ANALYSIS: Iconoclast Sunday justifies its gross ads - What's up with Sunday and its gory ads? Richard Lord goes to BBDO to investigate

<p>Sunday Communications has long enjoyed a reputation as one of Hong </p><p>Kong's more innovative advertisers. In any advertising climate, Sunday's </p><p>ads would be pretty unusual; in ultra-conservative Hong Kong, and in </p><p>telecoms, a sector not known for its risk-taking, they're positively </p><p>bizarre. Even by the telecoms company's standards, however, the latest </p><p>campaign is pretty wacky. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>One ad - featuring a human eyeball being lifted out of a bowl of noodles </p><p>on the end of a pair of chopsticks, has already caused a stir, racking </p><p>up several hundred complaints to the Television and Entertainment </p><p>Licensing Authority. If anything, another execution is even stranger: an </p><p>introduce-your-friends offer is promoted with an image of human heads in </p><p>a dim sum steamer. And then there's Sunday's history of in-your-face </p><p>ads, designed to back up the brand's 'Feels like Sunday'proposition: a </p><p>man punching passers-by in the street; the claim that nine out of 10 </p><p>Sunday users are handsome; the Independence Day number portability </p><p>campaign; and the Taxi Driver ghost-story campaign, that managed to </p><p>generate more than 2,000 complaints. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The people behind this apparently relentless quest to stretch the </p><p>boundaries of advertising lunacy are Sunday's chief marketing officer </p><p>Bing Zeat Mah, and BBDO's joint executive creative directors Paul Chan </p><p>and KC Tsang. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Ask Chan and Tsang to describe their campaigns down the years, and </p><p>you'll be greeted with an engaging hail of giggles; they obviously </p><p>relish their work, and love working on the account. Partly that's </p><p>because of the support they get from the client: "She's even more crazy </p><p>than the advertising," says Chan. "She buys these crazy ideas because </p><p>she's brave. She always wants to keep pushing it further." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Sounds like a creative team's dream account. The confident wackiness of </p><p>the Sunday work is the source of its strength, but it's also the source </p><p>of criticism that has been levelled at it. People, particularly in the </p><p>advertising industry, look at this succession of shock-horror executions </p><p>and see ads made by indulgent creatives, with no underlying strategy and </p><p>no consistent brand message. Not surprisingly, it's a viewpoint Chan </p><p>refutes. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"A lot of our colleagues in the advertising industry look at Sunday's </p><p>ads and say: 'It's another impact execution, but where's the </p><p>strategy?' </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"They convince themselves that there's no strategy behind it, because </p><p>that reassures them that the over-rigid way they work is the right way. </p><p>But I would ask anyone why the client never stops buying these </p><p>campaigns, if the strategy is wrong? Either the client is crazy, or it </p><p>works." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The Sunday brand was launched in 1997. Saatchi & Saatchi originally held </p><p>the account, before BBDO took it over that December, with OMD </p><p>responsible for media. Although shallower-pocketed than most of its </p><p>competitors, the brand has consistently been one of the highest </p><p>marketing spenders in its sector. The company says it "is committed to a </p><p>strategy of differentiating its products through consumer branding". </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>In that regard, the obvious comparison within the telecoms market is </p><p>with Orange, which broke the mould in a sector traumatised with </p><p>product-led advertising by, like Sunday, making its brand intensely </p><p>human and emotional. That's where the similarity ends. Where Orange is </p><p>cool, detached, serious, Sunday is humorous, iconoclastic, and fiercely </p><p>promotion-driven. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>That iconoclasm is driven by the client, says Chan, who generally turns </p><p>down about six campaign ideas for every one she accepts. "The client </p><p>loves the complaints," he says. "It's not a successful campaign if we </p><p>don't get complaints." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The promotion-led nature of the advertising (the last dozen campaigns </p><p>have all been promotional) shows that promotional ads don't have to be </p><p>uncreative. All the campaigns have sales targets, according to Chan, and </p><p>they hit them. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"People believe that if you've got a really good offer, you don't have </p><p>to be creative," he comments. "But anyone can match a good offer </p><p>tomorrow - there's so much competition in the market. The function of </p><p>advertising is to get people interested in the offer, to get an </p><p>emotional reaction - if you just rely on your offer, someone will always </p><p>come along with a better one </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"If you do a better offer but worse advertising, you lose. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"The most important thing is that the brand evolves with the reaction of </p><p>the audience," he adds. "We shouldn't really define the brand and say </p><p>'this is Sunday', because that means it doesn't develop." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Chan and Tsang seem to have a liking for impact ads: they were also </p><p>responsible for online share trading company E*Trade's recent </p><p>Ferrari-ramming spots (119 complaints at the last count). </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Chan comments: "That's another one where people say the ads aren't </p><p>strategic. But it met its targets in a third of the time, even with the </p><p>market falling and so many competitors." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Which is all very well, but it doesn't do much to alleviate the real </p><p>downside of this fondness for shock executions: "My family keep asking </p><p>me why I'm doing these horrible commercials," says Chan. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>