Category Archives: TV advertising

Little Shop of Horrors

Just had an annoying page takeover on Stuff this morning telling me New World’s Little Shop promotion is back. I already knew. As a father of two young girls going two days without visiting the local supermarket is nigh unheard of!

My initial feeling of getting two little packets and a tick sheet from the shop assistant yesterday was “best keep this secret from my girls as long as possible”. The items received are currently sitting unopened on the fridge.

You see, as a parent, it’s bloody annoying! The kids go completely patho on the whole thing and it rapidly turns into a bore for those with the wallets.

I’m not alone here. After mentioning the launch to another parent her response was “Bugger. Just a pain.” And my wife’s response was similar.

When Little Shop initially launched I could absolutely see the genius in the promotion. It felt fresh and really did make my wife and I go to New World over Countdown or Pak n Save so we could help our kids achieve their goal of getting every item.

But it all ended rather quickly and the items disappeared under the couch and gradually wound their way to the bin.

As a promotional tactic it feels clever but as a brand marketing experience is it creating resentment from the people who actually do the shopping?

Eating Meridian Lunch

Jeremy Well’s fronting of Meridian’s latest advertising flight is another example of a celebrity taking a risky punt with their personal brand. When Hanover Finance melted last year I commented on Richard Long’s associated brand credibility falling too. As their front man, he couldn’t escape the connection.

For Meridian, Well’s is obviously bringing his recognised charm and wit to make light of a serious change to the Makara and Maniototo landscapes with the impending “windfarms”.

My issue is what’s it going to do for Wells?

I’m not convinced he’s got it right. The educated followers of his humour are also likely to be the well read folk who’re fully aware of the issues with power generation in NZ.

North and South have recently profiled the Mahinerangi windfarm protest following constructive pressure from the Save Central Otago lobby group. This group are also helped by respected celebrities Grahame Sydney, Brian Turner and former All Black Anton Oliver all propping up their scrum.

Having celebrity endorsement in these sort of debates is critical. It’s their involvement that creates instant human interest.

I’m currently doing a series of speaking engagements with Trade me’s “Revolution Tour” and one of my fellow speakers is TaxRefund.co.nz’s CEO, Geoff Matthews. Geoff’s company has arrived on the scene in a matter of months and its growth has been nothing short of phenomenal.

One point Geoff notes in his presentation is the influence celebrity endorsement added to his brand. Having active endorsement from Matt McCarten (General Secretary Unite Union) and Alasdair Thompson (CEO of Employers and Manufacturing Union) in his TVCs has been a huge call for support from two enormously influential people.

The key is, like the Save Central Otago group’s work, the Union leaders’ support is unpaid endorsement. Jeremy Wells, on the other hand, is being paid to bolster Meridian. That lacks credibility.

Musical cheers

In our office we have commercial radio running when we all forget our iPods. The last three songs have been:

1.“I kissed a girl” – an annoying song now annoyingly connected to ZM’s mash up.
2.”In the air tonight” – a reborn song now intrinsically linked to Cadbury’s random Gorilla TVC.
3.“Baby come on” – a song now inextricably linked to Telecom’s latest TVC (the woman at the end gets too much airtime).

The emotional connection between music and advertising has been a winning formula for years. I just don’t remember having so many connections at one time.

Ad positioning

Part of the fun of parenthood is having plenty of home time and recently I’ve found myself regularly watching Prime’s 7pm sport show ‘The Crowd Goes Wild’.

I quite like the show but what I find really painful is the quality of the ads in their ad breaks. Low budget, owner-narrated ads about garage doors for 3 out of every 10 minutes is just not good TV and it ultimately reflects badly on TCGW and Prime.

The magazine industry is in the same boat. Have a look at any sophisticated fashion or food magazine and you’ll find that the ads can create much of the entertainment. The ads also help establish the magazine’s market and brand position.

So do online ads affect a website’s brand positioning?

In the age of Google’s Content Network and First Rate’s Performance Network it’s possible to get an ambush of text and visual ads from multiple parties on any number on NZ websites. This may be constructive use of empty site inventory but does it affect the user experience? And what about eyeblaster and MediaOne ads that appear over the top of content?

Obviously advertisers want their ads viewed and clicked on and a good online ad will help users when they’re relevant and topical. And most publishers need the ads there to contribute to generating some sort of revenue.

I guess the point is, like with TV and magazines, if online ads appear in an irritating or obnoxious way, the advertiser is not only damaging their brand, but also the brand of the publisher who is hosting the ad too.

Lack of imagination

Yesterday it appears Richie McCaw was released by the NZRU to talk to NZ media about their new All Black video game. (Note for the masses – I’m not a gamer).

How did the NZ TV media respond? Well, TV3 managed to feature three separate interviewers talking to McCaw about his team’s new video game in 3News, Campbell Live and in their late night news.

And we wonder why All Blacks get tired of media.

BTW – watch and wait for Fairfax’s new site Rugby Heaven. Just in time for September.