ONE TO LOOK OUT FOR - STELLA ARTOIS - CHRISTMAS FILM SPONSORSHIP
Project: Christmas film sponsorship idents
Client: Kerry Collinge, senior brand manager, Stella Artois
Brief: Start building a special association between Stella Artois and
Christmas by leveraging and evolving its existing film credentials and
creating a specific Christmas film association
Creative agency: Lowe
Writers: Steve Paskin, Simon Brotherson
Art directors: Steve Paskin, Simon Brotherson
Planner: Olivia Bebb
Media agency: Starcom Motive
Media planner: Lee Ramsay
Production company: Hungry Man, New York
Director: David Levin
Editor: Alistair Jordan
Post-production: The Mill
Audio post-production: Wave
Exposure: Channel 4 and FilmFour
THE LOWDOWN Stella Artois is following up its spectacular commercial based on the exploits of Great War flying aces with a TV campaign that reinforces the brand's long-term association with film.
This time, the beer returns to earth with a series of idents to be shown on Channel 4 over the Christmas period to promote Stella's sponsorship of the broadcaster's Ultimate Film programme.
Lowe has produced a series of 28 spots, which feature a struggling actor's agent who has only one client - Santa Claus - on his books. Claus is fed up with working for only one month of the year and is desperate to break out of toy-shop casting and into the glamorous world of film.The idents follow the agent's enthusiastic yet ultimately doomed attempts to find him an acting gig - he succeeds in getting him no more than the usual three-week department-store engagement.
The initiative marks the latest stage in Stella's efforts to link itself with film to build commitment to the brand among its core audience.
FAS AWARE UK - FOETAL ALCOHOL SPECTRUM AWARENESS
Project: Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Awareness
Client: Gloria Armistead, founder, FAS Aware UK
Brief: Warn expectant mothers about the consequences of drinking while
pregnant
Creative agency: Harrison Troughton Wunderman
Writer: Chris Catchpole, Ben Golik
Art directors: Chris Catchpole, Ben Golik
Planner: Carla Fox
Media agency: Mediaedge: cia
Media planner: Andy Martin
Photographer: Jonathan Knowles
Retouching: Jack Lowe
Exposure: National newspapers and Heart FM
THE LOWDOWN
Foetal Alcohol Syndrome is the biggest cause of non-genetic mental handicap in the Western world, and 100 per cent preventable.
This campaign from Harrison Troughton Wunderman aims to raise awareness of FAS. One execution, "gin bottle", features a teat where the screw cap should be. "Tequila" is even harder-hitting, with a small foetus at the bottom of the bottle where the worm should be.
The ads, designed to reach expectant mothers ahead of the Christmas party season, will appear on poster sites in London Underground stations and taxi sides. Ambient executions and a radio spot complete the campaign, which has the overall message: "At this year's Christmas do, don't."
CHANEL - NO.5 THE FILM
Project: No.5 The Film
Client: Jacques Helleu, artistic director, Chanel
Brief: n/s
Creative agency: n/a
Writer: Baz Luhrmann
Art director: Ian Gracie
Media agency: Mediaedge: cia
Media planner: Marianne McKenzie
Production companies: Revolver Films, Bazmark
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Editor: Daniel Schwarze
Post-production: Animal Logic
Exposure: National television, cinema
THE LOWDOWN
"No.5 The Film" for Chanel No.5 (billed as the most expensive ad of all time, with an estimated price tag of ú18 million) features the Moulin Rouge director, Baz Luhrmann, and leading lady, Nicole Kidman.
The three-minute epic tells the story of the world's most famous woman (Kidman, dripping with ú16 million worth of Chanel jewellery) pursued by the paparazzi. She ducks into a cab, to find herself facing a handsome Bohemian intellectual.They spend the night kissing on the rooftop, before she returns to her celebrity life and he is left remembering only "her kiss, her smile, her perfume ... ".
SKODA - HAIR POSTCARDS
Project: Hair postcards
Client: Mary Newcombe, head of marketing, Skoda UK
Brief: Follow up new Octavia prospects who have enquired about or test
driven, but not purchased, a new Octavia
Creative agency: Archibald Ingall Stretton
Writer: Chris Lapham
Art director: Debs James
Exposure: Approximately 8,000 Skoda prospects
THE LOWDOWN
Skoda launched its latest Octavia model in July this year, developing a healthy prospect pool in the process. Archibald Ingall Stretton has created a mail campaign to follow up potential Octavia drivers who have enquired about or test-driven the car, but have yet to sign on the dotted line.
Two executions in the style of old-school barbershop photography feature a man and a woman sporting excruciatingly bad 70s haircuts. When you flip the card over, the headline reads: "If everyone else had a haircut like this, would you?"
The concept builds on Fallon's above-the-line campaign for the Octavia, which focused on the car's points of difference in a crowded and homogenous market.
Launched in 1996, the Octavia is credited with turning Skoda's fortunes around: 2004 saw the millionth Octavia roll off the company's production line.
KRONENBOURG 1664 - SCULPTOR, COMPOSER
Project: Sculptor, composer
Client: Sharon Annette, marketing manager, Scottish Courage
Brief: Position Kronenbourg 1664 as the smart and sophisticated choice
of premium lager
Creative agency: M&C Saatchi
Writer: Jason Gormley
Art director: Shane Gibson
Planner: David Clements
Media agency: Starcom Mediavest
Media planners: Sara Edwards, Sam Browne
Production company: Therapy Films
Director: Malcolm Venville
Editor: Lisa Gunning
Post-production: The Moving Picture Company
Exposure: National TV
THE LOWDOWN
A ú2 million campaign from M&C Saatchi for Kronenbourg 1664 aims boost the beer's ú88 million brand value and steal a march on the market leader, Stella Artois. Two 40-second spots show that the feckless pursuit of an easy life down the pub over hard graft is a 340-year-old phenomenon.
In "sculptor", drinkers at a present-day French cafe sit beside a half-finished sculpture - a work of art from 1664 that was never finished because the beer distracted the artist mid-flow. "Composer" features a modern orchestra playing the opening bars of an unfinished overture. The endline reads: "1664, a bad year for composing. A good year for beer."
NATIONAL MISSING PERSONS HELPLINE - CONFIDENTIAL HELPLINE
Project: Confidential helpline
Client: Sash Newman, head of fundraising, National Missing Persons
Helpline
Brief: Tell missing people that the helpline is totally confidential
Creative agency: Walsh Trott Chick Smith
Writer: Rob DeCleyn
Art director: Simon Micheli
Media agencies: Diabolical Liberties, PosterScope
Photographer: Andy Whale
Exposure: National press and posters
THE LOWDOWN
More than 20,000 people go missing in the UK each year, particularly in the run-up to Christmas. Very little is known about who they are, where they go and what happens to them. But research has shown that the majority are girls aged between 13 and 17, and men between 24 and 30.
The National Missing Persons Helpline allows missing people to contact those they have left behind with no questions asked. The campaign features an "Invisible Man" effect: empty clothing for a drug addict, a pole dancer and a businessman getting a blow job from a rentboy. The copy explains that it is not the charity's business to know what people are up to, only that it can deliver a message home in total confidence.
JOBCENTRE PLUS - PRODUCT RANGE
Project: Product range
Client: Michelle Brodrick, employer services marketing, Jobcentre Plus
Brief: Reposition Jobcentre Plus recruitment services to employers
Creative agency: Kitcatt Nohr Alexander Shaw
Writer: Claire Speedie
Art director: Liana Snook
Planner: Caroline Gibbs
Media agency: Manning Gottlieb OMD
Media planner: Carl Walsh
Photographer: Bruce Anderson
Exposure: London, regional and trade press
THE LOWDOWN
A colourful range of spoof household products is at the centre of a new government campaign for the modernised Jobcentre service. The print campaign, by Kitcatt Nohr Alexander Shaw for COI Communications, aims to boost awareness of the Jobcentre Plus initiative.
Jobcentre Plus already works with 400,000 employers; the new multimedia initiative aims to strengthen the service and attract more companies. The latest push is supported by direct marketing, banner ads on selected recruitment and trade websites and publications, as well as local marketing activity.
MITSUBISHI - L200-HERO
Project: L200-Hero
Client: Kate Woodward, marketing communications manager, Colt Car
Company
Brief: Reinforce the L200 as the most desirable pick-up on the market
Creative agency: Golley Slater
Writer/art director: Paul Pickersgill
Media agency: Manning Gottlieb OMD
Production company: The Fink Tank
Exposure: TV and cinema
THE LOWDOWN
Mitsubishi is facing up to intensified competition in the pick-up truck market with new TV advertising aimed at sustaining the market-leading position of its L200 model.
The new 60-second spot builds on the L200's reputation for strength and reliability. Targeted at workers in sectors such as construction and land management, the ad shows the L200 negotiating a series of obstacles from falling trees, a forest fire and a river. It ends up parked at the top of a hotel's steps.
SELFRIDGES - CHRISTMAS STORIES
Project: Selfridges' Christmas Stories
Client: Bev Churchill, marketing director, Selfridges
Brief: Take the magic of Selfridges' Christmas Stories promotion outside
the store
Creative: agency: Mother
Writer: Mother
Art director: Mother
Planner: Mother
Media buying: MediaCom
Media planning: Naked
Photographers: John Spinks, Simon Howell, Peter Robertson, Paul Cohen,
Susan Hosking, Kerry Brown
Retouching: Nikki Quilter, Admagic
Exposure: Bond Street Tube station
THE LOWDOWN
Selfridges is backing the launch of its seasonal in-store promotion - Christmas Stories - by taking over the nearest Tube station, Bond Street.
The store has hooked up with the Teenage Cancer Trust and has asked celebrities including Madonna's daughter Lourdes Leon, Sarah, the Duchess of York, Katie Melua and Sharon Osbourne to contribute stories to a Christmas storybook.
To support the campaign, billboards in Bond Street station feature Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and The Snowman, but not as we know them. Instead, Rudolph is pictured wandering through woods and back streets in a style not dissimilar to a scene from The X Files.
