Très sophistiquè - A Brand Spotlight by Craig Cawkwell

Stella Artois has a rich advertising history, having produced some of the most memorable campaigns in recent years. However, negative connotations with the brand in 2007 led to a complete reform in communications targeted towards UK consumers. The turnaround was impressive and has resulted in a brand image that can only be described as ‘très sophistiquè’ (my attempt at French).

From 1982-2007, all Stella Artois communications within the UK centred on the slogan ‘Reassuringly Expensive’ – a campaign produced by Frank Lowe. This in itself was an extremely bold and clever campaign, choosing to turn a substantial negative (a higher price due to the greater duty on high-alcohol beverages in the UK) into a positive, by assuring customers that the higher price represented greater ‘quality’ than cheaper alternatives.

Early communications were primarily print ads, but in 1990 a chance viewing of Jean de Florette (a French historical drama) led one of Lowe's creative directors to pen a script based on a similar concept. The resulting television and cinema advertisement, Jacques de Florette, proved immensely popular and formed the basis for a series of award-winning adverts produced between 1991 and 2001, including Good Samaritan, Last Orders and Returning Hero.  These ads were extremely popular due to their successful fusion of humour and beautifully shot imagery and remain extremely influential today.

Despite the long running success of the ‘Reassuringly Expensive’ campaign, Stella Artois’ image started to drastically change in the eyes of British consumers. Due to its higher alcohol content, Stella Artois developed a reputation for making its drinkers aggressive. This, coupled with the brand’s popularity amongst football hooligans and binge-drinkers, meant that violence soon became associated with the brand, eventually earning Stella Artois the unwanted nickname of ‘Wife-Beater’. This was of course extremely detrimental to the brand and highlighted the necessity for Stella Artois to produce a campaign which would remove these negative associations.

The brand’s initial response was to drop the word ‘Stella’ (the UK’s adopted slang term for the lager) from its communications and remove the slogan ‘Reassuringly Expensive’. In 2008 the brand then chose to release a campaign aimed at informing customers that only four ingredients were used to make the lager. However, this did fairly little to remove the negative stereotype associated with the product.

As a result, the ‘She is a thing of beauty’ campaign was produced, which helped reposition the brand as cool, elegant, and sophisticated – a far cry from anything associated with angry drinkers and wife-beating. The first set of TV ads focused on the Stella Artois chalice, something which now personifies the brand ethos. Throughout the campaign, the importance of preparation was highlighted, with the nine-step pouring ritual being likened to a beautiful woman getting ready before an evening out.

As new products were launched within the Stella brand, a similarly elegant, sophisticated styled advertising strategy was used, helping to sustain this new found ‘chic’ personality. This is demonstrated no more so than in the ads for Stella Artois 4% which have firmly established the brand as being too-cool-for-school. These ads all generally follow the same story – everyday guy (although he is always ruggedly handsome) is ‘filtered’ three times, each time becoming more suave, debonair and cool. However, it is the way in which these ads are created which has made them irresistible to the audience. The sixties aesthetic provides the visually stunning, ultra-sophisticated theme (which works extremely well both on TV / Cinema spots and Outdoor) whilst the lavish locations and excessively attractive leads serve to keep the audience interested. Finally, this is topped off by the sexy French voiceover which delivers the metaphoric tagline ‘Triple Filtered with a Smooth Outcome’.

More recent Stella Artois products have also adopted the overarching brand’s smooth and sophisticated personality. Firstly, the campaign for Stella Artois Cidre once again utilised a sixties feel, this time presenting the ultra cool Le Président cheekily explaining to British consumers that it is not Cider, it is Cidre. These ads are again extremely strong visually, carrying forward the now well established tradition of Stella Artois communications.

Another of the brand’s new products, Stella Artois Black, has taken the idea of strong visuals one step further by staging a number of live role-play events, the latest being ‘Black Diamond’ – a live version of a classic film noir movie set in sixties Paris, engaging attendees by making them part of the story

It can be safely assumed that despite very few negative stereotypes ever fully disappearing, the recent campaigns by Stella Artois have proved how influential well-thought out communications can be in altering public opinion.

Now that’s a smooth outcome!

Opportunities to work with eskimosoup

eskimosoup are recruiting to help us deliver on a range of exciting marketing campaigns. Specifically, we are looking to appoint for the following positions:

Social Media Marketer A charismatic communicator with a keen interest in social media and marketing. Flexible working hours. Pay rate dependent upon experience and ability.

Events Team Leader An enthusiastic customer facing team player capable of working independently, making decisions and managing a small team of colleagues. Flexible working hours. Pay rate dependent upon experience and ability.

Direct Marketing Coordinator A well organised and driven candidate with the strong written and verbal communications skills required to develop and deliver marketing campaign work. Flexible working hours. Pay rate dependent upon experience and ability.

To express your interest in these roles, please email John Gilbert and provide a summary of why you feel you would be an awesome addition to the eskimosoup team by 12pm on Friday 18th May.

We hope to hear from you :-)

Promoting physical and mental health

The Hugh Rice Jewellers Hull Marathon of Easter Sunday, 8th April, proved a huge success, with around 1,500 people squeezing into their best Lycra to run the 26 miles through Hull, Hessle and twice across the Humber Bridge.

 

Organised by Toro CSC Events, the route took in numerous local landmarks, such as The Deep, the KC Stadium and the picturesque Marina, and the weather offered a perfect combination of cool breeze, occasional sunshine and the odd light shower to give the runners unscheduled rehydration.

With local family business Hugh Rice Jewellers as the headline sponsor, each of the ten route zones were also backed by local organisations:

Zone 1 (City Centre) - Wilberforce Sixth Form College

Zone 2 (Anlaby Road) - Time to Change Hull

Zone 3 (Boothferry Road) - David Lloyd Leisure

Zone 4 (Humber Bridge) - St Stephen's

Zone 5 (Hessle) - eskimosoup 

Zone 6 (Hessle Road) - TaxAssist Accountants 

Zone 7 (Arena) - Hugh Rice Jewellers

Zone 8 (Marina) - Spencer

Zone 9 (Victoria Dock) - Cash for Kids

Zone 10 (Old Town and Museum Quarter) - Classlane Media

The marathon also saw the launch of our Time to Change Hull campaign for NHS Hull, which aims to reduce mental health stigma and get people talking. To really grab the public's attention, our Bubbleheads made their first appearance: spreading the word that 1 in 4 of us will experience mental health problems in our lifetimes, they certainly stood out in their brightly coloured morpshuits, and a second team was in place to chat to fascinated spectators about mental health and this exciting campaign.

The Bubbleheads with Batman (AKA Aaron Howlett)

Check out www.1in4ofus.co.uk to see how you can help end mental health discrimination. And make sure to keep checking the Hull Marathon website for information about next year's edition - will you be taking part? Tweet us at @eskimosoup to let us know.

Let's end mental health discrimination together.

Old Spice: "…I'm on a horse."

A Brand Spotlight by Craig Cawkwell

  

Despite being adored by granddads across the planet, there is no doubt that Old Spice was a brand in need of a serious facelift. And who better to do this than the perfect male!? ‘Ladies, meet… the man your man can smell like.’ A hugely popular TV campaign successfully translated into a social media phenomenon has completely rejuvenated the Old Spice brand and made its products once again desirable to younger consumers.

  

Founded in 1934, Old Spice produced shaving soap and aftershave lotion, marketed with a traditional nautical theme. Despite being relatively successful in its early years, sales of Old Spice began to decline, with young consumers in the 80s beginning to view the brand as old-fashioned, outdated and smelling-like-old-man! Indeed the idea of smelling like your dad was something which wasn’t particularly appealing to the market that Old Spice was targeting.

  

In 1990, Old Spice was acquired by P&G who set about transforming the small, stagnating brand into a men’s personal care powerhouse. This involved refocusing its marketing messages on performance via the ‘Prove-it’ campaign, which challenged buyers to use the product and get their money back if they were not satisfied. They also realised that due to the stigma attached to the brand by males 25-45 (who remembered the pungent smell of their dad’s generously-applied Old Spice aftershave), they would be more successful in targeting younger consumers. P&G therefore set about a number of grass-root marketing activities, handing out samples at schools and colleges and sponsoring youth-orientated events.

  

This concentrated activity, coupled with TV ads featuring young sporting celebrities, led Old Spice to become extremely competitive within the male teen personal care market, edging out Right Guard as the top teen brand in 2001. However, it was in the late 2000s when Old Spice began to experience colossal growth thanks to some humorous campaigns developed by Weiden+Kennedy. 

  

In 2007 the ‘Experience is Everything’ campaign was launched. A twist upon the preceding campaign, Old Spice embraced its heritage with humour and double entendres in order to establish the brand as an authority when it comes to the ‘experiences’ which young males seek. The first TV ad featured Bruce Campbell nonchalantly strolling around his lavish study, explaining the importance of experience in the form of one long sexual innuendo ‘If you have it, you don’t need it. If you need it, you don’t have it. If you have it, you need more of it.’

A number of humorous ads followed Bruce Campbell, with Patrick Neil Harris appearing as a parody of his Doogie Howser M.D. character and Terry Crews appearing in a number of TV and online ads.

It was, however, a few years later in 2010 that ‘the man that your man could smell like’ ad helped double sales of Old Spice body wash. P&G realised that a massive proportion of Old Spice’s customer base was females who bought products for their partners. Therefore, they commissioned a campaign to be produced which was aimed predominantly at women. However, the result was something that definitely appealed to both sexes! Men wanted to be him, women wanted to be with him. He was… the Old Spice Guy (or Isaiah Mustafa if you felt the need to know his real name). The first ad featuring the Old Spice Guy consisted of him basically explaining to women (whilst travelling seamlessly through a number of exotic locations and poses) that their man could never be as handsome, chivalrous, generous, caring or smooth as him, but they could smell like him… if they use Old Spice! The strapline ‘Smell like a man, man’ then appears on screen as Isaiah strikes the ultimate manly pose of holding a bottle of Old Spice… whilst straddling a noble steed.

The Old Spice Guy was an instant hit. However, the TV ads were just the beginning of what turned out to be one of the most impressively run campaigns of the last decade. Due to his popularity, numerous people began discussing the Old Spice Guy across the web on various platforms such as Twitter, YouTube and Reddit. In an unprecedented move, Weiden+Kennedy chose to engage these people directly and recorded Isaiah’s individual responses to fans in the form of 30-second YouTube videos. This allowed the brand to humorously communicate with potential customers on an extremely personal level, something which hadn’t really been done before. These videos went viral on a gigantic scale, generating 40 million views within the first week, with Old Spice on YouTube becoming the all-time most viewed channel. As a result, sales of Old Spice products went up by an amazing 107%, with their body wash product becoming #1 body wash brand for men.

Continuing the humour and heavy emphasis on social media, Terry Crews has once again been recruited for Old Spice’s current campaign ‘Smell is Power’. This campaign is breaking new ground by showing Old Spice invading other P&G owned brands because ‘Old Spice Body Spray is too powerful to stay in its own commercial!’ This includes Terry bursting through the wall during an ad for Bounce Dryer Bars and his head smashing upwards through a box of Charmin Toilet Wipes! This is obviously an intelligent way for P&G to gain dual exposure for its products whilst maintaining the powerful message that SMELL IS POWER!!!

Keep an eye out for Terry bursting through a wall or toilet near you!

Cyril the Cig has been up to his dirty tricks again!

He's been turning up at regional games and trying to make people follow him, but Cyril got more than he bargained for at every game, with matchgoers uniting to boo and jeer him off the pitch.

  

Commit to Quit helps people to bin the cigs whilst supporting their team, with fans pledging to quit as part of an online league table.

   

Our Account Director, Rich Quelch, explained why this campaign is so important: 

  

"It's about raising awareness of the effects of smoking and making people realise that it's actually very easy to quit. There's so much free help and advice out there and so many people to share the journey with. We've had huge support from Hull City, Hull KR, Hull FC and Scunthorpe United, and their followers have made them all very proud."

   

At the Hull City vs. Leeds United match, Roary the Tiger proved that being fit, strong and healthy is a far better way of enjoying life by playfully pinning Cyril to the ground for the cheering crowd.

   

The Commit to Quit roadshow visited Hull, North Ferriby, Bridlington and Scunthorpe, spreading the word and encouraging people to stop smoking. The website is available for smokers to quit and non-smokers to help them do it: www.commit-to-quit.co.uk

    

Remember: After just one year of not smoking, your risk of suffering a heart attack is halved. On top of that, you will have saved an average of £2,372!

eskimosoup are committed to a busy couple of weeks to promote a regional campaign commissioned as part of the National No Smoking Day 2012 programme.

The “Commit to Quit” campaign sees NHS Hull, NHS East Riding and NHS North Lincolnshire join forces with Hull City, Hull FC, Hull KR and Scunthorpe United to help supporters stop smoking and recognise that smoking is not the social norm in our area.

The campaign will use a number of activities to ensure awareness is raised around the Commit to Quit campaign and No Smoking Day, which takes place next Wednesday.

To answer any questions and give fans information on the NHS Stop Smoking services, the Commit to Quit team will be at the at the KC Stadium tonight as Hull City play Leeds Utd. Visiting Bridlington next Monday and Scunthorpe next Wednesday, so make sure you keep an eye out for campaign mascot Cyril the Cig.

These road shows will also inform people about the live league table, which everyone can play a huge part in.

Cyril made an appearance at Hull FC Vs Wakefield Wildcats on Sunday with the club fully behind the campaign; James Clark, head of communications, media and marketing at Hull FC, said: “We are a firm believer in working with the local NHS to send poignant health messages to our loyal supporters and we want them to understand there is support and advice available in the city.
“I’m sure there will be plenty of friendly rivalry and competition between all sets of fans from each club and plenty of ‘healthy’ banter, with a serious underlying health message of quitting smoking.”

For more information on the campaign and how you can support your club, visit www.commit-to-quit.co.uk and enter the live league table of pledgers and make your team proud.
You can also follow @commit_to_quit on Twitter for updates.

eskimosoup Grows International Business

Hull-based marketing team eskimosoup has restructured to support their continued business growth of e-learning services amongst an overseas client base.

Based in Hull city centre, eskimosoup has seen year-on-year growth in turnover since their merger with two other companies in 2008. The company’s client base includes e-commerce businesses and retail operations, whilst approximately half of their business comes from NHS trusts across the north of England.

In addition to providing core marketing, design and web development services, the team has over the past three years developed an online health and safety training and management system named Safeon. Safeon’s asbestos awareness training and their “world first” confined space training packages are being used by blue chip clients in the Middle East and at sites across Europe. In a move to help the company maximise this opportunity for significant growth, former managing director of eskimosoup Chris Middleton has taken strategic lead of Safeon with a view to maximising its global potential.

To ensure that eskimosoup can continue to grow whilst maintaining quality; John Gilbert has become eskimosoup’s Managing Director, whilst former marketing manager, Rich Quelch has been promoted to Account Director.

Chris Middleton, speaking about his change in role said: “After a lot of hard work and determination we are now at a point where our online learning platform is being adopted by some of the largest companies in Europe with sites around the world. To pursue this exciting opportunity it is essential that Safeon becomes a company in its own right with a dedicated leadership team.”

“In order to look after the clients and employees of eskimosoup that got us to this point in the first place; John, Rich and the team are ideally placed to focus on how we can continue to provide the very best of service to the very best of clients.”

eskimosoup are relocating to larger offices in June and will in the same month be using their communications sponsorship of Humber Business Week as a platform to launch their next generation of mobile application products.


Links:
eskimosoup
Safeon