Two nice visual ads

Lovely stuff.

(This one is for a gay magazine).

Why visual doesn't always mean good

At first glance these ads by Young & Rubicam (New York) look quite good. After all, they're visual, simple and pretty eye-catching. But after a little thought, I realized they're pretty bad.

1. They tell you nothing about the product and do nothing to suggest why Protex is better than any other hand wash out there.

2. The copy tells you something you pretty much already know, 'The things you touch stay with you'. Sounds like the fear-mongering strap-line of a crap horror movie.

3. It's not very clear what's under/on the fingers, unless you look pretty closely. And no one spends too much time looking closely at ads (apart from people in advertising).

4. There's no element of mystery to the visual - there's no knowledge gap - if I look at the visual I pretty much know it's an ad for a hand wash, so I've got no reason to look what brand of hand wash it is or even read the copy. And because nothing happens in my mind - no moment of realization, or inner smile, no 'getting it' - it means that it doesn't stay in my mind. (If something occurs in the mind, it tends to stay there; you've got a reason to remember it, it's not just a passive act).

Here's a good example of a 'knowledge gap' in action:

Well that's my rant over. Maybe these ads aren't terrible, but they're not great either.

That said, the typeface is quite nice!

I'm planning on going to see some student work at Lincoln Uni in the coming few weeks. The kind Miss Ruby Rosamund (fellow member of the advertising blogosphere) has invited me to the Creative Advertising final year show. Should be a good chance to see some fresh ideas (and weigh up the competition of course).

Get Fresh Kicks

With one week to go before heading back to Watford I've made a few new ads to go in my book.

They're pretty much all visual.

An image, with a logo, and a tag line if needs be. Like the one above!

What's more, I've displayed each set along side a simple Luke Sullivan style 'Brand = Adjective' explanation. It expresses in words, quite literally, the benefit or selling point I've chosen to dramatize. Hopefully this will make my book much easier to present in the two minutes they give you at Watford.

In other news, I recently discovered that the top billing agency outside London is actually based here in Sheffield! Uber Agency have done work for Netto, DFS, Morphy Richards and some Xbox and Wii games. I dropped them a line, asking if they'd look at my book. They said yes, so I sent it over. Any feedback from them would be just greaaat as I've never sent my book out anywhere. Some respectable criticism is just what it needs. I might get in touch with an agency called digforfire too... they were ranked 5th and are also Sheffield based.

Finally, I did my first ever graffiti session today in my back garden on some wood stolen from a skip. It's slightly illegal to do graffiti, so I'll let you know now... I'm certainly not practicing so I can get up early one morning this week and let loose on this old building they're knocking down in town. Certainly not.

Heg out.

Viagra, Watford and Keeping on going

(Above: a lovely simple ad for viagra - visual, logo - nothing to do with the post below!)

Hey lovely followers! How are you? As some of you may have heard, Watford have given me another go at the interview on March 2nd. This is great news. Apparently it isn't uncommon to have two goes. The two Watford students whose blogs I've followed had to try twice before getting on, so I'm not the only one.

As of yesterday I'm on a mission to do a million times better this time round. I now know what is expected of me.

Here's my regime for the next month:

1. Watch Luke Sullivan's lecture on simplicity

I did this yesterday, and every time I watch it I'm inspired to write ads. It's like the bible of ad writing condensed into one sermon.

2. Rewrite my portfolio

This means pretty much replacing every campaign if possible. If I write one ad/campaign per night I should have around 25. I'll take the best 12 and put them in my folio.

3. Learn all the agencies/clients/creative directors

As you may know, I really tried this last time, but only got 4/10 on the test. It's hard recalling so much in only one minute. If I record all the info onto an audio file and listen to it on my MP3 I'll be able to memorise it in my lunch breaks.

Which brings me to my next thing to tell you. I got a job.

Its a boring admin job, but it's what you gotta do in a recession.

This makes it very hard not to come home at 5:30pm and just veg out with a beer till bed time.

It's all about self-discipline.

Wish me luck.

Ikea: Hard At Work and Play

Here I've put together a little collection of super-fantastisch Ikea campaigns.

The first two videos are digital and ambient efforts to push the new catalogue. Above is the fairly well-known 'facebook showroom' idea. Below is the lesser known 'cinema catalogue' idea, where high-powered lights project prices onto film footage while people watch in the cinema.. only two or three tags per film mind, just so it doesn't get too annoying.

Below is the 2009-D&Ad-graphic-design-yellow-pencil-winning 'Bigger Storage' ambient campaign from Ogilvy (Frankfurt). Another beauty!

Next up is a very clever campaign/PR stunt/brand communication of sorts. During the expenses scandal the 'John Lewis List' from which MPs selected their home-ware was replaced with an Ikea one... here's what happened...

Now for a bit of traditional!

First a TV spot that works ever so well - by Publicis (Milan).

And finally we have a lovely couple of print ads. The first (one of a series by DDB) dramatises 'home delivery' just perfectly. The second has already made it into plenty of advertising text books and annuals for its staggering simplicity...

When you have a brand this fun and quirky, it seems you really can go to town.

It must be a joy!

Ad Strategies: Yo mamma's so fat she X

Yo know the type of joke? It goes, "Yo mamma is so fat she X"? Here's a few:

Yo momma's so fat, at a restaurant when they give her the menu she replies " yes Please"

Yo momma's so fat, when she went to the beach Greenpeace tried to drag her back in the water.

Yo momma's so fat, she makes Big Bird look like a rubber duck.

We'll my dear readers, ad land has it's very own version: this product is so X it Y. (Also labelled more simply, by Peter Barry, as the 'exaggeration' strategy).

Here's a few classic examples with the literal (as opposed to lateral) translation underneath:

This knife is so sharp, it cuts through the chopping board too!

This cement dries so quick, you don't even have time to write your name in it!

This marker pen is so permanent, an autograph will stay with you till your old!

Now, as you can no doubt tell, verbalizing the idea behind the visual takes away the magic... if they'd been posters with the same idea in words, they'd have been burnt instantly.

The wit of these ads seems manifest in the 'play' between the product logo and the image itself.

I imagine the writer going on a little journey... coming up with an incredibly short story to dramatize the benefit... eventually arriving at the idea after a long period of time and a lot of lateral scribblings...

The viewer then takes that same journey, but a hell of a lot faster...

Maybe that's what makes you laugh... the G-force in your tummy?!

The result? 'A smile in the mind' as the old book title has it!

Ad Strategies: X looks like Y

Looking through the annals of ad history I've found countless visual ads that make me feel a little bit excited inside. A fair few that make me feel a little sick too - sick with envy.

I have, however, noticed a few trends, the first of which I'll talk about here; X looks like Y.

Here are some classic examples:

These are described by Pete Barry as 'visual puns'. Just like Meerkat sounding like Market, or Mental Floss sounding like Dental Floss (an old Mac ad) they simple tax in on the idea that one element of the product resembles one expression of the benefit. To come up with them, it seems you just have to spend hours looking at the product and it's use, waiting for that nugget - that ad gold. Of course, at the end of the day they're still puns and everyone knows that's a low form of wit. Still, visuals works quicker than copy and somehow (don't ask me about the science of it) seem to give more of a laugh.

The visual pun: but one weapon in the copywriter's arsenal.

Sullivan on Simplicity

I've mentioned him before... it's the author of the fantastic 'Hey Whipple, Squeeze This', Luke Sullivan, giving the definitive lesson in the art of the ad.

Luke Sullivan from Mediastash.tv on Vimeo.