Sky Movies Advert,

I remember reading earlier this summer on someone's blog (I forget who) that the city of Sao Paulo in Brazil was going advertising free. I was really curious about the effect that this would have on the cityscape at the time, but shortly forgot about it and didn't look into it again until I came across this advert by Sky Movies.



I think its a great example of a company making the most of the surrounding area for their own purposes. I wonder how long it was before the advertising guys at sky realized that by filming a series of short clips in the already advertising free city they could use it to create a commercial that fitted in with what they wanted. On the other hand, one thing I did wonder was how the governors of Sao Paulo reacted when their efforts to remove all advertising, was used to create the exact thing they were trying to wipe out.

Orange TV Adverts

I have really mixed feelings about these Orange adverts. There are some things that I admire such as the fact that it has an amateur and slightly theatrical feel. I also like the fact that they have taken this through to the accompanying music so that it all fits in with the concept. On the other hand there is just something that doesn’t seam as dramatic as you would expect. The only thing I can put this down to is fact that, it doesn’t have as much impact as much as Orange’s preceding adverts. I know that this is an unusual standard to judge it from, but I can’t help but do so given the company’s track record. It is in a similar way to the Sony Bravia adverts, since the success of the first the second has so much more to live up to. The same is true here, I have included two of my favourite past Orange adverts bellow. It may just be me who thinks this but whilst the current campaign is good, it is not in the same class as the other two campaigns.

Raise Them on Robinsons

I remember commenting on this TV advert (above) on Holly’s Blog just after it had come out. At the time I thought that it was a very clever way of marketing their drinks to children, but bypassing all the new legislation and laws that have been put in place to prevent this. The “Raise them on Robinsons” line is indicative of a parental audience, as is the website contents and the placement of the press ads. On the other hand if you took out this line and replaced the nutritional information on the website with a game or picture to colour, it would look anything but out of place.



My cynicism aside, I do really like this campaign. It has a fresh feeling to both the graphics and the music surrounding it. At the time when the first TV advert was released, the press ads and website had still to be launched. Now that they have you can see that throughout this has been a well thought out and planned campaign. It defiantly feels like it belongs together as all the components serve to remind you of another. My personal favourite is the No artificial colourings adverts shown bellow. It such a simple way of doing it, yet it makes you smile and draws attention to the point well. Overall I have to say I admire the Robinson’s campaign for finding it’s way round what could otherwise be a very difficult problem. I wonder if we will see more companies being forced approach marketing this way in the future.

Brylcream, Effortless

I have just seen an advert for Brylcreem on TV and surprisingly it has not yet found it’s way onto you tube. It is a clever sequence advert that whilst it shows the product, it doesn’t specifically focus on this. Instead as Honda, Skoda and many others have famously done, it sells an idea; this time the concept is “effortless”. I think this is likely to work well, obviously it is hard to predict the success of any campaign, but given the music, the style and idea, it will go down well with it’s target audience.


The advert can be seen on their website http://www.brylcreem.co.uk. This incidentally is one of the best websites that I have seen for this young but broad target audiences. The style is contrasting to the advert but there are small things like the sketched old style tv and the competitions that they have run to get the public’s take on the concept ‘Effortless’. I really hope that this is a success as it is one of the better pieces of marketing I have seen targeted at the student type age range in the past few years.

Tea Adverts

Since visiting the Tea Appreciation Society website, my mind has been focussed on the good traditional Cuppa. One thing I did think was that like so many other industries, advertising tea must be quite hard as there is not a lot that differentiates one brand from another. Yes there is the factor of brand loyalty and that people generally can tell which they prefer out of makes, but as a whole, advertising one brand of tea so that it stands out significantly against another is not an easy task. Having said that, it wasn’t difficult to remember tv adverts and marketing slogans that I liked, so the agencies out there can’t be doing too bad a job.

Here are some of the adverts that I am sure everyone knows and the lines that go with them. When you think that they all are basically marketing the same product, it’s amazing to see the different roots the campaigns have taken.

Twinings, “Blended to make every day a little better”



Typhoo “ You only get an ‘OO’ with Typhoo”



Tetley Extra Strong “For those who like their Tea with a bit of muscle” / “Everyone’s cup of tea”



PG Tips, “Put the Kettle On”

My Amoy Print Adverts

I found these adverts in a magazine the other day. The main thing that stood out to me was the way they had created and laid out the typography. The text itself, whilst good, doesn’t in my opinion live up to the interesting way that they have created it. It reminds me a bit of our first year type poster project. It makes you realise that even when the strap line or even concept you have sometimes may not be the strongest, you can make even a weak idea look effective. I would like to see how well this idea would translate into a TV advert for example. It would be interesting to see if it is as effective or striking in a moving image.

Skoda Fabia website

I found this when I was looking to see if Skoda had made it’s “Full of Lovely Stuff” advert into more of a campaign. Although the website may not be the most flashy or impressive from a purely technical design point of view, I like the way that they have played on the success of the original concept and constructed the site around that. Because of the buzz that has followed the advert itself, many people wanted to know about if it was really constructed, how long it took, how they did it etc. The website seams to have more information on how they filmed the commercial rather than the technical specification of the car.

It is clear from the way that this advert was targeted that they were aiming for a different type of customer, one that is probably less worried as to its 0 to 60 speed and more wanting “just a car”. I think this is conveyed in the way that the website is laid out. It is not over complicated and has been done in a way that suggests the company is having fun and not taking itself too seriously (which brings it nicely back to the “full of lovely stuff” line).

The other thing that they have done quite cleverly is to make sure every part that you view has at least test drive link. I that Skoda in this case is good example of a company trying to differentiate itself in customer’s minds.

Norwich Union Direct Advert

I am sure the original advert I saw of this on tv was quite a bit longer but I can't seam to find it. (if anyone can track down a copy of the full length version I would be very grateful)

The main thing that I like about this advert is the fact that it doesn't try and imitate the successful if very irritating quote me happy campaign. The concept is quite simple and I really like their execution of it. It may not be a groundbreaking advert but it is definitely one that made me smile and stuck in my mind. I suppose therefore to some extent it has achieved what most advertisers hope to do, and increased awareness of the company.

(i can't seam to embed the video into my post so the link is as follows; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO4tW9iw350)

"Why just a logo is now a no-no" (BBC NEWS)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6765355.stm

I found this article the earlier which I found quite interesting, it basically verifies what we had all thought, that it is now no longer enough to just sponsor an event or put your logo onto something. People have become to used to that and therefore you have to offer something more to interest the very difficult market aware 18-30's audience.


The main focus of the article is on Orange's Sponsorship of the Glastonbury Festival and 02's Sponsorship of Wireless, if you have a spare few minutes I would say its worth reading, although there is not a lot that most people don't already know, it does highlight what two of the biggest competitors are doing to get around this problem.