Australian Ads Part 1

As with every country, advertising is generally divided into great and terrible. Australia is no exception. For every Dumb Ways to Die there is a guy shouting about barbecues whilst giving a thumbs up.

Whilst there isn't quite the number of brands perpared to make great creative work as back in the UK, from what I've seen, the standard is definitely improving.

Here's a couple of good examples.

Carlton Draught. Not my favourite beer, but it's definitely better than the cheap stuff in the UK.
This police chase ad from last year is everything you expect from a brand whose creative work travels far wider than the product.

A silly chase that parodies the movies, and avoids taking itself seriously in any way. It's fun and entertaining, taking the semi-mandatory 'several guys in a pub' setup and taking it to somewhere likeable.

It doesn't hurt that Carlton Draught has one of the best taglines of any brand in the world either.




Australia Post. Sometimes an idea is just so simply brilliant that you don't need to create an elaborate ad concept, you just need to show people. It's also another blow for people who keep going on about how QR codes and the like are useless, without realising it was the way people used them that was the problem, not the medium itself. Any postal service that doesn't consider creating this functional

Viral Research

I've noticed in the last week, two ads that have spent months online in the US have crept onto our TV screens. The VW Force and particularly the Skittles Touch ad have been in heavy rotation on UK tv.

At first I wondered why Skittles would air a US ad that is a couple of years old, and then I thought about it a bit more. The popularity of the ad online has acted like post-production research, gathering feedback and word of mouth spread.

Instead of risking budget on a new ad campaign, why not take something we know people in the UK like; but has never been shown on their TV screens?

Maybe this is the next level of using online video as campaign research; producing an ad, placing it online then using the success or failure to determine whether it is suitable for paid media spend. In theory this would allow brands to take more risks and produce more interesting work; because if it bombs it will never have any money other than production put behind it.

You might ask how this is different to now, and the answer is simple. Most agencies currently either:

Make a TV ad - run it on TV and place it online.

Or

Make an online video - spread it online

What I am talking about is making TV ads, but taking them online first; surely a much more reliable test than showing it to 8 people in a room?