But it's a bit on the clever side. And funny too, which meant that, in a week where there has been something of a dearth of great advertising work, this seemed like a good thing to share.
The infamous Cassette Boy mashes The Bloody Apprentice and SirAlun gets a bit of a makeover and comes clean about the real purpose of the show ...
Some folks might be aware that I did a spot of judging for the Panasonic "Next Generation Talent" contest last year. And jolly good fun it was too.
Well, it looks like (thanks Mel!) I shall be doing that judging thing again this time around. So it seemed only right and fitting that I popped up their promo film here to make folks aware that the contest is up and running once again.
Sorry ... another busy week in Seventy Seven has left precious little time to be blogging. Still, one account win and a shortlisting for the Children in Need pitch makes it more than a little worthwhile.
Anyhoo ... the lovely folk at the Viral Factory have been at it again with their on-going and apparently pretty successful work to change perceptions of Samsung.
The lord god alone knows what the Korean electronics giant has put into this campaign, but it's doing some really interesting things to my perceptions of them.
First of all, I love the fact that there is no need for consistency in the creative. All of the work looks different. All of it is lovely content in its own way.
It's a brand that has realised that if it is going to play "media owner" or try to get its work aired for free by other media owners then it needs to play by the rules that apply to a producer of content, not the rules that apply to a purchaser of media space.
Samsung are created interesting content.
Second of all, they're doing something quite brave. TVF (who have made this work) are far from cheap (in PR terms, maybe not so in ad terms). They barely get out of bed for less than £20,000 and this kind of stuff feels like nearer £50,000 or more.
That suggests that they are putting £100,000-200,000 a year into the creation of content. Relative to an advertising campaign, that's a small sum of money. Relative to the millions they could be spending on media, it looks good value.
But it also means that they are spending that £100,000+ on a bet that the work will be good, because if it's shit they don't get free space on blogs like this and the Tweets that it will trigger and the email pass-ons that will be created. And that is quite a brave move, if you ask me.
That makes me feel better about them as a brand. I like brave.
And I thought to myself "there's something wrong with this. It doesn't fit quite as it should."
And do you know what? It doesn't.
The spots are supposed to be all about community, about sharing, about people - anyone, anywhere - getting together to do great stuff together. And they seem to extole a mantra of "get together, do amazing things".
BUT ... actually what the second spot in the campaign shows is that, when a bunch of amateurs - REAL people - get together, the result is shite: loads of people singing piss-poor karaoke in a way that makes me want to wretch.
WHEREAS ... when a bunch of professionals - dancers in the case of the flashmob - gets together, the result is utterly watchable: loads of people dancing really smoothly to a cracking mash that makes me smile. A lot.
Now, maybe I am taking the whole thing too literally and am comparing two very different pieces of work (the whole experience and media coverage of the second piece was great and did add hugely to its impact).
But it also says that, when it comes down to it, interesting and creative things CAN come from anywhere. But that they are FAR more likely to come from people who are good at what they do are well curated, than it is to come from a group of rank amateurs pissing about with microphones in a town square.
So where does that leave crowdsourcing, social engagement, the whole "help create a flickr pool", contribute to our Facebook Group movement?
Says to me that this sort of thing needs tight curation and people with real talent.
Otherwise, we will end up with a bunch of campaigns that are interesting and engaging only to the people who take part in them and of sod all interest to anyone else because the content will be crap.
By way of reminder, here's the Trafalgar Square thing (410,000 views) ...
And here's the Liverpool Street bash (11.7 million views) ...
The BBC went bloody nuts for this today - Brekkie, the One and Six, Today, PM, the works. They must be delighted up Lancashire way tonight.
For those who may not have seen the quite brilliant coverage (nice work chaps), the claim is that Blackpool is trying to appeal to the French with an arthouse film pastiche. Really? Honestly?
Like f*&k they are ... But my God it makes a story, doesn't it?
So it was that they managed to roll out a couple of belting case studies - a modern B&B (complete with White Co toiletries, free in-room WiFi and flat screens in every "chambre". Lovely stuff. That and a French geezer who arrived some time ago and has never left. Now HE was a bit on the inspired side.
At that point, the story was made. It's got some cracking pick-up across the onlines, the YouTube film has got a paltry 5,000 views. But it's done the job. Bags of coverage showing British - that's BRITISH - holidaymakers the wonders of Blackpool.
Thought that the AMV work for Doritos was worth a mention.
If only because it made me wonder two things.
How will ad agencies make sure that the world knows about their fabulous work ... and appreciates it ... when they haven't seen it on TV? And how many people seeing or doing something is "good" (appreciating of course that if they are the right people and buy the product, that's what counts)?
Anyhoo, not sure that I have answers to either.
In the meantime, it's well-worth taking a look at the really quite sweet piece of work that the chaps at the parent (AMV) have made to celebrate the launch of Doritos cheesy balls (or somesuch).
They got a bunch of dodgeball teams in to face a series of internet-controlled cannons.
Lord knows whether it's working. Nice idea, though ...
Been meaning to take my hat off to this absolutely stunning piece of work for The Zimbabwean, a newspaper created by exiles of that sorry nation.
As a former resident (back in the good days, when it was one of the great hopes for Soutern Africa), it's been utterly depressing to watch the country slide further and further into disaster - or be dragged there.
So this campaign was particularly resonant as it makes the point that, thanks to Mugabe's regieme, the Zimbabwean dollar might as well be used as wallpaper for all that the notes are now worth. There are a couple of pics above and below and more on their flickr photostream.
There were millions and trillions of dollars used in the campaign - the value of which plummeted as the posters sat there for no more than a couple of weeks.
I'm on hols next week, so Spinning Around will be a bit quieter than usual. I'm also trying to bash out a load of stuff that I've been meaning to post but haven't due to a pitch needing to be hauled together.
This is properly insane ... Oasis' follow up to Cactus Kid (which I absolutely hated) is actually something that I think is, in its own sweet way, absolutely lovely.
The latest Coke spot. Also a bit mad. But bang-on for their whole "Happiness" strategy. Products and brands that celebrate the fact that they just make you feel a bit happier is a good thing after the obesity-debate-imposed austerity.
That said, my favourite piece of Coca Cola advertising of recent times is the grandaddy of the current campaign ... welcome to the Happiness factory ...
An entirely un-fun new game ... spot where Sir Richard crops up in his own ads
On the cleaning truck at around eight seconds in this one, for example ...
Only slight problem is the backlash that the whole thing has attracted ...
This from the BBC website: "The billionaire Virgin boss appears with forearms covered with fake tattoos and blacked-out teeth as he empties bins at Glasgow's Central Station. The RMT rail union said it demonstrated a patronising attitude to staff who had worked hard to make him a fortune."
Now the man who has a made a lifetime of battling common enemies is a bit stuffed .. does he take on his own staff in a fight and try to defend it all, or does he accept that he's been a bit of a twat this time around? I'd go for the latter option, if it were me ... oops
Apologies that this is a bit late again ... it's
been a busy weekend for me. Just so that you know - as ever - the data tables were run on the 1st May ... but it's
taken until now to pull this post together. Sorry about that ...
And secondly ... a small plea. AdAge, in their
infinite wisdom, have made it a bloody sight harder to create these
tables - you now can't pull off the whole table in one go and now have
to do things page-by-page.
SO, while we're really happy that people seem to be
interested in this table, can I just ask that people don't copy and
paste it wholesale into their own blogs, please? Okay, it may not be
terribly social network-ey, but credit where it's due (and, in this
case, a couple of hours credit are due), please link back to this page?
Thanking you kindly in advance ...
For those who may be interested, this chart is based on the AdAge Power 150,
the top UK bloggers on all things advertising and marketing on 1 August
2008. If you feel that you should be included, you can get in touch
with AdAge here, who will sort you out. As soon as you're in, I'll pick you up in this filleting of the AA chart.
Some folks might be aware that the Creative Review Annual is out and about. I had a quick spin through and have pulled out some of what I thought were the sweetest traditional advertising spots in a pretty seriously competitive year of fine work ...
Variously, the bits that floated my boat were these - for Green Thing, BMW and Adidas. Lovely films borne of cute ideas, I thought.
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