Apparently lamb can turn even the toughest fellow a bit soft, according to a new campaign for Meat & Livestock Australia. The ad sees a burly bikie embracing his maternal instincts after preparing a roast lamb for his fellow bikies.
The 45-second spot was created by BMF and aims to address the perceived lack of time people have for cooking a traditional lamb roast on Sundays. The spot promotes smaller roasts that can be cooked in 30 minutes.
Advertising for Australia’s meat and livestock industry has been a colourful affair over the years. Two main players contribute to the ads battling for share of fork – Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA), which represents beef and lamb, and Australian Pork. Humour has played a prominent part in many of the executions launched by the pair, with parodies, music videos and irreverent rants keeping viewers entertained.
In this Top10 Marketing takes a look at the best meat ads over the past few decades. Try not to get the meat sweats!
‘Happy Beefgiving’
In this spot from MLA, hot air balloons in the shape of Prime Minister Julia Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott lock lips as they float above Parliament House. The campaign calls the cold months ‘Beefgiving Season’ and spreads the message that a little beef can warm up winter, and your relationships.
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‘The Cut’
In this campaign by Noble Brands Worldwide, Australian Pork takes on the dominance of the beef steak, by suggesting that the same portion of pork contains half the amount of fat. It’s a bid to improve health perceptions of pork and embed pork in the associations formed by the word steak.
Red Meat ‘Amazing Food’
In this execution from a series of spots that promoted the health benefits and evolutionary roots of beef, actor Sam Neill gives us his best David Attenborough impersonation before dancing with an organutan. Red meat makes you smarter, Neill says, crediting it for the development of the human brain.
‘Falling in Lamb’
MLA took a different approach with this parody of a film trailer. “A classic tale of boy meets girl meets lamb chop, reminding us all that, in spring, all you need is lamb…”
‘Lambstock’
Another parody, this time of music festival Woodstock. The execution shows hippies in a field passing around a lamb wrap as if it were a joint.
‘Get some pork on your fork’
This is a spot in a series of ads which plays on the innuendo behind the act of ‘porking’. In this execution, grandma proudly announces that she porks grandpa two to three times a week.
Australia Day Lambassador, Sam Kekovic
This spot is the first iteration in the now long-running Sam Kekovic, Australia Day lamb series, which has seen the ex-AFL player address the nation each year since 2007. The ‘Lambassador’ and his irreverent tirades against ‘unAustralianism’ are now a mainstay in the Australia Day advertising schedule, helping to ingrain the meat in Australian culture.
Sam Kekovich, Barbie Girl parody
This year Kekovic went a step further, starring in his own ‘chop hit’ in an attempt to go viral on Australia Day. The music video parody of Aqua’s dance hit Barbie Girl in which the ex-AFL footballer raps was the third most viewed video when YouTube released its list of viral hits for the year to date in July. Lamb’s Australia’s fare.
Lamb Fragrance parody
This spot shows two models cavorting through a field in a parody of a perfume commercial. Released in Australia as part of a Mother’s Day campaign for lamb, the TVC ends with the models sniffing a chop.
Dinner with Tom Cruise
One of the first times now-prominent Australia actress Naomi Watts appeared on our screens, this ad became part of the history of the Sunday roast. Watts turns down a dinner with then-‘it-boy’ Tom Cruise rather than missing a lamb roast with the family.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott lock lips as they float high above Parliament House in the latest tongue-in-cheek ad from Meat and Livestock Australia.
‘Happy Beefgiving’, created for MLA by agency BMF, features two flying kitchens lifted above Parliament House in Canberra by hot air balloons in the shape of the two party leaders. At the end of the ad, the faces on the balloons lock lips to deliver the message that a little beef can warm up winter, and your relationships.
The campaign calls the cold months ‘Beefgiving Season’ with ‘Beefgiving Day’ set for July 14 to encourage households to share some beef on the coldest day of the year.
Brand: ‘Approved by Life’
Client: Weight Watchers
Strategy/media agency: Tongue
Creative agency: BMF
Background
Weight Watchers is the leader in the commercial weight loss industry with more than 40 years’ experience in Australia and New Zealand. The brand’s strength comes from its assertion of a scientifically proven and effective program for those looking to lose weight, with thousands of success stories under its belt.
Weight Watchers engaged digital agency Tongue to develop a comprehensive digital campaign to launch its new ‘Approved by Life’ brand platform. The campaign was designed to reassure consumers that the Weight Watchers program can fit easily into their lives without eliminating the foods or celebration events that they love… including chocolate.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) of Australia approached Tongue and Weight Watchers about collaborating to evaluate the impact of combining video and display advertising during the ‘Approved by Life’ campaign. As part of its commitment to building a body of research into online advertising effectiveness, the IAB had commissioned Dynamic Logic to undertake an AdIndex online advertising effectiveness study in this field.
Video inventory was planned by Tongue and donated by online publisher members of the IAB to supplement existing standard display and performance elements of the Weight Watchers digital campaign, as well as significant offline activity.
Objectives
The objectives of the Weight Watchers ‘Approved by Life’ campaign goals were to:
The IAB research objects on the Weight Watchers digital campaign were to:
Strategy
Weight Watchers launched the new brand platform ‘Approved by Life’ to women open to diet, weight loss and weight management plans.
To build the brand association between Weight Watchers and ‘Approved by Life’, Tongue developed a media plan employing both standard display and video online advertising across a range of sites.
Standard display advertising refers to gif, jpg, simple Flash and rich media advertising without video. Online video advertising refers to both pre-roll and in-banner video advertising placements.
Publishers contributing video inventory for the campaign included ninemsn, SheSpot, Sensis MediaSmart, Fairfax Digital, Yahoo!7, News Digital Media and Multi Channel Network.
The research undertaken by Dynamic Logic on behalf of the IAB comprised an AdIndex study to measure advertising effectiveness and the comparison of campaign results with Dynamic Logic’s MarketNorms (the largest database of online brand building campaigns in the world).
Execution
Weight Watchers launched a new brand platform called ‘Approved by Life’ on 28 December 2009, with creative featuring watercolours and whimsical sketches showing scenes from everyday life. Each online advertisement invited viewers to click through to the Weight Watchers site, with the online media campaign featuring a combination of different formats.
The campaign launched with rich media homepage buyouts on high traffic portals and had a strong backbone of both performance and contextual relevant placements, all standard Flash files. With video, it used a combination of sliding, streaming ‘MREC’ and pre-roll. In total, Weight Watchers had four different messages all reinforcing ‘Approved by Life’.
The Dynamic Logic AdIndex study was conducted over a 10-week period from December 2009 to February 2010. It was designed to isolate the impact of the online campaign and measure its contribution to brand awareness, message association, brand favourability and purchase intent.
The AdIndex used a control-exposed methodology that measures the branding value of online ad campaigns as they run live across a site or set of sites. Two groups are simultaneously sampled and their responses compared – those who have seen the advertisements (exposed) and those who have not (control).
A total of 2909 people were recruited for the survey as either control or exposed participants. Of the exposed sample of 1860 people, 62% were women. The study exposed 50% of exposed respondents to standard display advertising, 23% to online video advertising and the remaining 27% to a combination of online video and standard display advertising.
Results
The Weight Watchers ‘Approved by Life’ online campaign succeeded in building key brand metrics and communicating brand attributes. According to Dynamic Logic, the campaign resulted in a 20% increase in unaided awareness and a 12% increase in brand favourability for the brand.
The campaign also demonstrated the ability of online video advertising to impact brand metrics at much lower frequencies than standard display advertising. A 51% increase in unaided brand awareness was visible at just two exposures to the video advertisements within this campaign.
This is consistent with Dynamic Logic’s MarketNorms database, which shows video advertising achieves greater cut-through at a single exposure than rich media advertising.
The Weight Watchers campaign achieved the best results, however, when a combination of standard display and video advertising was used, with unaided brand awareness rising by 38%, compared with a 10% increase for those exposed to standard display only and 20% increase for online video advertising only.
Commenting on the research, Dynamic Logic’s Mark Henning says, “The Weight Watchers campaign demonstrates the effectiveness of online advertising and the power of online video in influencing brand attitudes and perceptions. Results consistent with our MarketNorms database point towards a strategy of starting an online campaign with high impact video for reach and following with standard display ads to build frequency as a strong approach for building brands online.”
Weight Watchers online marketing manager, Reichel Cheslett, indicates that in an environment where focus is typically applied to direct response placements achieving acquisition goals, the study allows marketers and advertisers to understand drivers of longer tail response, and apply these learnings to future planning.
“Applying brand-based metrics, as opposed to acquisition metrics, to display has allowed us to gain insights into online consumer purchasing consideration and intent. We continue working to position Weight Watchers as a category leader in the digital advertising space. This test has been invaluable to us in understanding how to shift perceptions from a traditional marketing campaign channel approach into a broader, more effective strategy,” Cheslett explains.
Lion Nathan’s latest TVC for West End Draught (WED) mocks Victorian stereotypes and Sean Cummins’ ‘You’ll Love Every Piece of Victoria’ – the world’s longest running tourism TVC.
Developed by BMF, the TVC plays off the interstate rivalry between South Australia and Victoria, telling viewers for every WED drunk “a Victorian cops it.” A Victorian copping it involves Cummins’ famous red ball of yarn steamrolling a cafe diner.
“Our campaign needed to be fresh, humorous, and above all make WED a central player again in the
great South Australia/Victoria rivalry, and I think it does just that,” said Josh Gaudry, WED marketing manager.
The TVC is the first of a series for the brand – Lion Nathan’s biggest seller in South Australia.
West End Draught’s long running strategy of dramatising the rivalry between SA and VIC is a great opportunity for us to have some fun. WED drinkers love the brand’s down‐to‐earth, tongue‐in‐cheek approach; and with an idea like Beer Karma, so do we,” said BMF executive creative director, Warren Brown.
Clemenger Proximity and M&C Saatchi/Mark were the biggest winners to come out of the Australian Direct Marketing Association (ADMA) awards, held in Melbourne Friday night.
Gavin McLeod, M&C Saatchi Groups executive creative director of direct & digital was particularly chuffed with his agency’s work.
“I am extremely proud of what we have achieved, especially when you consider the fact there are 10 separate teams that won gongs. Knowing all the blood, sweat, late nights and lost weekends that went into all of this work, it is certainly reward for great effort.”
The ceremony at the Melbourne Recital Centre was hosted by fallen stars Chris Taylor and Julian Morrow of The Chaser comedy team, who did a good job of keeping the long night entertaining, and made sure the direct marketing industry wasn’t taking itself too seriously. The ceremony was followed by a grand dinner at the National Gallery of Victoria.
Cubed’s Mike Chuter took out direct marketer of the year, an award that ADMA’s Kate Furey says is about more than just marketing.
“The Awards for Excellence are also about those who’ve given back,” she tells Marketing magazine, “usually by volunteering their time to mentor or contribute in a way that’s altruistic. We also seek someone who’s extremely passionate about their discipline and has a genuine desire to be a champion for the industry.”
Furey says Chuter’s record on all these counts was too good to ignore.
“He has been at the helm of a number of incredibly successful, multi-award winning agencies,” she says. “He has given up large amounts of his time to the DM community, especially in Melbourne, to help promote best practice. He has also put a lot of his energy into a number of charities”
While the names of large agencies like BMF and Clemenger rung out in the Recital Centre most of the night, Furey gave special mention to the small and independent agencies that were awarded.
“BD Network walked away with the Lester Wunderman Effectiveness Award,” Furey tells Marketing magazine. “TCO, Mr Mumbles and Human took out silver and gold trophies, and agencies like Host and Lavender do well every year too. That we get such a cross-section of agencies and clients winning, sometimes for work that may have gone unrecognized elsewhere, is one of the things ADMA Awards so special and important.”
The ADMA Awards also proved that direct marketing is not just mail, but is stronger than ever because of the advances in direct digital.
“I’ve been managing the Awards for 5 years now and the rate of change has been phenomenal, almost all of which you can attribute to new media,” Furey says. “At the heart of direct marketing is a focus on results and return on investment, so as channels emerge which offer increased measurability and improved targeting, it isn’t surprising that this industry would be so quick out of the blocks in leveraging it. 2010 has been a big year for campaigns that creatively and innovatively leveraged social media, mobile and other digital avenues – I think that’s a trend which will undoubtedly continue and which will be really exciting to watch.”
Lion Nathan unveiled its first campaign for new Tooheys Extra Dry cider product, 5 Seeds, entitled ‘Birds vs Humans’, investing heavily in a social media strategy aimed at attracting a sizable online audience.
The campaign, created by BMF, opens in a land where birds rule and humans forage in wastelands for scraps of a prized apple, ending by indicating that it’s lucky that humans got to apples first.
Holler Sydney developed the digital creative and strategy, which centres on Facebook, as well as online interactive film co-developed with BMF.
The Facebook page has a number of interactive activities, including a game called ‘Feed the Feral’, while the brand’s YouTube account offers series of TVCs that explain the story surrounding the struggle between man and bird.
“With Tooheys Extra Dry 5 Seeds being a new brand, we wanted something that would make people pay attention. Being an apple cider opened up a great opportunity to explore a unique apple narrative. Having the credibility of TED behind it also meant that we needed a creative idea that genuinely interrupts the consumer,” explained Ben Slocombe, category director at Tooheys.
Australia has punched above its weight to rank sixth worldwide at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.
In order of performance, Australia trailed the US, UK, Germany, Brazil and France.
Compiled and interpreted by The Big Won (an advertising awards register), the data indicates the best performing agencies tend to be all-service agencies. The Big Won reasons these agencies are better able to plan integrated media plans.
Despite taking out three Grand Prix, CumminsNitro’s ‘Best Job in the World’ ranked number two in the individual campaign analysis. It was beaten by ‘Trillion Dollar Campaign’, produced by Hunt Lascaris for The Zimbabwean.
Australia was well represented with two other campaigns in the top 10. BMF Sydney’s ‘TED 696 Project’ ranked sixth and ‘Earth Hour Vote’, by Leo Burnett Sydney, hit eighth.
Top performing countries at Cannes:
1. USA
2. UK
3. Germany
4. Brazil
5. France
6. Australia
7. South Africa
8. India
9. Belgium
10. Japan
Lion Nathan has unveiled its campaign for its premium low carb brand Hahn Super Dry, entitled ‘In the Spirit of Good Taste’.
The campaign features a TVC developed in partnership with BMF, with more executions to follow.
The tongue-in-cheek television executions use examples of particularly ‘bad taste’ to highlight the ‘great taste’ of Hahn Super Dry.
The campaign is based on the idea that how people define themselves is a constant work in progress: trying different things, clothes, perspectives – and even people – on for size.
“Hahn Super Dry is not only a great tasting beer – it’s a beer of great taste. This campaign calls on all Australians to let go of the things in their life that are no longer appropriate or acceptable and move on… in the spirit of good taste,” says Arno Lenior, Premium category director, Lion Nathan.
Hahn Super Dry is Lion Nathan’s largest premium low carb offering, and according to the company, the ‘In the Spirit of Good Taste’ creative aims to continue the irreverent Hahn brand personality and tone seen in previous campaigns for the trademark – including ‘Keep It Super’ and ‘Love Heart’ for Hahn Super Dry, and the award winning ‘Bean Bomb’ and ‘Spa Bomb’ for Hahn Premium Light.
“Aussies aren’t afraid to call a spade a spade when it comes to taste,
and the new ‘In the Spirit of Good Taste’ campaign shows that the great
taste of Hahn Super Dry gives them another opportunity to do just
that,” asserts Simon Langley, creative director of BMF.
The Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA) has honoured 24 winners of its 15th annual AIMIA Awards at a ceremony at Sydney’s Australian Technology Park.
Hosts Adam Spencer and Airlie Walsh kept the crowd entertained, with returning AIMIA president Guy Gadney using his speech to highlight how rapidly business models are changing and the need for the digital industry to promote new revenue opportunities.
The ‘Amys’ have over 21 categories represented in 2009, ranging from retail to government, sport to content for children. The winners this year beat out stiff competition from a huge number of entries, up 15% on last year (see below for the full list of winners).
This comes on the back of the association’s latest Digital Service Index, which predicts revenue generated through digital services in Australia will rise close to 25% in 2009.
“Digital continues to grow beyond marketing and advertising and has quickly established itself as the medium of trust for commerce and government. These awards prove that with representation this year from major banks, the defence department, large retail brands, and leading NGOs including the United Nations,” John Butterworth, AIMIA CEO, explains.
Notable winners included Soap Creative and 20th Century Fox for their work on the Jumper campaign, receiving a gong for Best Advertising and Marketing, and BMF/Sony Computer Entertainment winning a ‘Best of the Best’ award in the Entertainment category.
Winner – Best Advertising or Marketing – Jumper – Soap Creative and 20th Century Fox
Highly commended – Best Advertising or Marketing – Project 696 – BMF, Lion Nathan Australia
Winner – Best Children’s – The Playground – ABC Television
Winner – Best Classifieds & eTrading – TrueLocal website – TrueLocal.com.au
Winner – Best Cross-Platform Content or Content Integration with an Offline Advertising Campaign – United Nations Voices Project – United Nations, Saatchi & Saatchi, The Hyperfactory & Mobot
Winner – Best Cultural, Lifestyle or Sport – 12 Canoes – Wanted Digital
Winner – Best Use of Social Media – Sony Australia: The Quantum Code – Euro RSCG Australia
Winner – Best Enterprise – Resn 08 – Resn
Winner – Best Entertainment – PlayStation Games Universe – BMF & Sony Computer Entertainment
Winner – Best Export Achievement - TigerSpike Phoenix Platform – TigerSpike Pty Ltd
Winner – Best Financial Service – BankWest – Happy Banking Host
Winner – Best Learning & Education – 12 Canoes – Wanted Digital
Winner – Best Mobile Advertising or Marketing – United Nations Voices Project – United Nations, Saatchi & Saatchi, The Hyperfactory, Mobot
Winner – Best Mobile Product or Service – EA direct-to-consumer mobile site – Electronic Arts; Front Foot Media
Winner – Best News, Media or Reference – Wotnews.com.au – Wotnews Boomworks
Winner – Best Non-profit or Government – United Nations Voices – Project United Nations, Saatchi & Saatchi, The Hyperfactory, Mobot
Winner – Best Retail – Champagne Gallery – R&B Creative Communication
Winner – Best Science, Health or Environment – Catchment Detox ABC Science/ABC Local Radio – CSIRO & eWater CRC
Winner – Best Student Project – iWiFi Bondi iWiFi – Institute of Interactive Media and Learning(IML) & UTS
Winner – Best Tourism or Travel Web – TV portal for Tourism Queensland – Tourism Queensland, Clemenger Harvie Edge Brisbane, Viocorp
Winner – Best Word-of-mouth, Peer-to-peer or Viral – Sony Australia: The Quantum Code – Euro RSCG Australia
Winner – Effectiveness Award – Tree People – Lowe Sydney, Genesis Energy
Best of the best – Best Entertainment – PlayStation Games Universe – BMF & Sony Computer Entertainment
Outstanding Contribution – Peta Pash, Project National Manager, mega (mobile enterprise growth alliance)
Traditionally combining boats and beer has not been a great idea, but beer stalwart Lion Nathan has decided that it’s a great way to pitch its mid-strength XXXX GOLD brand.
The ‘XXXX GOLD Boat Building Project’, developed with BMF Sydney, spells the end for the long running ‘Jacko’ campaign that supported the brand for more than eight years.
The new campaign will feature 12 new characters, three groups of mates, each coming together on a project: building a boat.
The campaign is based on the insight of ‘man time’, busy men taking time out of their work and home lives to come together and spend real time with their mates, working together on a project.
Brett Grebert, mainstream marketing director, Lion Nathan is proud of the success brought by “Jacko, his dog Marlin and their mates” but in ensuring the brand evolves, decided it was time to retire the boys on a high note.
“We credit Jacko and the boys for helping Lion Nathan forge a buoyant mid-strength category, as well as turning XXXX GOLD from a Queensland brew into one of Australia’s most popular beers nationally, and we are confident this new campaign will continue that success, says Grebert.
XXXX GOLD was launched in 1991 and is now Australia’s second largest brand and retains almost 60 percent share and market leadership of the mid-strength category.
According to Warren Brown, executive creative director, BMF and also a founding agency partner to the XXXX brand, the Jacko campaign resonated well with the target market and endured great staying power.
“Jacko and the boys starred in more than 30 TVCs since launching in 2000, making the campaign one of the longest running and most successful of the past two decades. People related to Jacko and his mates and they became celebrities in their own right, which rarely happens with a TV campaign.”
This year’s Marketing Agencies Association Worldwide’s (MAA) Globes have been the most successful for Australian agencies, which included the top gong, the Best in the World for Leo Burnett’s Earth Hour campaign.
The MAA Globes for the Best Promotional Marketing Campaigns in the World for 2008, hosted this year in Toronto, Canada, were hotly contested and had the highest amount of entrants since the awards’ conception.
But the Aussie highlight of the night was Leo Burnett’s taking home an impressive two Globes and the coveted Best in the World award.
“While we’re blown away to have Earth Hour named the Best Promotional Marketing Campaign in the world – what really blew us away is how we’ve created a campaign that has changed the world we live in for the better, with over 50 million people taking part in Earth Hour in 2008,” says Martin Walters, managing partner promotional marketing, Leo Burnett Australia.
Other notable Globes winners from Australia included CSM for its Carlton Draught ‘Plastic Cup’, which got gongs for Best Sponsorship or Tie-In Campaign and Best Integrated Communications Campaign, and agency BMF came away with a bronze award for its Toohey’s Extra Dry ‘Harvested’ campaign.
“The entries this year demonstrated far more creativity and innovation than in recent years, with more emphasis on multi-tiered promotions which involved more than three marketing disciplines. Promotion marketing is expanding rapidly within North and Eastern Europe and throughout Asia in the areas of experiential, tie-in promotions, cause relation and loyalty,” says Mike Da Silva, president MAA Worldwide.
