Dadvertising - Mum's Not Dead Honest. Pt. 2

For the second part of my Dadvertising piece I bring you the brilliant Lego advert, Build Together (watch below). This is a masterpiece in Dadvertising, brilliant script, great tagline and what really blew me away about this is it's placement. It's not on in-between The MilkShake Girls, no, it's on when Dad's watching the TV on his own and it's reigniting his passion for Lego by appealing to his selfish nature, and, sorry, but it works. I want to build this house with my son.

The strapline is brilliant as well, so simple and totally inspiring. Build Together (nice typography as well while we're at it), is positioning Lego as a social activity, rather than a toy, it's an easy way to spend time with your family and everyone have fun at the same time. I mean has anyone ever played Elefun? It's hard to feel challenged as an adult catching butterflies out of a 3 foot long Elephant trunk. This Advert sells the idea that products works across all ages.

If an advert is only as good as it's product, then the advert is great because Lego has always been great. That's another thing I like about this, it's back to basics for the product. Lego has lost it's way over the last 10 years, there's too many movie tie-ins and too many specialist parts, and that's taken the imagination out of the bricks. But this advert goes a long way to building it back in, it's a triumph for Lego, for Dadvertising and for imagination.

What makes this the pinnacle of Dadvertising is Mum doesn't poke her nosey little face in at the end to prove she's not dead, no she's probably out doing the Christmas Shopping, buying this little chap a big rubbish plastic oven.

Let us know what you think? Are Dadverts going to take over TV, is the word 'Dadvert' annoying you?

Get in touch ben@citizenstudios.co.uk

Visit www.citizenstudios.co.uk

Or call 07738 175 614

A New Urban and Rural

Around 6 months ago I met with Urban and Rural to discuss the generation of some new templates for their advertising. This was quite a straight forward brief,  but I instantly saw a bigger opportunity for both of us, for Citizen this could be a local brand for me to work closely with, and create a great case study (you can't deny you're reading it), and for U&R, a chance to rebrand, and refresh a company image that was slightly out of date.

My starting point was to define the local market, segment the competition, and establish a space we could aim for. I did this by creating this matrix;

By dividing the brand focus into Brand Perception and Property Portfolio, we started to see where the crowding was, where U&R currently sat, and an area that we should attack.

The old brand was...

- In the most crowded part of the matrix, making it harder to stand out.

- Too low down the Brand Perception axis cheapens your low-end property perception and potentially damages your high-end property perception perception.

The required shift therefore was up the Brand Perception matrix, and to achieve this we need to...

+ Brand repositioning: Creation of new more current, and equally timeless logo and brand

+ Better, more consistent, advertising both for product and brand.

+ A brand strategy based on 4 solid pillars, of ‘Personality’, ‘Quality service’, ‘Technology leader’ and ‘Urban and Rural’ properties.

+ A Brand that is carried through every consumer touch point and consistently enhances the Urban and Rural experience

And so the new brand was began to grow from these touch points. Citizen started to design a logo that ditched the parts that weren't working, and kept the parts that had helped establish their market presence. The logo began to take shape and spawned a suite of usable options;

Because U&R is a franchise operation my next job was to make sure we had the support of the managers throughout the chain. Do do this I put together a comprehensive Brand Guidelines document, that outlined exactly how the brand should work, why it's important and how to use it. This included a more in-depth explanation of the brand proposition;

Once we had the support of the entire group, it was then the hard work began, with the creation of a range of newspaper templates, stationery, brochure covers and advertising templates, all created from this studio and all built from a starting point of some solid brand guidelines, along with the support of a forward thinking and organised company. The end result looks amazing, and here's a quote from the Owner, just in case you think I'm making this all up;

"Citizen offered an in-depth and interesting brand clinic, following which they created some great work which was presented beautifully. 

Citizen took the time to understand and then reposition our brand to a place we wanted to be. Because of this care and attention they have delivered a fantastic result, and Urban and Rural are moving boldy forward." 

CRAIG REYNOLDS. URBAN AND RURAL OWNER 

This is what Citizen does best, and working with clients that are prepared to listen to our guidance, we can make brands come to life. Give me a call on 07764 898 010 or drop an email to ben@citizenstudios.co.uk and let's create something.

Get in touch ben@citizenstudios.co.uk

Visit www.citizenstudios.co.uk

Or call 07764 898 010