Holden ads disprove Olympics tie-in value

Holden and Ford ads come out on top despite ignoring the Olympics

During the Beijing Olympics you would have seen a plethora of ads using a tie-in to the event as a tool to garner brand support. But does this actually work? A new study has shown that consumers may be turning a blind eye to sponsorship messages.

According to the Courier Mail "Results from the inaugural Ipsos ASI Olympics Advertising Study show that using the Olympics as an advertising theme to gain attention and engage the audience was no sure-fire approach for advertisers and brands to get a positive response from viewers." 

The study researched 1500 consumers who awarded Holden 'Best of Category' for its Sportswagon ads, Ford came in second with its Falcon ANCAP Safety ad and Holden came in third with its Commodore ad. None of these top three carried any mention of the Olympics. The study measured audience reach, advertising awareness and recognition, impact on consumers, relevance and persuasion.

Seems that gimmicks are no substitute for quality advertising.

Seen & Noted

Here are some nice ads we've noticed. Some show the continuation of the trend towards little or no copy, others are examples of great use of environment and thinking outside of the square.

Hi, I'm a PC ad

Microsoft hits back

Seen the Mac ads where a nerdy guy represents a PC and a hip guy represents a Mac? You probably know that Microsoft has been stung by the success of this famous Mac campaign. So much so, it seems, that they've countered with a new series of TV and online ads.

The new ads have two parts. The first campaign shows numerous people announcing "I'm a PC" and reveal the widespread diversity of PC usage. Not a bad effort, I think, but they lack the sense of humour and directness of the Mac originals, and they don't really tell anybody anything they didn't already know about PCs.

The second campaign is just downright weird. It pairs retired Microsoft founder Bill Gates and comedian Jerry Seinfeld in a series of suburban vignettes that seem to meander all over the place. In some, it takes over 3 minutes of unfunny Seinfeld-esque interplay about nothing before finally reaching its point, which is "PC - Perpetually Connecting". Beats me what it does for the brand and, worst of all, it's just plain boring.