2007 has been a good year for traditional advertising. The anticipated collapse never happened, digital advertising appeared to be suffering from a mild hangover, and despite a flurry of brands with 'big ads', and too many 'chain reaction' ads; it wasn't half bad.
But, there is always rubbish:
Disappointment of the Year
After a decent build up campaign, and a huge huge budget, I was expecting something more than a giant domino themed version of Cog. It's a decent watch, but lacks the Guiness charm, and feels like a weak attempt at aping W+K; rather ironically, the creatives moved to W+K almost immediately after this ad launched...
The "What Were They Thinking" Award for Bandwagon Jumping
Oh. Dear. Someone read about UGC and appeared to miss the bit about quality control.
[sourcing ad... ]
Worst Ads of 2007
Still badly written. Still badly acted. Still failing to get a good message about the company across. Had a great discussion about this campaign with Graham at Cheetham Bell JWT ; might talk about that soon.
Yes, we can see what they were going for, but they just got it very wrong. We do not like, empathise or positively associate with Mickey at all.
Oh the stereotyping, woe the lacklustre use of a decent tag.
Still to come are my picks for worst ads of the year, along with some other ads worthy of mention.
Most Improved Advertising
Two picks here. The first was just totaly unexpected, and really went a long way to removing the horrible memories of their past ads from my mind.
The second was BGR Bloomers radio ads (forklift, executive driver) for making injury solicitors ads that aren't patronising, were decently written, and not a misplaced ladder or kitchen slip in sight.
Best Agency
Difficult. Most people would say Fallon for their numerous successful ads, and it would be hard to disagree with that. Though I think that BMB have had a great year, and if W+K can be treated as gods after 2 Honda ads then BMB can tie this category after two brilliant Carling ads and some other good work.
Best Blogs
I can hardly pick a top 10, let alone a single winner. So in no order, here are my 5 favourite blogs of this year.
Charles Frith - Punk Planning - Intelligent, not afraid to think differently or say things people won't like. Now providing us with a fascinating look at Beijing. Rob Campbell - Musings of an Opinionated Sod - That he is. But this is the only blog where you can take part in fascinating ad debates, controvertial and bold marketing theory, and yet still debate the merits of sausages vs bacon.
Northern Planner - Brilliant posts on getting into planning, plus great recipes and tea tips. If advertising was astrology he would be the North Star.
The Kaiser - Marcus is back, and despite moving frequently, he always omes up with the goods. Excellent posts on agencies and the internet, plus the genius of Charles Stab.
Scamp - He isn't campaign's number one ad blog for nothing.
Finally met lots of the clever people whose blogs i've read for ages! Was rather odd to be introduced to people and know who they were, yet have no idea what they looked like!
Some of the clever folk I met/saw for the first time:
Well, 2007 sure was crazy.
