Campaign Review: AFL’s ‘bloody great’ ads, Cadbury’s marketing miss and Red Cross’ unique campaign
Mumbrella invites the industry’s most senior creatives and strategists to offer their views on the latest ad campaigns. This week: Bashful’s strategy director, Guy Marshall, and PENSO’s Constantine Frantzeskos offer their views on AFL’s emotive campaign, Cadbury’s flat advertising, Coles’ simple brand promise and Red Cross’ hard-hitting ad.
Brand: AFL
Agency: Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
The Verdict: ‘Bloody great’ which is relevant and told perfectly
Guy Marshall, strategy director, Bashful, says:
“I don’t like to admit it, but on a Monday I often find myself in a fragile state of mind and have been known to shed a tear during a B-grade Netflix movie, the 7.30 report or some particularly emotive advertising. Each one of the films that make up the new AFL ‘Don’t Believe in Never’ campaign had me working hard not to openly weep in front of the entire agency. These are bloody great films.
“What footy marketing teams are starting to understand, and that the Australian Cricket team really doesn’t, is that sport is not just about spectacle, it is about stories. The tale of the underdog triumphing against the odds, the old champion with one more season left to prove they are truly great, the once-in-a-generation athlete that walks among us to transcend the limitations of the human form. Sport is a fabric onto which we project our desires and fears, our sense of ethics and the kind of world that we want.
I have a theory about Coles advertising, and that is that Coles doesn’t really need to advertise at all. In fact, if they stopped all advertising tomorrow, I doubt their market share would change.
This is because people don’t shop for food in the same way as occasional purchases.
For food and groceries, people simply go to their local supermarket as normal, as part of their regular routine, and they rarely, if ever, change that behaviour.
No one goes “Oh I think I’m going to go somewhere different because they have blahblah at 20c off”.
Trust me on that.
Interesting theory. Here’s another: advertising a supermarket brand prompts that (say) 5% of the population who live equidistant from both brands to opt more for one over the other. This translates to millions, if not billions, of dollars a year. I know I’ve chosen Woolies in the past only to realise as I drive the goodies home that I did it because they’re ‘the fresh food people’. Sucker.