From Media Magazine …
So let me get this straight – the “insight” to this campaign is that they’ve discovered “fans” of this radio station raise their voices when talking to someone, rather than turning down the volume of the radio.
Insight???? INSIGHT???? More like Badsight.
Surely If people are so happy to talk over what 987FM broadcasts, it means no one cares about what’s going on?
Isn’t that the real insight?
Which means they’re spending money telling people there’s no real reason to check out the station.
Genius!
And before someone writes in and tells me the ad is saying people love the station so much that they keep the volume high so they don’t miss a thing – I’ll just point out the execution shows a man [in possibly the most pathetic attempt at ‘humour’] still talking loudly when he’s ordering his Russian Bride because he is so used to talking over the shit that is blaring from the radio tuned into 987FM.
Whoever made, approved and planned this campaign needs their head examined or at least a quick trip to the DR’s.
Oh hang on, it came from McCaan the DEMAND Agency – the company that is focused on getting results.
Blimey – if this is their brilliant DEMAND STRATEGY in action, I now understand how they’ve just lost the majority of Microsoft to Crispin. [Poor Pete, ha!]
What’s the betting that in the weeks to come, we learn the final nail in the coffin was when McCaan revealed their big insight as being …
“People like computers and because the majority are Windows based, that means Microsoft is the brand that brings the World closer together”.
Actually if it was that, they’d probably of loved it … remember this is a company that has senior executives behave like this …
Radio station [and much television station] positioning is awful.
It’s all focused on a generic ‘variety’ prop and yet it so doesn’t have to be that way.
One of the things I’m still proudest of was the work I did with TRIPLE J in Australia …
Rather than talk about what they played/did, we focused on their values and philosophy which – because they purposely [1] encouraged new artists rather than play the usual mainstream radio shite and [2] opened up debate on political issues that could/would affect Australian youth – we expressed as ENEMY OF AVERAGE [read: passionately against mainstream mediocrity]
We did all sorts of stuff … Bad CD Amnesty day, posters that told people in yuppie areas that we didn’t like them [because it was important to prove to our core listeners that while we were advertising for more people to ‘join us’, they had to be the right people, not the chino wearing, yuppie-scum] anti-beige Volvo day, ‘Music Appreciation CD’s’ [featuring talent launched by Triple J like Silverchair and Killing Heidi] print ads which had “Warning” stickers people could place on things that they thought were ‘dangerously average’ [we got threatened to be sued by HMV for all the stickers that were being found on CD’s in their stores] pseudo-sponsorship of television shows and rock concerts you SHOULDN’T watch/go to, ‘piss on Mariah Carey’ toilets and some ads – which were done so cheaply, that if you look at numbers 1 and 2, you’ll see my bald head in them.
This ad below is a spoof of the Australian Government’s “Anti-Smoking” campaign
This was a viral ad we did when the Rolling Stones were coming to tour …
And even when we had to promote specific shows, we did it in a way that was true to the core idea …
Now you might not like the ads or the station [personally I hated most of the music Triple J played which actually served as inspiration for the idea] but you can’t deny they tell you exactly what this station passionately believes in which – thanks to reverse-phycology – resulted in Triple J enjoying their highest audience increase in about a decade [turning around a 3 year audience decline] and winning the most effective consumer campaign at the Australian Marketing Effectiveness Awards despite spending literally 10% of the budget of their competitors.
So to the guys who did the 987FM ads – please go back to the drawing board and find a real brand and consumer insight and then maybe you’ll come up with a more seductive and motivating proposition than “THE STATION WHERE YOU DO ALL THE TALKING”