PC World and Halfords

As a retailer of electrical hardware, a firm like Currys PC World depends on the boost to demand that Christmas provides.  Similarly, the UK's largest bicycle retailer, Halfords, relies on Christmas sales - Halfords, in fact, launched their Christmas TV advertisement on 1 October this year.

Currys PC World brought out their advertisement on 21 October, still early even by retailer standards.  They also launched a companion, the-making-of-the-ad video on YoutTube at the same time, something tried by several other retailers this year.  The main advertisement features some slick graphics where consumer electronics and white goods in a warehouse appear to waltz to a catchy soundtrack.  Viewing figures, at just over 15,000 to date, must be disappointing.

On Twitter the company promoted the ad's theme as the hashtag #WeStartWithYou.  Indeed, this began promisingly around the lanch date, but didn't make it into November even.  Curry's PC World are one of the smaller retail presences on Twitter with just 54,000 followers.  They are far more comfortable on Facebook where they have nearly half a million fans.  Unfortunately, though, customers are invariably using these pages to complain about poor service and unreliable products.



Consumer electronics are all very well, but Halfords asks "does anything beat a bike?".  Their TV ad has gained over 185,000 views on YouTube  The Daily Telegraph was ambivalent about the ad but grudgingly admitted "It works".  The catchy soundtrack is by Cairobi: called Zoraide it is available to download, although Halfords has none of the charity tie-ins favoured by John Lewis or Asda for their Christmas music.

Halfords' presence on social media is far less obvious than for most similarly-sized retailers.  Their 27,000 Twitter fans are given a regular diet of competitions and offers.  Here Halfords uses the predictable hashtags #Christmas and #Xmas.  They have had more success with #nothingbeatsabike, and have been able to link this back to the TV advertisement on YouTube.  Halfords are the least active of any of our sample of major retailers on Facebook, with just 52,000 likes to show.  Their Facebook pages mostly reflect what they do on Twitter: competitions, offers and promotions.




Our verdict: two very well made advertisements, effectively using music but not getting the engagement of other retailers.  Maybe they peaked too early.  Christmas?  October?

Argos: Hip Hopping to #christmas

Argos's Christmas alien: SO last year.  Picture Marketing

Argos has produced something very different from the rest of the High Street this Christmas.  Get Set for Advent also marks a departure for Argos, which has traditionally based their Christmas ads around a family of aliens.

The new campaign is described by Marketing magazine: it is an up-tempo offering, based around a giant advent calendar containing gifts, BMX bikers, shiny reindeer, dancers, and other performers.  The dancing child at the top of the set is said to represent the fairy on the top of a Christmas tree - a mixed metaphor, perhaps, but never mind.

Overlaying the images is an atypical soundtrack: less brass band and more inner city hip-hop.  The music is by Run DMC, is called Christmas in Hollis, and is available for download from iTunes or the Android store.  Argos knows it is talking to the smart phone generation and Run DMC is the real thing, a band hailing from Queens, New York.  The ad "Will deliver energy and excitement into millions of living rooms to provide a modern twist to Christmas", according to their head of brand marketing.

This 21st century approach may be part of a wider campaign to modernise its image: the old catalogue in store is to be replaced by tablets and is targeting Amazon with a same-day delivery policy. Backing this up they have launched a Santa List app allowing children to make a digital wish list via their smartphone or tablet.

This foregrounding of the music matches what is being done by John Lewis and by Asda, both of whom feature new recordings which are available separately for sale.  But while these two make a point of having the proceeds donated to charities, Argos's is a profit-based transaction.  Christmas in the Hollis is an established number for the band and has been available without Argos's help since 2009.

The ad was premiered on TV on November 6, in a commercial break during Coronation Street.  25 years ago that would have given them an audience of 30 million; these days it is a more modest 7.5 million.  The ad was also posted to YouTube where it has gained 200,000 viewings in 5 days.  John Lewis's equivalent managed the same in its first couple of hours.

The 21st century impetus of the new advertising and app doesn't seem to have translated to social media.  Although Argos have 100,000 followers on Twitter the nearest they get to a hashtag is #christmas and #christmasad.  Hardly meme-generating.  Similarly their Facebook page links to the advert on YouTube and promotes the app, but doesn't try and develop an engaging narrative.

Curiously, Argos released a YouTube video simultaneously called Get Set for Emma Bunton, promoting the former Spice Girl's range of clothing and footwear.  This doesn't seem to have been promoted and at the time of writing was getting just 100 hits a day.

Overall the Advent campaign is surprising and refreshingly different.  But Argos seems to missing opportunities to engage with its fans, rather than merely selling them stuff.  While Argos and John Lewis have their artists and favoured charities promoting the social media campaign, there is nothing from Run DMC on Twitter.

Hip hip may be the face of the new Argos, but they need to try harder.

#TheBigSmile: not much to smile about

The UK's major supermarkets are having a tough time.  Prices are dropping, smaller competitors are growing and people shoppers are deserting the mega-stores for smaller convenience shops closer to home.   Last week Asda showed it was serious about regaining market share over the crucial Christmas period when it rolled out its new campaign.  As with most other retailers, the focus is the TV advertisement.

Asda are also joining the quest to develop a meme, to encourage their message to go viral. John Lewis has shown how this can work.  Asda's posted the ad to YouTube on November 6: at the time of writing it has had 13,000 viewings.  John Lewis put on that sort of number in the first hour.

The theme of the ad is smiling, something reinforced throughout with visuals and music.  They told Marketing that "It captures those personal touches and thoughtful gestures that put a smile on people’s faces at Christmas."  It premiered on ITV during Emmerdale on November 6, which would have given them around 5 million viewers.

In our view the creative masterstroke is the soundtrack.  Jahmene Douglas, a former X-Factor runner up has recorded a cover of a classic Louis Armstrong number 'When you're smiling'.  The lyrics chime perfectly with the visuals on screen.  To encourage the meme effect Asda has gone the same route as John Lewis by releasing the music as a digital download, with most of the proceeds being donated to charities Children in Need and Save the Children.  The charities, and Jahmene himself, are promoting the song, and by extension Asda's campaign.  But while John Lewis's number entered the charts at number 21, 'When you're smiling' has yet to make it.

Similarly the hashtage #thebigsmile hasn't really taken hold as yet.  There are just a few tweets a day, many of them linking to the music.  Surpisingly the Asda Facebook page, with 1.4 million fans, mentioned the campaign on launch day but has been silent since.

On present showing the Asda campaign isn't gaining any traction.  Not much to smile about.

Monty the Penguin and Newton's Third Law

Isaac Newton's Third Law of Motion (1687), crudely paraphrased, says that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  In the virtual world of social media we can often see the same thing playing out.  We described this in an earlier post about Russell Brand and #parklife: the publicity surrounding Brand's new book Revolution sparked a popular counter reaction.

Picture: The Independent

Monty the Penguin is an advertising campaign for the retail group John Lewis.  Reputed to be costing £7 million, the eagerly awaited ad was launched yesterday (6 November) and instantly went viral on social media.  Monty has his own Twitter account, @montythepenguin, and within 24 hours had gained 14,000 followers.  The Facebook page was a little slower starting, but the Twitter hashtag #montythepenguin was already 'trending' by the next morning.  The video was available from various sites including John Lewis itself, but the YouTube version gained an astonishing 4 million viewings in a day.  More importantly, perhaps, there were nearly 500 comments posted during the same period.

The supporting website at John Lewis develops the narrative, encouraging audiences to buy the music via iTunes.  There is a range of interactive games to engage with, plus the all-important Monty merchandise,  42 items including clothing, toys and soft furnishings.

The mainstream media obligingly covered the campaign's launch in glowing terms.  One dissenting voice was bt.com which talked of "outrage" at the £95 price tag for the cuddly toy version of Monty.  This did nothing to stop the item selling out in the first day, making it already this year's must-have Christmas toy.  Anticipating this, eBay listings started to fill with "official" Monty merchandise as well as knock-offs.

So, where does Newton's Third Law come in?

Amazingly, within just a few hours of the launch of the official Monty advert, a parody appeared.  Redshirt Films, an independent production company in York, launched their take, titled #penguinmadness.  Meme and countermeme. Those of us who had failed to share in the euphoria of the original John Lewis launch could now join in the counter-attack.

From https://twitter.com/ConnieMTC

But whereas in the case of #parklife, the video mashups featuring Russell Brand started being produced when the meme was already well established (these films didn't exist but they should have), in the case of Monty the Penguin Redshirt Films kicked the whole thing off.  The countermeme spread through social media, of course, but was also picked up by the new mass media such as Huffington Post.  At the time of writing #penguinmadness is not yet trending, but the video has had 40,000 viewings and the idea has some traction.

Other reactions are starting to appear.  Take this example for Twitter's Connie Chamerlayne
(@ConnieMTC), for example.

The 'reaction' has started.  However it is not yet equal and opposite.