Caught on Camera

There are some strange goings on in the Barnes Catmur & Friends offices... So much so that there has been CCTV installed.

and wouldn't you know it, we caught something strange straightaway:

Do you know what's happening in your offices when you're not there?

I'll return you to your normal programming next post.

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.

Bring the AdShow back

Last night I went to the recording of the final episode of The AdShow Season One. As with all the shows, it was a goodie with interesting guests and lots of laughs.

During the pre-drinks I got to talking with some of the peeps and it would seem as though Season Two has not yet been confirmed. I'm not going to lie, this surprised me. Season One was extended due to it's success. Now - for those of you who roll in the media world - as TVNZ7 is not monitored by Nielsens (the company which reports ratings for TV shows) as there is no advertising on TVNZ7. This means the success of the show is based on the number of online streams on tvnz.co.nz. From what I understand, The AdShow had more streams than any other TVNZ7 show. Good freaking work.

I can understand why this show has done so well. The advertising industry is full of people who know how awesome they are. They have to know how awesome they are, it's part of the job description. The thing that's annoying is that not everyone knows how awesome we are. Sure, there are awards shows where we get to pat ourselves on the back, but hows about some proper recognition? Some adoration from the general population?

Now I've gotta say, I wasn't a fan of seeing myself on television, but it was awful kind of them to invite me on. More than anything, I love trooping along on a Wednesday, watching the magic happen live and meeting the rest of the live audience.

Hazel and Simon do an awesome job and I would love to see the show come back for round 2.

If you agree with me, PLEASE join The AdShow Season Two group on Facebook and invite others who you think want to see more AdShow too. Let's show some solidarity and see more of, well, ourselves!

Who doesn't want to see more of this:

Hot.

No such thing as an original idea?

In the last 2 days 2 promotional ideas have been brought to my attention and BOTH of them have been done before. This leads me to ask the question:

Is there no such thing as an original idea anymore?

Example one. TVNZ promotion of Vampire Diaries:

These 2 images are c/- @peteinak & @dylanp these 'blood' coolers were in Starcom and I'm guessing Vodafone (Hmm - what a surprise, TVNZ going directly to a client!)

So, these are a blatant ripoff of True Blood:

Thanks to @harfish for this image.

What gets me about this TVNZ promotion is that the water cooler idea works for True Blood - there is a blood product in the series which the Vampires drink. Doesn't have quite the same synergy with Vampire Diaries.

Couple this with the (in my opinion) inappropriate online advertising, I think this has all been a bit of a flop.

Example two. Good Health Magazine promotion:

Blatant rip off of... VW Piano Stairs

So, is there such a thing as an original idea anymore? Or, considering the Old Spice ads, should we all just pack up and go home - cos there's no beating that.

Swan Dive!

Agadir - 2010

I'm quite a fan of this ad.

Made by a Cake for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society comes this as to push keeping the International Whaling Commission ban in place.

The initial black and white, the very appropriate track by The Horrors with the final colour reveal works for me.

I am anti-whaling, so I can't say that it changed my mindset, but it did remind me about what is going on in the world and how a collective of representatives from all nations are making a decision on the lives of some of the most amazing creatures on earth.

Billboard Practice

I've talked about how much I like billboards before. I think they're great. Visually they are very high impact, they get a lot of notice.

Being new to Auckland I'm not so boned up on Auckland politics. I know John Banks and thats about it, so when the billboard I walk past every day on Pitt St had a skin for Len Brown I found it quite interesting.

Advertising and Politics - good times.

The problem with billboards is that they are easy targets. Case in point - when I walked past Len Brown's billboard today.

Bullseye.

So this, unfortunately does not work in Mr. Browns favour. He is now paying to tell all passing pedestrians and commuters is that he has people out there who are so opposed to his running for Mayor that they would go to this kind of effort to deface his billboard.

Now, could just be random vandalism, but nonetheless, still tells a tale.

Bad Taste Thursday - Vampire Diaries

So, much to my (male) flatmate's dispair, Go Girls finished last week, which means this week, we have Vampire Diaries. From what I can tell, it's kinda Twilight for TV.

Now, if I were in charge of programming at TVNZ, I would have thought this programme would have sit very nicely on a Friday, but what do I know?

That's not the point of this however. I was doing my daily trawl of the main publishers to see who is doing what, and I gotta admit, I got to Yahoo and was a bit taken aback.

So I totally understand trying to promote a new programme, however I feel as though there was not a huge amount of thought put into situational placement and creative.

Why? Well, you see, the first thing I saw when the page opened was the image of the woman with the headline "Police Fear The Worst" and then all of a sudden these freaking crows come across the page.

Same thing when I hit MSN. None of the stories are quite as obvious behind the expandable banner, but its still crows flying across my screen.

All banners leading to this:

Something just doesn't sit well with me that on 2 publishers homepages, publishers which report news stories, someone would think that crows (which in this show I believe represents death or at least the vampires) wouldn't be the most appropriate choice of visual representation when you consider the possible stories and headlines.

Just feels inappropriate. Now, if this was over the Entertainment sections on either of the sites rather than the homepage, that I could understand; In fact I think it would be very appropriately targeted at the demographic whom they are trying to reach. Totally on board with that idea (and surely it would be cheaper too - don't TVNZ have to save like $20mill or something? Isn't that why they're taking away 10% of agency commission?).

Then I got a heads up from my TVNZ rep this afternoon pointing me to their TV schedule page to check out this banner:

Also promoting The Vampire Diaries. Why is this banner roses while the other is crows? The roses could have worked just as well on YX or MSN. Just doesn't make sense to me.

Now - as an interesting aside (I am writing this while checking out the first ep) - Impulsive you clever kids, perfect synergy for sponsorship and great ad (to be fair - not my cup of tea, but I think I'm quite a way outside their target audience) all while driving to a nice little facebook community. Bonus points to you.

Just lost bonus points. It's been 20 mins and I've seen the ad 3 times. Already bored of it. What's up with that? Trying to boost your frequency?