John Smiths Courts Column Inches With Olympic Spoof
The John Smith’s No Nonsense TV campaign has topped the charts in terms of newspaper coverage for a second time, despite employing an old advertisement, as the company managed to cash in on the hype surrounding this years Olympic Games.
The beer brand’s ‘Top Bombing‘ diving advert was originally created by TBWA\London in 2002 and intended to coincide with the Commonwealth Games. However, it has reached the top of August’s Ads That Make News survey thanks to an appearance by British Olympic silver medalist Mark Shipman.
The survey, produced by Propeller Communications and Durrants Media Monitoring, measures the volume of editorial about individual ad campaigns in the national press. Nestle’s KitKat brand scored second place during August after changing its advertising slogan from the much-loved “Have a break – have a KitKat” to “Make the most of your break”. The change to the slogan was made in reaction to a 9% drop in sales, but has met with some scepticism amongst the press.
The new Barclays Premiership campaign came in third place, after former Newcastle United manager Sir Bobby Robson, who stars in the advert, was dismissed just two weeks into the new season. The blunder meant that the ad had to be withdrawn after hardly any use.
| Ads That Made The News In August 2004 | |
| Rank | Advertiser |
| 1 | John Smiths |
| 2 | KitKat |
| 3 | Barclays Premiership |
| 4 | Audi |
| 5 | FCUK |
| 5 | Job Centre |
| 7 | Flake |
| 8 | McDonalds |
| 9 | BT |
| 10 | Privilege |
| Source: Propeller | |
Commenting on the latest charts, Martin Loat, director of Propeller Communications, said: “Topicality is a huge factor in an ad making news. But even we are surprised that an ad that had not aired for some time hit the headlines again due to a fortuitous topical event”
He added: “With Barclays’ Premiership campaign, the national press has been keen to suggest that Sir Bobby Robson’s sacking must be bad news for the client. But in doing this the newspapers have simply raised the profile of the bank’s sponsorship still further and so may have actually helped Barclays if awareness was the objective.”
John Smith’s campaign has proved continually popular, with a series of 30 second spots featuring northern comedian, Peter Kay. The campaign last rose to the top spot of the survey in June, as the campaign made a welcome return with a parody of the now infamous ‘Daz Doorstep Challenge’. The commercial saw Kay accepting two boxes of ordinary powder for his premium brand and then shutting the door in interviewer Danny Baker’s face. The series can be viewed online at www.johnsmiths.co.uk
Propeller Communications: 0870 066 4608 www.propellercom.com
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