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Tuesday, April 18  

It's A Bloody Big Ad - But A Bloody Big Waste Of Money Too?

It's A Bloody Big Ad - But A Bloody Big Waste Of Money Too?

Here in Australia one of the local beer makers released an ad a few months back. It's known as the Big Ad - it reputedly cost in excess of $1 million to make and features armies of colourfully robed men running across a huge field in the shape of a person and a glass of beer.

Despite the ad, Carlton Draught's share of the $1.4 billion New South Wales beer market has remained the same since the ad's launch last July.

The Executive Creator Director of the agency who created the ad said ".....I'd be surprised by those figures....."

Ad A Strong Contender To Win Prestigious Award

And the Big Ad is considered a strong chance to win a major award at the prestigious Cannes Lions advertising festival coming up in July.

And that's what's so crazy about the ad industry. You create a hopeless ad that doesn't meet the objective of selling the stuff it is supposed to. And then you win a major ad award.

But the ad agency will make it all right.......I get the feeling that right about now the client would be hearing these words any day now:

"But our research shows a strong increase in brand awareness."

Which is Ad-Speak for "No-one bought any beer."

Cheers

Brendon

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[ comments ]

Six Flags amusement park had a similar ad flop here in the US. They spent $72 million on an ad campagin featuring a dancing old man; at the end of the campaign their sales were unchanged.
Brendon,

Thanks for a great example of corporate foolishness! Unbelievable!

Cheers,

Steve Solem
www.ravedesigns.com
The younger set simply aren't drinking as much beer, and the former beer drinkers are starting to appreciate wine. The XXXX ads are about fishing etc and that helps defend beer usage in those scenarios, but it's increasingly being viewed as "your dad's" drink.

If it were me, I'd extol on how well beer goes with fine foods, or position beer as "your grandfather's drink", and how youths are "rediscovering" why beer is so enduring.
I saw that ad and showed it to quite a few friends and the result was the same - interest in the production but it didn't make any of us rush out and buy the brew.

I think I'm with one of the earlier commenters - perhaps more of a focus on some of the boutique beers brewers are producing these days might sell more product.

At one stage the Cascade brewery in Hobart was producing some fine boutique beers that would sell out with a few hours of being released - and they were doing that on not much more than a press release.
Yes, there are so many better ways they could have spent that $1 million (and that was the production cost, you can add the adv showing charges to that).

And Stuart, I'm a Hobart boy - Cascade is the best beer in the world!

Cheers

Brendon
Well, it is still a great ad, and deserves to win, even if so far sales have not increased... maybe without the ad they would have been dropping...
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