BDDH has enlisted the help of John Madden, director of the award-winning
TV series, Prime Suspect, to give its soap-opera-style advertising for
BT a tighter and more realistic feel.
The work, which breaks on Friday, is the first television campaign to
come out of the agency since it hung on to BT’s business account in a
hotly contested pitch earlier in the year.
The latest ads continue to focus on a furniture-making company, but the
commercials that make up the latest series are more product focused and
have more substantial storylines.
In the first ad, ‘fishing net’, the team have discovered that a major
client has put a contract out for tender, and are wondering how to get a
foot in the door. Luckily, a team member spots someone they know on the
client’s Net site.
The second ad, ‘rehearsal’, is designed to show how BT can help people
to work from home. It features a key member of the furniture
manufacturer’s team escaping the distractions of the office to run
through the lines of a business presentation in front of a sympathetic
audience - the family dog.
Tension is the key feature of the third ad in the series, which is
called ‘service delivery’. Here, the company staff are gathered to wait
for that all-important phone call from the client to whom they
presented. The telephone rings; it is the client with a vital delivery
question. Fortunately, it can be answered straightaway, thanks to a
system called Callscape which presents customer details as soon as a
call comes through. The problem is solved and the company wins the
contract.
The campaign was written by Derek Day and art directed by Simon Green,
both creative partners at BDDH. Television airtime was bought and
planned by IDK Media, while a supporting press campaign is being handled
by Zenith Media.
