Our new Zantac campaign has just gone live.

Good use of left hand page position with our new Zantac creative. The campaign is going to run until the end of December. This comes in a set of four image versions, all photography by Charlotte Tolhurst, who normally shoots gorgeous food. The shoot was arranged by freelance production manager Samantha Adam, a really useful find and an absolute star to work with.

Fun and games with DEXTRO Energy

A sweet little campaign we did for DEXTRO energy has had an extra boost by some genius media placement courtesy of Elliots team at AW Media. Buying space on a mixture of flex, specific and general arm twisting. Plus taking advantage of a portfolio of creative executions, led to some really eye catching work. Three stand out moments, The first being Pete Doherty's kiss and tell drugs splash ending with an 'extra oomph naturally' creative followed by an execution with the headline 'uphill battle' being placed next to the Paula Radcliffe bombing out of the marathon story. Finally in true jumping on the band wagon style we had a 'freewheel' cycle imagery spot all over the British teams gold medal stories. You can see most of the campaign HERE
However none of the above is half as funny as watching a bunch of German students really abusing DEXTRO (here) now that is a brand extension.

am I missing something? Pimms Vs Club 18-30

The current Pimms ad appears to be just a poor copy of the famous Saatchi's club 18 - 30 campaign or have I missed something? The Pimms ad shows a nudist beach (just in case we missed this there is a sign in the background 'Naturist Beach') everyones rude bits are then covered up by objects in frame. Only its not as subtle or funny as the Club 18-30 version, what's going on? -is it some kind of in joke? Really does not seem to hang together with the rest of the Pimms campaign featuring a festival bus and online sunshine spotter.

Pure genius

October 18th, 2007

This is absolutely brilliant! O2 have set up a group on Facebook called ‘The Battle for the UK’s Favourite University’. This ties in perfectly with their ‘Favourite Place’ campaign and instead of going on about how great O2 is, it is encouraging people to get together and chat about how fantastic their university is, why it’s more fun than others, what’s cool etc. The more Facebook activity a uni has, the more points it earns. The uni with the most points at the end of it will win a £50k party. Currently there are 75,814 members, with 1,203 discussion topics and 2,651 wall posts. You need to have a facebook profile to look at it but if you have one, check it out here. So simple, yet so clever. Come on Exeter!!

Fiona

I love these ads

October 16th, 2007

I’m sure most of us have seen the gorgeous Sony Bravia ads with the balls bouncing around San Francisco, the paint shooting up some buildings in Glasgow, and the latest execution which shows play-doh bunnies frolicking around New York. But what about an ad that has been made especially for Egpyt? It shows thousands of coloured cotton reels being thrown down one of the pyramids – check it out here.

Fiona

Media placement

October 15th, 2007

We are running a bunch of classified ads for our new client The West London Clinic this month. The art department at Vogue have obviously got far too much time on their hands - our ad being rather neatly placed to fit with another. There is a branding campaign coming soon and a new web site in the offering.

Heart warming

September 7th, 2007

Exciting brands surprise

September 6th, 2007

oooh how much do i want one. Brands that delight and surprise get my vote every-time. Apple can be forgiven any amount of battery pain by simply offering up a new product like yesterdays revamp of the ipod range. Suddenly the anger over the collapsed hard drive of my old ipod is dissipated by the thought of owning one with WiFi. Yup the Starbucks link is teeth grating but like Mac battery life I can live with that. Should I wait till the UK launch? No chance ! I'm off to NYC via MAXjet with a pocket full of cheap dollars and an innocent smile for HM customs on my return.

Philip

Luxury brands & older consumers

In an era of unstable economies, rising interest rates and a slowdown in consumer spending, luxury goods companies seem to remain largely unaffected; the simple reason that the affluent consumers continue to spend.

Whereas the average citizen may find a tight squeeze on outgoings when mortgage rates go up, the wealthy consumer will continue to shop as before. Luxury goods are said to have high income elasticity of demand: as people become wealthier, they will buy more and more of the luxury good.

According to the IGD the number of over 65-year-olds will grow by 153% in the UK between now and 2050 and will have serious spending power.

Think about it…it’s obvious. The kids have left home and the mortgage is almost paid off. They are simply looking to indulge!

Every ad agency should be bending over backwards to obtain luxury brands to work with.

Posted by Matt.

Dating Site for BRANDS

August 2nd, 2007

Touchdown-Marketing agency has launched BrandMine, a dating website....for brands. A really novel idea, a middleman who finds you the perfect match.

It basically creates 'dates' and 'marriages' between like minded brands with the travel industry one of the leading sectors that is being targeted by non-travel brands at present.

Good news if one of your clients is an airline operator.

Read the full article on Netimperative.

Posted by Matt.

Marketing: Friends now as important as brands

July 24th, 2007

The other day I blogged about how brands need to engage in social networks and understand their audience. Following on from this I came across a recent lifestyle research report, commissioned by MTV, Nickelodeon and MSN, due for release today (July 24). It shows that today's under-20s really just value technology as a means to being more connected with friends. It's about gossip, flirting and the latest music, not about the virtual reality of Second Life, which currently is being criticised in the US press.

What youths do care about is feeling part of a community, building an individual identity and being entertained. If a mobile phone, IM or a page on Facebook or MySpace helps, then great. The dramatic change today is that youths never stop communicating with each other.

What does this mean for brands eager to take a share of the kids' pocket money?

The main lesson is that outsiders (brands) need to get pulled into the conversations that youths are involved in. They cannot interrupt the discussion or force their way in, but provide the youth with reasons to bring them up in their conversations, hence why 'Friends are now as important as brands when it comes to marketing.'

I've noticed a trend of upcoming bands, budding artists with little or no cash operating MySpace/Facebook profiles. A trend which will only grow and be of beneficial use in the long-term.

Matt

Marketers missing a trick with Social Media

July 20th, 2007

A really interesting article on Netimperative titled 'Marketers missing a trick with Social Media.' According to a new report 'The 2007 Social Media for Brands' commissioned by search marketing agency Tamar, 6 out of 10 British consumers would be willing to interact with a brand on social networks if offered the right incentives, discounts and special offers. Key findings were:

• More than three quarters of social networkers actively comment on brands


• Negative comments put off 1 in 2 consumers with travel brands most at risk from user generated comments


• Befriend, don't banner

In summary, understanding how your brand is talked about in the social media network is key to targeting consumers.

To read the full article, please click here

Posted by Matt.