The Lurpak campaign by Wieden+Kennedy, London is one of my favourite recent advertising campaigns. I like the insight and strategy behind it and how they were translated into marvellous ads (with long copy). The rhythm, images and focus on what good you can make with Lurpak (instead of promising some super-healthy proposition) are a pleasing contrast to the usual screaming of advertising.

Yesterday evening a new series of print and television ads went on air:  ”Saturday is Breakfast Day” (via the W+K London blog). 

Inspire people to make Saturday a breakfast day. The brilliant copy and images are mouthwatering and inspiring. Again, the focus is on something you can make WITH Lurpak instead of some obscure promise what Lurpak does for you. Improve your Saturday, enjoy a wonderful breakfast, add Lurpak. Brilliant.

 I believe this resonates with many people in general (breakfast people like my wife or non-breakfast people like me) and Britain’s situation in particular.

It is hardly a coincidence that this piece appeared in today’s Times. Camilla Cavendish makes observations about the British and food that could very well be in the brief for the Lurpak campaign:

Most of us are confused. [...] We balk at paying for raw ingredients, but readily cough up for extortionate ready meals. We spend hours watching TV chefs but apparently only 13 minutes on average making a meal – down from one hour in 1980.

and the last paragraph, where she recalls Carlo Petrini, founder of Slow Food, drawing the contrast

between Britain’s “pornographic” onslaught of recipes and TV chefs, and the “act of true love” that he believes is making food from traditional, local ingredients. 

Imagine that commercial.

Long time no see, old friend. (have I mentioned that I love Winter solstice?)

Last week this commercial for the Austrian Lotteries went on air. I actually like it. It has a good idea, the main protagonist is perfectly cast and it is amazingly subtle and still funny – for Austrian standards.

Last year’s “Dog” was also a good idea in my eyes. Got Lowe GGK showered in awards, but internationally only shortlisted (i.e. Cannes). 

Yet, despite being brilliant ideas and quite successful, I believe these ads could look a lot better if the agency would be clearer about what they are talking about.

These commercial have a looong history: Along with the tagline “Alles ist möglich” / “Everything is possible” they have been showing the depressing status quo of a person contrasted with the glorious golden future of that person being a lottery winner.

These two commercials have completely left that look-at-that-terrible-job-you-are-in-now-and-the-lottery-will-get-you-out-of-there strategy and tell a much clearer message:

Play the lottery because it will you make so filthy rich that [insert commercial idea here]

I have my doubts that there has been a true strategical decision towards this message. Rather good ideas that were pressed into the old corset. The execution is still stuck in that old tradition of how these spots must be made.

So in “Opera” they spend 15 seconds telling nothing of relevance, because that was the way we have always done it. It makes no sense, does neither help story nor punchline, and it costs extra money each time the ad is aired. And it will go no further than the Cannes shortlist.

Just my two cents.

Google has published Google Zeitgeist 2008 this week. This yearly summary of the year’s most popular searches at Google. So what is interesting here? 

The results for the most popular searches in Austria are odd: youtube, orf, ebay, hotmail, wikipedia, herold… Not just Austria, all over the world people seem to mix up address bar and the search field.

This implies a few things: first, this seems to be a basic design flaw in internet browsers. Of course, the address bar is commonly placed on top, but for most people attention is drawn to the all important input field in the center of the start page. (Or, if I recall correctly, in Internet Explorer people’s inputs in the address bar are redirected to a search engine when no website is found)

Whatever the cause one can’t help but notice, secondly, people (the significant majority) are nowhere near internet-savvy. In some countries more, in some countries less. Really successful in the web business are the people who really acknowledge and exploit this fact: hackers, phishers and spammers. On the legal end of the spectrum, most internet advertising and market seems to just talk and connect to the experienced internet user segment.

Thirdly: Why bother printing your web-address on ads? Or, if you are internet service like check24.de or monster.at: Why bother confusing your clients with adresses? What has to stick is the brand name, and then you have to make sure you own the search results when it is entered.

And lastly, it probably pays to buy yourself into the searches for names of your competitors. Say someone wants to get to eBay, googles eBay and as first result gets the paid ad for Ricardo.at, an Austrian auctioning site. Admittedly, eBay know their stuff too well, but for most other brands you can position yourself right in front of your competition’s gates.

Usually, I am not a big fan of the commercials made for AI or other human rights groups. Most of them feel like lion bait with lots of emotion, shock etc. instead of seriously trying to win people for the cause.

But I do like this new commercial for Amnesty International. I like that it dramatically visualizes what I believe Amnesty is about (and why I am a member): normal people stepping in when human rights are violated. You might discuss the effect that effort has in reality, as in the YouTube comments. But without Amnesty and all the people engaging, the world would be a much worser place.

Edit: Agency is Mother, London. http://www.motherlondon.com/

I had to wait 30 years for my first bowl of Lucky Charms only to realize that no responsible parent should ever give their kids these sugar-coated sugarbombs.

Hmm. Wild raspberry buttermilk muffins. Baked today, gone tomorrow.

I spent the last few days with Heidi in Alpl, which in the center a rather remote valley in upper styria named the “Waldheimat” (ca. Home in the forests). They were not joking about the forests there. There really is forest, forest and forest (but no cellphone reception)
We stayed at a Wellness/Family hotel and enjoyed the calm, the clean air, the massages and the sauna. We did some walks (in the rain), picked wild berries and mushrooms. Perfect days to relax.
And today we finished off with a hike on top of the Raxalpe. (The images are from that trip) Great weather (not too hot, not too cold) and a great view (as far as the Neusiedler Lake and Hungary).

While Austria is preparing itself for yet another election filled with xenophobic campaigning, I stumble across this at Mark Earls’ Herd Blog:

Osama loves
Channel 4 does a little online/interactive/online campaign that tries to give people a differentiated look at Islam and muslims. The idea itself is simple: they are looking for 500 Osamas around the world to tell who they are, what they do and what they like.

Osama from Indonesia loves Mangas. Osama from Nigeria loves Playstation. And I share my interest in Astronomy with Osama the Imam from the UK. Who knew?

This is great. It involves people. Makes them do something. As Mark points out it is a textbook sample for a modern campaign. But more important, this campaign lets muslims portray themselves, instead of being portrayed by hatemongers on soapboxes.

Austria could use some similar campaign these days. We need more human faces and the realization that we have more in common than what separates us in to break through the label of “non-integration-willing foreigners” (bad translation of a bad term) and whatever that may suggest. But that would be an entirely different post.

They still need around 400, so if your name is Osama, or you know an Osama, join in.

 
made with Lego Digital Designer

Ok. I am back. Been a couple of weird months. With a load of work. I finished a project that enables a brand to make direct mailings available for order for their independent dealers. For two markets with multiple languages. Great for dealers who cannot afford agencies and designers to create mailings and great for the brand to get all those independent dealerships to speak to their costumers in one voice.
A promising opportunity that sadly did not work out. New opportunities.
Holidays. Rest and good news.
However, blogging should become a habit again.