Analysis of John Smiths Advertising Campaign Essays

Analysis of John Smiths Advertising Campaign Essays Analysis of John Smiths Advertising Campaign Paper Analysis of John Smiths Advertising Campaign Paper The advertising campaign I chose to look at was for John Smiths. The famous British beer with the No Nonsense attitude, John Smiths is the number one ale brand in the UK, selling over one million pints every day with annual retail sales in excess of i 650 million. High profile marketing, incorporating TV advertising, sponsorships and innovative consumer promotions, has driven John Smiths success to the point where the brands on trade sales total more than its two nearest competitors added together. The brands annual marketing investment, which stands at a record of  £ 20 million, was much to be congratulated by its No Nonsense TV campaign with comedian Peter Kay which dramatises the virtues of a No Nonsense approach to life. The John Smiths advertising campaign with Peter Kay has earned almost 50 advertising and marketing awards to date. More importantly, the advertising has captured the hearts and minds of consumers everywhere helping the brand build on its dominance as the number one ale brand in the UK. For Scottish Courage (the owners of John Smiths), the challenge for its John Smiths brand was to achieve dominance of the ale sector. The objective for 2002 communications was to create a sense of brand ubiquity (maintaining high advertising awareness, increasing spontaneous brand awareness and consideration), make the brand more attractive to younger male drinkers without scaring away older drinkers, and also to strengthen the consumer franchise overall. A requirement was also to make the brand more attractive to the trade to help secure broader distribution. In order to make the share of impact much greater than share of spending, Scottish Courage needed a communications property with high advertising impact that could also be carried below the line. The role of the advertising was to further develop the No Nonsense idea, which had already been successfully introduced in previous campaigns. The premise of No Nonsense ads was to strike a chord with the audience and make ale drinkers feel more comfortable about drinking John Smiths. The key target market was identified as 20 and 30 something men, both existing ale drinkers and prospects. The proposition being No Nonsense Ale for No Nonsense Blokes. TBWA/London developed a creative idea involving comedian Peter Kay in various humorous situations. Televisions reach potential and its ability to generate massive awareness amongst a young male target market were obviously key factors in determining the eventual media mix. In terms of traditional advertising, television secured almost the entire spend, with only limited budgets allocated to press and radio. After ditching Jack Dee as its brand spokesman over 5 years ago, the makers of John Smiths bitter returned to the comedy circuit for a i 20 million advertising campaign starring the up-and-coming stand-up Peter Kay. He is intertextual because he is well known through his comedy programs such as Phoenix Nights. Scottish Courage ended its contract with the old comic (Jack Dee) in 1998 saying John Smiths was so famous it no longer needed a celebrity to endorse it. Instead, the brewer came up with No-nonsense man, a cardboard cut-out of an ordinary bloke shown sipping a pint of John Smiths on a deck chair and in his local pub. Then came theyre biggest and most recent campaign, the biggest ever for the brand, it will continue with the gimmick-free approach for which John Smiths has become famous Peter Kay. Here are three of the six adverts made from the recent John Smiths campaign: Ave It, Wardrobe Monsters and Top Bombing. The other three successful adverts that I will not be looking at were: Snooker, Showstopper and the most recent advert shown on television from John Smiths, Doorstep Challenge. The first ad, titled Ave It, had the narrative opening on a muddy recreation ground with a group of young football players showing off/practising their keepy uppy skills. After each individual demonstration, the player effortlessly passes the ball to a colleague keeping it off the ground, until it reaches the solid figure of Peter Kay. He then promptly boots the ball far away into a neighbouring garden whilst saying Ave it! The ad closes as Peter Kay self-congratulates himself for a moment saying oh yes, then opts for a can of John Smiths over the traditional half-time oranges and the John Smiths slogan No Nonsense appears. This advert clearly represents Peter Kay as a laid back individual as the players before him had been doing all that fancy footwork and he just trumps in and wellies it totally uncontrolled, and he is also proud of himself. He represents himself by the way he speaks and the way he chooses the beer over the oranges is clearly to show the whole idea of a no nonsense lifestyle. The advert is of a sporting genre, which shows us that the intended audience is probably for men above 18. The next John Smiths advert I looked at was one called Wardrobe Monsters. The advert opens with two couples eating together in a restaurant laughing (laid back), Peter Kay being one of the male partners. His mobile phone rings and answers it to find that its the babysitter looking after his daughter. His daughter, Britney, speaks to him on the phone and informs him that she is having nightmares about the wardrobe monsters. He tells her, theres no such thing as wardrobe monsters, its the burglars that brake in through the window thats you want to be worried about. He then ironically says sweet dreams to his daughter than asks for two more beers from the bar without even realising what he has said to his daughter, showing his laid back approach to life. He takes a sip of his pint, then realises that they are all starring at him and says what? Also showing he was being serious about the way he replied to his daughter but comedian towards the audience at the same time. The final image is of a pint of John Smiths and as before its slogan No Nonsense, summing up the whole point of the advert. This advert probably appeals to both male and female audiences as it is concentrating on the non-seriousness of Peter Kays ideas towards parenthood. The final John Smiths advert I looked at from its most recent campaign is entitled Top Bombing. The advert starts in the scene of some sort of diving event e. g. Olympics. Everything comes across to be authentic as we see real diving platforms and pools, a commentator expressing his feelings on the dives, a voice in the background telling the type of dive and judges score, action replays of the dives, and also diagetic sounds e. g. jumping off platforms and the diver hitting the water. First we see a diver from Australia, Darren Croll. He does a spectacular dive involving lots of twists and turns. The commentator says, Oh thats a good dive! Next there is a diver from Canada, Petit. He also does an amazing dive consisting of lots of summersaults, the commentator says oh even better! Then he says, now the favourite John Smith for Great Britain. We then see the image of Peter Kay standing on the platform with his hands in his pockets acting like its nothing to be in the competition. We briefly hear the speaker in the background say what he is about to do, a running bomb. Peter Kay throws himself off the platform, making the water splash everywhere, e ven over the judges. The commentator then says, oh terrific the crowd love it, and so do the judges! He says this as the speaker reads out all of his scores as 10, beating the other two divers by a lot. The commentator finishes by saying, top bombing! Peter Kay climbs up the swimming pool ladder to get out and exposes the top of his bottom and waves to the crowd. Once again showing how laid back and proud he is of his lifestyle. Also as in the other adverts there is an image of a pint of John Smiths beer and the slogan No Nonsense, supporting the idea of the whole advert. This advert would have been aimed at anyone 18+ as it is mainly just mocking the fact that he beat these extremely hard dives by doing a running bomb, which is effortless. To maximise the impact of the investment, Scottish Courage together with Media Vest developed a focused TV buying strategy. A high percentage of the advertising was placed in and around mainly sports programming on the terrestrial channels e. g. Cricket on 4, World Cup and Grand Prix on ITV1, and the various Sky Sports channels. Sports programming offered a good fit with existing John Smiths drinkers TV viewing patterns. John Smiths is involved in a lot of horse racing advertising at the races. John Smiths association with racing dates back to 1959 when the brewers Magnet Ale became the first commercial sponsor in flat racing, entering into an enduring partnership with the nearby racecourse at York. Now re-titled the John Smiths Cup, it is the longest-established flat race sponsorship in Britain. John Smith was just 24 years of age when he purchased a run down brew house in Tadcaster in 1847 eight years after a horse called Lottery had won the first ever Grand National at Aintree beginning a successful brewing heritage that has spanned more than one and a half centuries. John Smiths current list of sponsored races include: The John Smiths Cup at York; The John Smiths Northumberland Plate; The John Smiths Midlands Grand National at Uttoxeter and The John Smiths Stakes at Newbury. The company has a long and successful track record in sports and arts sponsorship including, in the present day: The Fosters British Grand Prix; Kronenbourg 1664 Official Beer of the Open Golf Tournament; The John Smiths Cup at York; Scrumpy Jack official drink of the English Cricket Team and Becks Futures at the ICA. It also fitted well with potential John Smiths drinkers viewing habits (lager drinkers with a no nonsense attitude to life). The strategy provided John Smiths a dominant share of voice within the relevant sports programming context. Research shows that John Smiths enduring association with a no nonsense attitude plays a big part in its appeal to consumers and everything about Peters character reflects this. John Smiths is to sponsor the Grand National meeting in a new three-year multi-million pound title sponsorship agreement. The very first John Smiths Grand National meeting will take place on Thursday 7th Saturday 9th April 2005. The Grand National is the Worlds most famous race, broadcast in over 140 countries with an estimated audience of over 600 million viewers. The three-day meeting attracts 150,000 race goers. This just goes to show the amount of media coverage John Smiths advertising receives. There appears to be a clear understanding of what the advertising is saying about the John Smiths brand shown by all the awards won. This has built over the course of the campaign to date. Endorsement of the statement John Smiths is a humorous and down to earth brand is just one example. Attribution of image statements like is a brand for people like me have increased amongst all age groups. The Peter Kay campaign created massive awareness. It successfully communicated the brands no nonsense positioning in a way that people could really engage with. As a result people feel closer to the brand, which ultimately has had a positive impact on sales. The John Smiths campaign with Peter Kay has achieved massively considering it is only a piece of advertising for a type of ale. The TV commercials have been talked about in offices and pubs across the country, and sayings such as Ave it have entered everyday conversation and discussion. The latest No Nonsense campaign has carried on a strong tradition of memorable and highly successful John Smiths TV advertising. The advertising has resulted in increased awareness and sales. It also won a number of awards including the Creative Circle and Campaign magazines Campaign of the Year 2002. The judges described the advertising as a brilliant campaign that has entered peoples everyday lives while significantly boosting sales and winning fans, plaudits and column inches galore in the process.