Shake it up baby now

So I have been MIA a bit recently. There are 2 reasons for this:

1. I like Auckland, I like the nightlife. I also like to boogie. Haven't been home much to actually write anything for a while.

2. Nothing has really deserved writing about recently.

Considering the above, I am now going to do a bit of a round up of everything that doesn't deserve a post all to itself.

Mini.

Initially, I liked the Mini Soho campaign. Now, I was basing this solely on the giant billboard and I will stick to that, I LOVED the massive billboard. Unfortunately I think that the rest of their campaign they tried to be too clever and it just didn't gel for me.

For a start, I saw very few of the actual ads (I know that a 3D cinema ad is cool kids - but if the only movie you can play it in is Shrek, is it really worth it?) and I am totally going to admit it, the online ad which you had to enter you IQ, wouldn't let me in. Not because I necessarily have a low IQ (I probably do), but because I do not know (or care) what my IQ is enough to find out, let alone what may be high or low. Hows about we make it relevant?

If you want to read all about what they did do for this campaign, read last months AdMedia. I think.

Then, once the Soho campaign was over we get this:

Yawn. Is anyone else bored? I'm pretty bored. Mini bores me. Sorry. The one with the dog is worse.

Also, balloons for the Ponsonby Street Fair... whatever? Ugh. Why don't you try harder?

Orcon.

Then there was the Orcon banners which everyone talked about. You can read about them here.Honestly - the cover that these damn banners got, I don't understand. So it's a multi-video banner which was shot specifically for the banner. Cool. I mean, it's novel, but I don't think its the be all and end all to save online advertising.

TVNZ

There was a rant here about TVNZ which I think may be better not to share. Let's just go with I think TVNZ are jumping the shark.

OK - there is a lot of negativity in there - sorry kids. I just think that there is a lot of uninspiring work out there at the moment. Nothing has made me step back and go WOW for ages (except of course the amazing work my agency does, but this blog is not about self importance. Much).

It is a shame.

iPad

To end on a positive note however - I had my first play on an iPad the other day and the Herald app. Freaking aye - now that is cool. Really impressed with what the crew at APN have put together for that, and I think there is a really nice balance of advertising in there too. Not too often, but often enough.

The Yellow Page ad - that WAS uber impressive. Very cool ad. You kinda have to see it to understand (if someone wants to screen shot it for me and email it though, please do and I will upload the pics).

EDIT: Ask and you shall receive - the lovely Donna from APN Digital just sent through screen shots for me.

She's all very happy:

But turn the iPad sideways and... Opps!

I think it's great.

But if you have read my blog before, you will know where this is going.

I would like Yellow's advertising better if they would FIX THEIR FREAKING PRODUCT.

I will admit, it is slightly better than it was 6 or so months back, but if I search for Save Mart I still get a butcher.

That is all. Hopefully something amazing comes creeping out of the woodwork and I can write about how inspired I am again.

Note - I wrote this post a month ago in late August and there hasn't been much happening in the meantime, so you guys get an old post. Stink. Sorry about that.

Atrium Billboard

It's so big!

Back in May I wrote about the massive Mini billboard which someone at FCB told me that they had sorted out the site with Atrium.

So at the start of the month the Mini billboard came down and up went an Atrium billboard. (Yes, I'm running a little behind... been busy since I moved up.)

So, I am super glad that the site is being used, and that Atrium are making the most of it, but I think someone should have taught them one of the golden rules of outdoor advertising.

1 simple clear message. Just the one.

While I understand that it is a massive skin, the amount of time someone has to take in the message is very short. I imagine that the cost of the skin was lovingly distributed between all of the store represented here, but I couldn't tell you what any of them are.

So, I'm not huge on the creative, but I love the site. It's so big and impressive.

More on the Mini Billboard

So, in typical Monica fashion I saw something, thought it was cool, took a photo and posted. Did I do ANY research? No. Don't be silly.

So, talking with my Media Director about the billboard she pointed out that there is a whole campaign behind the Mini Soho billboard detailed on StopPress which you can read about here.

As a bit of an overview however, the gist of it is that this is a varied campaign to stir up some interest in the Mini Soho. There are only 15 Mini Soho's in the world, each individually numbered. What makes this even more interesting is that you can't test drive or buy one of these Mini's in a store, test drives are organised through an 0800 number and you can only buy these cars online. <-- If you click on that link then you can check out the website which is quite nice also.

I understand the idea of exclusivity that they are trying to build around these cars, but the expense of the media around it: the spectacular billboard, a window display at fashion boutique Black Box (which apparently also includes some promotion in conjunction with The Herald VIVA), bar coasters, urban digital projection and a 'daredevil' stunt; seems quite high considering the total potential earning from the actual cars. $49,595 x 15 = $743,925. I would take a punt and say they are spending maybe 10% of that on advertising. Curious.

At any rate, one of the parts of the campaign includes a pop up store in Ponsonby. I was a little confused as to what was going on when I walked past this last Wednesday and took photos of it. Of course, I didn't put 2 and 2 together when I saw the #1 billboard as I had had a few beers that night and forgot about the pics till I heard about the store.

It is possible that it is now complete and looks better, sorry about the dark shots, but it was late:

Pop-up store. Watch this space, I might go back and take some more pics depending on how good it looks completed.

Back on the billboard just quickly. They have tidied the bottom of it:

Much better.

And one of the gang at FCB found me on Twitter today to thank me for the interest in their billboard. That was nice of them. From what they told me they "worked with an outdoor company to secure this as a temporary site but it is owned by Atrium" (I guess hence no ownership tag - pity, if i were the outdoor company I would be pretty vocal about making this placement happen). They also mentioned that "this campaign isn't about sticking to outdoor timetables and old sites!"

Hate to say it, that last comment is a little too 'entering an award/one of the many reasons advertising has a bad name' language for my liking, but hey - good on them! At any rate, thanks to @jaredisle for the info.

Super site size me

So, was walking home tonight when, holy guacamole - check out this supersite!

This is walking down Elliot Street away from Victoria Street. This thing is massive. I haven't seen a skin up there before, nor have I noticed the billboard boarder, but crickey, I noticed the Mini.

I really like billboards, they are one of my favourite mediums because for them to be well executed the creative team have to communicate a message in the simplest way possible. Now, that might sound easy, but it really isn't. All other mediums have time on their side, for example

TV: 30 seconds (typically)

Radio: 30 seconds (typically)

Online: as long as the page duration lasts

Print: as long as the dwell time lasts

even Adshels, whilst similar to billboards because people drive past them, because they also have the pedestrian dwell time they can include additional information which is not intended for a fast moving audience.

Billboards however, because people are typically driving past them, need to convey the message in an instant (mostly because you don't want someone to be so distracted with trying to understand what the billboard is for that they crash). Compelling imagery coupled with a well thought out and clever (because you want people to remember it) headline. No room for excess copy to explain.

At any rate, the Mini billboard is cool for a couple of reasons.

1. It's MASSIVE

2. That great big 1 is all sparkly like

What I don't quite get about this billboard is when it was put up. It must have gone up this weekend (22nd/23rd) as it was not there when I walked home on Friday. This doesn't make much sense to me as posting for billboards is typically the 1st of the month and they are up for that month. 3 weeks into the month it is put up? This is confirmed by the print date at the bottom of the skin:

Must have had to be turned around super quick and taken as an opportunity? Perhaps somehow convinced Atrium to let them put this up on the side of their building. It wasn't put up super tidy with the job name in pretty clear view, which would suggest to me that this isn't a typical placement for the installers to work with, but I may be wrong.

Anyone who can shed some more light as to the interesting placement and odd timing - I'd appreciate it.