2009 British Television Advertising Awards

saw the BTAAs last night. interesting set of commercials this year.

apparently there wasn't a ton of advertising dollars spent and UK gov spent about 35% of the total so there were tons of PSAs this year. Also a lot of commercials for the BBC and I learned that their tv shows have agencies cut their trailers and plan the campaigns.

Here are my favs from the evening:

Cycle Safety - Whodunnit

it may not be the best PSA ever to come out of England but it's a really simple idea to show how easy it is to miss cyclists on the road

VW Golf - Enjoy the Everyday



VW had a lot of good commercials this year but this was my favorite. The soundtrack from sounds in and around the car is a nice idea but even better is showing how the car as part of your life.

Virgin Atlantic - 25 years



personally my fav as I may have called out here before. it is inspiring, it is funny, it has the product benefits, and it asks for the sale. not much else you could ask for.


and here is the best commercial of the year as voted by the BTAA. The Walker printed the wrong info in their program
Hovis - Go on Lad


It is a strong commercial and it seems to tap into the uncertainty of the last year, but that may be why I didn't think it was the best. we have been reminded so much of the trouble in the economy that I want to be inspired and uplifted by advertising. it's a tough line to balance though because you don't want to appear out of touch with society either.

I will be very curious to see the themes and tones that show up next year

Life Lessons from an Ad Man

In this great TED talk, the Vice Chairman from Ogilvy argues that a perceived change in value can be just as important as an actual change in value

Getting it Right - Orange edition

Nice spot for Orange that complements their campaign to enter the market in Uganda.

It creates an emotional connection that keeps you watching and leads your thinking in a definite direction while letting you finish connecting the dots. A powerful way to increase your brand attitude.

they get paid for this? comcast edition

UPDATE:

missed a couple of anon comments but here is my response...

fairplay anon 1 & 2. once I posted this I noticed the URL on TV as well, but in little bitty tiny type that is next to impossible to see unless you are looking for it. also why would you have a version on the website that is different from your tv spot in that small of a way. seems like a waste of money to create two versions that differ only by the URL being on screen.

---------------------------

we were discussing the new comcast ad campaign in my psychology of advertising class today and noticed a huge miss that I can't believe neither the agency or client noticed.

If you haven't seen the ads yet they put real people in to a habbo-like virtual environment and they speak-sing about the benefits of integrating tv/internet/phone with comcast.

I find them annoying personally and I think they miss the mobility boat but I think they do a number of things well:

• they touch on benefits that you should look for and that comcast provides
• they show a variety people with different needs benefiting from the product
  
• they make it seem like it is easy to get these benefits

However if you watch the end of the commercial you may notice something missing (have you noticed it?)

what's missing is may not be obvious unless you realize that this is a fully integrated campaign with a dedicated website, but the URL is never shown.

also the commercials have the tagline dream big but that has nothing to do with the website name.  If you search the googles for "dream big" a paid ad shows up on the right, bit the comcast town website doesn't even make the front page.

I know I am still in school for this stuff, but this just seems like junior league mistakes here for such a big client and campaign.

paying to watch commercials or the 2008 BTAAs

Went to the 2008 British Television Advertising Awards Friday night at the Walker.

As usual they were entertaining. Lots of laughs and many of the PSAs were just devastating and powerful.


It is interesting to me to watch these ads with slightly more critical eye than I have in the past due to being immersed in school work. I feel like I experience them in an entirely different way.

Since we were there the first night we were treated to an introduction by Peter Biggs and he talked about changing media and how we are now getting our content in so many ways that weren't available just a few years ago--cell phones, online, video billboards etc. With this in mind, they have started to include ads that are not specifically television ads which included online ads of course but also an intriguing ad campaign from digital billboards as well.

I did think it would be fun to share what I thought were the best and the worst of the BTAA winners and so without further ado I present my top five favorite ads. I chose these because I think they are creative as well as communicating a strong message about the brand:

Glennfiddich "Every Year Counts"



Florence & Fred for Tesco "Revenge"



VW Genuine Spare Parts "Cuckoo"



Volkswagen Golf "Night Drive"



Big Yellow Storage "Tide"




Now on to those ads that didn't do it in my opinion. Most of these are visually/creatively stunning but the message and brand seems to be an after thought:

Audi A5 "Lines"



VW Golf "The Great Pretender"



Heineken "Jamaica"



Sony Walkman "Music Pieces"



Skoda Fabia "Cake"



And finally I know most of you might not agree with me, but this year's winning advert, while I enjoy it immensely, doesn't have any connection to the brand at all. I dare anyone to make a connection. IMHO this was only made to go viral, but how many people remember what this is advertising?

Cadbury Dairy Milk "Gorilla"