Cadbury is well known for its fun and games when it comes to creative advertising, and haven’t disappointed with the new campaign to promote the new Dairy Milk Bubbly. Welcome to ‘Joyville’ – an imaginary magical land where chocolate is made.
The ad includes chocolate helpers appearing from hidden places in a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-inspired setting of bubbly, melting chocolate. Launched on Google +, the campaign also came with a real-world component, a musical chocolate fountain in London’s Westfield Shopping Centre in White City.
This year the Cadbury brand has also presented us with the Blippar-powered augmented reality digital game ‘Quaksmack’ for smartphones. Chocoholics can point their smart phone at a packet of Cadbury goodies to start playing, while of course being exposed to multiple brand messages. The game forms part of Cadbury’s Spots v. Stripes London 2012 campaign.
Why we love it
Cadbury Dairy Milk has been championed as the nation’s favourite chocolate since its launch back in 1905. Their association with the expression of Joy, introduced in their late ’70s advertising and reinvigorated in 2007 by the infamous Cadbury Gorilla ad, has created a sense of magic around the brand, with the latest campaign creating a space that captures the imagination and curiosity whilst tapping into youth, fun, happiness and enjoyment.
We love the approach, the unique positioning for an Olympic sponsor, and that they chose to transform a physical space into a chocolate-flavoured factory full of life. Alongside the tangible live element to the Joyville campaign, the use of innovative digital technology within the ‘Stars and Stripes campaign’ shows an appreciation that immersive brand experiences can be as much virtual as real-life. The association of fun and games with a serious competition such as the Olympics is an interesting angle which ties in perfectly to Cadbury’s principles and brand messaging. After all, games are great – they get people playing, they bring people together and sometimes they even reveal an undiscovered talent.
With brands like Cadbury embracing such a creative approach, it is not hard to imagine a world of the future, full of fun and games, where your experience begins the moment you step outside your front door; where your smartphone becomes a vessel of endless possibilities, a seamless integration of digital and live, creating vastly enriching experiences. Imagine trying on that suit or dress you have just spotted in the latest film at the cinema in a matter of minutes, or downloading a recipe for your favourite dish whilst watching someone cook it in front of your eyes.
To promote its sponsorship of the London 2012 Paralympic Games, Sainsbury’s created a short video of David Beckham being put through his paces by David Clarke, team GB’s Blind Football legend. Widely seeded online, on TV and in cinemas, the video raises awareness of the Sainsbury’s 1 Million Kids Challenge, which aims to get a million children to try a Paralympic sport, and its sponsorship of the Paralympic Games overall.
Why we love it
Sainsbury’s ‘Paralympic Games-only’ sponsorship is an exciting innovation in itself. This is the first time that the rights for the Paralympic Games have been carved out and sold separately to those for the Olympics (although Olympic sponsorship still includes the Paralympic Games as well). Sainsbury’s can use this differentiated position to derive some key benefits.
Firstly, unlike Olympic venues, the London 2012 Paralympic Games’ venues and athletes can be branded. With 150 hours of Paralympic Games footage to be broadcast on Channel 4, it will deliver plenty of ‘natural’ brand exposure for Sainsbury’s. In addition, the Paralympic Games provide some truly emotive stories of excellence, inspiration and dedication that resonate with the consumers and, critically, are different to the Olympic stories that will be told by the other sponsors. As Sainsbury’s Head of Sponsorship, Jat Sahota, said: “There are amazing individual stories, but it is important not to overplay the adversity angle – they are ordinary people doing extraordinary things; they are elite athletes. There is a richness to those stories that I think the British public will respond to more than some of the Olympian stories.”
Using David Beckham as a Paralympic Games Ambassador is an interesting choice. Whilst it is unusual to have an ambassador for an event who has never participated in it, Beckham’s involvement is a good way to deliver its messages to the widest possible audience. It is obvious, though perhaps slightly regrettable, that a star of mainstream sport is a great candidate to help convey the Paralympic Games’ message.
Signing up the much-loved Beckham is unlikely to be a step in the wrong direction for any brand, but it’s what Sainsbury’s did with him that made this use of an ambassador so successful. The ABCDE model tells us that content is a vital part of excellent sponsorship, and the combination of a fascinating insight into blind football, combined with the allure of Beckham’s talent and good looks (sorry!) makes for compelling viewing. Football is the best loved sport in the UK, and so provides a good route into the discovery of Paralympic activities for those with little prior knowledge.
The last time blind football caught the public’s attention to such an extent was probably when Paddy Power released this controversial advert in 2010 and Sainsbury’s approach to blind football, naturally, could not be more different. It evokes the skill required for the sport, provoking exactly those feelings of inspiration and patriotism that the best sponsorships should.
The 1 Million Kids challenge is an ambitious programme to promote Paralympic sport to the mainstream, and using Beckham as its Paralympic Games ambassador shows that Sainsbury’s is serious about trying to make this happen.
Sainsbury’s core asset might be the London 2012 Paralympic Games, but by creating content that combines this sponsorship with a superstar ambassador from outside the Paralympic world, they are truly maximising its impact.
In order to celebrate 100 years since the creation of the Spirit of Ecstasy, our fellow ‘Engineers’‘Partners Andrews Aldridge’ and Rolls-Royce commissioned the British photographer Rankin to capture 100 contemporary images of the female form that are inspired by Rolls-Royce’s renowned symbol, including her power, speed and beauty. In his own words, this was “one of the biggest projects (he) has ever taken on”. The stunning collection of prints were shot over the course of the year and hosted exclusively at Rolls-Royce Motor Car events and dealerships throughout the world including London, LA, Beijing and Sydney, finishing in Cologne this month.
Why we love it
Firstly, we feel the partnership between Rankin, a modern British style-icon, and Rolls-Royce, a brand that represents both classic British craftsmanship and contemporary engineering, is spot on. A brand like Rolls-Royce needs to strike the balance between reinforcing its heritage without overly relying on it, and this modern celebration of the centenary of its ‘Spirit of Ecstasy’ strikes this balance very nicely.
By teaming up with Rankin, Rolls-Royce have also created a fantastic platform to create original and stunning content for their upmarket target audience, who are likely to be passionate about the arts and the work of the ‘in vogue’ photographer. Most importantly, going forward, these images have also given Rolls-Royce the opportunity to create some unique DM material to send on to their customers, a nice way to get into the hearts and homes of their most valued clients. Ultimately, one of the most important roles of a succesful partnership is to give the comms of a brand a lift; and these amazing photos most certainly do that.
The recent 100th edition of my beloved Stylist magazine got me thinking about the changing face of content on the streets of London. Commuters now have an embarrassment of riches from which to choose when it comes to free reading matter: Stylist on a Wednesday is followed by Shortlist and Sport on Thursdays and Fridays respectively, with Metro and City AM free every weekday morning - and, of course, the Evening Standard for the journey home. The fact that none of these cost a penny is great, but more important than that is the high editorial quality – they contain things that people actually want to read.
The free paper phenomenon started with News International’s The London Paper and Associated Newspaper-produced London Lite in 2006. Both were criticised for lightweight content and ceased publication in late 2009 – a result both of slipping circulation numbers and the Evening Standard becoming free. Critically, the ES has since maintained its editorial quality, a fact recognised with its 2010 victory in the Media Week awards, at which it won two of the most prestigious accolades in publishing – Media Brand of the Year and the Grand Prix Gold.
Since then however, there have been some new faces at the party – Stylist and Shortlist, published by Shortlist Media, as well as a revitalised Sport magazine. These magazines are free yet premium, self-consciously branding themselves…’freemium’. The idea is simple: lure customers in with free, high-quality content, and make money from advertising, a concept surely validated by its inclusion as a task on this year’s Apprentice!
It’s certainly not just about being free, as the quality of the content is vital – in the words of Karl Marsden, Managing Director of Shortlist Media, “no-one does the ‘thousand-yard stare’ like a British commuter intent on reaching their destination.” The combination of a free, desirable, high-quality magazine with reliable distribution channels is built to lure customers in and ultimately generate revenue from advertising.
Some, however, doubt the sustainability of this revenue stream, suggesting that as competition increases as free content proliferates, the money raised from advertising will diminish, raising doubts in turn about the sustainability of the whole model. There is no doubt that the world of written content is in a huge state of flux. Indeed, Mike Soutar, founder of Shortlist Media, attributes the rise of the ‘freemium’ magazine to the evolution of online content and customers’ subsequent expectations that they can access high quality journalism for free. And yet the basis of this assumption is already changing, as certain publications erect paywalls around some of their online content.
I know that as an avid Stylist reader I’m not going to stop eagerly taking my copy outside Goodge Street station every Wednesday morning. For now, I hope that the virtuous circle of a free magazine with high-quality content and money raised solely from advertising continues. The only worry is that one of these things will slip and we will move from virtuous circle to vicious cycle.
As mentioned above, a key concern is the ongoing viability of revenue from advertising. This could mean one of many things. Perhaps certain magazines will disappear altogether as their business model becomes less valid, or less drastically, their editorial standards will slip as they are forced to lay off staff. Might certain ‘freemium’ magazines start charging, gambling on the loyalty of their readership? This seems unlikely in a cluttered market, though the establishment of paywalls around previously free online content suggests that it shouldn’t be totally ruled out.
However, I believe that the answer, at least for the near future, might lie in this week’s subtle change to the Metro newspaper: more advertising. But for levels of quality to stay the same as advertising becomes less valuable, the hope has to be that revenue from increased volume sales offsets the lower price at which it can be sold.
Whilst I don’t know the answer, my fear is that the ‘freemium’ market as it stands isn’t stable in the long-term and a higher proportion of free magazine space will soon be taken up by advertising. I certainly hope this isn’t the case, but at the moment I’d advise you to watch this space.
Synergy, working as part of a cross agency team, has developed a rugby campaign this autumn to activate the GUINNESS brand’s rugby partnerships with the RFU, WRU, Scottish Rugby and the IRFU. Synergy contracted GUINNESS rugby ambassadors Lewis Moody, Lee Byrne and Sean Lamont (alongside Irish winger Tommy Bowe) to create an integrated campaign across TV, print, digital and PR targeting international rugby fans.
The ambassadors featured in print ads showing them flying the GUINNESS flag and giving their all for their country, in doing so proving that they themselves are made of more. Point-of-sale creative was rolled out in pubs and supermarkets across the country offering fans the chance to win tickets to the RBS 6 Nations (of which GUINNESS are Official Beer Partner).
Synergy secured national and regional press, broadcast and online coverage across England, Scotland and Wales through interviews with the players. Dynamic action shots of the players accompanied the interviews linking their national flag with the flag featuring in the TV ad campaign and reinforcing the brand’s support of the home nations.
To get fans closer to the action, we sponsored the Lewis Moody app to deliver an exclusive blog. GUINNESS fans who left messages of support for both Lewis and Lee on the brands Facebook page had the chance to receive personalised messages back from the players.
For those fans that haven’t been able to follow their team out to New Zealand, our man “Hutch” has been supplying a weekly video diary of his travels and meeting the home nations’ supporters.
To engage fans offline we took England pace man Ugo Monye to Asda in Gloucester to meet fans and staff at the supermarket, allowing them to have their photo taken with the rugby star and take part in the GUINNESS Rugby Reflex game.
Finally, the campaign’s TV ad, directed by Oscar winner Tom Hooper and produced by ad agency AMV, sees our intrepid hero overcome an army to prove that he and his team are made of more. Check it out below.
Memorabilia. The ultimate demonstration of fully committed fandom, right? Now I’m not talking about the typical million-odd replica shirts sold each year by Manchester United; I don’t even mean the larger share of these that sell featuring a certain Wayne Rooney’s name and number on the back; no, I’m talking about the real up-close-and-personal stuff: Botham’s bat, Pele’s Pumas or Tiger’s tee-peg.
You name it, someone out there will probably try to buy it, sell it, or, in the case of OJ Simpson, nick it. Allegedly. So what’s the fascination with collectibles, and why will ordinarily sane people part with extraordinarily daft amounts of money to own them? To me it’s about either possessing a tangible part of your hero, a slice of sporting history…or, and this is where the big bucks come into play, both.
In terms of sporting collectibles, baseball rules the roost; from the $10,000 spent by chewing gum maker Curt Mueller on a piece of spent gum from Arizona Diamondbacks Luis Gonzalez, to the ball struck by Mark McGwire for his record-breaking 70th home run in 1998 – bought by comic book creator Todd McFarlane for a staggering $3.05m. Especially staggering when you consider the record was subsequently tainted by McGwire’s admission of steroid abuse during that season…the baseball shedding two-thirds of its auction value. Less home run, more own goal.
But if you think that sports fans have the market cornered (as well as signed, framed and independently authenticated) – think again. It’s the movie buffs that really know how to splash the cash to get their hands on a piece of Hollywood heroes or history.
In 2008, a miniature TIE Fighter model spaceship from the original Star Wars movie sold for over $400,000 and Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber made almost a quarter of a million dollars. Surprisingly though, in the memorabilia stakes, chic overcomes geek, with Audrey Hepburn’s Givenchy dress from Breakfast at Tiffany’s selling for just under $1million and James Bond’s gadget-filled Aston Martin DB5 going for $4.1million.
What, might you ask, has any of this got to do with marketing, per se? Well, if you need to ask, then you obviously haven’t seen the recent Nike Mag campaign.
For those of you not aware, Nike Mags were the futuristic sneakers worn in Back to the Future II by hero Marty McFly when visiting Hill Valley, year 2015. For a quick reminder…
The self-lacing, self-illuminating hi-tops went on to become the most sought-after movie footwear since Dorothy Gale’s ruby slippers, whilst creating veritable product placement lore for their creators, Nike.
Many have crudely tried to repeat the trick, most notably Will Smith’s Converse-obsessed lead in I, Robot and, subsequently, the Puma-wearing inhabitants of The Island. Given that each member of the latter’s identically-shod population is, in fact, an irretrievably doomed clone of a corporate paymaster, you have to think that Puma really should have read the script before involving themselves.
What sets Nike apart from the aforementioned brands is that the trainers worn by Michael J. Fox’s character were simply an ‘ain’t-it-cool’ vision of the future for the movie’s teenaged audience, appropriate to Nike’s own brand trajectory; they weren’t linked to part of a specific marketing campaign, and were categorically not made available for purchase by their makers.
Until now.
Hot on the heels of Total Film’s 2010 ‘Future Day’ hoax, forums were buzzing earlier this year with the rumour that Nike had taken out a patent on an ‘automatic lacing system’. Nike sneakers with power laces on their way? Not quite, but an ingeniously timely tease nonetheless.
In fact, the Oregon-based sporting superpower had finally chosen to make film buff dreams a reality, by producing a limited run of 1,500 pairs of ‘2011 Nike Mags’.
With illuminated LEDs that can be recharged after a long day switched on in their display cabinet (as though anyone is actually planning on wearing these) the 2011 models are, in fact, not of the self-lacing variety. This is rather unsubtly explained courtesy of the movie’s co-star, Christopher Lloyd – AKA Doc Brown – in the video below, where it becomes clear that said technology will only be available in 2015 (the year he and Marty visited in BTTF2), and that the DeLorean time machine has erroneously brought him to a point four years too early.
So, after all the hype and fervour, how can I get hold of a pair, you ask? Well, unfortunately you’ve already missed the boat: the entire lot were auctioned off over a 10-day period on eBay in early September. Although bidding started at $0.99, over-excited demand amongst collectors and scalpers alike saw standard prices kick off at around $4,000. Who pays $4k for a pair of slightly ugly-looking trainers? Well, no one, it would seem. The first pair actually sold for the princely sum of $37,000 to one Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu – that’s Tinie Tempah to you and me. His PR or Nike’s…it’s hard to tell.
But never fear: Nike’s ruse was all in a very good cause (besides fleecing a few overpaid musicians). It turns out that the brand had partnered with the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, all profits from the auctions going direct to the organisation.
Nike (with a little help from eBay) capitalised on the perfect storm of memorabilia-hungry Back to the Future fanboys, obsessive boxfresh sneakerheads and understandably fervent supporters of the Parkinson’s research projects – raising $5.7million in a mere 10 days. This was doubled to $11million by the ubiquitous Google, whose co-founder Sergey Brin has pledged to match donations to Fox’s foundation until 2012 to the tune of up to $50million.
Nike has demonstrated just how far ahead its thinking is from its competitors’ in respect of memorabilia, limited edition wares and product placement (even retrospectively). And who’s to say that the ‘2015 Nike Mags’ won’t be released to the general public in four years’ time anyway?
They’ve hit the sweet spot between collectible and commodity, and through the nostalgic lens of one of the most popular movie franchises of all time, have delivered a lesson in slow-burn brand marketing.
But coming back to the crux of the argument, people will do anything for their own part of an image, an icon, a moment or a man – heart over head, irrational and absurd. As Huey Lewis once put it: that’s the power of love.
Here at Synergy towers we’re always looking for fun, quirky ideas that have genuine media traction while fitting with our clients’ target audiences and business objectives. So with the London 2012 test events rolling into town the Betfair team put our thinking hats on and looked at how Betfair could get involved. We focused specifically on the beach volleyball tournament at Horse Guards Parade - an event with high media and consumer interest that would engage the brand’s target audience and deliver a tactical campaign within budget.
Further to a recent Ofcom report highlighting that one third of British adults now owns a smart phone, Betfair developed a concept to promote their mobile offering.
Synergy negotiated a deal with Team Mullin-Dampney, the number one British beach volleyball duo, to position Quick Response technology, known as QR codes, on the players’ kit. When photographed, the QR code would drive people to Betfair’s free-bet and registration page.
Given the limited space available on a beach volleyball kit, the signature ‘hands on knees’ stance, and likely viewpoint of media and spectator cameras, the QR codes were placed on the players’ bikini bottoms to maximise exposure, whilst their arm bands carried the Betfair Mobile logo.
Working with Betfair’s consumer PR agency and new members of the Engine family - Mischief - we held a photoshoot with Shauna Mullin and Zara Dampney and distributed the images before the test event on 9th August.
Capturing the imagination of both the front and back pages the story featured in four national newspapers (Daily Mirror, Daily Express, Daily Star and Daily Record), two regional titles (Metro and The Evening Standard) and seven national online sites as well as over 200 online outlets, thousands of tweets and in the international media.
Wonderbra has, since the Nineties, been delivering us iconic marketing campaigns. When Eva Herzigova stopped traffic in 1994, the lingerie brand’s appeal to both guys and girls was obvious – the boys wanted Eva, the girls wanted underwear that made them look like Eva. Put simply, sex sells.
Well, fast-forward to Noughties and that much hasn’t changed. Wonderbra hasn’t developed any more subtlety in its appeal, but it has started creating more engaging campaigns that say something tangible about the product benefits (beyond the broad ‘wear this, look hot’).
First there was Sabraine Banando going 3D on a roadside billboard in 2008, cueing talk of more traffic accidents.
And then, this year, we were given the Wonderbra trampoline.
What happened:
Well, it’s pretty simple really. Wanting to extol the virtues of their brand new strapless bra, Wonderbra needed to put it to the test. And they started with an important insight: as the female readers amongst you will know, excessive movement in a strapless bra (gigs, festivals, dancefloors being prime locations) is largely inadvisable, unless you are very confident in the professed ability of your product.
So, to prove themselves to be the ultimate support, Wonderbra put trampolines in fitting rooms in Belgium – building on a PR stunt they had held in Spain the previous year. Customers could check out exactly how the bra fared under the most bouncy conditions. Then they filmed it, and made a cute viral to spread the word.
Why we like it:
Wonderbra looked at their product values, which to date had been largely focused on enhancing assets, and had conveyed little about support. So, having identified a gap in their product line, they took an important insight from their target audience to communicate brand and product value.
Sure it was a gimmick and comments on the video were not all complimentary of the methodology, but it was a fun one. And importantly (prior the video viral being removed from YouTube for “violation of YouTube’s policy on nudity or sexual content”), the product was shown to work, convincing a whole host of women that Wonderbra isn’t just a one-trick push-up pony.
They kept the provocative nature of the brand alive by creating a video they knew would go viral and would probably only survive a matter of weeks on YouTube – which it did. But losing the video didn’t matter. Word would still spread that Wonderbra creates such an effective strapless bra, that they’re willing to test it to the limit and put the evidence online. The fact that the screen below is all you can now see of the video only serves to bolster their cheeky, risqué position.
What the brand says:
Head of Marketing, Julia Nolan, has commented on the new range: “We conducted a comprehensive series of tests with real girls, which included dancing, bending, stretching and jumping, all designed to put the bra through its paces.
‘This unique technology lifts the weight of the bust, supports and gives a trusted Wonderbra cleavage. We have created a groundbreaking garment giving women the perfect solution to the age old strapless bra problem.”
What happened? To coincide with the release of Limitless, the new thriller starring Bradley Cooper and Robert DeNiro, Relativity, the film’s production company, commissioned a smart and differentiated viral campaign encompassing digital, outdoor and, well, digital outdoor media.
Why we like it: As a movie whose premise revolves around NZT, a pill that allows anyone taking it access to the full 100% of their brainpower (and the consequences thereof), it is perhaps appropriate that the film company should have demonstrated a bit of lateral thinking in its marketing.
In the States, where the stakes were naturally highest for the movie, the tease began in earnest a month prior to its release with a video created and seeded by Thinkmodo, the New York-based viral marketing outfit. The team produced a piece of footage where a young tech-geek demonstrates how to hack the digital advertising media in Times Square.
Whilst this video hit the Internet hard, with over 2 million views, the execution was later criticised for its very casual link to the movie itself. Only at the very end of the clip do you see the hacker interrupting the official trailer for the movie, or by following the click-through discover that he managed to achieve such feats after taking NZT.
Subsequent to this, and arguably more importantly, the film company also created a faux campaign fronted by Bradley Cooper himself as the literal face of NZT. In a great pastiche of companies like Vitabiotics, whose Wellman advertising for herbal pick-me-ups is a global phenomenon, Mr Cooper stars in both print and TV creative.
The coup de grâce was media buy that placed the campaign’s print creative directly in the eye-line of those people used to seeing
The fact that its stated side-effects include “psychosis, amnesia, homicidal blackouts and death” is a cheeky nod to the film’s own plot trajectory.
Not only is it great to see the creative use of outdoor media – when did you last spot a movie poster on the inside of a Tube? – but it also showed a genuine consideration by the film’s marketing team as to the potential for their assets (namely the film’s star) to deliver into a content strategy beyond that of the typical Photoshopped poster.
What’s more, as a movie starring ‘That guy from The Hangover‘ and Robert ‘please let this not be another turkey’ DeNiro, this is also a campaign that drove a degree of critical reappraisal from the very quarters that might otherwise have ignored it. Having hit #1 at the US Box Office, and taken $80million to date, it looks as though the team at Relativity may have been on NZT from the start.
Our sports stars who we work with frequently find themselves the subject of timely brand communications that use the news agenda to gain cut-through in print. Which is why, for example, around Wimbledon or the British & Irish Lions rugby tours you see sponsor brands (official and ambush alike) trying to savour the cultural moment in order to capture their target audience.
And our ad of the day today came from a joint venture between MARS-owned cat food brand, Whiskas, and Battersea Cats and Dogs home, with which they partner. Capitalizing on the recent addition to the Downing Street family – Larry the cat, employed principally to deal with the reported emerging local rat population – Whiskas and Battersea threw down a welcome mat throughout the National Press.
Simple, fun, effective and apparently starring Larry himself – which must have taken a bit of pre-planning on behalf of Battersea and No.10. Bravo to all involved.
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