I don’t think there is a single resident or visitor in London that doesn’t know that the Skyfall DVD is now on sale. I hope the Bond film’s big ad spend is paying off. From bus shelters, and premium print placement, to digital rail station ads and full subway station takeovers, Bond has taken over London.
Last weekend was the first time I saw the Bond Tube station’s new look. CBS Outdoor UK is the agency responsible for the Bond Tube station’s 007 makeover. As you leave the platform and enter the station you follow the tunnels around. Aligning the walls were giant posters promoting the DVD release. On the way out mega Digital Escalator Panels (DEP) and giant posters filled the space as we travelled up.
“This campaign will bring two great British institutions together – James Bond and the Tube – with a high profile, impactful creative to target the high end urban audience who pass through Bond Street Station,” commented Jason Cotterrell, country director at CBS Outdoor UK.
The campaign is scheduled to run for the next two weeks.
While I saw the numerous ads for Skyfall my mind went to:
hmmm… I wonder what the ad spend is?
hmmm… I wonder what the reach for this campaign will be?
hmmm… I wonder what the sales will be as a result?
This advertising student mentality haunts me in almost every campaign viewing scenario. My mind automatically switches to what was put into the development of the campaign and the results that advertisers expect will come out of it.
In school we often build fully-integrated campaigns and included an “evaluation” section expressing how we would evaluate the campaign if the campaign were real. We usually talk about calculating the reach, impressions and sales. Often times the media buy requires advertisers to use research and their gut to select media that they think the target audience will consumer in hopes they will see the ad. Our class assignments work the same way. This campaign covers the city so well you can’t miss the message in the slightest.
Overall, I don’t believe this was a brilliant campaign. Other than being placed in the “Bond” Street station I think it lacked real creativity. The message was delivered boldly and repetitively but if it hadn’t been thrown in my face a million times I wouldn’t have remembered it or cared about it. Honestly, despite the exposure to multiple messages with the same content, I still have no desire to take the next step and make the purchase.
Was the message as persuasive as the placement was aggressive? I don’t think so.
Marissa Osowsky 