No surprises, as kids and sporting failures take poll honours.
What do three footballers, famous for their inability to score when 12
yards away from a German goal, have in common with a cute young lad
called Derek? They all offer proof - if more were needed - that there
are only two things that run pets close in the affections of the great
British public - children and heroic failures. Both loom large in our
collection of this month’s most popular ads.
The Pizza Hut ad from Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO brings together the
penalty shoot-out unfortunates, Chris Waddle, Stuart Pearce and Gareth
Southgate. It shares top honours as the People’s Jury’s preferred ad
choice for the month with Ogilvy and Mather’s first TV work for
Warburtons bakery business, written by Patrick Collister, the executive
creative director. It’s a modestly budgeted series starring Derek, a
fictional member of the Warburton family.
Each month, Campaign lets the People’s Jury loose on 20 mainstream
commercials, chosen at random, but all either new or recently back on
air. Jurors give each a mark out of ten, from one, (did not like at all)
to ten (loved). We then rank the ads by their mean score (top table).
The panel illustrates the five ads that persuaded the biggest percentage
that they might buy the brand.
The jury was in petulant mood this month - a score of around seven is
usually required to come out on top, but Pizza Hut and Warburtons’
scores of 6.4 were sufficient for victory. Low scoring also resulted in
bunching - the best five ads were separated by 0.2 of a point and the
first 11 by 0.4.
That two of these were cars ads came as a considerable surprise. Cars do
not usually fare well with the hard-headed pragmatists of the jury, and
the Ford Maverick’s position at second to last is more typical. Lowe
Howard-Spink’s new commercial for the Vauxhall Vectra, based on the ‘one
step ahead of the mob’ catchphrase and a sort of jovial film noir feel,
is certainly faring considerably better than the hi-tech spectaculars
that launched the brand last year. The ad was a particular hit with
women, who gave it the highest score of the lot at 6.7. Bartle
Bogle Hegarty’s latest ad in its Audi campaign - this time for the new
A3 - was by contrast the highest scoring ad among male respondents.
J. Walter Thompson scrapped the five-year-old ‘someone cares’ campaign
for its Christmas push for Boots and has been rewarded with a share of
third place. The ads have a Jimmy Durante backing track and as much
wholesome Yuletide imagery as anybody could handle. In fact, this was
the only ad of the top five that also proved among the most effective at
persuading viewers to buy the product. In all, 54 per cent of
respondents claimed they were likely to visit Boots, just one point
below the winning ad - O&M’s work for Argos. Respondents didn’t much
like the ad but this wouldn’t stop them visiting their local branch.
Other effective executions included the weepy Kleenex campaign, Mrs
Merton’s British Gas slot and Asda’s no-nonsense price-busting slots.
Oh yes, and bottom of the likeability pile was McCann-Erickson’s
nostalgic launch spot for Van den Bergh’s Dalesby spread.
Audience Selection carried out the telephone interviews between November
22 and November 24, with 1,000 adults who represent a cross-section of
the population by age, class, sex and geography.
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PROPENSITY TO BUY
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We asked the People’s Jury whether the advertising was more likely to
encourage them to buy or use the product
Ad % likely to buy
Argos 55
Boots 54
Kleenex Tissues 51
British Gas 49
Asda 38
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SELECTED ADS: 2 DECEMBER 1996
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Rank Ad campaign Agency Points
1= Warburtons Ogilvy and Mather 6.4
1= Pizza Hut Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO 6.4
3= Audi A3 Bartle Bogle Hegarty 6.2
3= Boots Christmas campaign J. Walter Thompson 6.2
3= Vauxhall Vectra Lowe Howard-Spink 6.2
6= Radox WCRS 6.1
6= BT - working from home BDDH 6.1
6= Cadbury’s Fuse Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper 6.1
6= Kleenex Tissues Foote Cone Belding 6.1
10= Marmite BMP DDB 6.0
10= Citroen Saxo Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper 6.0
12= Asda Publicis 5.9
12= AA Howell Henry Chaldecott Lury 5.9
14 British Gas BMP DDB 5.8
15 Argos Christmas campaign Ogilvy and Mather 5.6
16 Burger King DMB&B 5.4
17 Lemsip BST-BDDP 5.4
18= Eagle Star Direct Ogilvy and Mather 5.1
18= Ford Maverick Ogilvy and Mather 5.1
20 Dalesby McCann-Erickson 4.6
Source: Audience Selection. Further information and copies of the full
results are available. Tel 0171-608 3618
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