Robert's PlayGround

Branding by disappointment

With the European Championship Soccer 2008 going on, we are being confronted day in, day out with  brands trying to benefit from the excitement around the event. The theme is either the heroism of the players, the excitement of the fans or flat out sales promotion. And where the first theme can lead to great advertising and goose bums, the promotional route often leads to tear jerking bad communications. One of my personal favorite topical ads made exceptional use of the event. A couple of years ago Amstel Beer ran the  well appreciated  "three friends" campaign. And for the occassion of a big international soccer tournament Willem van Hanegem joined the three friends in the Amstel ads. The most brilliant commercial - at least, that's my opinion - was the one broadcast directly after the lost match that sent the Dutch team home. It opened on the outside of a common family home and the only thing the viewer saw was a TV set being kicked through and out of the window on the first floor. Twenty seconds later the three friends and Willem van Hanegem leave the front door. When we see them from the back Willem is showing a very clear limp when he walks away. Even the negative emotion of a lost tournament can be used to bond brands and people. I think it was as strong as it was unexpected. Most brands pull out when the positive excitement is gone. Amstel proved that with sponsoring and advertising you can even build on negative emotion. Unfortunately I couldn't find a copy of the commercial. If you have one or know where it can be found, let me know.

One song is worth 1,000 words

Apart from the fact that the enchanting sound of this commercial commands my attention every single time I hear it, it makes me wonder. Would this commercial be as strong with different music?

1.2 million people can't be wrong

Last week no less than 1.2 million Dutch people have been watching the broadcast of the 2006 Gouden Loeki, the Dutch audience award for TV advertising. I'm not much of a fan of statistics and figures for the sake of figures, but 1.2 million is an awfull lot on a total population of let's say 10 million adults. These people were watching commercials for over an hour... They did not go and get coffee. They did not leave for taking a leak. They did not zap away. They deliberately tuned in to a programme that was all about and celebrating TV commercials. Is advertising really dead? I don't think so. Yes, crap advertising lies six feet under and old school advertising is its neighbour. But well crafted great ads can still steal the hearts of the audience. (No, the length of my nose remains unchanged...)

Hurray: we'll finally get to know how expensive crap advertising is!

STER, the advertising sales organisation of the Dutch public radio and TV has just introduced a new service: Admeasure. Admeasure is pretesting. In some reinvented form probably, but that doesn't get very clear from what I read about it. It doesn't appear quite new to me. Yet, I was struck by one feature provided by Admeasure: it can forecast the amount of grp's needed to realize your advertising objectives! In their words: :"Given the quality of your <radio/TV> commercial, Admeasure provides a connection between the deployed amount of GRP's and the advertising effect. From now on you know what media investment will deliver the required result." Very interesting. Let's just assume (dangerous ;-) that the better ideas and their execution are recognized by this pretesting system. Then it means that we can get some more solid proof behind the opinion that whilst repetition is the power in advertising, it is way cheaper to stand-out with something that is different and original. I just wonder how often this new research tool will be used to separate great ideas and beautifully crafted advertising from all the crap that is forced to work with mega budgets...