far when its pretty much a facsimile shot by shot.
For comparison purposes, the Argos ad can be viewed here,
and here is Love Actually (the crucial bit starts about a minute into this clip):
I can’t help but have a sneaking suspicion that it won’t have occurred to the Argos client or the team at CHI that Love Actually has been watched so many times by the target audience (mostly of Mums, I’m guessing) that they’re practically word perfect and fiercely loyal to anything penned by Richard Curtis. So they might actually be a bit hacked off rather than appreciative that someone has nicked from their favourite chickflick.
Some of the comments on Scamp’s blog have also pointed out that Argos’ version makes the all-singing, all-dancing wrapathon look like quite a nice way to do your Christmas shopping…
The name’s HD, Sony HD
I do like this Sony HD Quantum of Solace ad – its just that something has been niggling me since I first saw it. When they’ve finished trying to blow up the lovely Daniel Craig, the screen shows this:
And then this:
And finally this:
In theatres October 31st. Not on a Sony HD TV yet then.
