KEEP CALM AND MARKETING ON

Everyone knows, just by looking at the title, what I'm talking about. The story of the "KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON" sign starts in 1939, when England joined the allies in the fight against Germany in World War II. To reassure the population, the newly created Ministry of Information created motivational ads that should follow a uniform design pattern, in a sophisticated and elegant font, with the image of George VI's crown on top.

The slogan only got famous, however, in 2000 - 61 years after its creation - when the owner of Barter Books, a bookshop in Northumberland, found one of the original ads and framed it. The discovery ended up inspiring an add campaign that got the attention of the new generation, who fueled it by sharing it in social network sites and putting their own twist to it.

Nowadays, the famous slogan transcends its own original purpose and it's sold in mugs, towels, key rings, paintings and t-shirts. There is even a short film about it, directed by Temujin Doran , that has already been seen by more than a million people on YouTube. Therefore, it's not that hard to understand why Rover picked this approach for their Land Rover Defender campaign for South Africa. 

Refering to casualties that I can imagine occuring quite frequently in the South African savana, this campaign brings back one more time the famous concept but, instead of keeping the "KEEP CALM..." part, as it's usually done, Rover opted to go with the "...CARRY ON" approach - which makes sense giving they're advertising for a car/truck that it's supposed to survive everything: poisonous darts, snake bites and language barriers.

They have, similarly to the original, a very simple and uniform design: all the ads have the new Defender on top, followed by the slogan and the Land Rover logo, all over a slightly rough blue background; they go straight to the point: Defender will, indeed, defend you from all this and you'll manage to "carry on" your journey.

It really is a good, clear campaign - and I'm not just saying that because I used the same concept for the Creative Writing assignment. Because of the assignment I am saying that this is a concept that has been used quite often: on one hand, it can be good, since it's already viral, which means people will like it and adhere to  it and the campaign will have full effectiveness; on the other hand, this is such a well known design and slogan that it may come out as non-creative, as a copy of what as been done a hundred times before, which would have the exact opposite effect: people would just dismiss it as one more "KEEP CALM..." add.

I quite like it, though. I'm not planning on buying a car that would help me go through the African savanas but, if I was basing my decision in advertisement campaigns only, the Defender would win that race.

Sources

• http://adsoftheworld.com
• http://exame.abril.com.br

Ana Nascimento

Outdoor campaigning: the next level

Domino's Pizza, a well known pizza place across the world, saw their business change with the advent of technologies: most of their orders were placed and paid for online instead of the usual going-to-the-store-buying-a-pizza-and-leave act.

Always trying to get closer to their costumers through innovative marketing campaigns, Domino's came up with the idea of letting the costumers order pizzas via a billboard. The billboards are placed in more than 6.000 sites across Britain. As long as the costumer has a smartphone, he or she can download deals and the ordering app, and became a fan of Domino's page on Facebook - all in one click. This shortens the gap between the company and the costumers, providing the first with a opportunity to communicate much more than pizza deals. Domino's shows us how outdoor advertising is reaching new levels, not only and static but, as we are about to see, in mobile media - which is mostly due to the massfication of the use of the Internet. 

This billboard marketing stunt, which was launched in January, probably led them to think that if the ordering of a pizza has something special about it, perhaps the delivery of the goods should be special as well. Therefore, a couple of days ago, on the 18th, Domino's lauched in the Netherlands the Safe Sound campaign.

This campaign has integrated human-made noises in the delivering scooters, that not only alert the pedestrians and bikers to the coming of a motorized vehicle - making the roads more safe (hence the name Safe Sound) -, but also draws a great amount of attention by broadcasting certain words like 'Domino's' or 'Pizza' in between the 'vruuuums'. 

Give a look at the video below to see the first reactions to the well thought of campaign.

Ana Nascimento

Source: http://www.psfk.com