Every campaign is only as good as the story behind it
A great idea is defined by its simplicity
Successful campaigns deliver more than just column inches
Every campaign should deliver business results
ad agencies rarely do any creative work themselves these days, they let the production companies they use to do most of the creative and chip in with rubbish suggestions every so often to look like they're doing some creative stuff to justify the money they get from clients. The only reason they still exist these days is because they have the contacts for production/broadcast etc. This is from first hand experience.
Do I think its a clever and skilfully executed piece of modern brand awareness? - yes, undoubtedly. Do I think its funny? - mildly amusing, yes. Do I find it tacky and out of kilter with my perceptions of the Club's "values"? - I've tried not to but I do a little bit. Is it harmless? - Probably, but there is the unquantifiable possibility that it will piss off even more a few/maybe more who are already on the edge. All publicity is not necessarily good despite the cliché Does it matter in the overall scheme of things? - Probably not. I'll bet the BBC are just waiting for the first opportunity to screw us over though!
"Oh look, a couple shagging on the pitch at The Valley, I was going to go to Lanzarote this summer, but I think I'll pop down to London from Yorkshire and pay lots of money to have a kick around with my mates instead"
Top plan.
Meanwhile back in the real world, once again I could have won lots of money on predicting who the supporters of this "idea" would be.
My kid up at college in Boston texted me about it so as far as getting the message out it was a success. I think it's harmless fun that got a lot of people talking about Charlton who normally wouldn't .
Every campaign is only as good as the story behind it
A great idea is defined by its simplicity
Successful campaigns deliver more than just column inches
Every campaign should deliver business results
ad agencies rarely do any creative work themselves these days, they let the production companies they use to do most of the creative and chip in with rubbish suggestions every so often to look like they're doing some creative stuff to justify the money they get from clients. The only reason they still exist these days is because they have the contacts for production/broadcast etc. This is from first hand experience.
What's your first hand experience? I've worked as a creative at ad agencies as recently as last year and don't think that's true at all.
Poor decision by the marketing manager at Charlton to approve this. And it wouldn't have been cheap.
Brand awareness = the pitch at the Valley is available to hire. It's that simple.
This is also not true at all.
A brand is a set of values. 'Brand awareness' is expressing those values to the public to let them know that they are in-line with their own values - so they can identify with that brand.
Apple's 'brand' is all about innovation. That's why all of their executions, whether it's marketing, pr or advertising, are all supporting that message. They positioned their brand this way because early adopters identify with challenging the norm and innovation - and early adopters in turn market their products for them. (Remember how early iPhone users would always tell you about their iPhone?)
That is good branding and brand awareness, done by a brand manager and advertising and marketing teams who know what they're doing.
Charlton's brand values are family, community and dogged South-London integrity - it's what has seen us through tough times. It's what makes us special. It's core to our club. This video is a long way from representing those values and as such is damaging to that brand. It does not raise 'brand awareness' because it is not a representation of our values. I'm not saying it's damaging because it's a couple having sex - it could have been a video of a midget chasing a camel - it doesn't matter. It's damaging because it takes away from a reputation we've built over a century of history.
There was a video of someone breaking into an air force base and graffiti-ing on the President's plane Air Force One. It got millions of views. It was later revealed to be fake and a PR stunt by Mark Ecko - but it worked so well because the action itself was a representation of what Ecko is all about - rebellion, individuality and street culture. That video can be said to have raised 'brand awareness'. Our one can't.
How would you create a viral video based on Charlton's real brand values? It's not easy, but that's why people pay so much for good creatives.
People might now be talking about our club around the world but I would rather they weren't - because they aren't talking about Charlton, because this video has put Charlton across as tacky and gimmicky, rather than a club that really does have more integrity than any other.
Poor marketing from the club and sub-standard creative work from the agency. Clifford French needs a better creative director and we need a better marketing manager.
A bit of humour is ok but try explaining to your kids who want to know what all the fuss is about. It could have been done better like the old black and white films with a change of music etc.
I think the biggest crime is that the club, with all it's 'we're looking in to it' rubbish, has lied to the media and made many people look stupid.
I don't want to be over dramatic but what happens when we want some good publicity from BBC, ITV or Sky, or, heaven forbid, more than 90 seconds on our goals on a Saturday night?
On the basis that we need their TV coverage more than they need us, lying to them about this might just turn out to be very costly. If Sky, for example, should decide to show a Millwall game live rather than ours, because they have a Producer (or whom ever) that is cross at being used for cheap publicity, that could cost is thousands in lost revenue.
I would be horrified if the club thought that was a small price to pay for having millions of hits on a video. Anyone that measures the success of their life on the number of hits they get on YouTube or Twitter needs to have their prioritys addresses, in my view.
Well it was picked up out here in Prague by my buddy, who is a big shot with Mindshare, so this sort of thing is well within his remit. He also happens to be Serbian,btw, massive footie fan. Here's his take
A bit of humour is ok but try explaining to your kids who want to know what all the fuss is about.
You could always just explain it to them - it would help them to grow up as well-rounded individuals. They too would then get to laugh at the pomposity and the feigned outrage of some people.
lied to the media. Well that makes a change from the other way round!
I don't want to be over dramatic but what happens when we want some good publicity from BBC, ITV or Sky, or, heaven forbid, more than 90 seconds on our goals on a Saturday night? Like that was EVER going to happen.
because they have a Producer (or whom ever) that is cross at being used for cheap publicity, that could cost is thousands in lost revenue. TV companies have very poor corporate memories - that's not going to happen.
A bit of humour is ok but try explaining to your kids who want to know what all the fuss is about.
You could always just explain it to them - it would help them to grow up as well-rounded individuals. They too would then get to laugh at the pomposity and the feigned outrage of some people.
Exactly, heaven forbid you let them see an episode of pretty much any soap, reality TV or music video these days.
a) Yay - two people shagging - love it! b) Great publicity stunt, good for the club - love it! c) Good idea, got people talking - like it! d) Bit cringey and embarrassing, but at least it's got people talking - Neutral e) Not happy with it, could have done something more tasteful - dislike it. f) Just spat my lentils out all over my copy of The Guardian (but at least I am happy because I've found something to be offended by) - hate it, who do I write to, to complain about it?
H) Looking forward to seeing the uncut 90 minute second version
Fixed that for you (and 60 seconds of that was getting her tights off.)
A bit of humour is ok but try explaining to your kids who want to know what all the fuss is about.
You could always just explain it to them - it would help them to grow up as well-rounded individuals. They too would then get to laugh at the pomposity and the feigned outrage of some people.
Exactly, heaven forbid you let them see an episode of pretty much any soap, reality TV or music video these days.
I've told you a million times not to exaggerate...
lied to the media. Well that makes a change from the other way round!
I don't want to be over dramatic but what happens when we want some good publicity from BBC, ITV or Sky, or, heaven forbid, more than 90 seconds on our goals on a Saturday night? Like that was EVER going to happen.
because they have a Producer (or whom ever) that is cross at being used for cheap publicity, that could cost is thousands in lost revenue. TV companies have very poor corporate memories - that's not going to happen.
TV companies may we'll have short memories but the individuals hat work for them can be just as petty as the rest of us.
There were suggestions that Hoddle was chased out of the England job because the media were sulking with him lying about the fitness of players during the 1998 World Cup Finals.
You seem confident that it will not happen, I'm not so sure. What I am sure about is that this was a gamble that was totally unnecessary. They could have thought it through and come clean with the media in their first public statement, opposed to cleaning that they were going to carry out a full investigation.
This does, of course, assume that those that made the video told those in the Media. I wouldn't be surprised to discover that no one had a clue what was happening anywhere else in the club.
It's great PR no doubt about it. Some will call it classless and out of kilter with the Charlton model. I like the fact that 'safe' Charlton have gone a bit left field.
I work for a leading broadcast PR company, if one of my campaigns had 7m hits over two days I'd call that a success. It's had a huge amount of coverage online and would have only cost a few thousand quid. Compare that to a traditional ad campaign which would have cost tens of thousands and wouldn't have got you on the BBC.
Brand awareness = the pitch at the Valley is available to hire. It's that simple.
This is also not true at all.
A brand is a set of values. 'Brand awareness' is expressing those values to the public to let them know that they are in-line with their own values - so they can identify with that brand.
Apple's 'brand' is all about innovation. That's why all of their executions, whether it's marketing, pr or advertising, are all supporting that message. They positioned their brand this way because early adopters identify with challenging the norm and innovation - and early adopters in turn market their products for them. (Remember how early iPhone users would always tell you about their iPhone?)
That is good branding and brand awareness, done by a brand manager and advertising and marketing teams who know what they're doing.
Charlton's brand values are family, community and dogged South-London integrity - it's what has seen us through tough times. It's what makes us special. It's core to our club. This video is a long way from representing those values and as such is damaging to that brand. It does not raise 'brand awareness' because it is not a representation of our values. I'm not saying it's damaging because it's a couple having sex - it could have been a video of a midget chasing a camel - it doesn't matter. It's damaging because it takes away from a reputation we've built over a century of history.
There was a video of someone breaking into an air force base and graffiti-ing on the President's plane Air Force One. It got millions of views. It was later revealed to be fake and a PR stunt by Mark Ecko - but it worked so well because the action itself was a representation of what Ecko is all about - rebellion, individuality and street culture. That video can be said to have raised 'brand awareness'. Our one can't.
How would you create a viral video based on Charlton's real brand values? It's not easy, but that's why people pay so much for good creatives.
People might now be talking about our club around the world but I would rather they weren't - because they aren't talking about Charlton, because this video has put Charlton across as tacky and gimmicky, rather than a club that really does have more integrity than any other.
Poor marketing from the club and sub-standard creative work from the agency. Clifford French needs a better creative director and we need a better marketing manager.
I'm not really picking out a single quote here as the quote sort of alluded to this but of course we think that. Any club thinks they are special but ultimately few around the UK let alone the world would recognise us for this reputation unless they have seen the awards we have won for work in the community, but that will be easily forgotten or not reported heavily as we haven't been in the big league for quite a while now. There really is no reason the communities values the club has to be separate from a viral campaign which is related to a different product within the company.
Ultimately we are a very small fish in a huge pond of the premier/football league and this campaign has raised awareness of the club as a whole. Now we have been in the news people are more likely to hear about the good things we do by researching the club etc. Sure a couple having sex on the pitch is extremely obvious but there really is no reason at all we should have as much exposure as we have had around the world for this incident and I am really impressed. Probably the only other team in the division who could naturally gain this much attention would be Leeds possibly but that would be for far worse reasons than us with Cellino.
I guess I'm also a little tired of the cute/honest club angle we seem to have but that is a different point for a different topic.
Comments
Dunno about anyone else, but there are scrolling messages onhteir website that are half hidden.
Do I think its funny? - mildly amusing, yes.
Do I find it tacky and out of kilter with my perceptions of the Club's "values"? - I've tried not to but I do a little bit.
Is it harmless? - Probably, but there is the unquantifiable possibility that it will piss off even more a few/maybe more who are already on the edge. All publicity is not necessarily good despite the cliché
Does it matter in the overall scheme of things? - Probably not. I'll bet the BBC are just waiting for the first opportunity to screw us over though!
Anyway...what's the details for the protest against this PR campaign tomorrow...
"“Building a better tomorrow together”
:-)
Top plan.
Meanwhile back in the real world, once again I could have won lots of money on predicting who the supporters of this "idea" would be.
Are you saying that's not 5-7 million views?
To put this in context, plenty of shots clicker might go to 5,000.
Poor decision by the marketing manager at Charlton to approve this. And it wouldn't have been cheap.
A brand is a set of values. 'Brand awareness' is expressing those values to the public to let them know that they are in-line with their own values - so they can identify with that brand.
Apple's 'brand' is all about innovation. That's why all of their executions, whether it's marketing, pr or advertising, are all supporting that message. They positioned their brand this way because early adopters identify with challenging the norm and innovation - and early adopters in turn market their products for them. (Remember how early iPhone users would always tell you about their iPhone?)
That is good branding and brand awareness, done by a brand manager and advertising and marketing teams who know what they're doing.
Charlton's brand values are family, community and dogged South-London integrity - it's what has seen us through tough times. It's what makes us special. It's core to our club. This video is a long way from representing those values and as such is damaging to that brand. It does not raise 'brand awareness' because it is not a representation of our values. I'm not saying it's damaging because it's a couple having sex - it could have been a video of a midget chasing a camel - it doesn't matter. It's damaging because it takes away from a reputation we've built over a century of history.
There was a video of someone breaking into an air force base and graffiti-ing on the President's plane Air Force One. It got millions of views. It was later revealed to be fake and a PR stunt by Mark Ecko - but it worked so well because the action itself was a representation of what Ecko is all about - rebellion, individuality and street culture. That video can be said to have raised 'brand awareness'. Our one can't.
How would you create a viral video based on Charlton's real brand values? It's not easy, but that's why people pay so much for good creatives.
People might now be talking about our club around the world but I would rather they weren't - because they aren't talking about Charlton, because this video has put Charlton across as tacky and gimmicky, rather than a club that really does have more integrity than any other.
Poor marketing from the club and sub-standard creative work from the agency. Clifford French needs a better creative director and we need a better marketing manager.
I have to admit didn't know Charlton had a brand, but I can tell you if it had a winning team it would get far more customers than a poxy brand.
So much bullshit in PR and advertising it's unreal, the emporers clothes comes to mind.
Steps back and waits abuse from all those in said professions.
It could have been done better like the old black and white films with a change of music etc.
I don't want to be over dramatic but what happens when we want some good publicity from BBC, ITV or Sky, or, heaven forbid, more than 90 seconds on our goals on a Saturday night?
On the basis that we need their TV coverage more than they need us, lying to them about this might just turn out to be very costly. If Sky, for example, should decide to show a Millwall game live rather than ours, because they have a Producer (or whom ever) that is cross at being used for cheap publicity, that could cost is thousands in lost revenue.
I would be horrified if the club thought that was a small price to pay for having millions of hits on a video. Anyone that measures the success of their life on the number of hits they get on YouTube or Twitter needs to have their prioritys addresses, in my view.
There were suggestions that Hoddle was chased out of the England job because the media were sulking with him lying about the fitness of players during the 1998 World Cup Finals.
You seem confident that it will not happen, I'm not so sure. What I am sure about is that this was a gamble that was totally unnecessary. They could have thought it through and come clean with the media in their first public statement, opposed to cleaning that they were going to carry out a full investigation.
This does, of course, assume that those that made the video told those in the Media. I wouldn't be surprised to discover that no one had a clue what was happening anywhere else in the club.
I work for a leading broadcast PR company, if one of my campaigns had 7m hits over two days I'd call that a success. It's had a huge amount of coverage online and would have only cost a few thousand quid. Compare that to a traditional ad campaign which would have cost tens of thousands and wouldn't have got you on the BBC.
I say well done Charlton.
Ultimately we are a very small fish in a huge pond of the premier/football league and this campaign has raised awareness of the club as a whole. Now we have been in the news people are more likely to hear about the good things we do by researching the club etc. Sure a couple having sex on the pitch is extremely obvious but there really is no reason at all we should have as much exposure as we have had around the world for this incident and I am really impressed. Probably the only other team in the division who could naturally gain this much attention would be Leeds possibly but that would be for far worse reasons than us with Cellino.
I guess I'm also a little tired of the cute/honest club angle we seem to have but that is a different point for a different topic.