Mobile Adverts-The Good, The Bad & The Downright..what were you thinking?

I’m an Orange mobile phone user. I love their Orange Film 2-4-1 Wednesday’s, their unlimited internet and free texts when I top up x amount every month. I’ve been an Orange user for the past 2 1/2 years. I’ve swapped from being 02 and T-Mobile over the years to staying with and loving Orange. I’ve had no problems and love their customer service guys as much as the next girl but what is it about our networks do we love so much to stay with them and have a long-term relationship. Besides the obvious points of cheap calls, texts and internet, what attracts us to making those life-long decisions? We’re always on the look-out for the best deals whether that be clothes, food or holidays but with mobiles we normally stick to what we know best and go with the flow. If it was all based down to advertising I would be a T-Mobile phone user. Their adverts scream for me to join but I’m chuffed with my network so I wont change. But if it were based on advertising, which network or mobile provider would you choose?

Since T-Mobile and Orange have since joined forces and now are known widely known as ‘Everything Everywhere,’ hopefully the 2 leading mobile phone providers can shake some magic into each of their mobile adverts and create a better buzz. One is super awesome at catapulting the message of connecting people and that is T-Mobile. Orange, take note, see your sister company and start upping your game in the advertising stakes. It will do you some good, honest.

T-Mobile aka The Good  

T-Mobile is known for their visual treats when it comes to their advertising. Over the past few years their videos include us, you, me, your neighbour, the passengers on the tube and members of the public to celebrate that life really is for sharing.  Watching their most recent ad, I thought it was a sketch show for a new comedy show. It’s funny to see what happened when thousands of motorists across Britain, got a surprise they didn’t expect.

The tag line… “Nobody Likes Nasty Surprises.”  A great little video showing customers the great little deals you can receive if you are or become a T-Mobile customer.

Everyone loves a good flash mob. They can appear anywhere from NYC to good old London’s Liverpool street station. All shared by a tweet to followers, a comment on Facebook or a conversation between friends. T-Mobile did an awesome advert with a flash mob in the busy London train station blaring music from pop, classical and hip hop.

Everyone did the mash potato and a twist as a mixture of age groups boogied along to the great mix of tunes. It was reported that 1,422 people missed their train watching the flash mob in process.

On 27th October 2010 in Terminal 5 at the UK’s busiest Heathrow, a crowd of people gathered together to ‘Welcome Home’ friends and family to the sound of talent singers and great music. The advert brought so much smiles to the crowds faces and to me as an audience. It was something that almost feels like it should happen on every occasion when you return home from your journeys.

In April 2009, American popster Pink! joined a crowd of 13,500 people to sing the famous classic Beatles song ‘Hey Jude’ in Trafalgar square.

Everyone who arrived at the event didn’t know what was to be expected. Whether they would be dancing, singing, acting or what, most were quite surprised to be handed a microphone. The funny thing is most of the people involved can’t sing but didn’t care as they belted out the lyrics to the song. Hugging onto friends, laughing with others, sharing smiles and taking part makes the event unique. The clip has been seen to date by 5,455,937 people worldwide.

Looking through the other clips on YouTube for T-Mobile’s ads, I also found this one about the surprised guy on camera.

Made me chuckle.

O2 “See What You Can Do”

Since Sean Bean has voiced the adverts for O2, they just keep getting better and better. It helps with his smooth talking sexy voice narrating the visuals on-screen. There is something rather yummy about his voice.

O2: “Strewth”

O2’s adverts are always visually a surprising treat, giving you an insight into how that world would be if we were their customer. Their most recent adverts are for their customer only who can get exclusive deals at a click of a button. Since the take over by Telefonica UK and the millennium stadium being bought out by the mobile network, deals for customers are coming quick and fast.

Like this one:

Their Thinking of You advert, let’s you go inside O2’s mind – see how Pay & Go customers can get texts and mobile internet for £10 a month.

Priority Moments:

The great thing about O2’s Priority Moments is that O2’s customers and their friends can receive priority tickets to gigs at The O2 48 hours before tickets go on general release.

O2 customers can get a hold of tickets to see acts such as Florence & The Machine, Tine Tempah, Kasabian, Professor Green etc 48 hours before making their choice of tickets, seating and dates much better than anyone elses.

Vodafone: Lewis & Jenson

Although this ad does ring out that they’ve had help, it’s still interesting to see Lewis Hamilton & Jenson Button on the other side of the camera, outside of their cars doing what their team does for them every time they take place in a race.

Without their team, they’d be just people without fast cars.

Vodafone ‘Couple’

It all starts with an argument, slamming the front door and going their separate ways. The couple in this clip sends media messages to the other half of spanners, apes and cows to show each other through picture what they think of each other. The clip shows what we all would, have or will do when it comes to an argument. Most of the time, we just haven’t taken the initiative to do it.

The Bad. 

I wouldn’t call these terrible or horrific or OMFG but none of them come to the top of the pile like the T-Mobile adverts. So here are my thoughts on the bad mobile adverts that could have done a little better than this…

Orange: Dolphin Advert

As much as most of when the narrator is saying is accurate, the advert is pretty bland. There’s no oomph. I’m an Orange customer, I use Dolphin for my internet usage, tweeting, Facebooking and emailing and most of what he’s saying is pretty true. A lot of the stuff you get up on your social networks is a load of crap but Orange make this ad more fun. It sounds moany!

Orange Wednesday’s 

See for yourself, my giggle bit ‘horsey dave.’

Vodafone ‘Freebies’

The ad involving Bees is weird. Just weird. I love Idris Elba and will love this advert for his sexy voice at the end. That is all. The idea of the advert is to tell the audience that if you love texting and browsing the web, making overseas calls to family and friends, or catching up with your mates at the weekend — there’s a Vodafone Freebee to suit you. Get it. ‘Freebee.’

Tesco Mobile “I want to live in a world” 

Tesco mobile, I have nothing against you but that you’re a network provider I can almost guarantee all of my friends and family are not with. I don’t know if I actually know someone who owns a Tesco mobile network phone. Hmmm *thinking* nope, no one. Sorry.

Your ads are pretty good, your deals sound amazing but it just wouldn’t work for me unless I got all my friends, family and colleagues onto the same network provider as me if I switched to Tesco. We’d all rather live in a world where “we can transform a whisper into a sound,”  where “strangers can be turned into friends,” I want “to live in a world where I can transform my office into a playground.” Erm, yes, but Tesco Mobile won’t be doing that for you. I can assure you that.

The WTF Were you thinking?

‘The WTF Were you thinking’ goes to Orange in this pooper.

It’s Steven Segal trying to sell himself as a romantic in an Orange commercial. Just don’t.

Even this one with Gerard Depardieu is a shocker. I’m not impressed Orange. *shakes head.*

3 Mobile’s ‘The Network’

Is the aim supposed to be some knock-off from some bad 80’s film? The ad gives hats to Vince DiCola in Rocky IV’s famous training montage to show the effort going in to make Three’s 3G network in the UK even better. It’s just lame. LAME. 3 Mobile have been in trouble of late for falsely claiming they are the fastest internet mobile network operator in the country.

What’s your good, bad or downright ugly mobile advert ? Is there one you’ve seen that’s better or worse than the ones I’ve written about?

The web is what you make of it

Google‘s creative lab has brought out some brilliant adverts this year to showcase the wonders of Google Chrome browser. The campaign, which is themed “the web is what you make of it,” showcases Chrome working in conjunction with other well-known Google products like Gmail and YouTube. The adverts are brilliant showing a more personal and emotional touch. The first to hit screens was “Dear Sophie” which previewed during one of the commercial breaks of the American sitcom One Tree Hill.

‘Dear Sophie’ details how a father uses the web to share memories with his daughter as she grows up. Daniel Lee, father of Sophie show’s how technology can change the way we communicate with someone. It’s a touching video that lets us see the life of Sophie from a young age to child through the eyes of the online world.

The UK Google team produced a similar video that’s called “Dear Hollie.” Using the same technologies and the web, the video is very similar to the original ‘Dear Sophie.’

The ‘Dear Hollie’ video aired the advert as its first primetime UK TV advert during the UEFA Champions League Final earlier this year. Google has been advertising on television in America for several years, but UK adverts have been largely restricted to print and billboard sites. Its new version is a clear attempt to reach beyond its traditional technology enthusiast audience while tapping in to a new type of more emotional advertising. Since the release of all the videos from Google Chrome, many have been spoofed. Here’s my top adverts by the leading search engine (in no particular order)…

Johnny Cash, Immortal 

Johnny Cash is mostly remembered as a country music artist, his songs and sound spanned many other genres including rockabilly and rock and roll—especially early in his career—as well as blues, folk, and gospel. This crossover appeal led to Cash being inducted in the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, andGospel Music Hall of Fame. Late in his career, Cash covered songs by several rock artists. In the clip by Google fans of Johnny Cash from around the world use the web to join together and create a music video memorializing his last recording.

The Johnny Cash Project is a global collective art project where the Man in Black lives on through his fans rather than just through his musical legacy. Everyone who joins in The Johnny Cash Project are invited to share their vision of Johnny Cash, as he lives on in their mind’s eye. Working with a single image as a template, and using a custom drawing tool, each fan can illustrate their own frame of the video. As people all over the world contribute, the project continues to evolve and grow, one frame at a time.

Dan Savage, Messenger

Dan Savage started the It Gets Better Project last September in light of the suicide of 15-year-old Billy Lucas, who was bullied for his perceived sexual orientation. The project encourages adults, both LGBT and otherwise, to submit videos assuring gay teenagers that life can improve after bullying in early life. Columnist and author Dan Savage created a YouTube video with his partner Terry to inspire hope for young people facing harassment. In response to a number of students taking their own lives after being bullied in school, they wanted to create a personal way for supporters everywhere to tell LGBT youth that, yes, it does indeed get better. Since last year, the It Gets Better Project has turned into a worldwide movement, inspiring more that 25,000 user-created videos viewed more than 40 million times. This has also been turned into an advert by Google Chrome showing inspiring people of all ages that it does in fact get better.

To date submissions from celebrities, organizations, activists, politicians and media personalities including Adam Lambert, Anne Hathaway, President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Colin Farrell, Matthew Morrison of “Glee”, Joe Jonas, Joel Madden, Ke$ha, Sarah Silverman, Tim Gunn, Ellen DeGeneres, Suze Orman, the staffs of The Gap, Google, Facebook, Pixar, the Broadway community, and many more. For us, every video changes a life. Life can be amazing, you’ll be fine, it will get better. A great message inspired by thousands.

Lady Gaga, Mother Monster

For all you who don’t know who Lady Gaga is, where the bloody hell have you been? She’s the mother of all monsters, probably the world’s biggest and craziest pop star that really gives Madonna a run for her money. Her fashion look book is a crazy feast for the eyes with some, if not all being rather questionable but hey, she’s individual and a style icon to some.

The 90 seconds ad showed Lady Gaga posting her message to her fans through social media and her fans singing and dancing her songs. Ad shows how Gaga uses Google services like YouTube, Chrome Web Store, Google Search Engine etc to reach out to her fans. Lady Gaga ad by Google, which ends with the title line “The web is what you make of it,” describes the power of the web and its creative new modes of interaction. This new ad helps Google to reach out its various services to millions of Gaga fans.

Jamal Edwards, Founder & CEO 

Jamal Edwards is the founder of SBTV – the UK’s largest youth media channel, which he started at the age of just 16. He has been tipped as one of the UK’s top young entrepreneurs by Richard Branson, has signed a label deal with Sony RCA, announced as the face of New Era’s first European campaign and is one of the latest faces to appear on the Google Chrome’s adverts.

Jamal Edwards aka Smokey Barz recognised the impact of music and began to host an online Media Channel through YouTube.  SB.TV creates a platform for many uprising U.K. artists. At first, the aim was to create a strong platform for grime artist, this became successful as we are now aware of Tiny Temper, Chipmunk, Tinchy Strider etc. SB.TV has continued to grow, eventually evolving into other music genres such as RnB, pop and hip hop. SB.TV has since reached over 70 million viewers on YouTube becoming one of the most subscribed channels on YouTube attracting people from all over the world. Without a doubt there are a few things that can determine whether or not you’ve “made it” in the music industry – a massive following, a music label and your own company, sure. But a TV commercial based on your success story? Edwards’ success was documented by the number 1 search engine where other more well-known acts have included Lady Gaga and Justin Beiber. In my eyes, that’s pretty darn amazing.

Have you got your sample of Burberry’s new fragrance, The Body?

You’ve all probably seen the picture scattered at least a thousand times across some newspaper article, glossy mag or over the internet at some point where the model, none other than British Supermodel Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is seen wearing little else apart from a mac and well…that’s it. If you’ve not seen it, you will now…

Ta daaaaa….

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley doing what a supermodel does best. Pose. Or Model. Or maybe just lying there equates to actually working. She’s the ‘new’ face of Burberry’s fragrance ‘The Body.’ No surprises there. Because she has in all fairness got the body for it. The new fragrance has been catapulted across various social media channels of late to promote not only the free sample of the fragrance but also the eagerly awaited perfume by the luxury fashion giant ready for its release this month. If you’ve not seen the app and taken it upon yourself to march past everyone else to bag yourself an exclusive sample of the Burberry Body fragrance, you are missing out my friend. The luxury fashion brand best known for their luxury clothing line, accessories and fragrances has created a Facebook app for their fans who’ve ‘liked’ their page and entered their details to receive the exclusive sample. The perfume named ‘The Body’ conveniently fronted by the one and only, stunningly beautiful miss pouter British supermodel Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. The perfume is predicted to fly off the shelves when released this month. The social media platform, Facebook – which helped launch luxury fashion house and designer Oscar de la Renta’s flagship fragrance earlier this year, giving away 25,000 free samples in just three days and helping the brand’s Likes grow by 40%.

The ‘tester’ fragrances will only be available through this social networking site and with over 7.6 million fans, Facebook will ensure to hit a younger mass market that Burberry.com cannot afford to miss. Fans interested in obtaining the free samples can visit the Burberry Body tab on its official Facebook page and request a sample. With the company shipping samples to a large array of countries, every Burberry fan should hopefully be able to receive at least one per household. Burberry’s chief creative officer, Christopher Bailey – who initiated media coverage via a live streaming of his own catwalk shows last season – announced the program via YouTube, which was then cross-pollinated on the official Burberry Facebook page. Fans are already reported as being supportive to the new structure and will hopefully boost sales when the fragrance comes out in stores next month.

I received my little bottle of the perfume last week and was a little overjoyed that I got a sample of it and my friends have yet to get a sample-if they haven’t missed out already- as the retail price of the perfume will be on sale from £55. Something I won’t be spending my money on if I’m honest. Don’t get me wrong it smells lush and for one split second I can believe that I’m as lusciously gorgeous as Miss Huntington-Whitely. It’s that thought of sitting on the Tube and smelling like every other lady in London who all bought the same perfume. It kinda throws the point of individuality out of the bloomin’ window a bit, doesn’t it. Rosie you are doing a splendid job and no doubt a winner in the eyes of all the men out there jumping over themselves to get a bottle for their girlfriends/wives to smell an ounce of the model’s ‘favourite’ perfume. But seriously do you have to be naked but from a la mac to promote it. Put some clothes on!

The word of mouth buzz this smart little campaign will produce will hopefully bring in enough hype for the brand to drive launch sales and success for the new fragrance. The Facebook page for Burberry has more than 7.6 million faces and claims to be the largest Facebook Fan page of any luxury fashion brand. Fan-first sampling on Facebook should also increase the ROI of sampling for Burberry; sampling is highly effective for experiential and sensorial brands, but can be wasteful if a scattergun approach is adopted (sampling in-store, samples with products).  By allowing fans to order samples, Burberry ensure that Burberry Body ends up on bodies that want to wear it – and just as importantly want to talk about it.  So if you’ve yet to get your sample, what are you waiting for.  Click on the page, like away and wait for your little package to arrive in the post. Decide for yourself if this is something you’ll invest £55 on and let me know what you think.