The Annual 2006: Campaign of the Year - Sony Bravia
Campaign 15-Dec-06
Fallon's inspired creative vision devised the 'colour like no other' campaign, which propelled Sony's Bravia brand to the top spot in the LCD TV market.
There can be few campaigns in the past 12 months that have galvanisedpublic and professional opinion quite as extensively as Fallon's workfor Sony Bravia. If you enter the word "advert" into Google, Sony's bravia-advert.com site pops up as the second result. It's not a paid
link, merely a measure of the brand advertising's popularity.
Competition from Wieden & Kennedy's "Joga Bonito" for Nike and WCRS's"118 team" ads for 118 118 was fierce, but great creative work, provensales success and a glittering array of awards means Fallon has scoopeda rare double this year - Campaign of the Year and Agency of theYear.
The past year has presented a number of challenges for Sony Electronicsas City analysts questioned if the company would ever recover from thecrisis caused by a sharp drop in its share price last year.
Sony had already lost the portable MP3 player market to Apple, so itwas vital for it to be strong in what will be the biggest consumerelectronics battleground for the next few years - the high-definitionLCD TV market.
Bravia's launch needed to drive strong sales in a market that lacksdifferentiation: the key players still all offer comparable quality andstrikingly similar design features. A fierce price war meant that Braviatelevisions were at least £200 more expensive than the competitionwhen the brand launched.
The marketing tasks were simple but challenging: make Bravia famous andestablish it as the leading TV brand. The strategy? Own the high ground,avoid any technobabble, establish Bravia as the ultimate consumer LCD TVand offer a short-cut to the benefit of the brand over itscompetition.
The "colour like no other" campaign broke in November 2005, but thestrategy only really came into its own this year. "Balls" garnered astring of awards and was eventually given a sequel - "paint". Bravia'sownership of the high ground - both in advertising and the TV market -has been unassailable over the past year.
"Colour like no other" was developed as an integrated idea by Fallon inconjunction with Sony's media agency, OMD, and the communicationsplanning outfit Naked.
The simple message was designed to work across territories and media. Itlaunched with a teaser campaign, followed by TV and cinema spots, andwas backed up with print, PR, an online "making-of" film, digitalescalator panels and point of sale materials.
In both of its executions, "colour like no other" was launched in threephases. First came hype. Amateur footage taken of the paint detonationin Glasgow was posted on websites, including Flickr, YouTube and GoogleVideo.
Next, the launch. Both TV ads broke in the half-time break of ChampionsLeague games. The launch spots were spread online and then backed upwith a showcase phase in which the ads ran in "sit-forward" TV shows andfilms.
The results were almost instantaneous. In the six weeks that followedthe launch of the "balls" ad, Sony's share in the LCD TV market was thehighest it had been in two years. In April, five months into thecampaign, the Financial Times reported that the Sony Electronicsbusiness was starting to turn around. The paper cited the Braviacampaign as one of the key factors.
So far, "balls" has been viewed more than four million times on YouTube,making it the most popular ad in the history of the site. OMD estimatesthat the total number of views of the ad online as more than sevenmillion. "Paint" appears to be emulating its predecessor's success, withSony now the leading manufacturer in the LCD TV market and stillcharging a premium for its sets.
Nike The company had it all to do for its World Cup effort. Over theyears, it has achieved a number of successes, despite not being anofficial sponsor. The objective in 2006 was to reinforce Nike's positionas the leading football brand in Europe, and boost its credentials as adefender of the beautiful game.
The problem MindShare, the company's media agency, had was that themessage had to be simple enough for football-crazy kids here to identifywith, while still delivering on the objective of shiftingperceptions.
Titled "Joga Bonito" (Portuguese for "beautiful game"), and revolvingaround a series of expensive-looking TV spots from Wieden & KennedyAmsterdam, the campaign spawned some clever ideas that helped amplifyabove-the-line spend. First, MindShare created the Joga 3 footballtournament, pitting two teams of three against each other on a smallpitch and using the harder Futsal ball. The agency then worked to buildinterest around the culmination of the event - a live final at the thenhome of Arsenal football club, Highbury.
From running bespoke poster ads near the schools of regional tournamentwinners, to having a voicemail from Wayne Rooney sent to participants'mobiles, interest levels were boosted by clever media planning. To cashin, MindShare also struck a deal with Sky, which saw the broadcasterproduce a series of DALs (digital advertiser locations) via itsred-button technology, to broadcast the Joga 3 final live and run somegreat branded content.
More than 40,000 kids took part in Joga 3, more than 500,000 peoplewatched the core piece of branded content (a show about the soul ofBrazilian football), 300,000 visited the DALs and 900,000 viewerswatched the final.
118 118 The major challenge facing WCRS for 118 118 has changeddramatically since the launch of the company three years ago, when twogeeky runners captured the interest of the general public.
Mark Horgan, the chief executive of 118 118, says: "Competition hasre-intensified, and the national interest in the deregulation hasdecreased. The 118 numbers are no longer new - they are maturingbusinesses."
This means fresh communications are more essential in a low-interest,low-outlay area.
WCRS's strategy had to change to reflect the fact that the brand was nota new-starter, but was now a market leader. It did this by extending thecreative idea while exploiting different media channels.
The 118 118 boys went in a new direction with the creation of the 118Team (including an ad with a junior Mr T having his hair cut).
However, the brand was also extended to incorporate a viral - ahilariously funny spoof of the Honda "choir" ad, which was seen by morethan 1.2 million people.
Part of the strategy was to invest in idents, putting the brand next toLost, one of Channel 4's most popular programmes at the time, and givingit the chance to deliver more than 50 separate product messages. Therewas also a media-first of six sonic bus shelter posters that had theboys talking to anyone who walked past.
The campaign has succeeded in pushing the company's preferred choicestatus from 37 per cent to 57 per cent, while BT has gone from 27 percent to just 29 per cent. It achieved this by refusing to conform to theestablished norm of over-spending on its marketing communicationsstrategy.
Recent winners: Stella Artois (2005); Honda (2004); 118 118 (2003); JohnSmith's (2002); ITV Digital (2001)
HIGHLIGHTS OF 2006
- February: 2006 "Balls" makes its debut on London Underground digitalescalator panels. A 30-second bespoke ad runs on a 60-second loop atTottenham Court Road.
- March: "Balls" wins a gold at the BTAAs and platinum at the CreativeCircle Awards.
- May: The awards success continues with two D&AD silvers. ClemmowHornby Inge launches a spoof of the ad for Tango, using fruit instead ofballs.
- June: "Balls" walks off with two film golds at the Cannes Lions.
- July: Jonathan Glazer is lined up to direct "paint", the sequel to"balls". He shoots the ad in Glasgow later that month.
- August: YouTube, Flickr and Google Video feature amateur footage of"paint"; Sony posts more footage on the bravia-advert.com site.
- October: "Paint" launches in the Champions League football matchbetween FC Copenhagen and Manchester United.
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