furtherandfaster

Thinking out of the box

Thinkbox is a research agency paid for by the TV industry whose objective is to demonstrate effective TV advertising is. Another blog from Brand Republic. Apparently we're watching 5% more television than we were this time last year. And if you have Sky Plus you're watching even more advertising than if you don't.

At what point is it appropriate to ask why the TV sales people can't use independent research agencies to evaluate their performance. And to say out loud what I and many other people have been muttering quietly to ourselves for a couple of years now: I don't trust anything Thinkbox publish. Why would I?

Beer ads in the cinema

Rare visit to the cinema today and I am trying to remember the brands which advertised. Molson was one - full on Canadian - (but legally required to tell us that its brewed in London - always guaranteed to annoy. There was Carling as well. What I remember is mild surprise that because (apparently) there is nothing to say about the product. And the creatives have got bored by being ironic about having nothing to say about the product, the ads are basically ingenious ways of talking around and over the beer without referencing it. It is supposed to be clever. But it feels bankrupt. I keep waiting for the halo effect - and being uncomfortable aware of a vaccum slap bang in the middle of the creative. Beer advertising is one of the most difficult to execute - right now it feels in the doldrums

Now THAT's what I call an agency website

I had lunch today with the planning director of DMB: one of Austria's biggest agencies. Still an independent. Their website is um different. Click around reception to get various gruesome FX.  My favourite is the dominatrix client trying to lash the agency founder into make the logo bigger. Whatever happened to personalities in the adland eh? I love this business!!

A youtube film I couldn't resist...

I just like the hyper-bolics of it and how evidently irritated the creator is by advertising overclaims

Announce a profit warning and cut your ad budget

I confess to shouting a lot at the TV this Christmas period. I've been watching more telly than normal and have been confronted with the pathetic standard of creative work in this country at present - sweeping generalisation I know -  it is time for the winter sales and we all know how hard it is to write decent ads which don't start with 20% off NOW. But really. MFI the furniture chain are busy telling us they've changed with an overproduced commercial - only to replace it with stills and price flashes when the sale really gets going which suggests very strongly that no they haven't really changed have they?

The most annoying ad has been PC World's TV campaign  which features the staff talking animatedly about how great the prices are and what a huge surprise it is that aforementioned laptop is quite so cheap. I know this is adland but I'm sure PC world staff have more to talk about than this. Whenever I see them they are rarely talking to each other because there are so few of them they have to spread out.

But then I realised that like the Halifax the ad isn't aimed at me - but at the staff. They're more likely to pick up on what the offers are and that they're supposed to find these offers exciting and attractive customers that they may be more likely to  back the ads when customers come sprinting in asking for technical  advice. I've never been given any information in PC World without joining a queue and waiting for 5 minutes so I hope the campaign works.

And then the Currys Group (which owns PC world) announced  a profits warning and I started to wonder why they had spent quite so much money on ads.  Sales are 25% down - they announce dolefully - then almost as an aside - they bought too many laptops. Which drove me straight to their website to see what the bargains were and if they were any good.

This is my fundamental problem with advertising - despite all the brand onion stuff and production values, advertising is a blunt instrument - you can see the strategy a mile off and it costs a small fortune.  It must have hurt a lot  to tell the City of London that the sales aren't looking too good - but its a much cheaper way of telling customers that there are big markdowns on the way. The really smart brands are finding ways to talk to their customers that don't involve adspend - until we figure out how to achieve ad effects without ad budgets the share of advertising is going to go on falling.

When I don't want to be interupted by ads...

is in the middle of a charge towards the German trenches in the battle of Loos. Rudyard Kipling's son played by Harry Potter aka Daniel Radcliffe is about to cop a packet creating a lifetime of guilt and regret for his writer parent. There's mud and blood and guts. And then we cut to a tasteful food shot courtesy of Sainsbury's the sponsor. Followed by Guinness new ad - very nice and the spectacular 1950s pastiche Christmas extravaganza for M&S a lovely piece of work. But clearly the media planners were hunting a good slug of audience. It just felt wrong - this is Remembrance day - I really didn't have the stomach for celebratory advertising. At the battle of big thinking one of the speakers described media planners as big game hunters trying to bag their share of the 400 ratings available on any typical month. I think we can expect many more such clumsy moments - when the audience is intermittent - expect all the big brands to elbow their way to the front - whatever you happen to be watching. Shame on you.