John Lewis - Christmas Advert 2010 (Your Song)

Nothing’s better about the Christmas season than the efforts advertisers go to capture the spirit and goodwill for their brand. Here in the UK department store John Lewis is often the one to beat and whilst their Elton John inspired (and resung by Ellie Goulding) number may not have quite the emotional ressonance of their earlier ‘More than a Woman’ advert it’s still great festive fun!

(Source: johnlewis.com)

The Ads of X-Factor (Live Week 1)

Here in the UK the current season of X-Factor is as close as we get to a ‘Superbowl’ style moment for advertisers to get their messages across to the entire country. With ratings for this season higher than ever (buoyed by a little bit of controversy) all eyes are on the famous singing stage, and the breaks that come between them.

Last night was no exception, with several brands using the show to launch new campaigns - first up, and with the audacity to buy nearly an entire advert break to premiere their rapping farmers, was Yeo Valley (featured above).

The dairy brand’s advert fitted in well with the musical theme of the night and certainly stood out from the crowd - what the advert really highlighted was the power of social media to amplify the impact of a high profile showing. Saturday night on Twitter pretty much belongs to the #xfactor but for most of the night it was ‘Yeo Valley’ and not a reference to the show itself which topped Twitter’s trending topics world wide. To their credit their team was well prepared with a well designed ‘Yeo Tube’ channel for those looking for more content and crucially Twitter and Facebook accounts which were very active and conversational throughout the night. Of course not everyone liked it, but it certainly got people talking - we’re hoping to catch up with the team behind it later in the week.

Our other pick from the bunch was a new one from Ikea: “You’ll always find me in the kitchen at parties”. Another musical approach which did a good job of showcasing the firm’s kitchens, the biggest surprise was probably more that the Swedish furniture giant was launching a whole new campaign just a month after they premiered their ‘cats’ advert. Again the advert got picked up and discussed on Twitter but no way near to the extent that Yeo Valley did.

And just like that the show’s launched and the gauntlet’s been set - which advertisers will step up to the plate next week? With an ongoing X-Factor ticket offer running on the Yeo Valley site it may be that they return to our screens quite soon!

Oprah & The Black Eyed Peas remove any doubt that ‘flash-mobs’ are still authentic marketing opportunities.

If you thought this phenomena had jumped the shark when the Eurovision Song Contest tried to make use of it (or earlier still when T-mobile UK started cashing in) then this video from Oprah’s final season kick off show should come as no surprise.

Time for advertisers to find something new? Or at least to move away from the basic group dance/sing mentality.

Sony 3D TV advert with Justin Timberlake and Peyton Manning.

Guess they’ve got to find some way to shift those things.

Logorama - If you like logos and branding you should LOVE this short animated film!

“This is a short film that was directed by the French animation collective H5, François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy + Ludovic Houplain. It was presented at the Cannes Film Festival 2009. It opened the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and won a 2010 academy award under the category of animated short”

Clever new IE8 advert shows what it’s like to be scammed of your private information in the real world. They protect you online of course.