Case Histories
These examples are taken from the considerable body of work created by A Second Opinion founder Monty Arnhold during his career as a copywriter.
GIO Australia Public Share Offer
The campaign which was awarded the Silver Pinnacle for Advertising Effectiveness was the marketing of the then NSW Government's GIO Australia Public Share Offer.
Share floats were a relatively new advertising category.
The goal of the campaign was to persuade so-called 'mum and dad' investors and institutions to buy shares in the newly floated entity. The NSW Government hoped to sell a billion dollar's worth of shares.
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A campaign was created by A Second Opinion, in his capacity at the time as a freelance copywriter. The slogan was 'Pick up a piece of GIO Australia'. The creative idea was to show people literally carrying away unfeasibly large pieces of GIO buildings and other assets.
A full media campaign of numerous television commercials, print, press, radio etc followed, utilising the concept.
It was an unprecedented and spectacular success.
Within minutes of the Offer being opened, it had to be closed, over-subscribed. In fact it was calculated that the Offer was over-subscribed by a billion dollars – twice what had been expected and required to make the float a success.
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GIO Australia Public Share Offer
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Yes, a billion dollars had to be sent back to unsuccessful applicants.
In a bizarre twist, the float was criticised by one media pundit for "whipping the public into a marketing-driven frenzy so intense that investors simply tore the application form from the prospectus and sent it off without even reading the prospectus…"
Every ad campaign should suffer from similar criticism!
Smiths Lites
Smiths Lites 'Ballerinas'
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As a copywriter, A Second Opinion also created the famous Smiths Lites potato crisps commercial featuring ballerinas gorging themselves on chips whilst delicately dancing Swan Lake. "The daintiest way to stuff your face" was the campaign line.
Whilst the commercial went on to receive numerous creative awards, the most gratifying achievement of the campaign was an increase in sales of around 40% nationally immediately upon the release of the advertising. In NSW alone, the sales increase was in the order of 60%.
The market research analysis of the 'Ballerinas' concept was hardly a glowing endorsement of the concept. In fact it was almost dismissive. Perhaps because snack food advertising at the time was largely Benny Hill style slapstick, the notion of a commercial which actually had an idea - and an intrinsically funny idea at that - was too new to be recognised for the much-loved, multiple award-winning and highly effective ad it turned out to be. Luckily the switched-on client had already fallen in love with the idea, (one of a field of five researched) could see its potential and took the bold move to run it anyway. The rest is snack food advertising history.
One final example from the extensive portfolio of advertising created by A Second Opinion in a previous life is worth mentioning because it contains so many instructive principles for both creative staff and marketing personnel.
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Johnson & Johnson Reach
In 1985, immediately upon his return to Australia from a period in London, the copywriter now known as A Second Opinion was briefed to develop a commercial for Johnson & Johnson's Reach toothbrush.
The commercial which eventuated from the process took only minutes to conceive but many hard-fought months to finally appear on the nation's television screens.
It was the original Reach 'Flip-Top Head' spot featuring a simple, amusingly animated character much in the style of the cartoonist Leuinig. It was fresh, it was engaging and it communicated effortlessly. It was also an immediate hit.
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Johnson & Johnson's Reach 'Flip-Top Head'
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Over the following few months, the commercial was adapted for use in over 20 countries around the world, and in 2007 the campaign celebrated its 22nd birthday.
It's rather ironic, but 'Flip Top Head' might never have seen the light of day.
The commercial was initially resisted by the Client, who was uncomfortable with the concept, apparently because it departed from the conservative advertising style which was a hallmark of Johnson & Johnson's approach at the time.
This raises the dilemma faced by many advertisers: What should you do when confronted by an advertising proposal that seems to represent a significant departure from the established brand values, brand culture or tone-of-voice?
It's one of many factors A Second Opinion considers when appraising the ideas placed before us.
In the case of 'Flip Top Head' the fresh approach actually improved consumer perceptions of the whole J&J brand, not just the Reach product. It made the whole J&J brand seem more contemporary, innovative and relevant.
It seems A Second Opinion's instincts were correct.
Recently in B&T, the ad industry's highest circulation advertising, marketing and media magazine, an article appeared recording the 21st year on air for the campaign.
This excerpt is interesting because it identifies some of the critical issues for many advertisers who see themselves as custodians of the brand and worry that new advertising might compromise or even destroy the brand heritage built up by previous, often long-lasting campaigns.
The notions expressed in those excerpts are interesting from both a creative and client perspective and worthy of a little exploration.
Of course it's deliciously ironic that J&J are now so fiercely protective of what they call the 'Mr Reach' character after they so actively resisted his creation in the first place.
But there are some more profound points to explore.
As the creator of the original, A Second Opinion finds it both interesting and amusing that the cartoon character, which was nothing more than a one-off mechanism to demonstrate the way the product provides better access to the back teeth and was never envisaged to endure beyond that first commercial has become the brand property, or as he's referred to in the press release above as 'the brand ambassador'.
But that's often what happens in advertising. An element of a successful ad is often retained in the next and future communications as an established property of the brand long after its original reason for being has been forgotten.
A Second Opinion is always on the lookout for these elements in any concepts put before us.
The insights on the Reach campaign and other case histories mentioned are but the tip of a very large iceberg of experience and expertise that A Second Opinion brings to the table.
Insights you simply can't and won't get from focus groups. To read more about the difference between A Second Opinion and focus group research, go to the A Second Opinion v Focus Groups page.
