Boots "Christmas 2013"

Boots win for weirdest song choice this Christmas, with Bronski Beat's "Smalltown Boy", a song whose lyrics address issues like homophobia and bullying, bringing in the festive cheer. No doubting it's a very catchy song, but seems out of tone with the ad and Christmas in general. Created by Mother London, the campaign depicts a young man sneakily giving friends and acquaintances gifts from Boots in light of their own charitable deeds.

Boots made a major misstep in last year's Christmas advert, with numerous complaint of animal cruelty filed due a shot of a dog being blasted with a hair dryer. Obviously clear to avoid controversy this year, the ad is particularly inoffensive. It's not particularly interesting though either. Youtube views have reached 200,000 in the past week, which is a respectable figure. The spot uses the brand’s “It Feels Good” strapline and highlights the retailer has offers on “1000s of Christmas gifts”. Definitely not my favourite of this year's offerings.

John Lewis "The Bear & The Hare"

In direct competition with M&S is John Lewis, a department store that has been lauded for its creative and engaging Christmas ads the past few years. While this piece doesn't feature any celebrity endorsement, it still was a major investment, costing over seven million pounds to create. John Lewis' agency, adam&eveDDB is particularly note worthy in comparing the two rivals campaigns, as adam&eve was founded by ex-staff members of M&S' agency RKCYR/YR, before being purchased  by DDB. The animations in the campaign were provided by a head illustrator from Disney's The Lion King.

The ad documents the story of a hare attempting to show his hibernating bear friend the magic of Christmas, with Lily Allen providing a folksy rendition of Keanes "Somewhere Only We Know" as the soundtrack. It is John Lewis’ most integrated Christmas campaign yet, encompassing an eBook and hardback book, Christmas card maker, social media, in-store and windows, merchandise, digital outdoor projection and soundtrack single.

The campaign has benefitted from a dramatic response on social media. Compared to last year's Christmas ad which has over 3 million Youtube views to date, this year's campaign has amassed 6 million views in the first week of its release. It also boasts near 100,000 Twitter mentions during the same period. Undoubtedly, the brand will consider this venture a complete success. 

IKEA "Kitchen Party"

Looking at the IKEA "Undercover" ad yesterday reminded me of one of my favourite ads from the last few years. "Kitchen Party", created for the UK and Irish markets, was a hugely successful ad, made prominent by the use of Jona Lewie's 1980 hit "You'll Always Find Me in the Kitchen at Parties", covered by Man Like Me. Man Like Me feature as the advertisements protagonists and quickly spiked in popularity as a result, becoming ASOS.com's house band.

The ad was created by Mother London, a London based creative agency. The campaign won a Gold award at the British Arrows in 2011. IKEA also brought out a feature length music video of the ad that is featured below. The ad is humorous, aspirational and creative. IKEA's products are featured heavily and the Youtube video even allows users to click on a product in the video to be directed to the featured product's information. This ad will definitely be one of my favourites for years to come. 

Music Faux Passe

Today I read about an advertising music faux passe I had to share. All three of these ads ran concurrently, some even airing in the same timeslot. Choosing a popular song to identify with your brand is all well and good, but it seems like a massive misstep to not view who else is using the exact same song. Major blow for the agencies media buyers also, as running the ad in the same slot as another with the same backing music deeply diminishes the chances of the second product being remembered.

 Realistically, while the song (M83's "Midnight City" if you're interested) is great, it is so deeply ingrained in my head as Made in Chelsea's theme song it is a poor choice for any brand!

 

Eircom MusicHub

Today I wanted to look at an Irish ad that captured attention of the national audience. Chemistry, an Irish creative agency, were behind this concept, which was a current Facebook craze. This is a good example of taking a creative vision from a trend, while still creating an ad that is both timeless and accessible to people who have never seen the original inspiration.

Emmet Wright, Chemistry's creative director had this to say about the brief and execution; “At the time, music-streaming was a new concept and Eircom needed to hit high numbers, and our brief was to look at how best to introduce this service. We developed a concept that would work, not just with early-adopters of technology, but would also educate and motivate the late majority”.

The advertisement was pivotal in Eircom securing their annual subscriber target within five months. It was also a coup for Chemistry who won numerous awards, with the campaign remaining their most successful to date. 

T-Mobile "Welcome Back"

For my first post, I wanted to look at my favourite ad of all time. T-Mobile's "Welcome Back", created by London agency Saatchi & Saatchi, is a prime example of exceptional brand advertising. S&S created a series of similar ads (using hidden cameras and flash mob situations in different contexts) to establish T-Mobile's motto of "Life's for Sharing".

T-Mobile UK offer a comparatively no frills service compared to other providers such as Orange, and as such it made sense for them to focus on ads that devolved a sense of well-being about the company as opposed to focusing on their phone packages. While some individuals are shown using their phones in the ad, it is mainly for either filming or calls, services T-Mobile provide. This ad, and the series as a whole, had vast penetration of the consumer base and could be considered successful viral advertising.

The ad itself was filmed in Heathrow, in the T5 arrivals area, typically where long haul flights would land. Over 35,000 people traveled through the area on the day, as 18 hidden cameras filmed their reactions to over 300 singers and a vocal orchestra. The choice of songs is sentimental and humorous.

The reason this will remain my favourite for years to come is the emotions it continues to stir no matter how many times I have seen it. Friends have confessed to crying at this ad and the thoughts it brings up of family overseas. With emigration so popular in recent years, this advertisement reminds us of the joys of homecoming.