I like it. Concept is clear – here we have a Policeman, the sheriff of his local community (and a helpful tourist guide ;-)) with recognized power and authority – everyone obey him, eve usually hard to calm arguing women. But, as life’s showing us, we all have bosses above us – in this case a wife. The moment, when a child disobeys him leaves us in waiting for a burst of emotions and anger – will he, or will he not bite his head off, but then apparently wife appears as a comic relief. Everything ends just fine, and HSBC once again proves that: ‘As the World’s local bank, the better we can understand people and what they value, the better we can help them.’
This is one of these perfect slogans. It is hard to find faults in it. One of the dominant trends in the banking industry is personalization of relations and services. If the Client is assured, that financial institution, an universal bank active on all fields of Client interest knows him, his needs and worries, he will stay with us. Hopefully this will convince him not to look only on the provisions, rates etc. (so we’ll be able to finance that damn personalization) but the general impression will prevail. In the short soldier words – to move standards and quality of service from Private Banking to Retail, an impossible task, but always worth trying (appearances are good enough ;-) ). Ok, this is the SHORT category, so no lectures.
Music theme is perfect, hard to think of a better background for a bossy energetic man, a true conductor than “Largo al factotum” from Il Barbiere di Siviglia by Gioachino Rossini. So, the bank is able to known the true nature of Clients, and suits best their needs.

Tagi: In ENGLISH, Marketing, SHORT, TV. Autor: Jan Habza
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Other versions can be viewed on a Barclays YouTube channel.

I’m an avid fan of engaging Clients into an interaction. To show them, that they are part of our brand, to use their creativity (and do part of our job instead of us…). If properly conducted, it can be extremely beneficial, by i.e. showing our modern face, how open are we on new ideas etc. In this case Barclays decided to promote their contactless payment solution , by creating a competition where Clients could post their versions of this commercial, their own waterslide.
Sounds ok, but I see one main fault on the conception stage – campaign is only directed to the technical advanced/superior Clients. Clients who will know how to make a movie and post it. It is not a simple think-a-lame-promotional-slogan-for-us task. This is a demanding project. Additionally, even if Client meets our basic requirement – knows how to make a movie, doesn’t have to be good at it… And probably will not be.  So, obviously we’re promoting semi or full professionals. You may say that this is what competition is all about, but remember – we want to engage our Client, so we shouldn’t discourage him. The winning video is cool, but it wasn’t made by an average Joe… Also, with YouTube you’re completely upfront. It is hard to ‘cheat’. People can immediately see how popular your campaign is, how many entries you have etc. That is only good when we have of what to be proud, but when our campaign is completely missed – it will be hard to ‘hide’ the failure. I’m just naming potential dangers, there should be a sort of consolation prize for obviously tech-disadvantaged people, so they could also participate.
Concept – waterslide and contactless payment, hmmm the connection is not immediate but when you finally know what the spot is about, it works. It shows you the speed and easiness of transactions, and well it is what it should be doing. You can feel freedom, are not bounded with your money, cash is not an anchor for you, speed etc.… In general a good idea, and definetly a breeze of freshness.

Tagi: Ambient, In ENGLISH, Marketing, SHORT, TV. Autor: Jan Habza
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Five stars spot. People have problems with Korean cars. Not in the mechanical sense, but with their image and general perception. It’s just like with Skoda Superb. You know that it is basically cheaper Volkswagen Passat, and you’re really doing a good deal buying it, but deep inside in your head you think – c’mon, it is JUST a Skoda… For a long time Asian cars were just affordable small cars, whose only function was fuel efficiency. But KIA, DAEWOO, HYUNDAI etc. also want to be selling luxury cars. Honda and Toyota gave up long time ago, and created different brands for their state-of-the-art vehicles (Acura and Lexus). I remember when I’ve first seen KIA Sorento, and mistook it with Mercedes M-class. A very cheap move, showing only that the manufacturer hadn’t had its own identity.

With this spot KIA is trying to show us, that it knows what our expectations are, and that they’ve read the how-to-sell-luxury-cars handbook. Self-irony, mockage of the schemes is excellent. Everything here is on the right place, so why do we bother with the plaque which is saying KIA instead of Mercedes? Are we so vain? Yes we are, so good luck KIA in changing your image. With this spot you’ve done a lot.
But the strong side of this commercial is also a weak one. So, ok they are convincing us, that they’re that same like the other luxury SUVs, so what does make them extraordinary? We know that it is the price, they say that KIA Borrego is a new kind of a SUV. Not convincing enough, but it hard to discover the gunpowder again, right?

Inspiration: Ads of the World

Tagi: In ENGLISH, Marketing, SHORT, TV. Autor: Jan Habza
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…when you’ve giant legs ;-). What I like in this spot is its consequence – it strictly follows from start to the end its concept, stylization and speed, what is especially hard to achieve. Everything here is family friendly (only where is the mom?), and strike the right strings. More important than the visual style is the song, here written exclusively for the ad (I’m getting tired of listening the well known hits in commercials which often does not have much in common with the spot message). But I feel a bit unsatisfied, while everything here is well planned, at the end it falls a bit, I’m speaking about the final messages, which, let’s face it, are the most important part of this spot form a commercial point of view. We want to sell something, right? ‘Create the freedom to travel’ is a very good slogan, but it is not presented strongly enough. While the overall tenor is calm, and you immediately want to hum the lead theme, the  Avion Card ( a cool product by the way):

Get any available seat, any airline

With Avion, redeem your points for flights when you want to travel:

• And no rewards seat capacity restrictions

• On any airline

• With no blackout periods

slippers away. Why did they split the ending period (when you are allowed to put your text message) in half, not only dividing the text (first part is unnecessary, and can be easily modified to work with the second, and be presented as one) but also image of our product – the card, and bank logo. Both items can be presented on one board, with the logo somewhere in the corner, and let’s say moving in the middle in the last second. We have to remember, that the card is important here, as it will hopefully generate projected income not the bank name itself.

Tagi: In ENGLISH, Marketing, SHORT, TV. Autor: Jan Habza
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‘knowing what they need to hear: priceless’

Priceless series is one of the best ever made, and that is a fact. This hokey version is an average for me, but it builds emotions. I was waiting for the coach explosion, didn’t known if they were AFTER or BEFORE the game (probably were during ;-)). The all-known UEFA Champions League version is the best made to date.

Tagi: In ENGLISH, Marketing, SHORT, TV. Autor: Jan Habza
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