The 3omdaz digest: Coca Cola

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Ramadan 2014 - Post 1 - CocaCola a7la ma3....?

Hello friends,
Ramadan Karim

Welcome back, I long to connect virtually with all of you kol sana, your feedback is what keeps me coming back every year with more passion and drive to give you some useful timekillers for your reading pleasures…

If this is your first time reading this, enjoy the ride (this is an advertising critique blog btw)! J

It’s no secret that Ramadan is becoming of less intensity since 2011.. With the current country conditions, economy slowdown, high inflation of advertising prices as well as a horrible business year in 2013 that affected nearly all marketing budgets of 2014.. making advertisers more cautious about where they’ll deploy their monies, thus making Ramadan a bit of a question mark rather than a non-missable advertising festival.. fa yeegi el marketer men dol y2ollak tab mana afokk Ramadan b 3 normal months and still generate the same viewership.. so its a trade off really..

So instead of advertisers fighting over who gets the first spot after Iftar, willing to pay up to double price for a premium position ad; we now see merely 3-4 ads in a 6 hour post-Iftar viewership period in the first day of Ramadan.

See, Ramadan is a game of muscle, so it doesn’t just stop on who can make a good ad... It’s also about who has the weight to keep airing that ad for a full month.. So they literally put their money where their mouth is… Add to that some mandate of advance payments from media suppliers so you find yourself paying millions of pounds in advance vs paying in 60-75 days post airing..

All these reasons combined make us see less ads than we did in years before, and that is why a lot of advertisers are now moving into other high impact alternatives that are relatively cheaper than TV; such as Digital Media, Youtube, On Ground Activations…etc

So I’ll quickly recap on the ads that actually did make it to TV screens in the first day of Ramadan

Mountain View:

Since last year and these guys have been doing impressive ads.. This time taking a bit over the edge with the Hulk Ads.. An exaggerated manifestation of how frustrating it could be to live in our wonderful Cairo..

I mean, who wouldn’t relate to such situations, being stuck in traffic for longer than you’d want, trying to sleep but the ruckus of good old Cairo just wouldn’t let you.

On a serious note though, I’m getting a bit tired of the extremism in all real estate ads lately (including those of Moussa Coast TVC 1 TVC 2 ) in showing how unbearable the country is; when you want to break free from the bourgeoisie status and live the American dream of a garden, dog and nice little white mailbox with a red flag..
Keep doing this a couple of years more and these compounds will get raided by the underprivileged who think it’s heaven on the other side of the fence… just saying

You can show how great your real estate project is without blaspheming the everyday life of an average Cairene.

Grade: B

Nestle - Mega Cookies:

Ever since Maxibon launch in 2012, Nestle IceCream have taken the route of retro Instagrammish colors, fused in with some black comedy..

A strategy that worked nicely in 2012, less in 2013 (KhodFeshar) and now this..

I’m not too sure what to make out of it, but my initial feeling was “eww”..

Although it literally list out the product attributes and what it does to you (functionally and emotionally), but I still feel a big disconnect between the context of the situation and the consumption moment.

There isn’t a lot of science behind why I don’t like it.. so I’ll have to go with gut feeling..
Not my cup of tea honestly..

Grade: C

Misr El Kheir:

A very cool visual transformation from laborer to school student, or from student to astronaut.. A mellow ad of how little things can make a big difference.. my only issue with it; The Cairokee overkill.. exhausted is an understatement.
While the song is actually not bad, but I’m not much in favor of اللي تغلب به, إلعب به theory.

The point about using celebrities in the ad is relevance, association and novelty.. It was a poor choice to recruit a talent that people have heard a million times in a million ads before, and who were much strongly associated with another brand.. Maybe if they would have went for more of an underground band and brought to stardom, it maybe would have played well in their favor.

Grade: B

Coca Cola – a7la ma3:

Saving best for last… obviously

It’s no secret that CocaCola Egypt has raised the bar of their ideation and advertising to a whole new level. So instead of advertising functionally saying how great the product is; they’re giving you reasons to fall in love with it more with every copy they produce… Thus working to be - as per Saatchi & Saatchi’s jargon - a Lovemark.

In this campaign, Coke have used a mix of being both a global and a local brand.. while getting the best of both worlds.

So while the name-on-Coke initiative is not a new idea (it was actually applied in a nationwide campaign in Australia 2012 , and awarded a Gold Lion in Cannes for the Best use of Outdoor); the way they executed the campaign locally however was very smart.

Instead of paying a gazillion dollars for sponsorship of one mega star.. they got a gazillion local stars/ mini-celebrities; each in his own field.. To make sure that no matter who is watching the copy; they would still relate by seeing a fellow friend/workmate on the TVC..

Below are only the ones I was able to identify... Feel free to add on to those if I missed out on any..

Abla Fahita, Mohamed M7asseb (DJ), Tameem Youness (Creative Director and known for Rasseeni video blog), Aly Mazhar (Personal trainer - Be Fit), Bibo w Beshir, Sayed Abu 7afiza, Hadrass & Fazza3 (Al Kabeer), 2ar2ar Sandood (Internet sensation of 2009 Valentine’s Day), Hossam Hosni, Mostafa Talaat aka Moos (Like Jelly Band), Cairokee Band, Omar Taher (Writer), Amina Khalil (Actress)

While being a global adaptation, the idea itself is a marvellous platform of sharing and multiplying sales… Imagine going into a 3ozooma and finding each and every person’s name on his custom-made bottle/can.. I have my reasons to love it of course J

While this was a nice campaign reveal, it would be very interesting to see how they use the learnings they got from their friends in Australia to translate a nice-to-see TV copy into a solid business case, so its not just about the TVC, its about how they stretch it further…

Australia grew sales by 7% in 3 months.. will witness another record from Egypt this year? We’ll have to wait and see

Nevertheless, Coke gave us a highly loved and shareable copy that we’d definitely love to see over and over again..

One dare though… can you make me this can? ;)

Grade: A

That's all I've got for you this time.. Stay tuned for more next time.

See u when I see you..

3omdaz

Ramadan 2013 - Post 1 - Where are my dam ads??

Hello friends,

It's Ramadan again, been a while since we've seen eachother.. hope everyone's keeping well amidst all the action we're living these days..

I don't see a need for a Ramadan drama series while we're living in one everyday... anyhow, I won't dwell into politics now, I'll just stick to what I know and what you're here to read.. ads critiques..

When talking about Ramadan ads this year, one can't help but ask, where are the dam ads?? With the 4th day of Ramadan kicking in now, we've only seen 5 brands on TV.. these are the ones we'll be tackling this time..
Back in the day, the first few days of Ramadan comprised a parade of the best creative work of the year, ppl wait for and evaluate the ads as much as they wait for the Ramadan content itself (Serials, Programs...etc)

This year is different though, only few brands are on air for now.. Just to give you some perspective on whats going on behind closed doors of ad and media agencies, and advertising clients conference rooms these days.. below are the reasons why:

1. Too much to choose from:

With the media fragmentation in the market now, 30+ serials, 20+ entertainment programs and a plethora of religious programs on around 15-20 channels.. the advertisers themselves are confused, which channels to air on, will the Nour El Sherif serial be hit or fail? Are people still watching Yossra or is Amir Karara and co stealing the spotlight from the older generation.. so advertisers are actually quite reluctant where to spend their (believe it or not) limited money.. so what they do is take a step back for the first couple of days, do a screening and filtration process, a bit of quantitative and qualitative research of who's watching what.. then decide on which baskets they'll place their eggs this year.

2. Market inflation:

There has been a horrific inflation in advertising rates of Ramadan, as in HORRIFIC.. ya3ni elli kan b 100 el sana eli fatet, el sana di b2a b 250.. so if u had budgeted ur advertising plans at 5 Million EGP.. now you need around 12 Million.. which is a drastic jump.. so what people have done is either succumb and just pay whatever the price tag says (and probably run out of budget by Ramadan 10th).. or wait and further negotiate with the media owners that el rates di "mesh 7atakol" bel baladi keda.. This puts decent pressure on the media suppliers who will not be able to sustain empty air time for a long time, thus drop their rates and we see more of advertising.

3. Cautious Silence:

A friend asked a very good question yesterday, where the hell are the telecom operator ads? Its a first that we dont see a Vodafone or Mobinil ad on the first day of Ramadan. I'm not sure why either but probably everyone is cautiously anticipating the rise of TE (Telecom Egypt), the 4th Mobile Carrier due to launch now.. maybe a restriction from the NTRA (National Telecom Regulatory Authority)?? we'll see..

This can still apply to other categories as well.. Where head-to-head competitors who cautiously await when their competition will strike so they can retaliate.

Enough literature w raghy 3al fady.. lets look at the ads..
Disclaimer bas saree3.. friends and colleagues.. This is a personal opinion, no hard feelings.. You know how much I respect you and your work.

One last thing before I start:

In our journey in life, we meet, love and lose people along the way.. I would like to dedicate this post to Ihab Hazem; aka Bob (Creative Director at FP7), who passed around a month ago.. Although I don't know you personally, but your contribution to the business and how inspirational you were to those around you is definitely remarkable.. Rest In Peace..

OK... here we go:

1. CocaCola.. Leih la2

So Coke is the first to advertise this year.. as usual punctual and leading the game.. with a redundant message unfortunately.

The ad in its essence is not bad, unity and togetherness are all noble values that we as Egyptians seemed to have forgotten and should be reminded of.. But the fact that it comes after a series of ads that more or less look and sound the same make people feel "Yeah, there goes another Coke ad".. The tie up with CairoKee and Aida El Ayoubi was quite nice the first couple of times.. now it got a bit boring honestly.. although the girl in this one is not Aida, a young lady called Nesma I believe (who more or less sounds like Aida).
Plus given the relatively uncluttered ad break (so far), we see the ad a LOT.. let alone it being a redundant ad.. I'm sure people will get sick of it by first week of Ramadan.. except if they're smart enough to kick in tactical copies stemming out from the principle ad.. we'll have to wait and see..

Grade: B- (so far at least)

2. Birell:

Taurus:

Cancer:

Aries:

Gemini:

As usual, the one-campaign-a-year brand comes back with a memorable campaign as they always do.. this time with major production budgets that enabled them to shoot 12 different copies to air throughout the month..

Cornering your brand in one communication platform can be quite challenging because Birell has been saying "Manhood" for the past 5-6 years minimum and there hasn't been much left to say.. But our friends at KTP (King Tut Playground) always find a way back and they come back BIG... 12 copies showcasing 12 different characters of different horoscopes... We have seen just 4 of which so far, but i'm sure the rest will follow..

A smart story line tackling the same party from 12 different POVs and I love how they always add their contribution to the daily slang... They've been saying Estargel for so long it became boring, now they changed it to Estazkar... A word that I'm sure people will start using on the street very soon..

Love what I've seen so far.

Grade: A-

Pepsi:

I'm not sure exactly what to make out of this one, its not even an ad.. But what it seems is that someone's cooking something.. something BIG..

Pepsi and Chipsy joining forces means it is something that none of them could carry on their own, which is even scarier because we're talking about the biggest 2 advertisers in the country..

Just connecting some dots, Chipsy and Pepsi, together, on the biggest TV channels in the Arab World, Nekammel lammetna... Nostalgia.... hmmm..... I heard some word about Fouad El Mohandes, Nelly & Sherihan... Did anyone say Fawazeer?

Stay tuned... It reveals tomorrow :)

Grade: lessa shwaya

Labanita:

Talk about a revamp... haha..

KTP comes back again with a brilliant copy.. A milk producer that has been there for the past God-knows-how-long, a boring pack and a more or less similar offering to anything else on the market..

What better than to blow it up completely and defame its heros..

For years, Soad and Sawsan have been the face of the brand.. Now it seems they've turned bad it was time to let them go... in style

Also love the closing line there: Kefaya Ba2ar Ba2a... Political insinuation... anyone? :) Makes me even like it more now..

Grade: A

Maxibon:

Never liked the old one, this one doesn't change my opinion much honestly..

I'm not sure how to justify my judgement there... I just dont like it..

I believe they raised the bar so high after last year's copy, they got trapped in how to take it further.. and this copy was the outcome..

Bad.. just bad

Grade: C

That's pretty much if for this time.. Grades might change as more copies of the same campaign unfold..

Hopefully next time we meet we can have some more ads and content to discuss.

Adios,

3omdaz

Ramadan 2011 - Day 1 Commercials Critique

أصدقائي صديقاتي..

رمضان كريم..

Its been some time since we've met; its been quite........ an eventful year to say the least..

Over the past 8 months we've seen a lot of peaks and troughs; a mix of emotions; ups and downs, hopes and disappointments..

But with festive seasons such as this one, wel "ayyam el moftaraga" di; comes hope of a better day and wishes that things would become better.. If they're not getting better; at least we'll wish they'd stay as they once were..

So I decided to let time stop here; put all the politics aside and keep the below as pure joy of watching a good piece of advertising.

Disclaimer:

Since last year; I've been gathering some opinions and "critiques of the critique" regarding this blog; and some people told me that they thought I was being too lenient sometimes because I knew the advertiser or the creative team who worked the ad...

With that being said, I'll be more critical this year and will take whatever comes along with a pinch of salt.. Just for the sake of making this industry better (well; doing my part at least)..

So fellow advertisers, clients and friends... its just business, nothing personal here :)

Lets take a look on who kicked off so far and how they've done..

Coca Cola:

Although this ad scored well with a lot of people thusfar; however the purpose of this blog is to evaluate and critique genuine art of Egyptian creative minds... With that being said, I will not evaluate nor grade this one as it is a copy-paste job from a global copy that aired earlier this year with Coke celebrating 125 years of launch..

I really pity both the Coke marketing team as well as the creative agency for not having the chance to shine nor the space to rocket-launch; especially after such an impressive track-record over the past 3-4 years.

Personally speaking; I'm an original ideas junkie, copycats are a complete turn-off to me; so I looked away after the first 5 seconds; once I saw it was adapted.. but I'll leave the judgement up to you..

The Global copy launched earlier this year

The localized copy launched this Ramadan in Egypt

Grade: N/A (but very VERY disappointed)

Since Coke does have a very impressive track-record and have proven time and time again that they're one of the most original advertisers out there in the market; I'll give them a bit of a break and showcase the below viral; a very inspirational video of the "Like" button... Although its been released about 2 months back; but it still shows that the above wasn't really the best fruit of their work and that they can do much much better!

Pepsi:

Obviously there's still a lot left for this one.. We'll be seeing more of this, meet the 3 different characters of Donia Samir Ghanem and get to know them better.. Probably there will be a voting bit involved too.

Maybe SMS voting proceedings will go to charity; note "w ya reitha kanet leya, di l 7aga ensaneyya".

We'll see...

So far.. an average copy.. nothing impressive there either..

Grade: B-

Vodafone:

My initial thoughts...... "hmmm, really? Thats all you got??"

A couple of quick thoughts on the same though..

1. Its smart to use Samir Ghanem and Nelly (as they're the ones who always used to bring us joy during Ramadan back in the day) and asking them to thank whoever they thought would deserve a thank you; their mentors/partners...etc... Aseela ya Vodafone, feeki el kheir..

2. Although the ad itself didn't make me feel as festive and happy as it should've; it would be very smart to roll it out on the ground by actual "Thank you" activities; real people doing real good; this would make people feel special, feel loved.. I believe this is what will be done in their CBC Program; "Shokran with Sherif Mounir" that will start broadcasting today at 10 pm.

We'll see how this one will unfold... but taking the copy separately; apart from any complements that might come later; I don't think too highly of it..

My feeling is that Vodafone wants to shove it up Etisalat's face for their copy last year.... lel asaf... lam tanga7!

One more thing... am I the only one getting extremely bothered with the jingle... shokran shokran shokran shokran shokran shokran shokran shokran.... ssshhhhhhhh BASSSSS!!!!

Grade: B-

Etisalat:

CSR copy... what can I say.... eshta!

Don't feel too intrigued to watch it again honestly.

I don't think this one will stop here... Probably a side-kick copy to THE corporate ad they'll probably release later on..

Grade: B-

Mobinil:

CSR:

Again another CSR copy by Mobinil, but I'd have to say.. Its very well thought, doesnt come short of what to expect from Leo Burnett..

The hands that cook, the hands that build....etc.. I like that!

One thing worth pondering though; they promised jobs for 200,000 hands? tab mat2oolo jobs for 100,000 people w khalas? lol

Grade: B+

Mobinil Business:

Although this one launched about 1 week before Ramadan, it can still be considered part of the same season.

This one is just great; colorful; choreography very nicely done by the Alissar Caracalla dance group (Choreography instructor at Star Academy).. Makes you feel real happy watching it

Grade: A-

Again I don't expect Mobinil to stop here... As the above were copies for CSR and Enterprise/Business, we did not see anything for Mobinil Corporate (ie: The BIG Mobinil ad of the year)..

The Leo Burnett team have quite a challenge on their hands since:

1. They need to make up for last year's disaster (Alf Leila w Leila copy with Edward and Aimee Samir Ghanem)

2. They need to cover up all the heat that is surrounding Sawiris and Mobinil for the past 3 months since the whole Twitter cartoons issue.

Anyways, thats just a quick round up of what's been released so far.. I'm sure after Iftar today there will be a lot of ad releases giving us plenty material we can start looking into... yummy :)

Have a great Ramadan everyone..

See u next time..

3omdaz

Pre-Ramadan warm-up act - Coke VS Pepsi

Hello friends,

Its been just a bit under a year since we've last met, there’s been quite a lot happening over these past couple of months, I believe advertising critiques wouldn’t be too relevant to what the country was going through since Jan 25… And since the ad season is coming up soon (Summer and Ramadan) w kol sana wento tayyebeen…. 2olt astafta7 b ta2too2a kda 3al khafeef.. haha!

Moving on; since the Revolution and the stepdown; we’ve seen all kinds of reform initiatives and positive patriotic messages from numerous brands (as if they suddenly remembered they were Egyptians). These ranged from pathetic attempts of commercializing the revolution with mobile ringtones, lame jingles and a commercial disaster such as لحاف الثورة (The Revolution Quilt) to respectable initiatives that relate to the brand and the current situation eg: Henkel’s El Balad Baladna campaign.

Here I’m just showcasing the 2 advertising giants in the country of the same category so we’d be comparing apples to apples, Pepsi VS CocaCola.

Before I begin, I just want to point out that a lot of people see both ads extremely similar, actually some think they’re both one-n-the-same, so I’ll attempt to scrutinize both to pin point the differentiators in each then give my judgment at the end of the post.

Pepsi:

The tone here is quite modern/upbeat.. The people in the ad are mostly tech-savvy youth dressed up in their fedoras and postmen bags, armed with I-Phones and FB posts.. Unfortunately, not all Pepsi users are of such profile.

Agreed that the revolution was a “digital revolution”, and the whole digital scene is becoming more “in” since Jan 25.. But the digital bit of the revolution was restricted to a certain group of people who were always connected with their instant FB/twitter updates and speak-to-tweet on-the-ground updates, the rest of the rebels just followed offline. So I believe it’s a bit too risky to generalize as there’s a major portion of the target audience left out here

Also the ad’s catchphrase is pretty genuine بكرة بدأ بفكرة – Tomorrow started with an idea.. But the execution was a bit over-complicated that it lost the essence of the idea… By a show of hands, how many of you related the brown bubble popping out the heads of people in the ad as the “Pepsi idea” that will make tomorrow better?? Did u even notice that people are walking around with brown bubbles over their heads? Seriously, how many of you, 30-50%? So this is us, the “sophisticated” chunk of society, when coming to show this to the rest of the Pepsi target group who are not so “sophisticated”, it’d be a bit naïve to think it’ll sink or register with a lot of them.

So generally I think there are 2 directions of why this ad came out the way it did:

1. Pepsi is moving into being a niche brand, thus they’re talking only to a certain target group that dress, behave and think the same way – Which means they’re shooting themselves in the foot as this group of people does not exceed 3% of the population, thus their revenues and marketshare would eventually take a dip.

2. They’re still targeting the same people, but unfortunately the way the ad is manifested missed out on the majority of their consumers.

So either way, I don’t think Pepsi did a great job here..

What I really like about their campaign though is how they’ve used the jingle to promote the whole campaign.. Generally I’m a fan of using music in promoting brands (specifically that one of Pepsi’s main communication platforms is music).

Pepsi used the “voice of the revolution”; Amir Eid to sing their jingle for the new ad, in order to capitalize on Sot El Horeyya’s popularity.. Then they capitalized further on the jingle by airing it as a normal full song on radio stations so it’d sink in more with the people..

One thing to note though; Amir Eid and his band Cairokee did the jingle for CocaCola’s thematic campaign in Summer 2009…. Bummer!

Coca-Cola:

This one is pretty straightforward, strictly focusing on its slogan: tomorrow will definitely be better!

The cinematography is extremely expressive and is a true reflection of what the country is going through at this time.. From a gloomy cloudy phase that evolves into a sunny and brighter tomorrow.

The magic word in this copy is simplicity.. It shows real Egyptians, real people; the average Jo you see on the street (well, the average 7anafi for that matter). It shows real places from Cairo; the more I watch the Coke ad, the more I think the Pepsi ad was shot abroad (although its not, if you take a closer look)

Plus it directly touches upon the “Egypt is now open for business” attitude.. So Coke says: Get up, dust urself off, work ur brains out to make this country better for you and your children.

We’re all in the same boat here, we’re all throwing hooked ropes in the sky, each and every one of us. That’s why this copy would score higher on affinity than others.

Verdict:

Coke definitely won this round (by knockout kaman).. Maybe because they had a longer copy duration to showcase their ideas (1 minute vs Pepsi’s 30 seconds), but even with a longer Pepsi copy I’d pick Coke as the idea is much clearer.

Anyways, it doesn’t matter if you think that tomorrow started with an idea or if you want to make tomorrow better.. Either way, keep on smiling, work harder, be better and make this country a better place.

That’s all this time folks,

Take care,

3omda

Mid-Ramadan Commercials Critique - Part 2

Hi there,

A quick sequel to yesterday's post, because after I posted yesterday's review, some ads were released only yesterday and this morning... so consider this a quickie before the weekend!

1. El Misrieen Corporate - White Cheese:
Maybe I have a soft spot towards local brands that do high-quality ads, but is this ad great or what?
I love how they took a song from the deep roots of the Egyptian culture and turned it around, great copy-writing there.
However, I wasn't so sure about the bit where they tear down the old logo, also the fact that the factory was old, dusty w 2ayel lel soqoot.. for me it shows that the company was at sub-par level before, then after the revamp it became great..
They should show continuous and consistent quality... or am I over-analyzing things?

Anyways.. I like the ad, good stuff!

Grade: B+

2. Sprite Lemon and Lime Ramadan 2010 - Promo 2

The Lemon and Lime characters are back with yet another copy..

This one has a mix of fiery, more daring statements (clear reference to arch-rival, 7UP), with some good old non-sense for HA-HA purposes (I'm not sure if it worked for u or not, it hasn't for me, except for the "Ghazat" part)!

As mentioned in a previous review (although I personally like these ads), but they're so extreme to the extent that I got some feedback from people who said they'll stop drinking Sprite because they think the ad is horrible.. So its either ADORE or DESPISE, no middle ground..

You choose....

Grade: B

3. Coca Cola Happiness in Cafe - Making:

Personally, I think that shooting this TVC was much harder than following a written script.. You don't know which table will order first, you don't know how people will react and you have ONE SHOT to make it work (for ppl outside the advertising field, it can take you 3 days to shoot a 30" spot).

Personally I think going for activations and BTL is a brilliant idea for the below reasons:

Recruiting brand loyalists from within the target will definitely create a lot of buzz around the brand.. Imagine yourself one of these ppl in the cafe, and you won yourself a PS3 or an LCD courtesy of Coke.. How many ppl will you call on the way back home to tell them about it, and how many ppl will these ppl talk to.. until your story becomes "a friend of a friend" legend.. The hardest medium to infiltrate and evaluate/monetize is "Word of Mouth", it also happens to be the one with the highest impact. Get people talking about your brand positivley, you're made! :)
Low cost: Although I can imagine that setting this up and getting it right at the first and only time was HELLACIOUS, but the cost of producing this TVC is a fraction of cost compared to any other commercial (even if you account for all the prizes that they gave away).. So its a smart and cost-effective move.
Pepsi didn't come this year: I know this too much of literal translation, but really "PEPSI magatsh this Ramadan"... Maybe they have an agenda, maybe they had a problem, thats not the point at discussion here.. Either way, Coke made use of that intentional/coincidental absence and I bet brand health stats will go over the roof after these ads.

Grade: N/A, I already graded the copy before..

Thats it for now...

I'll see u next week Inshallah with more ads and reviews,

Ciao,

3omda

Mid-Ramadan Commercials Critique

Afternoon fellas...

Its mid-Ramadan already, hope u made the best of it..
And if u didnt... yadob tel7a2 :)

I believe by now most of the brands have unveiled their copies already, except if Pepsi have something HUGE in store to make up for their failure this year (I got an anonymous comment a couple of days ago that this might be by choice, not a force majeur issue; which is a respectable POV)..
But I think if Pepsi did this by choice, then its even a bigger problem, letting go of advertising in a high-consumption month wouldnt serve their market share too well..

This one won'e be too much of a "critique", because I just realized that most of the ads I have on this post are ads that I like, coincidentally.. But you definitely have the right to disagree and debate

Yalla beena...

1. Coca Cola Happiness 2 - The Cafe:

I'm starting to like these, although I've been still getting comments that they're fake (eg: no one would order a Coke in a cafe kda... i dont know, the order looks fake).. But I LOVE the fact that I can walk away with a PS3 just for drinking a can of Coke..
Besides, it didnt just stop at a guy with a bullhorn-mic and some confetti falling from the ceiling like in the supermarket copy..
The stuff they did (Agmad wa7ed fel donia sign, PS3, the musical parade and of course going back home with a free LCD) made people GENUINELY smile and laugh their hearts out, you can tell from the looks on their faces...

I can't wait to see el far7a el gayya fein indeed! :))

Grade: A

2. Palm Hills - Choose Life Corporate Copy:

Its not really my field of expertise, but why do I get a feeling that the whole ad is a series of stock footage that just reflects the script (reflects it beautifully though)...

So there wasn't really a lot of effort/production done here.. Get some readily available stock videos, add music, dub our beloved Omar El Sherif's VO on it and you've got yourself an ad..

I like the ad though; the script flows nicely, the footage is expressive (even if its "borrowed") and Omar El Sherif's voice can sell u anything.

Grade: B

3. Schweppes Gold:

Although the ad is fine... average ya3ni.. But I have a personal problem with adapted global copies.. The ad does not feel Egyptian and definitely does not look Egyptian..

I believe this country is so cultured, full of history and rich with ideas. That is why I feel that brands that adapt global/regional copies take the "easy way out"..

I know that it is not always easy to pull out production budget for each and every single project but if you want to infiltrate the biggest market in the region with a proper copy that would deliver on your ROI, then you might as well pay the price for it.

Grade: B-

4. Scib - Mahmoud Saeed:

I completely love this one, colorful, insightful, cheerful... You'd want to watch it over and over again, and every time it would draw a smile on your face.

Memories are indeed crafted on walls and stay for tens and even hundreds of years sometimes.

Two Thumbs up to LB Cairo for the effort spent on this one.. A lot of "art" is behind this TVC, real art!!

Grade: A

5. Vodafone Celebration:

Although I hated the 2 other copies of this campaigns, but this one is definitely better than the previous 2..

The music remains the same, but this edit is much more "festive", the production quality is better.. thus making the ad look generally good.

Grade: B-

6. LG - Tamer & Shaw2eya:

The Korean white-goods giant returns with probably one of their strongest campaigns ever in the Egyptian market..

Although I'm not a fan of the Egyptian version of Dharma and Greg, and absolutely HATE the Shaw2eya character, but I have to admit the ads are humorous, insightful and educational..

The beauty here is that the T&S characters represent 2 extremes in the Egyptian social spectrum, and how they'd respond differently to LG's high-tech gadgets.

Tamer the A-class socialite , well educated and articulate gentlemen explains the benefits of each LG product to his wife Shaw2eya, the C-class, "Ol Englsh Ol za tayem" kind of character, but who aspires to be someone better and higher on the social scale..

So here they carried out a preemptive strike by depicting all the questions that a C-class person might ask about their products (Shaw2eya), and have another consumer answer them (Tamer) in a simple, humorous and informative manner..

Great job DDB..

Grade: A

7. Shay El Aroosa

Now this is exact opposite of what Schweppes did a couple of paragraphs above.. they took the details of the day-to-day life of the average Egyptians and looked for moments where tea came into play within that moment.

Although some people thought the ad is too cliché... I believe its very well researched, consumer and usage insights are spot on, the song is great.

True, that Al Aroosa tea is THE tea in Egypt, of all classes.. great way to uplift the image of a brand with such heritage in this country..

A beautiful ad, just beautiful...

Grade: A

8. Fantaloup Activation and TVC

I had given the Fantaloup TVC a B-, causing some heat with friends at Coke.. and I had promised to give my full opinion when the rest of the campaign unfolds.. Well, it just did and it KICKS ASS!!

To complement the TVC's idea and theme, Fantaloup went ahead with some ambient BTL placements in key areas.. Ala the Parliament elections signs (which are very popular in C-D classes), everyone in most neighborhoods now is supporting Mesil7i, the poor dude who'll lose his job if Fantaloup doesnt sell..

Great idea, low cost, high impact... Two thumbs up and a hat off!!

Grade: a very proud A

Hope u enjoyed this one...

Till we meet again, Adios!

3omda