- Type 1 campaigns run on an idea which comes out of the brand and makes the promise discernable and desirable.
- Type 2 campaigns are built upon an executional device which often looks and smells like an idea but quickly runs out of steam. Often by the time it gets to the third execution.
- Type 3 campaigns lack a sound idea, or a connecting device, but will cling to a look and a typeface.
Peninsula: In the battle to out-posh each other, five-star hotels struggle to find differentiating ideas. This is a Type 2 campaign, driven by a visual device and headline that never change. However, the architecture is palatial and the guy, even in his casual clothes, is straight from GQ. It's perfectly Peninsula, but where does it go from here? More of the same I expect.
McDonald's: I imagine these are short-term, tactical posters so the burden of campaign longevity will never be the creative team's problem.
If it was, then executions are limited by the menu. But let's give these posters the idea versus device test. Branded ideas come from within the product, they leverage equities of the brand, they somehow belong to the brand and no other. Burgers and especially fries are generic products, therefore, using them as devices in this way doesn't maximise the power of McDonald's.
POD SingTel: One of the early signs of Type 2 campaign behaviour is that it becomes very easy, very quickly. Once you have that first visual sold then you can put it into the sausage machine for the rest. On the other hand, the first sign of a Type 1 campaign is that each successive execution surprises as much as the last, which made you smile a little more broadly than the one before that. Which makes POD archetypal Type 2. I noticed in the copy that this SMS service is free. Was that the real message?
Levi's: Idea-driven which makes it Type 1. The only campaign in this group where the team could have sold the idea before the client ever saw a visual. I have been sharing these ads with the gentleman in the passenger seat next to me (during a flight between Kuala Lumpur and Shanghai) who chuckled at the first worn out ad; said "Oh I see at the second one; then "Uh huh! at the third. By the fourth, he had decided that he would have thrown the people into dumpsters, or chucked them in a charity bin or heaved them into a wreckers yard. "That's what happens when things are worn out, he said. That's the problem with advertising. Everyone's a critic.
Recruit: This is not part of a campaign, it's a poster. Despite the fact that I was given a full description of the product and the reason why this poster was done, I didn't get it. The gentleman sitting next to me didn't get it either.
BBC: I like the BBC. I prefer it to CNN as a hotel room companion. I like its depth, its intelligence and its sense of humour. The fact that I find all three missing from this campaign, may be attributable to a cruel approval process, but most concerning of all I find something campaignable missing from this campaign. It exhibits Type 3 behaviour.
1 Peninsula
Project: Room for you all
Client: Peninsula
Brief: reinforce the point that the Peninsula is a premium hotel
Agency: DDB
Creative director: Mike Cozens, Colin Ruffell
Copywriter: Rand Denny
Art director: Darius Tang, Happy Kwong
Photographer: Eryk Fitaj
2 McDonald's
Project: Education
Client: McDonald's
Brief: encourage parents and kids to inculcate the value of reading
books.
Agency: DDB Philippines
Creative director: Roger Pe
Copywriter: Lambert De Guzman
Art director: G.I. Sabusio
3 SingTel
Project: Sue, that's a push up right?/FYI Kelvin, she's my ex/Ken, we
hate your girlfriend/By the way Ivy, I saw him first
Client: SingTel
Brief: to find your voice
Agency: Leo Burnett Singapore
Creative directors: Linda Locke, Tay Guan Hin
Copywriter: Victor Ng
Art director: Joh Loke
4 Levi's
Project: Crossing, Phone, Traffic, Tree
Client: Levi Strauss Asia-Pacific
Brief: deliver the message that Levi's Aged Jeans are made in such a way
that they look well worn.
Agency: Bartle Bogle Heagarty
Creative directors: Steve Elrick, Scott Mcclelland, Parag Tembulkar
5 Recruit
Project: Re-launch campaign
Client: Recruit
Brief: drive awareness of the paper's new distribution points
Agency: FCB Hong Kong
Creative director: Andy Wong
Copywriter: Tim Tong
6 BBC
Project: BBC World's Tune-In Campaign
Client: BBC World
Brief: drive regional viewership of the channel's non-news current
affairs, Asian business and lifestyle programming.
Agency: 141 Singapore
Creative Director: Petter Gulli
Copywriter: Anand Vathiyar
Art director: Abigail Liau
