The 3omdaz digest: Sprite

Showing posts with label Sprite. Show all posts

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

Ramadan 2010 - Day 11 Commercials Critique

Morning peeps, hope you had a chilled weekend!

Its funny I was apoligising a couple of days ago for a short post and complaining that there aren't enough ads on Youtube... Well, I got my wish granted, so this one is going to be quite a rich one..

So.... Lets dig right into it...

1. Chevrolet Aveo:
The FP7 team make it again with one fantastic ad... beautiful, just beautiful!
Its funny, witty, insightful and pointing out the major benefits of the car.. apart from a couple of clichés that are usually present within any other car ad (throwing away ur living room because the car is more comfortable, And taking ur kid's entire scouts squad in the car because its so spacious).. but thats fine, I still like it...

The target of this ad has been identified beautifully, young people who are still kicking off a career, open to life and are very ambitious (hell, the guy in the ad is called Mr.Tamoo7, the literal translation of "ambitious").

Also, I absolutely adore the attention to detail this team has put into the copy, the amount of details in this ad is unbelievable.. the kids wearing easter bunnies and his wife coloring an egg while the VO says (Shamm el Nessim), the Hamsa hands on the wall and the colleagues actually smoking "beysheeto" while they're saying that people will get jealous.... and a lot more

Its a combination of little things that make this copy stand out and shout "This team have done their homework"

Two thumbs up..
Grade: A

2. Mirinda Tamr Hindi:

I wouldn't be exaggerating if I said that this is the worst ad I've seen in a LONG time... A guy drinks a Tamr "Hindi" Mirinda, and suddenly becomes all Indian with chicks in saris and Punjabi MCs jumping all around him..... what the hell??

How does this tie up with....... ANYTHING????

So the next time I drink an American coffee, I'll find myself in a cowboy hat fast-drawing Billy The Kid of The Wild West??? Oh, Come on.. Enough with the sterotypicality!!

Seriously, this is extremely disappointing!!

The weird thing is that the team who worked this ad is the same team that worked the Mirinda Green Apple ads earlier this year, which I think were beautiful (see them here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmEZszhIt9k, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIsgSRShvnM)

PS: Its also worth saying that the Tamr Hindi (Tamarind) tree originally grew in tropical Africa (Cameroon, Sudan, Tanzania and Nigeria).. India just happens to be the world's biggest producer... So it didnt even turn out to be an Indian drink afterall!

Nothing more to say here...

Grade: F

3. Mobinil - Part 2:

Another version of the ad but still remains a part of the same fiasco.. The ad is noisy, pointless, fast-moving and utterly incomprehensible... It keeps me wondering, "What do you guys want to say??"

This is a problem with Mobinil ads since forever; They focus TOO much on the creativity of the ad, leaving too little space for the message they want to convey... Think of any Mobinil ad you've ever seen, I bet you'll never remember what the ad wanted to say.

To be very precise, you'll remember the talking monkey, Yasmine Abdel Aziz saying "7amra", you'll remember last year's Kareoke ads and you'll probably sing it word-for-word... but you'll never remember what the ad wanted to convey.

Grade: C

Birelle - Male rehab center:

These copies have been airing for a while, but they released a new copy in Ramadan that is part of the same campaign so I included it there too..

The ads are cool, funny and one you'd want to see again and talk to your friends about...
But the question here is when did the whole positioning of Birelle become associated with "Manhood"?

This question has been in my mind for a while (nearly a year now), but I remember when Birelle first launched, it was about the elite, the top notch executives who finished the hottest business deal on a glass of Birelle and a Havana Cigar, people who appreciate such a taste.. it was even double the price of any other soft drink on the market...

So now they're basically out there to cater for any MALE in the country??

I'd say the "elite" sales figures were not reflecting too well on business revenue, were they?

Grade: B+

Sprite:

The Coke team strikes again, and they're back to kick-ass... This is one fine, fine ad!

Although I wasn't a very big fan of these 2 "lemon" characters, but this ad will score very high on affinity with people, in Ramadan specially.

People would relate big time to this ad because of the fact that they're portraying the lemon characters as guests on a "scandalicious gossip" program.. and Oh, how many do we have of those in Ramadan..!

The Lemons are out there giving fiery statements about digestion and how important they are on the dining table.. hell yeah they are!!

I also love the fact that the TVC concludes with a replica super of the ETV CH1 & CH2, giving you an impression that its a real program..

Hats-off!

PS: Its worth mentioning however, that its the kind of ad that would either be LOVED or completely HATED by people... its THAT extreme!
I've already been getting some mixed-emotional feedback about this particular copy!

But I personally like it! :)

Grade: A

A couple of quick endnotes here:

1. Our audience is not stupid:
The Egyptian consumer in particular has seen this industry evolve over the past 30 years, and knows how to analyse, believe or not to believe these ads.. So Egyptians are ad critics themselves, each and every one of them.. So although we still see some sub-par TVC (Ex: 0900XXXX competitions), but generally the ad scene in Egypt is picking up big time.

2. Where are all the Food commercials in Ramadan?
This was an observation from someone who does not work in the field, but indeed its a point well taken.. We are not seeing a lot of Ghee, Oil, Sugar and grade-2 & 3 products on TV.
I believe this is attributed to the high competition of TV stations over the past 2-3 years with the launch of the likes of Al Hayat Group, Panorama Group, Modern Group....etc.
This created a lot of fragmentation of viewership, thus you cannot reach most of your target audience using only one channel like you used to do before (ETV CH1 and CH2 and that was it)..
Now ad placement is becoming more complicated and costly, something that only Multinationals or strong local clients can accommodate.

Till we meet next time,
Cheers
3omda

The 3omdaz digest

ShareThis

Mid-Ramadan Commercials Critique - Part 2

Ramadan 2010 - Day 11 Commercials Critique

Search This Blog

About Me

Blog Archive