Our new TV ad for Three mobile – a pastiche of the Rocky IV training montage sequence. I have always loved the cheesiness of Rocky films and damn I love that Vince Di Cola track (nearly didn’t manage to get it on there which would have been a disaster).
Now we have given them a confident, fun tone of voice I think we might actually be able to do some really great work for three. Watch this space.
Even though the Hip-hop video idea is bit cringeworthy and has been done way better by Smirnoff (below), the depth of the content is impressive and there are some nicely observed scenes.
This is the Party Election broadcast from our 2010 UK Election campaign for the Green Party. The Green’s had never got an MP into parliament before. Our job was to help them break through. Our solution was a really tightly integrated and targeted campaign featuring billboards, personalised policy videos and a policy matchmaker application. Our head of innovation, Dom O’Brien has a brilliant overview of the campaign on his site.
I haven’t had time to post about Cannes yet. As usual there were a couple of brilliant things there. The Integrated / Titanium category is the thing that interests me most and the Best Job in the World campaign for the Queensland Tourism board leapt out.
What I particularly like about it is that it doesn’t rely on digital wizardry, a heavy indulgent flash site or a jump-on-the-bandwagon technology solution (which is quite refreshing when you work in the area I do). A good idea will fly without any of these things and that’s exactly what this is – a simple and utterly compelling PR thought amplified through digital channels.
The notion of advertising at people is so dated. Involve them, give them something to talk about. This does, beautifully.
The Obama election campaign used the web and social media so brilliantly, is a watershed moment for politics and deserved it’s accolade.
But there were loads of other great campaigns too.
The Great Schlep which I love and although it only picked up a bronze, I’m a fan of the Treehouse Project for making the product the hero of the piece.
Lots of chat about the demise of digital agencies as the majority of Cyberlions went to agencies labelled ‘traditional’ by the trade press. I could write an essay on that. But that would be boring. You can read lots of rants here, here < and here if it floats your boat. But you can have too much ad talk I think. There’s more interesting things going on in the world.
I always feel so re-energised after Cannes (I mean creatively, not physically of course). I have so many ideas bubbling away for pretty much all of our clients. It’s just having the remit and support to break down the silos (you do digital advertising / you do PR / you do promotions) and get them made.
One other thing, whilst I think of it. It is surely time for a viral video taking the piss out of the ‘awards entry video’. They have almost become parodies of themselves. ‘The Awards Entry Video Video’. I think it would fly….
Our first TV ad for 3. The background to it is that as a brand they really needed to do something to re-establish trust with a very cynical public. We needed to be real, non-shouty, quietly confident and do something that didn’t try too hard.
We also had to launch mobile Skype.
Oh and we had just under four weeks from brief to going on air…….
I think it has turned out pretty well. It’s a platform that they can build on and ‘changing mobile forever’ sets them a challenge intrenally to keep striving to improve.
The main character Jason is a lovely bloke. Lead singer of Bugz in the Attic and perfect for this.
This is just a wicked viral. I love the guy’s enthusiasm almost as much as the techy ‘brilliance’ of the idea. Anything that gets youtubers arguing in large numbers about whether it’s real or fake has done it’s job.
The secret to good advertising is to understand your audience. If your target is ‘youth’ then this Channel 4 site is a brilliant resource. There’s a ton of good content on here. Check out the brand maps too.
