Upstairs for thinking

Idea = great. Creative execution = not convinced.

As the earthquake last night was unfolding on Twitter, I was watching bad TV = TV2 ‘Fringe’ and ‘Chuck’. I did (vaguely) pick up on Bond + Bond’s ‘Wicked Wednesday’ night sponsorship. The creative wasn’t fantastic; I think that is what made me glaze over whole thing. It was, well, very Bond + Bond-esque. I am going to take a punt and say that sponsorship probably cost a pretty penny, so it seems a shame that the creative let it down.

What they have done well however, is part of the sponsorship they have secured a Thursday homepage takeover on tvnz.co.nz with their banner referring to their ‘Wicked Wednesday’ lineup on TV2 “last night”. Smart. People who have missed the programmes last night are likely to jump on and catch up – it does amaze me that people are watching more tv than ever before AND jumping online and streaming other episodes as well. Even though their sponsorship was of Wednesday night on television, they are smart enough to know that tv is not the only place their audience are viewing programming.

What would have absolutely completed this would have been if they owned the intro ads for all episodes of Fringe & Chuck on tvnz.co.nz/video. (note: I say intro ads only – not every ad gap!) What would also help would be if tvnz.co.nz loaded the episodes quickly – at the moment (Thursday morning) neither episode is up, so it is possible that they are going to do this from last night’s episodes.

Again, I think the unfortunate part of this element of the campaign is the creative. When I saw that tvnz had a homepage takeover this morning, I thought (looking at the background and not the banner) that it was HP that had done the takeover – those ‘+’ signs threw me.

Keep the media team, shake the creatives. (In saying that – I am well aware it is more than likely that it is not the creative team’s fault, potentially the client.)