Tag: adverts

REKALL

Creative print advertising on the tube shocker. 2012 edition.

Rekall

While the above ad isn’t as inventive (or as contextually aware) as the awesome Limitless Clear Pill ads from early last year, the above ad for the new Total Recall film (yes, another re-make) the similarities between the two still shine through – and I like it.

Let’s start with the basics: the above ad is not for Total Recall. No no. It is for the entirely fictional company [from the film] ‘Rekall‘.

Using real world reference points for what is a very futuristic film is a touch of genius, I love it. There are two main variants on the ad, one puts you as a football star and the other gifts you women and a yacht.

Rekall

“Tell us your fantasy,” the ad says “We’ll make it real*”
– the asterisk is used to perfection

Rekall Tube Ads

Why else does this work?

1. Title [or lack thereof]
If you slap ‘Total Recall’ on anything the first question that’d pop into anyone’s head is ‘Where’s Arnie?’. The original film is such an iconic sci-fi of its generation; it’s cheesy as hell and some of its Paul-Verhoeven-directed moments are stalwarts of early 90s pop-culture. Getting over that is not easy. So just ignore it! If we don’t mention the original, we won’t get the Schwarzenegger mind pop! Win!

 2. They make it REAL
As I mentioned, it uses real world fantasies to bring the message home and to pique commuters’ interest. I love the idea of fictional companies advertising fictional products from the films that they feature in and communicating this in the way – making it real, if you will – works perfectly.

How could it be better?

First and foremost the ad doesn’t work as hard as the Limitless efforts from March 2011. The two call to actions (one web, one Twitter) are semi-usable in our new kind-of-online London Underground BUT I don’t think its strong enough to warrant an online only response. There’s no recognition that you’re without mobile signal, and for that REKALL lose points.

Overall though, it’s a good effort and hey, I’m blogging about it!

Grade: B+
Better than most, but still room for improvement.

 

Notes:

  • The website is actually ace (up until you realise the Facebook bits don’t work).
  • Apologies for the blurry photos; it’s really hard to take photos on the tube without looking like a complete weirdo.
  • Finally, it turns out the new film isn’t actually that good either.  Damn.

Parallels

I found this yesterday via one of my favourite blogs, Brandflakes for Breakfast.

It’s a great ad. Not because of the product it’s selling, or because of the star that features (although I doubt anyone else could pull it off quite like Dafoe) but ultimately, it’s a wonderful story – extremely well told.

Admittedly it’s arguable what the video is actually selling; it’s obviously Jim Beam, but it could quite easily be Greyhound too – especially given the language structure around choices and decisions etc.

Either way, it’s a stellar piece of film-making.
Good job.

The web is watching you (well, me)

The web, it seems, is getting smarter.

If you’ve been traversing the interwebs in the same manner as I have these past few months then you may remember these smart little ads from Google, informing us that ad space will work harder.

They’re not wrong. It is.

A few weeks ago I had to travel up to Grantham to speak to one of our clients, MARS, about how to build social into one of their newest (and most exciting) ventures. To get there, it’s a short tube ride from our global headquarters in Piccadilly, up to Kings Cross, from there a train ride to Grantham, whereupon a 30min cab ride awaits to cart you to the the MARS PetCare HQ in Waltham.

Obviously, when making any public transport-based travel plans, militant scheduling is required. TheTrainline.com is useful in this instance as it covers every overground train schedule in the country. Note; all I did was check the times of the trains. My browser knows this, Google knows this and so therefore, the ad that Channel 4’s adspace chooses to serve me when I want to read about the British Comedy Awards knows also.

Contextual web-based advertising. It’s a wonderful thing. The mind races through a thousand thought processes;

Wow, that’s awesome. I should screengrab that for the blog. Contextual advertising, nice. Wait a minute, are they allowed to do that? Hmm, maybe I said they could do that when I ticked some random box.. maybe, just through visiting their site, I’ve already agreed to let them follow me around the web.. is this cookie based? It must be.. What other data am I pushing out daily?

What other data am I pushing out daily?

What other data am I pushing out daily?

And how can it be used?

This last thought in particular is one we’re going to be coming back to over the next few months here at 1000heads. Over the past year or so we’ve been doing a lot of work on conversation metrics, purchase journey mapping and ultimately, the real value that word of mouth can bring to any business, globally.

Combined, these three content streams can provide some very real data about how consumers like you and I go about our daily decision making processes; in the first instance it really is quite scary… but in the second, once all the data is locked down and independently verified – for brands at least – it can be very, very useful indeed.

As Google might say – ‘WATCH THIS SPACE’ for more on this… in the meantime, tickets to Grantham are only £9.

Who knew?

1000heads: First Direct come first, but what about the others?

Recently our Data Systems Manager here at 1000heads, one Mr Andrew Stretton, was extolling the virtues of First Direct. Their first forays into social media have been widely covered by the trade press and – as such – FD have followed up with some facts and figures.

However, it’s these facts and figures that are raising questions with our manager of data systems.

Andrew, the floor is yours

___________________

First Direct captured my attention this week with an innovative ad campaign on London Underground, using the findings of an online market research study as its centrepiece.

“77% of what’s said about us online is positive”

It’s exciting to see companies shouting about their word of mouth. The sample WOM on the advert is also interesting – could we soon see realtime social media feeds on billboards just as Skittles attempted on their website?

On the other hand, the wording of the ad and the methodology used raises a few questions.

First Direct claim that 77% of what’s said about them “online” is positive, based upon a sample of opinions posted in a controlled environment on a brand presence. It would be interesting to know what the results would be if all banks gave their users the same opportunity and what the exact effects of the incentives involved were.

As Data Systems Manager here at 1000heads I’m tasked with bringing our clients a representative sample of spontaneous conversation from the widest variety of online sources possible. Benchmarked, contextual data from realtime, unprompted conversation could provide more interesting top line stats for an advert, giving people a birdseye view of what they themselves are saying online. For example:

“In online conversation, Brand X is strongly endorsed 20% more often than any other major UK bank”

This is of course is not to say that surveys have no place, it’s just that there is so much more insight out there to play with.

How do you think these different measures of opinion can be reconciled? Do let us know what you think in the comments, or if you would like to know more about our WOMTrak and WOMActive products please drop us a line.

Come on, someone just do it already #1

This might turn into a semi-regular feature.
Hence the number. We’ll see.

On with the post.

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These adverts – from UK-based electronics retailer, Dixons – have been springing up all around London lately. Take a look:

Read all that? Good. Right then.

Is it just me or is there a MASSIVE opportunity here for a competitor to come along and have some fun with this?

Alright the ads are actually quite well done. Providing a playful spin on the words ‘the last place you want to go’ as well as taking a cheeky swipe at some of the more… stuffier… of London’s largest department stores, these billboards do raise a smile.

But still. If I was a keen-eyed ad man I might be tempted, with the right client, of course (someone like ebay maybe?) to go away, knock up some good-sized stickers and then in one night, do one big hit on them all.

Guerrilla style.

You see what I mean? Bam.

So come on, someone just do it already!

And that was going to be it from me but, when I researched the ads some more it turned out that not everyone is a fan of this new campaign.

Nigel Paine writes:

“Then there are the nasty Dixons Ads on the tube at the moment. They tell you to spend your time learning about your product from well-trained (threfore ponsy) shop assistants in well-known stores like Harrods, Peter Jones and John Lewis and then buy at Dixons on line. Why do I not find this amusing?

.

Firstly because of the snobbery, and secondly that Dixon’s shop assistants are the diametric opposite of knowledgable and helpful, and a terrible glimpse at what shopping might become if Dixons had its way. Thirdly the idea of checking out the store first and talking about what you want, and then checking out online vendors to get the best price happens all the time.

.

Better not bite the hand that feeds you!”

He makes a good point.

The value of the online shopping market is growing year on year while that of the high street is steadily declining. And while you have to applaud Dixons for attempting to drive traffic to their online store, I for one can’t help thinking that there is a slight danger of them shooting themselves in the foot:

Time will tell.  After all, similar things have happened before.

Thanks for reading.