Downdown thumbs down

Big Red’s lack of creativity afforded by Coles must be an excruciating result for DDB to bear. This campaign is a perfect example of the sort of dialogue that clearly did not take place between client and agency Big Red; the sort of dialogue that was the catalyse for starting this blog in the first place.

Surely ad agencies with their strategic thinkers and creative teams are hired specifically to transpose business needs and objectives into strong visual ideas, (or yes, you keep the creative in house and end up with low-grade creative). Guess what – a strong visual idea can also provide the emotional triggers to ultimately convert to sales, and it has a positive lasting impression.

The question even supporters of this campaign need to be asking, regardless as to its possible success (although show me the numbers), is why client and agency opted for such poor creative to achieve this?

Coles knows its audiences well and has proved itself a savvy marketer across most platforms, yet ‘Downdown’ is definitely not where advertising should be. Airing of this style of advertising is commonplace in the US and less so in the UK, but only outside of prime-time viewing. Meanwhile in Australia, we don’t even question why advertisers like Harvey Norman produce powerpoint-like ads that bark at us aggressively both visually and aurally, as if to say that research has shown that after a 10-hour day we will respond positively to being communicated to in this way.

This blogger’s view is that advertising can not be deemed to work if it increases sales only. There are other brand issues at stake. Good advertising only works if there is an idea. An idea is only a creative idea if achieves lasting emotional and behavioural positive change. These words need to be thought about closely.

There is no real ‘idea’ in ‘Downdown’. Someone just said, “Lets change the words in ‘Downtown’, slap big, red thumbs on people’s wrists that can also be used instore, use people who look and sound like they’re real staff …what a laugh.” Indeed Coles, but an embarrassing one! If this was intended to be a piss-take, it is not at all clear.

And did Coles do its socio-demographics research to know who its viewers might be before spending up big during Wimbledon this year? I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only one with my big red thumb hitting instant MUTE between games.

Brand-less cigarettes: tobacco companies not happy

Smoking Kids

Australia is about to become the first country in the world to ban tobacco companies from branding their products. As of July 1, 2012, no brand images or colors will be permitted in cigarette packaging design. Additionally, there are to be restrictions introduced online plus a 25 percent hike in excise tax bringing a pack of smokes to about $A16.70 or $US15.40.

In Australia where tobacco advertising is outlawed, the government described cigarette packaging as, “one of the last remaining frontiers for cigarette advertising.” And so it looks like Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd is about to take the big boys down. Only brand and product names will be allowed using a standard color, position, font and size making cigarette packs look similar to a prescription medication.

Of course this is a serious deal for tobacco companies going forward and let’s not forget the design companies that do their work who are paid extremely well but never publicize such relationships for fear that it would affect their own corporate brands. (I know because I worked for one of them).

Health warning on Australian cigarette packs: mouth cancer

The New York Times spoke to Imperial Tobacco who ludicrously responded by saying that there’s no evidence to support this action as effective in reducing consumption. Well, er, no…it hasn’t been done before so no, there isn’t evidence yet, but you just wait. And interestingly publicly trading tobacco giants Philip Morris (PMI) and British American Tobacco (BAT), Australia steered clear of stating the legal action that the industry could pursue but both wanted to put the possible case forward of there being constitutional issues relating to intellectual property and international trade obligations.

Clearly they’ll fight the ethical position and discard their social responsibilities, whatever it takes to get rich on the addicted and lure the young. Gotta love their passion. But as Susan Mercado, the World Health Organization’s regional advisor said in an emailed statement to the New York Times today, “Australia has taken a stand against all forms of advertising of a product that kills half of the people who use it.”

Currently Australian cigarette packaging carries health warnings as well as graphic photographic images showing the possible results of long-term smoking such as gangrenous limbs, cancerous mouths and blindness. (See above image).

So, what does the government intend to do with the $5 billion generated over four years that it forecasts to make out of this initiative? It will be reinvested in the national health care system. Take note America!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/business/global/30tobacco.html

Anyone remember chocolate cigarettes? Well, you can still get them, frighteningly enough. In my opinion, these should be banned too. At least the ones below have health warnings about chocolate consumption!

Chocolate cigarettes with warnings

Leo Burnett, Sydney and Ben Lee create Space Monkey

Ben Lee - Australian singer, environmentalist

It’s a fact that creative people make the world go round. Or that’s what Dezomo reckons anyway. They make us laugh, they make us inquire, they inspire and they make life worth living by making us experience the world through our emotions and focused thinking. It is music, art, design, literature, poetry and even, yes, advertising in its fundamental form where ideas are king.

Creative expression in any form allows the human race room to think. It is where politics and real life collide peacefully. Artistic expression of contemporary culture now and before  has an inherent right to be left untouched. Once created it remains a statement of a time, a feeling, an experience. It can’t be amended, overturned, re-instated or re-done. It is how change is affected.

There are many examples but I liked the relevance of this message that this clip was pushing. Hear and see for yourself in the following link where Australian musician Ben Lee states his point.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E9nrcY5IIE

For more information visit Australian Creative on http://www.australiancreative.com.au/yaf-news/ben-lee-music-video-call-to-action

Clemenger BBDO creates blind fragrance

Popsom.com|25 March 2010

Clemenger BBDO Melbourne created a fragrance as the key element of the charity marketing campaign for people who can’t see. The main idea of the Guide Dogs Australia project was to develop something that would be easily noticed by all people including the blind and vision impaired. So, smell was employed as the basis for the campaign.

The new scent was created with the help of Kit Cosmetics. The packaging of the fragrance called Support Scent has the name of the product printed in Braille and infused with the fragrance, so that it would be easy for the blind people to determine the scent among other products.

The campaign includes online, TV, cinema, radio, press and outdoor advertising.

The Support Scent range including the fragrance, scented body lotion, body wash and a candle is available at department and cosmetics boutiques as well as online stores. All the proceeds will be donated to Guide Dogs Australia to support the organization’s projects.

Source - Popsop.com

Twitter hears only 12% of top 50 brands

AdNews|30 March 2010|Danielle Long

BRISBANE: Only 12% of the top 50 Australian brands are listening and responding to their customers’ comments on Twitter, according to a social media study by advertising agency BCM.

BCM analysed nearly 8,000 relevant mentions for 81 brands or organisations on Twitter throughout two weeks in Q4 2009 to monitor how brands were responding to consumers’ negative and positive commentary.

The findings revealed only 54 of the top 81 brands had Twitter profiles and of these only six brands actively listened and engaged with customer comments, with the majority (72%) using Twitter as a one-way channel to publicise promotions and promote news updates.

Telstra was the most responsive company responding to 45% of negative and positive comments, but the brand also has one of the largest levels of commentary receiving more than 10 times as many negative comments as positive ones.

Flight Centre topped the unweighted brand response scores with an 80% response rate although the brand does not receive as much comments as other organisations.

Big Pond, Vodafone, Telstra, Australia Post and the Australian Taxation Office received the highest amount of negative commentary on Twitter.

Toyota, Target, Boost, Sony and Canon ranked highest in the study for positive consumer comments.

However, the survey was undertaken before Toyota’s global recalls which would impact differently on the brand’s social media commentary.

BCM partner Kevin Moreland said whether brands “like it or not, conversations about them are happening on a daily basis and brand or product mentions are becoming intertwined into social networking activities”.

PATTS USES NAVY STAFF TO CREATE VESSELS

B&T Weekly|26 March 2010

Members of the Royal Australian Navy have been used to recreate their workplaces in a series of new ads to encourage people to join the service as well as to inspire existing service men and women.

Created by George Patterson Y&R Melbourne, the ‘Be part of something bigger’ campaign used almost 100 Navy personnel from HMAS Albatross to recreate different naval vessels including a frigate, transport ship and submarine.

To view the making of the ads, click here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjMLnXmIJxg

Colman Rasic appoints digital head

AdNews|25 March 2010|Heather Jennings

SYDNEY: Colman Rasic has appointed Rob Reng as its head of digital following Nick Lee’s departure to the UK.

Reng, who was previously senior project leader at Fairfax Media, will start work at the agency on Monday (29 March).

In February, Colman Rasic Carrasco co-founder Rebecca Carrasco left the agency, with chief executive officer Ben Colman and executive creative director Dejan Rasic remaining at the helm.

http://www.adnews.com.au/adnews-news/colman-rasic-appoints-digital-head

IAG TO REVIEW CREATIVE

AdNews|26 March 2010|Prue Corlette

SYDNEY: Insurance Australia Group (IAG) is set to review the creative arrangements for its retail insurance providers, NRMA, SGIO and SAIC, less than a year after consolidating the account with STW agency Human,AdNews magazine revealed.

The Sydney-based Human has handled creative for all brands in the NRMA Insurance group since July 2009 when NRMA dropped Brisbane-based Junior from its Queensland ad duties.

Human spearheaded NRMA’s repositioning in 2008 when the company dropped its iconic “Help” tagline after more than 20 years. The launch of “Unworry” was an attempt to move away from the fear-led marketing that dominates the insurance sector.

http://www.adnews.com.au/adnews-news/iag-to-review-creative

DIESEL DOUBLES AD SPEND

AdNews|25 March 2010|Assia Benmedjdoub

SYDNEY: Diesel Australia has doubled its advertising budget in a bid to strengthen consumer spending under its new retail pricing strategy.

The Italian denim brand has doubled its local advertising spend for the calendar year and commissioned a separate public relations agency to handle its footwear, bags, accessories and underwear accounts.