One from the vaults
Lee Scratch Perry. Image courtesy of Ariel Publicity
When it comes to the back catalogue of the recently departed and much missed HHCL its easy to reel off the famous stuff the agency made over the years from Tango Slap to Pot Noodle's Slag of all Snacks but I thought I'd draw attention to some of the less famous stuff that I love.
This isn't easy because most the work predates You Tube and so only exists where fanatics have uploaded old ads, but there is some stuff there to enjoy.
First up is a campaign for Guiness in Ireland and about the launch of Guiness Extra Cold from the early part of this decade.
The Guiness Extra Cold work is a great example of top quality thinking from the planner (I think it was Dave Cobban now the Planning Director of Wieden's in Amsterdam but I could be wrong) and then an inspired creative solution from Creative Director Jay Pond Jones.
The thought was that 'Guiness Extra Cold was a few degrees out from ordinary Guiness' which led Jay to the dub reggae legend (and inventor of the 'scratch' turntable effect) Lee Scratch Perry whose life and reputation is anything but ordinary.
It shows that a proper strategic idea doesn't emasculate creatives but helps them take a real leap away from a linear creative solution into the realms of the magical.
How easy it would have been to have written a strategy about Colder Guiness, and how dreary.
I think looking at them now I could do with a little more of a product focus but on the other hand its a campaign that ubderstood the demads of content way before most people were thinking about creating content properties.
There are loads of ads in the campaign, so here are just a few for you to enjoy.
And for a bit of Scratch at work here is a clip from a Jules Holland programme in the mid '80s.
Comments
nice stuff, but did it ever work... I think not. Whereas the 'dreary' strategy and creative work about 'Guinness but colder' delivered +25% by volume. Go figure
Posted by: jemster at May 22, 2007 04:14 PM
If my memory serves me right these Extra Cold ads were used in part to get 'kids' back in touch with Guinness brand in Ireland around the time Guinness launched the Witnness festival. At the festival these ads were incredibly well received and the brand actually saw a reversal in sales decline for the first time in a decade. Still got fired off the account though...
Posted by: Dave Cobban at May 24, 2007 04:58 PM
Always loved these, too. Big shout out to Jay Pond-Jones is due, methinks
Posted by: mark Earls at May 26, 2007 10:16 AM
The "dublin" one's the best. The rest are... ummm...
Posted by: Yousuf Rangoonwala at May 30, 2007 02:27 PM
Totally agree with you about the creative value that strategic thinking had here. (however scratching was invented by the Grand Wizard Theodore)
Posted by: Miguel at July 24, 2007 03:16 PM