I was thinking back to the ad from our Tuesday post, the Lidl price match ad poking fun at Morrisons. These are the kinds of ads that make me frustrated about the current state of creative awards schemes.
That Lidl ad has, rightly, been praised all over the internets by advertising people. It is a proper piece of advertising, an example of advertising smartness and creative craft. But do you think we'll see it win any awards? I doubt it.
And that's the problem. All the awards seem to go to some wizz-bangy execution, or cute art direction, or epic production job that is simple enough for jurors from five continents to get. Whereas less showy ads like this will invariably be overlooked.
Creative awards are rewarding the wrong kind of creativity. They award stylists and big production jobs, not thinking or smartness. They award showy craft over craft that is brilliantly invisible. They award the novel over the excellent.
That's why I don't think creative awards are relevant or useful any more. That's why we don't enter them. And I simply don't care whether some dickhead from Brazil or fashion victim from Shanghai thinks it's super-awesome.
The creative award scheme that awards that Lidl ad, though, that I would consider.
Mercedes-Benz "Dirty Driving"
Yesterday I had the misfortune of seeing this Mercedes Benz thing. I say thing because it ain't an ad, and I refuse to call it content and well, I don't really know what the fuck it is. But thats a subject matter for another day.
Anyway. I was lost for words.
Their vehicles look the business and the film looks great, in that way car film things with great looking cars look great. As you would expect from one of the world's pre-eminent vehicle manufacturers.
But the crude gag seems so misjudged. Mercedes-Benz is a sophisticated brand selling premium products (that van retails at nearly £30k). So their target market isn't teenage boys, (although the youtube comments suggest it is going down well with them). Surely they could have come up with something better than actual car-porn.
I would liked to have been in the meeting where that idea got presented though.
"We want to show the top of the line Mercedes Benz S 63 AMG Coupé and the Actros truck actually making love to produce a Mercedes Van..."
Another great Lidl ad.
Aldi and Lidl are not only winning the battle of the supermarkets right now. They're also winning the advertising wars.
Both retailers are producing creative work that is head and shoulders above anything else in the category. This latest example of a brilliant take-down of Morrisons new loyalty scheme by Lidl being a case in point.
It's so refreshing to see such comparative advertising being done with intelligence and charm. And it ably demonstrates you can do value messaging in a way that isn't cheap and tacky.
If the meteoric rise of Aldi and Lidl continues then Tesco will need to plug more than just a £250m black hole...
Interesting times in the world of retail.
Both retailers are producing creative work that is head and shoulders above anything else in the category. This latest example of a brilliant take-down of Morrisons new loyalty scheme by Lidl being a case in point.
It's so refreshing to see such comparative advertising being done with intelligence and charm. And it ably demonstrates you can do value messaging in a way that isn't cheap and tacky.
If the meteoric rise of Aldi and Lidl continues then Tesco will need to plug more than just a £250m black hole...
Interesting times in the world of retail.
Judge A Book By It's Cover
My morning commute has recently changed, and now takes me through London Bridge. Whilst traveling I've noticed a big difference in the adverts placed on my route. Big commuter stations are obviously huge points of traffic for...well... commuters. 25-55 Year old working men and women, with more than an hour of travel time.
The ads fall into 3 main categories :
- Musicals (incase the working week isn't painful enough)
- Informative poems by TFL (incase the working week isn't painful enough)
- The Latest Celebrity Autobiography
It's the last that has become a little surreal, with a definite pattern in how these ads look. Obviously their name; the title is typically 'Autobiography', 'My Autobiography' if they are proper friendly like, or a pun relating to their career; and their portrait. In these shots 90% look like they're touching cloth, desperately concentrating with all their might not to pinch - the remaining 10% have a self assured post-pinch-but-cool-with-it grin.
These may well be amazing people with tonnes of interesting things to say, Gandhi and Churchill had a autobiographies after all. Honestly though, if any of these people below, looking as they do on their covers, approached you in the street and asked to chat - would you :
a) stop and listen for an hour a day for the next week and a half
b) avoid eye contact and dial up the pace
c) suspect a stroke and call 999. The faster you act, the more of the person you save.
The ads fall into 3 main categories :
- Musicals (incase the working week isn't painful enough)
- Informative poems by TFL (incase the working week isn't painful enough)
- The Latest Celebrity Autobiography
It's the last that has become a little surreal, with a definite pattern in how these ads look. Obviously their name; the title is typically 'Autobiography', 'My Autobiography' if they are proper friendly like, or a pun relating to their career; and their portrait. In these shots 90% look like they're touching cloth, desperately concentrating with all their might not to pinch - the remaining 10% have a self assured post-pinch-but-cool-with-it grin.
These may well be amazing people with tonnes of interesting things to say, Gandhi and Churchill had a autobiographies after all. Honestly though, if any of these people below, looking as they do on their covers, approached you in the street and asked to chat - would you :
a) stop and listen for an hour a day for the next week and a half
b) avoid eye contact and dial up the pace
c) suspect a stroke and call 999. The faster you act, the more of the person you save.
So hot right now.
There seems to be two very prominent types of ads at the mo.
The 'hilarious' dancing people and animals ads.
And the 'hilarious' man-looking-down-camera-everything-is-so-bastard-ironic ads.
What if I told you, the best way to stand out against these types of ads is to not to make another one of these ads. Just some food for thought.
The 'hilarious' dancing people and animals ads.
And the 'hilarious' man-looking-down-camera-everything-is-so-bastard-ironic ads.
What if I told you, the best way to stand out against these types of ads is to not to make another one of these ads. Just some food for thought.
Nicely done Lidl.
So this appeared in today's Metro and has popped up in some of their stores as well.
A good little dig at Sainsburys.
Here's that Sainsburys poster in case you haven't seen it.
Will It Be Emotional Chips Or Rational Spuds?
(Sing along)
Will it be chips or jacket spuds?
Will it be salad or frozen peas?
Will it be mushrooms?
Fried onion rings.
You’ll have to wait and see.
Hope it’s chips, it’s chips.
We hope its chips, it’s chips.
Now many of you may well remember that ditty from a TV ad back in the eighties. It featured some workmen on their way home in a van, singing along, speculating on what they will have for their tea.
I bloody loved that ad. I still sing this way too often as a meal time approaches. The interesting thing is who was the ad for?
Would you be surprised to know that it was not for chips? Can you hazard a guess why I thought it was chips? It was in fact for a steaky burger thingy-ma-jig made by Birds Eye.
Is it helpful to an advertiser for me to remember their ad in some way – in this case a song that appears to me to be about chips – but not the product they would like me to add to my shopping list? To be honest I'm quite happy with the song, but are they okay with that?
Increasingly I see people talk about the idea that brands need to make advertising that is fun and entertaining, and I don’t disagree.
I think if I am going to sit through the ads, they might as well be interesting in some way. But if I can only recall that I watched something fun, and what made it fun, but not what it was advertising, isn’t that a waste of money?
Don’t brand owners want people to remember the ad by saying I like the ad for product x that was funny / interesting / entertaining because of y?
Of course, you can get the message drummed in by spending millions on ad space but that isn’t a particularly strategic argument is it?
And this is where I get very confused. Take this brilliant research done by Peter Fields and Les Binet.
They make great points regarding loyalty, retaining prices and the use of TV as a medium. One key point still confuses me a lot – that advertising should not just be more emotional than rational, but that advertising barely needs any rational at all. In fact in the long term, brands that advertise using purely emotional beat solely rational or a combination of the two.
“The more emotions dominate over rational messaging the bigger the business effect. The most effective advertising of all is those with little or no rational content.” They go on to say “that campaigns that aim to get their brand and marketing talked about are particularly effective.”
Are there ad agencies that don't have this aim, I ask myself?
They continue, “Most ads of this nature are highly emotional but the additional element of talk value seem to boost effectiveness further. A good example of this would be Marks and Spencer’s (M&S) food.
This is my confusion. I remember those ads, I am sure you do too. They put their name in the strapline – “This is not just food, this is M&S food.” If that's not rational thinking I don't know what is. My mum still says that strapline at Christmas when she brings out M&S smoked salmon, nibbles or cake etc.
What’s so good about M&S food, you might say, and is it even important? Well the ad tells you, it talks about the provenance of the food, how it was produced, how it is cooked or prepared. What can be more rational than explaining the product to the viewer?
So is the problem the definition of emotional advertising? Does what a lot of people call emotional advertising actually include advertising that has a rational message in it?
My mum bloody loved that ad.
Will it be chips or jacket spuds?
Will it be salad or frozen peas?
Will it be mushrooms?
Fried onion rings.
You’ll have to wait and see.
Hope it’s chips, it’s chips.
We hope its chips, it’s chips.
Now many of you may well remember that ditty from a TV ad back in the eighties. It featured some workmen on their way home in a van, singing along, speculating on what they will have for their tea.
I bloody loved that ad. I still sing this way too often as a meal time approaches. The interesting thing is who was the ad for?
Would you be surprised to know that it was not for chips? Can you hazard a guess why I thought it was chips? It was in fact for a steaky burger thingy-ma-jig made by Birds Eye.
Is it helpful to an advertiser for me to remember their ad in some way – in this case a song that appears to me to be about chips – but not the product they would like me to add to my shopping list? To be honest I'm quite happy with the song, but are they okay with that?
Increasingly I see people talk about the idea that brands need to make advertising that is fun and entertaining, and I don’t disagree.
I think if I am going to sit through the ads, they might as well be interesting in some way. But if I can only recall that I watched something fun, and what made it fun, but not what it was advertising, isn’t that a waste of money?
Don’t brand owners want people to remember the ad by saying I like the ad for product x that was funny / interesting / entertaining because of y?
Of course, you can get the message drummed in by spending millions on ad space but that isn’t a particularly strategic argument is it?
And this is where I get very confused. Take this brilliant research done by Peter Fields and Les Binet.
They make great points regarding loyalty, retaining prices and the use of TV as a medium. One key point still confuses me a lot – that advertising should not just be more emotional than rational, but that advertising barely needs any rational at all. In fact in the long term, brands that advertise using purely emotional beat solely rational or a combination of the two.
“The more emotions dominate over rational messaging the bigger the business effect. The most effective advertising of all is those with little or no rational content.” They go on to say “that campaigns that aim to get their brand and marketing talked about are particularly effective.”
Are there ad agencies that don't have this aim, I ask myself?
They continue, “Most ads of this nature are highly emotional but the additional element of talk value seem to boost effectiveness further. A good example of this would be Marks and Spencer’s (M&S) food.
This is my confusion. I remember those ads, I am sure you do too. They put their name in the strapline – “This is not just food, this is M&S food.” If that's not rational thinking I don't know what is. My mum still says that strapline at Christmas when she brings out M&S smoked salmon, nibbles or cake etc.
What’s so good about M&S food, you might say, and is it even important? Well the ad tells you, it talks about the provenance of the food, how it was produced, how it is cooked or prepared. What can be more rational than explaining the product to the viewer?
So is the problem the definition of emotional advertising? Does what a lot of people call emotional advertising actually include advertising that has a rational message in it?
My mum bloody loved that ad.
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