The Mystery of Carlos Soto: how the Dutch put Dalarö on the map
At first it seemed like just another ordinary day on a small Scandinavian island. But something very strange was afoot. According to witnesses, no fewer than 32 residents of an otherwise normal Swedish town made their way to their nearest Volvo dealer and parted with good money for the new S40 model.
It may have been a freak coincidence. But perhaps they were propelled into their purchase by some unknown force?
Renowned documentary-maker Carlos Soto is called out to make a film about the events. His previous work on "Tears of Bethania" seems to make him the perfect choice for the car-maker. He flies to Sweden and shoots footage proudly displayed on an official Volvo website.
And then the rumours start flying around.
Some people say that Soto has been questioning the whole purpose of the project on his own web pages and feels he's been somehow misled. Others have gone one stage further and questioned the existence of Mr Soto himself.
The truth is out there. But we have to travel to Amsterdam to find it.
The innovative spoof campaign is apparently the brainchild of Volvo's rostered European ad agency, MBVMS Fuel Europe. One of the interesting aspects of the project is the way it breaks new ground in terms of mixed media platforms. The mockumentary itself can be viewed on the web or by DVD and is supported by television ads that simply give a flavour of the subject matter and a URL for Volvo Cars. Meanwhile, the creation of the Soto website adds a strong viral element to the campaign. Creatively, it's one of the most intriguing and elaborate ideas I've come across in recent months and I suspect it could run and run. Perhaps the "Mystery of Dalarö" will join the JFK assassination as a perpetual talking point? The creatives are certainly having too much fun to let go of the idea.
© Phil Woodford, 2004. All rights reserved.
Phil Woodford is a creative director at a London-based advertising agency and a lecturer in advertising theory. www.philwoodford.com
Read more:
The Mystery of Dalarö
http://www.news40.volvocars.co.uk/flash/default.asp
Carlos Soto
www.carlossoto.com
In 1968, David Ogilvy wrote a letter that was distributed at New York's Grand Central Station to help raise money for an African-American college fund. The opening line asked readers to look out of the train window when they reached 108th Street. Seeing with their own eyes the homes of the impoverished black students, they donated $26,000 in one evening. A simple idea that proved incredibly powerful. And an inspiration for this blog on advertising creativity around the world.
Thursday, February 19, 2004
Sunday, February 01, 2004
Next time you visit the seaside, make it Koksijde
One of the hardest parts of writing a blog about advertising creativity is the fact that you have to take the rough with the smooth. Or, to put it another way, you can't always define creative excellence unless you're prepared to look at some examples of work that's fallen short of the mark.
Sometimes people have the very best of intentions, but still fail. One example I came across recently is a direct mail piece for Flanders-Brussels Tourism. This eight-sided, colourful mini-brochure is trying to persuade me that I should camp myself out on a beach just west of Zeebrugge. A difficult job at the best of times, as this bit of the Belgian coast isn't currrently the number-one destination for eager holiday-makers from the UK.
Sponsored by the Flemish Government and the European Fund for Regional Development, the mailshot has high production values and some intriguing photogaphy. There's just one drawback. It makes no sense whatsoever - presumably because of mistranslation. It's not possible to convey the full sense of the thing without showing you the pictures, but the headline copy reads as follows:
re-action
or no action
but where?
Here
Yellow
submarine
or earth bound pleasures
Knowledge
makes you go free
I don't want to embarrass anyone or to irritate the good people of Belgium. Although I've never sunbathed in Nieuwpoort or Wenduine, I certainly enjoyed Brussels very much on the couple of occasions I've visited the city. I'm also sure the people responsible for this brochure speak English a great deal better than I speak Flemish.
Nevertheless, there's no getting away from the fact that the words I've transcribed above are absolute gibberish. And you shouldn't assume they make a lot more sense with the photographs either. Youths in winter coats splash around the sea front, whilst a glamorous couple sips champagne and munches oysters from a table set up in a sand dune. Plastic dolls recline in deck chairs and a computer-animated mermaid swims towards us. None of the images is particularly well connected with the text and the overall effect is somewhat surreal.
It's very hard to give any persuasive advertising message a real-world, colloquial flavour that is understood and appreciated by native speakers of a language. That's why professional copywriters exist. It's also why the whole business of international advertising is fraught with danger. Even when moving between American, Australian and UK English, it's essential to tread very carefully.
A reconstructed screen grab from www.flemishcoast.co.uk is included in the brochure and tells me that the best time to experience the Belgian coastline is the late summer. That's when I can apparently enjoy it "intensively". By my reckoning, that gives them seven or eight months to revisit the marketing campaign.
© Phil Woodford, 2004. All rights reserved.
Phil Woodford is a creative director at a London-based advertising agency and a lecturer in advertising theory. www.philwoodford.com
One of the hardest parts of writing a blog about advertising creativity is the fact that you have to take the rough with the smooth. Or, to put it another way, you can't always define creative excellence unless you're prepared to look at some examples of work that's fallen short of the mark.
Sometimes people have the very best of intentions, but still fail. One example I came across recently is a direct mail piece for Flanders-Brussels Tourism. This eight-sided, colourful mini-brochure is trying to persuade me that I should camp myself out on a beach just west of Zeebrugge. A difficult job at the best of times, as this bit of the Belgian coast isn't currrently the number-one destination for eager holiday-makers from the UK.
Sponsored by the Flemish Government and the European Fund for Regional Development, the mailshot has high production values and some intriguing photogaphy. There's just one drawback. It makes no sense whatsoever - presumably because of mistranslation. It's not possible to convey the full sense of the thing without showing you the pictures, but the headline copy reads as follows:
re-action
or no action
but where?
Here
Yellow
submarine
or earth bound pleasures
Knowledge
makes you go free
I don't want to embarrass anyone or to irritate the good people of Belgium. Although I've never sunbathed in Nieuwpoort or Wenduine, I certainly enjoyed Brussels very much on the couple of occasions I've visited the city. I'm also sure the people responsible for this brochure speak English a great deal better than I speak Flemish.
Nevertheless, there's no getting away from the fact that the words I've transcribed above are absolute gibberish. And you shouldn't assume they make a lot more sense with the photographs either. Youths in winter coats splash around the sea front, whilst a glamorous couple sips champagne and munches oysters from a table set up in a sand dune. Plastic dolls recline in deck chairs and a computer-animated mermaid swims towards us. None of the images is particularly well connected with the text and the overall effect is somewhat surreal.
It's very hard to give any persuasive advertising message a real-world, colloquial flavour that is understood and appreciated by native speakers of a language. That's why professional copywriters exist. It's also why the whole business of international advertising is fraught with danger. Even when moving between American, Australian and UK English, it's essential to tread very carefully.
A reconstructed screen grab from www.flemishcoast.co.uk is included in the brochure and tells me that the best time to experience the Belgian coastline is the late summer. That's when I can apparently enjoy it "intensively". By my reckoning, that gives them seven or eight months to revisit the marketing campaign.
© Phil Woodford, 2004. All rights reserved.
Phil Woodford is a creative director at a London-based advertising agency and a lecturer in advertising theory. www.philwoodford.com
Sunday, January 18, 2004
Time travel and TV sponsorship
A number of news sources reported this week the decision of the Omnicom Group to employ Robert Riesenberg as Chief Executive of 'Branded Entertainment'. In a nutshell, this business is all about media organisations and clients working with agencies to produce TV shows that promote a product or brand.
Worried that consumers are skipping 30-second commercials or surfing the Internet, advertising executives are looking for new and creative ways of imbedding their products in entertaining television programmes. But is the idea really anything new? Far from it. The early days of television in the United States were full of this kind of sponsorship. Back in the fifties, it wasn't uncommon for shows to be named after the sponsor and the boundaries between the entertainment and commercial elements of the programming were unclear to say the least. What's more, market research showed that recognition of the respective brands was high. Anyone who's interested in the detail would be well advised to check out Stephen Fox's excellent history of American advertising, The Mirror Makers*.
In the UK today, there is probably fairly low tolerance of overt product placement, but we are very much used to television programmes including references to their sponsors at the opening of the show and the start of commercial breaks. I think viewers would be left in little doubt that "French Leave", for instance, is sponsored by Bonne Maman (the fastest way to France). And where would Graham Norton be without light, silky smooth TIA LUSSO® Cream Liqueur?
It's interesting that advertisers are returning to some of the oldest tricks in the book in order raise brand awareness among their target market. And it ties in with the theme of one of my earlier blogs: there are very few spaces left today in which it's possible to escape a sales message.
Offers of sponsorship for 108th Street are always welcome, of course ;-)
© Phil Woodford, 2004. All rights reserved.
Phil Woodford is a creative director at a London-based advertising agency and a lecturer in advertising theory. www.philwoodford.com
Read more:
Riesenberg to join Omnicom
http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=39580
Graham Norton and TIA LUSSO® Cream Liqueur
http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/G/graham/optin.html
*The Mirror Makers: a history of American Advertising, Fox S, Heinemann, 1990
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0434147273/qid=1074466782/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_11_1/026-8895624-8202839
A number of news sources reported this week the decision of the Omnicom Group to employ Robert Riesenberg as Chief Executive of 'Branded Entertainment'. In a nutshell, this business is all about media organisations and clients working with agencies to produce TV shows that promote a product or brand.
Worried that consumers are skipping 30-second commercials or surfing the Internet, advertising executives are looking for new and creative ways of imbedding their products in entertaining television programmes. But is the idea really anything new? Far from it. The early days of television in the United States were full of this kind of sponsorship. Back in the fifties, it wasn't uncommon for shows to be named after the sponsor and the boundaries between the entertainment and commercial elements of the programming were unclear to say the least. What's more, market research showed that recognition of the respective brands was high. Anyone who's interested in the detail would be well advised to check out Stephen Fox's excellent history of American advertising, The Mirror Makers*.
In the UK today, there is probably fairly low tolerance of overt product placement, but we are very much used to television programmes including references to their sponsors at the opening of the show and the start of commercial breaks. I think viewers would be left in little doubt that "French Leave", for instance, is sponsored by Bonne Maman (the fastest way to France). And where would Graham Norton be without light, silky smooth TIA LUSSO® Cream Liqueur?
It's interesting that advertisers are returning to some of the oldest tricks in the book in order raise brand awareness among their target market. And it ties in with the theme of one of my earlier blogs: there are very few spaces left today in which it's possible to escape a sales message.
Offers of sponsorship for 108th Street are always welcome, of course ;-)
© Phil Woodford, 2004. All rights reserved.
Phil Woodford is a creative director at a London-based advertising agency and a lecturer in advertising theory. www.philwoodford.com
Read more:
Riesenberg to join Omnicom
http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=39580
Graham Norton and TIA LUSSO® Cream Liqueur
http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/G/graham/optin.html
*The Mirror Makers: a history of American Advertising, Fox S, Heinemann, 1990
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0434147273/qid=1074466782/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_11_1/026-8895624-8202839
Monday, January 12, 2004
Lone Ranger leads fight against junk mail
Gerry Ranger has stacked up more direct mail than most people. According to the BBC, the pensioner from Gloucestershire, England collected over 700 mailshots in the course of a year in order to demonstrate the amount of resources that are wasted through this particular form of advertising.
If I had a penny for every time someone's told me they throw all 'junk' mail in the bin, I'd certainly have collected enough cash to buy one of those carriage clocks they give away as a free gift with insurance offers. The general consensus is that direct marketers are on a hiding to nothing. But as someone who's written direct mail myself, I have to let you in on a little secret. The mailshots do work. Otherwise businesses, charities and even local estate agents would have given up sending them out a long time ago.
The aim of every marketer, of course, is to get their list as near perfect as they can, so that they're targeting people who are genuinely interested and minimising their printing and postage costs. But despite huge advances in segmentation and computerised databases, this remains a bit of a pipedream. That's why there's a recognition that the vast majority of mailers will find their way into the rubbish. Response rates to cold mailings can be as low as 1%. But that 1% response provides enough return on investment to make the exercise profitable.
And this, of course, is one of the big problems with the online junk that we call spam. Although virtually no one replies, the cost of sending out hundreds of thousands of e-mails is practically nil. So it only takes a handful of Viagra purchases to leave the spammer quids in.
Mr Ranger apparently hopes that his junk mail mountain can be turned into some kind of Turner Prize winning installation. Its originators no doubt saw it as a work of art when they first mailed it.
© Phil Woodford, 2004. All rights reserved.
Phil Woodford is a creative director at a London-based advertising agency and a lecturer in advertising theory. www.philwoodford.com
Read the original press report at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3389777.stm
Gerry Ranger has stacked up more direct mail than most people. According to the BBC, the pensioner from Gloucestershire, England collected over 700 mailshots in the course of a year in order to demonstrate the amount of resources that are wasted through this particular form of advertising.
If I had a penny for every time someone's told me they throw all 'junk' mail in the bin, I'd certainly have collected enough cash to buy one of those carriage clocks they give away as a free gift with insurance offers. The general consensus is that direct marketers are on a hiding to nothing. But as someone who's written direct mail myself, I have to let you in on a little secret. The mailshots do work. Otherwise businesses, charities and even local estate agents would have given up sending them out a long time ago.
The aim of every marketer, of course, is to get their list as near perfect as they can, so that they're targeting people who are genuinely interested and minimising their printing and postage costs. But despite huge advances in segmentation and computerised databases, this remains a bit of a pipedream. That's why there's a recognition that the vast majority of mailers will find their way into the rubbish. Response rates to cold mailings can be as low as 1%. But that 1% response provides enough return on investment to make the exercise profitable.
And this, of course, is one of the big problems with the online junk that we call spam. Although virtually no one replies, the cost of sending out hundreds of thousands of e-mails is practically nil. So it only takes a handful of Viagra purchases to leave the spammer quids in.
Mr Ranger apparently hopes that his junk mail mountain can be turned into some kind of Turner Prize winning installation. Its originators no doubt saw it as a work of art when they first mailed it.
© Phil Woodford, 2004. All rights reserved.
Phil Woodford is a creative director at a London-based advertising agency and a lecturer in advertising theory. www.philwoodford.com
Read the original press report at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3389777.stm
Saturday, January 03, 2004
Here's your change, sir. And a free advertising message...
According to Newsstream, a highly innovative guerrilla campaign has been launched to promote the new American mini-series Traffic. The show, which is set to reach television screens at the end of January 2004, is concerned with the trafficking of drugs, guns and human beings. Reports say that agency GoGORILLA Media is placing stickers on new dollar bills and getting bar staff to hand them out as change to punters in swanky bars across New York and LA.
Undoubtedly a great idea and one that seems well targeted and in keeping with the theme of the television show. But it does beg the question: how much further will advertising intrude on our every day lives and personal space? Former US Presidential candidate, Ralph Nader - and other activists associated with the anti-globalisation movement - claim that there are fewer and fewer spaces that are advertising-free. Kids are bombarded with marketing messages in school - an issue of growing concerns to parents in the UK as well as America. Interactive billboards in some parts of the States are now capable of picking up radio frequencies in cars and switching messages according to the demographics of the traffic queue. Hardly a day goes by without some new medium being exploited.
What about the radio data system? That's the clever gizmo that flashes up the name of the artist and song as you're driving along in your motor. Very soon, according to reports, it's going to be sending out messages to accompany your radio advertisements too. A bank in North Carolina is experimenting with the idea this very month and seems likely to be flashing up messages such as "FREE GIFT" and "CALL NOW". A superb example of direct and intrusive marketing? Or simply an additional hazard on the roads to distract drivers?
If you think you can escape the commercial bombardment by taking to the air, I have to advise you that won't even be safe at 35,000 feet. Advent Airads™ are designed to greet you as you open the overhead locker.
Some people, however, clearly welcome the intrusion of advertising. Jim Nelson, for example. The financially astute Illinois resident apparently auctioned space on his head and now sports a tattoo advertising web firm, C I Host. They reckon Jim alone has brought in five hundred new customers. It really is a case of how to get a head in advertising.
© Phil Woodford, 2004. All rights reserved.
Phil Woodford is a creative director at a London-based advertising agency and a lecturer in advertising theory. www.philwoodford.com
Read more:
Dollar bills promote TV mini-serieshttp://www.newstream.com/us/story_pub.shtml?story_id=11793&user_ip=62.252.64.4
Visual ads on car radios
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/31/business/media/31adco.html?pagewanted=print&position=
Mile-high advertisinghttp://www.adventads.com/benefits.html#captive
Personal advertising space
http://biz.yahoo.com/pz/031208/49386.html
According to Newsstream, a highly innovative guerrilla campaign has been launched to promote the new American mini-series Traffic. The show, which is set to reach television screens at the end of January 2004, is concerned with the trafficking of drugs, guns and human beings. Reports say that agency GoGORILLA Media is placing stickers on new dollar bills and getting bar staff to hand them out as change to punters in swanky bars across New York and LA.
Undoubtedly a great idea and one that seems well targeted and in keeping with the theme of the television show. But it does beg the question: how much further will advertising intrude on our every day lives and personal space? Former US Presidential candidate, Ralph Nader - and other activists associated with the anti-globalisation movement - claim that there are fewer and fewer spaces that are advertising-free. Kids are bombarded with marketing messages in school - an issue of growing concerns to parents in the UK as well as America. Interactive billboards in some parts of the States are now capable of picking up radio frequencies in cars and switching messages according to the demographics of the traffic queue. Hardly a day goes by without some new medium being exploited.
What about the radio data system? That's the clever gizmo that flashes up the name of the artist and song as you're driving along in your motor. Very soon, according to reports, it's going to be sending out messages to accompany your radio advertisements too. A bank in North Carolina is experimenting with the idea this very month and seems likely to be flashing up messages such as "FREE GIFT" and "CALL NOW". A superb example of direct and intrusive marketing? Or simply an additional hazard on the roads to distract drivers?
If you think you can escape the commercial bombardment by taking to the air, I have to advise you that won't even be safe at 35,000 feet. Advent Airads™ are designed to greet you as you open the overhead locker.
Some people, however, clearly welcome the intrusion of advertising. Jim Nelson, for example. The financially astute Illinois resident apparently auctioned space on his head and now sports a tattoo advertising web firm, C I Host. They reckon Jim alone has brought in five hundred new customers. It really is a case of how to get a head in advertising.
© Phil Woodford, 2004. All rights reserved.
Phil Woodford is a creative director at a London-based advertising agency and a lecturer in advertising theory. www.philwoodford.com
Read more:
Dollar bills promote TV mini-serieshttp://www.newstream.com/us/story_pub.shtml?story_id=11793&user_ip=62.252.64.4
Visual ads on car radios
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/31/business/media/31adco.html?pagewanted=print&position=
Mile-high advertisinghttp://www.adventads.com/benefits.html#captive
Personal advertising space
http://biz.yahoo.com/pz/031208/49386.html
Wednesday, December 31, 2003
Why Bush is a bad man in 30 seconds or less
An American online advocacy group has invited members of the public to create their own home-made, 30-second commercials that put the boot into President George W Bush. The MoveOn.org Voter Fund wants to air anti-Bush commercials in swing states during 2004 and has assembled a heavy-weight group of judges to consider entries submitted via the web. The winning spot will actually appear on television in the run-up to the poll.
The idea seems to be that most political advertising is put together by consultants, campaign managers and slick advertising professionals. These commercials, on the other hand, will have an original, gutsy and homespun feel - ideal for reaching out to real Americans.
I'll certainly be interested to see the results. Those of us involved in creating ads or other marketing material on a day-to-day basis are often dismissive when clients or other 'non-professionals' suggest ideas. Our natural snobbery and pride leads us to assume that they'll be naive at best and probably hopelessly embarrassing. Sometimes we're right. But I also believe there is a huge well of untapped creativity out there among people who don't have the word 'creative' in their job title. As a lecturer, I often show ads to students that have provoked much back-slapping at advertising awards ceremonies, but draw a complete blank in the classroom.
My prediction is that we'll see more and more homemade advertising as the years roll on, mainly due to advances in technology and increased accessibility. Perhaps the advertising agencies of 2050 will be one-man or one-woman bands? Much as they were when they first started up in the nineteenth century.
Oh, and another prediction. I think Mr Bush will probably be re-elected. Sorry, guys.
© Phil Woodford, 2003. All rights reserved.
Phil Woodford is a creative director at a London-based advertising agency and a lecturer in advertising theory. www.philwoodford.com
Reference site: www.bushin30seconds.org
An American online advocacy group has invited members of the public to create their own home-made, 30-second commercials that put the boot into President George W Bush. The MoveOn.org Voter Fund wants to air anti-Bush commercials in swing states during 2004 and has assembled a heavy-weight group of judges to consider entries submitted via the web. The winning spot will actually appear on television in the run-up to the poll.
The idea seems to be that most political advertising is put together by consultants, campaign managers and slick advertising professionals. These commercials, on the other hand, will have an original, gutsy and homespun feel - ideal for reaching out to real Americans.
I'll certainly be interested to see the results. Those of us involved in creating ads or other marketing material on a day-to-day basis are often dismissive when clients or other 'non-professionals' suggest ideas. Our natural snobbery and pride leads us to assume that they'll be naive at best and probably hopelessly embarrassing. Sometimes we're right. But I also believe there is a huge well of untapped creativity out there among people who don't have the word 'creative' in their job title. As a lecturer, I often show ads to students that have provoked much back-slapping at advertising awards ceremonies, but draw a complete blank in the classroom.
My prediction is that we'll see more and more homemade advertising as the years roll on, mainly due to advances in technology and increased accessibility. Perhaps the advertising agencies of 2050 will be one-man or one-woman bands? Much as they were when they first started up in the nineteenth century.
Oh, and another prediction. I think Mr Bush will probably be re-elected. Sorry, guys.
© Phil Woodford, 2003. All rights reserved.
Phil Woodford is a creative director at a London-based advertising agency and a lecturer in advertising theory. www.philwoodford.com
Reference site: www.bushin30seconds.org
Tomfoolery in the Netherlands
Should we feel sorry for Mr Johan de Boer? According to press reports in December 2003, the Dutch jeweller planned a highly innovative direct mail campaign, only to find that it had rather spectacularly backfired.
The story goes something like this. To mark the tenth anniversary of his business, the diamond geezer sent out 4,000 promotional envelopes to his clients. So far, so normal. The twist was in the cost of the mailshots. Mr de Boer clocked up a bill of nearly 50,000 euro, because some of the envelopes contained genuine diamonds. His idea was that clients would visit his shop to discover whether the gem they'd received in the post was genuine or a fake. If it proved to be the real deal, they were entitled to keep it.
Alarm bells sounded when only 35 of the 200 recipients showed up in the shop. A little informal investigation revealed that many of the customers had chucked Mr de Boer's envelope straight in the bin, without discovering its contents. It seemed like a disaster... until the world's media took an interest. Mr de Boer assures me by e-mail that he's been re-energised by the large-scale press coverage, so I don't think we need shed too many tears on his behalf. Indeed, I suspect his goldsmith's business will go from strength to strength.
Might he have avoided the original mishap? The campaign was inspired, as it assumed - rightly - that everyone finding a sparkler would be compelled to seek a valuation. But perhaps a clearer message on the envelope would have been sensible? His letters apparently asked "Are you the lucky one?", but I would have favoured something a little more direct. THIS ENVELOPE MAY CONTAIN A REAL DIAMOND, for example. I can't help thinking that a timely PR blitz on the radio or in the papers might not have gone amiss either.
But maybe I'm just being clever after the event. After all, if that's not one of world's classiest direct marketing concepts, I'm a Dutchman.
© Phil Woodford, 2003. All rights reserved.
Phil Woodford is a creative director at a London-based advertising agency and a lecturer in advertising theory. www.philwoodford.com
Read the original press reports at:
BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3341601.stm
Sydney Morning Herald: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/25/1072308630768.html
Should we feel sorry for Mr Johan de Boer? According to press reports in December 2003, the Dutch jeweller planned a highly innovative direct mail campaign, only to find that it had rather spectacularly backfired.
The story goes something like this. To mark the tenth anniversary of his business, the diamond geezer sent out 4,000 promotional envelopes to his clients. So far, so normal. The twist was in the cost of the mailshots. Mr de Boer clocked up a bill of nearly 50,000 euro, because some of the envelopes contained genuine diamonds. His idea was that clients would visit his shop to discover whether the gem they'd received in the post was genuine or a fake. If it proved to be the real deal, they were entitled to keep it.
Alarm bells sounded when only 35 of the 200 recipients showed up in the shop. A little informal investigation revealed that many of the customers had chucked Mr de Boer's envelope straight in the bin, without discovering its contents. It seemed like a disaster... until the world's media took an interest. Mr de Boer assures me by e-mail that he's been re-energised by the large-scale press coverage, so I don't think we need shed too many tears on his behalf. Indeed, I suspect his goldsmith's business will go from strength to strength.
Might he have avoided the original mishap? The campaign was inspired, as it assumed - rightly - that everyone finding a sparkler would be compelled to seek a valuation. But perhaps a clearer message on the envelope would have been sensible? His letters apparently asked "Are you the lucky one?", but I would have favoured something a little more direct. THIS ENVELOPE MAY CONTAIN A REAL DIAMOND, for example. I can't help thinking that a timely PR blitz on the radio or in the papers might not have gone amiss either.
But maybe I'm just being clever after the event. After all, if that's not one of world's classiest direct marketing concepts, I'm a Dutchman.
© Phil Woodford, 2003. All rights reserved.
Phil Woodford is a creative director at a London-based advertising agency and a lecturer in advertising theory. www.philwoodford.com
Read the original press reports at:
BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3341601.stm
Sydney Morning Herald: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/25/1072308630768.html
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