The retturn of the exhibittionist

Exhibittionist retturns

Audi’s recent TV commercial for the new Audi TT, which was originally created for Audi Spain and adapted by Ogilvy Johannesburg for South Africa, aims to challenge the audience through provocative art direction and sophisticated design, culminating in revealing the new car. It has also been extended into an interactive microsite, www.audi.co.za/tt/microsite.

According to Audi SA national brand manager Ryan Blumrick, “The ad takes its cue from the inner workings of the human body and its perfect design and combines it with the world of advanced technology. It draws on the physical and emotional reactions of the body to a car of such awe-inspiring design, hence the line ‘the thrill of pure design’.”

Continues Blumrick, “The online space is entertaining, engaging and completely synergistic with the TV commercial. At any given time, the screen is filled with a portion of a 3D line-drawn body in the same architectural style as the TV commercial. Features of the new Audi TT are likened to different part of the body, that is, the eye the photo gallery, the brain the ESP functionality and the heart the engine.”

The outdoor campaign, in the form of billboards on highways and in shopping centres, introduces the Audi TT as a design icon and uses the double T of TT in the headlines (“The Retturn,” “The Exhibittionist”, “Red lightt district”) as mnemonic that reinforces the brand.

Click here to view the ad (3MB)

Winning the dream

Coinciding with the radio station’s 10th birthday celebrations, one listener stands the chance to win a R2 million house, a R300 000 car and R1 million in cash in the 94.7 Highveld Stereo and Emperors Palace Get the Life promotion. Possibly the biggest prize to ever be given away on South African radio, it follows on from last year’s New Year’s Revolution promotion, in which a R1.5 million house and a R270 000 car were given away.

“The Get the Life promotion offers us the perfect opportunity to be top of mind among Highveld listeners for a six week period,” explains Mandy Waddington, Emperors Palace marketing manager.

“We chose to do the promotion over the January - February period because we thought this the ideal time to get people revved up for the New Year. Last year’s promotion worked extremely well and we have no doubt this year will be the same.” There were almost 9000 new Winners Circle registrations during last year’s six-week promotional period.

Entry into the Get the Life competition has been made extra easy this year, with five different points of entry, including sms, phone line, online, mobile web and at Emperors Palace itself. The promotion kicked off on 29 January 2007 and will run until 1 March, when the draw takes place.

Ten, not seven

Commissioned by The Agency, Johannesburg-based animation and special effects specialists Depth VFX’s animated commercials for Telkom, “10 Digits”, reminds viewers to remember to now include the local and national area code to all telephone numbers. The 60-second and four 20-second cut-downs for both TV and cinema are Telkom’s first character-driven ads.

According to Depth VFX, each scene within the commercial is an independent story and standalone commercial, where each number was designed as an individual character. So in total, for example, the 60-second commercial contains 40 separate characters. Four animators finished more than 75 seconds of animation, of all forty characters, in the seven week period from the initial go-ahead up until research and flighting.

“10 Digits” has been flighting on SABC in English, Afrikaans, Zulu and Sotho, MNet in English and Afrikaans and e.tv in English, as well as on the big screen at Ster-Kinekor and Nu Metro.

Click here to view the ad (1MB)

Cricket chips

In the series of eight Lays television commercials flighting in the run-up to the Cricket World Cup, rugby legend Francois Pienaar gets a lesson in cricket jargon from South Africa’s cricket greats: Herschelle Gibbs, Mark Boucher, AB de Villiers and Makhaya Ntini.

The ex-Springbok captain is more interested in eating the chips being used to demonstrate how the game is played than learning about cricket. To tie in with the West Indies, host country of the ICC Cricket World Cup, the advert was shot on Windmill Beach in Cape Town where an authentic Caribbean shack was built.

Net#work BBDO executive creative director Julian Watt says, “Celeb advertising can be hugely powerful and it’s not just about riding on their fame with a logo at the end. Francois is really a team player and genuinely took it in the head for the team. What a champ!”

Keeping cool

A refreshing drink of mineral water during summer is even more appealing when advertised on a cool blue watery background in busy shopping centres around South Africa. This was the premise behind Primall Media’s mall media campaign for Bonaqua during the last quarter of 2006.

The Bonaqua visuals were applied on directory information boards, escalators and impressive glass walls, comprising hundreds of individual stickers to complete an overall image. The campaign flighted at the Eastgate, Fourways, Brooklyn, Tyger Valley and Pavillion shopping centres across the country.

Banking on the unknown

BBDO Cape Town’s newly launched campaign for Capitec Bank, which was shot by Keith Rose on location in Buenos Aires, tells a universal story illustrating how simple, smart ideas change fortunes. The launch ad will be followed by a series of retail ads.

Explains Carl Fischer of Capitec Bank, “Our intention was to immediately connect with our target audience and create an emotive association with our brand. The simple rags to riches story highlights our position as a bank for the people while allowing clients to understand the benefits of our ongoing innovations.”

Adds Nic Bednall, MD at BBDO Cape Town, “We set out to tell a unique story with characters that were completely unknown to the local market, with the idea of ensuring suspension of disbelief and creating an experience that is visceral and immediate. The choice of the foreign setting and the match theme is significant as we didn’t wanted the viewer to think ‘banking’ while watching the ad, we wanted them to be inspired with a sense of possibility.”

Click here to view the ad (3MB)