Apparently there are women who work in the garden and want to look sexy while doing so. To us that sounds very odd – if not incredible. But hey, we never work in the garden. For KIXX – a company that makes working gloves – it is a very important target group. And if there are women out there that want pink working gloves to “impress” the shit out of the neighbours, KIXX is bound to find them with this appealing ad. It was created by Rademakkers and photographed by Gerrit Schreurs.
Holland won 18 Epica awards – four times gold – last week in Belgrade. It ended fifth after Germany, France, Sweden and the UK. Our favourite gold went to Kit Kat Jesus. Kit Kat pretended as if Jesus had been spotted in a Kit Kat bar and this news spread as quick as only internet can spread news. We didn’t just like it because we are atheists (or at least agnostic), but more so because we love simple (but great) ideas that generate tons of free publicity. We found it a little odd that this was in the category ‘technique’, but apparently their was no better category available – the category ‘big idea’ would have been more to the point. It was done by UbachsWisbrun/JWT. Heineken’s Walk-in fridge also won gold in ‘film’ – it was submitted by TBWA’s production company CZAR. 180 won gold for Adidas with ‘Every team needs the spark’. And Grey won gold in print for Pink Ribbon.
Source: Adformatie
We are all pretty similar when it comes down to buying an insurance, that’s why this new insurance brand Izio – founded by Delta Lloyd – keeps it simple. On its website it just asks whether you are single, have a partner, a family, etc. And you can choose a bundle accordingly. The different t-shirts show the phrase ‘Long live Average Joe’. Today this is quite an original campaign line in insurance country. Most insurers teach us that we are all individuals. This sounds tempting, but makes choosing a lot harder. Izio wants to keep it simple; ‘click and ready’ is what the tagline tells us. Sounds good. The only thing that struck us, is that we initially thought this commercial was about health care insurances. Through the website we had to find out it’s about liability/travel insurances, etc. Anyway, a sympathetic and distinctive ad, made by Dawn.
Stockholm/New York/Amsterdam based agency Perfect Fools created a whole new, unexpected and daring campaign for McDonald’s in the Nordic countries. The most striking thing about it, is that the campaign doesn’t revolve around bad burgers and salty fries, but around 60 minutes of “satire”. The story, written and directed by Jens Jonsson, was created together with TV production company Happy Fiction and is told over seven episodes on the website Dreaming In Mono. It is also broadcasted on four Nordic TV networks. The story is about a rivalry between two ski legends of which one wants to break a ski record on a monoski – this topic proofs how McDonald’s always thinks global but acts local. The first episode definitely made us curious to see more. Since the only link to McDonald’s is that the fictional characters buy their food there, we can easily imagine that this campaign will change the McDonald’s brand into a more exclusive brand – or at least less mainstream. And if McDonald’s would simultaneously upgrade its food, we can even imagine ourselves eating there! All in all, a beautiful example of branded content.
Smart idea by CCCP. They’re building the world’s largest website for Natuurmonumenten (‘nature monuments’). It is called ‘make a meter’. Natuurmonumenten is an organization that privately buys pieces of land in the Netherlands to let nature (more or less) take its own course and prevent it from being built on. A very sympathetic organization. As a ‘consumer’ you can claim an online square meter (scale 1 on 1) of land on the site, by choosing one out of six different kinds of (typical Dutch) nature and leaving your personal details. CCCP calls it ‘user generated nature’. Since the sounds are as tranquil as the displayed nature, it is quite nice to wonder around and snap out your hectic life for a minute.
We’ve been writing quite a lot about Vodafone in the past months. Mainly because the mobile company seems to be in some sort of identity crises. Every time we see a Vodafone advertisement it communicates in a different way, with a different style and seems to be targeted at a different group of consumers. It started with the mutated guinea pigs, then they were giving away phones and other stuff, then you had to search for them (off and online) and the previous promotion asked us: ‘Who wants to be a prepaid millionaire?’. This time it’s not about your knowledge, but about your luck. That is, if we go by the campaign proposition: ‘Lucky Calls’. The concept is simple: you just call your favourite phone and ‘Anouk’ picks it up by moving through the screen in different ways. When you can answer a really simple question, you might win the phone. Not until you’ve submitted your personal data though – so Vodafone can add you to their database. Fortunately digital agency Super Heroes tried to make it all as digestible as possible.
Wow! It doesn’t get much juicier in advertising! It all started when Dutch bank ING felt they were in need of a new agency. In the past years there had always been a lot of criticism on ING’s advertising, created by Leukwerkt Worldwide (Funnyworks), but ING kept defending it as being effective. We have to admit, Leukwerkt’s merger campaign that integrated Postbank’s and ING’s corporate identities was quite successful. But still, a ‘funny’ image is not appropriate in a time when most consumers heavily mistrust banks for their greedy nature. In any case, a few months ago ING organized a pitch and invited four agencies; Selmore, UbachsWisbrun/JWT, Doom & Dickson and Leukwerkt. At the same time TBWA\Neboko was working for ABN AMRO – the other big Dutch bank. And things were looking good for TBWA, they were in the middle of developing their new campaign. In the ING pitch Doom & Dickson and Leukwerkt both retreated prematurely – the latter, because it was still proud of its work and didn’t want to change it. So now only two agencies were left, Selmore and JWT. But last Monday something very curious happened, ABN announced ending its relation with TBWA and continuing with Selmore! Which means both ABN and Selmore were already talking with eachother, while being involved with another partner! This also makes JWT automatically the ING pitch winner and leaves TBWA empty handed. Unless, of course, TBWA will join the ING pitch after all. To be continued…
Update (22 Jan): Yesterday in Adformatie: TBWA’s Simon Neefjes says that ING invited TBWA in December to the pitch, but decided to stay loyal to ABN – after having shared the invitation with ABN and after a satisfactory answer on how ABN saw the future collaberation between TBWA and ABN. Also, last week TBWA presented creative work to ABN that was strongly appreciated. He confirms that it must be someone on the board that decided to break with TBWA.
Update (28 Jan): Today on Adformatie: TBWA wants to discuss terms of termination with ABN. According to the contract, ABN was legally not entitled to pull out instantly without paying any compensation. At least 15 people were working on the ABN account at TBWA.
Update (9 Feb): UbachsWisbrun/JWT officially wins ING pitch – while being the only participant left .
How Philips confirmed my preconception about LED and shed a whole new light on its tagline
In 2004 Philips launched the tagline ‘Sense and Simplicity’. I clearly remember that I liked this small phrase straight away – though it wasn’t hard to improve the previous one: ‘Let’s make things better’. Sense and simplicity communicated exactly what I wanted to see in consumer electronics; made by intelligent engineers and translated into a simple product that I can intuitively use. Just like the iPhone; loved for its sense and simplicity. But last weekend I saw a Philips ad that gave sense and simplicity a whole new meaning. (more…)
Wow, you must be pretty desperate to show an ad like this. We like it, cause it makes us philosophical. How effective is this? Would the potential advertiser think; ‘I was planning not to do outdoor anymore, but just because I have to look at this unattractive body every day in traffic, I am going to rent it for the rest of the year – just to make sure it won’t come back. And what if the decision maker is a woman? That depends on what she’s used to, of course. Maybe she’ll ask Interbest to put the text somewhere else, just so she can imagine it’s a Calvin Klein ad. Ummm. No, that’s not very realistic either. The most likely scenario is that the passer-by will simply chuckle, unconsciously thank Interbest for the free entertainment, simultaneously feel sorry for them and maybe even decide there and then to allocate a bigger part of the advertising budget to online… Anyway, it was made by Y&R Not just film – as you can see apart from film the agency also does outdoor.
This guerilla ad by Indie at Amsterdam airport Schiphol is created for the Belastingdienst (national tax collector). Rare species (or parts of them), like an elephants tusk, Ocelot fur, a Ridley turtle and Barrier Reef coral, are being displayed on the baggage belt as if they are souvenirs imported by tourists. All the packages carry the message ‘Something to declare’? It makes you wonder how many innocent tourists actually bring in these kind of goods. If this number is substantial, it will certainly raise the declaration awareness – if not, at least WFF will love them for it! Indie already did this for the Belastingdienst a few years ago. Back then fake lizard and crocodile tales were protruding from suitcases. Unfortunately this will be the very last ad Indie has made for the Belastindienst, since UbachWisbrun/JWT won this client in a pitch last year. Whatever the reason for changing agency, Indie did a great job in transforming the Belastingdienst in a unapproachable fortress to a sympathetic, human organization. And that is a big accomplishment!
