Three Drunk Monkeys rolls out T-Hub campaign
Telstra and Three Drunk Monkeys have unveiled the next installments of the “Alexander Graham Bell versus the Home Phone of the Future” integrated campaign, promoting the Telstra T-Hub.
Four more TVCs rolled out over the past week following the launch spot, introducing the inventor of the telephone Alexander Graham Bell, which broke on 19 April.
VIEW THE FOUR SPOTS – ‘USERS’, ‘WEATHER’, ‘YOUTUBE’, ‘YELLOW PAGES’:
Among other things, the ads show Bell compare the uses of his originalinvention with features on the Telstra T-Hub including weather, YouTubeand Yellow Pages.
On 25 April the campaign hit print with a gazette-style newspaperinsert featuring historical articles about the invention of thetelephone. When unfolded, the other side of the gazette opened into aposter featuring the chronology of the phone since Bell’s originalinvention. View the print executions here.
Says Justin Drape, co-founder of Three Drunk Monkeys: “Mr Bellinvented his original phone in 1876 so we decided to bring him back toobserve how advanced telephony has become in his absence. It’s been alot of fun introducing him to life in 2010 because he’s got a hell of alot to catch up on.”
In addition to TV and print, the fully integrated campaign uses outdoor, digital, DM and POS.
The roll-out of the Telstra T-Hub campaign by the Monkeys caps off asuccessful month for the agency on the international stage, duringwhich Three Drunk Monkeys scored five finalists at the New YorkFestivals, one Clio finalist and three appearances in the D&ADbook. The shortlisted work is for clients BBC Knowledge (“Moon Week”and “Eat Up Brain” campaigns) and Cancer Council NSW for the innovative”Sun Sound” initiative.
CREDITS – TV
Client: Telstra
Executive Creative Directors: Justin Drape, Scott Nowell
Creative Director: Leslie Ali
Lead Creatives: Damian Fitzgerald, Matt Heck
Group Content Director: Dan Beaumont Content Directors: Jill Large, Georgina Ashley
Content Manager: Daniel Deutsch Content Executive: Jacqueline Pollard Agency Producers: Thea Carone, Helen Willis, Mel Herbert
Director: Martin Granger
Production Company: Soma Films
Executive Producer: Sam McGarry
DoP: Andrew Lesnie
Media Agency: OMD
OMD Business Director: Aaron Quirk
OMD Account Director: Chris Caley
CREDITS – Print
Client: Telstra
Executive Creative Directors: Justin Drape, Scott Nowell
Creative Director: Leslie Ali
Lead Creatives: Damian Fitzgerald, Matt Heck
Creatives: Becky Alperstein, Russell Smyth
Group Content Director: Dan Beaumont
Content Directors: Jill Large, Georgina Ashley
Content Manager: Daniel Deutsch
Content Executive: Jacqueline Pollard
Agency Producer: Tom Harrison
Art Buyer: Alice Quiddington
Photographer: Derek Henderson
Producer: Benjamin Hames
Mac Operators: Dian McLeod, Terry Barridge, Mike Witcombe, Terry Chisholm, Mitchell Annear
Retouchers: Electric Art, Cranky Mermaid, Cream
48 Comments
Brilliant. This is what advertising is all about.
Did Mr Bell have a woeful fake scottish accent as well?
Funny. Fresh work for Telstra.
Client: “We’re still concerned that people won’t get that Bell’s watching youtube. A quick poll around the office showed that 23% shared my concern. Could we possibly have Bell reference it as he laughs?”
How rare it is these days to see a campaign. Nessie, you’re a grouch.
I’m genuinely not sure if the first comment on this blog is a) a joke b) written by someone at the agency responsible or c) a truthful opinion.
The ads and campaign are achingly ordinary. Nothing unusual in that I suppose ….as long as you not a client who has made a huge song and a dance about doing ‘world class work’. How the Monkeys or indeed the client can defend this work is beyond me. In all honesty look at the Telstra work now and the Telstra work from before the new client and agencies and hand on heart say there has been an improvement.
Can someone please turn the glass thingo around, pop in a bit of water, and drown him, then flush. I need a new beer schooner.
1.18, Not a grouch, a monster.
This work is great. Some of the best this year. Well done.
Usually I like the monkey’s work. Not on this occasion. The product looks cool, probably didn’t need the overly annoying santa in it.
How did the head operate the phone to watch youtube?
Dan Beaumont is so hot right now.
Not since E=Mc2 have I seen work of such originality and power. It will change the world. Three Drunk Monkeys truly are an inspiration for us all.
Congratulations to all 3 drunks.
This is just awful. The humour is incredibly contrived.
Excuse the pun but heads will roll at Telstra for this. Contrary to the couple of dishonest self interested comments above by agency employees this work is awful – and regarded as such in the corridors of the executive suites at Telstra. Its going to be interesting to watch some chickens coming home to roost……….
This campaign is so average. It’s exactly what you’d expect for Telstra but not what you’d expect from this agency. Why have an agency like this on the roster if you’re only going to do work that the other less creative agencies on the roster could have produced? If I’d seen BWM or Ogilvy on the credits I wouldn’t have been surprised by the averageness, but the Monkeys? Come on, don’t get dragged down to the Telstra level, drag them up to your more usual higher creative standards.
This campaign is money for old rope. Looks like The Monkeys are taking Telstra for a lot of money by giving them more of what they already have from their other agencies.
1:32, I think it was a joke.
In a Sesame Street kind of way, Nessie?
I saw this as a little kid and never forgot it. Amazing:
http://www.jackvaughan.com/holeproof.html
Sorta similar, sorta different. Certainly worth a watch!
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The product is going forward but the ad is going backwards.
Banal. Or just plain Bad.
I wish we could see what the Client knocked back – because surely this wasn’t ‘THE B-I-G’ idea!!!
I don’t mind these ads. I like some more than others (hated the first one from last week for example).
What makes me laugh though is the glaringly obvious hatred from other agencies on Telstra’s roster.
1.32 and 4.48 for example.
Naughty monkeys.
This work is very good for Telstra. The idea carries through so many mediums – the print I saw a few weeks back was particularly good. Imagine how dry and dull this campaign could have been.
Who uses home phones anymore?
Dan Beaumont, please do not make comments about yourself on this blog.
Telstra are such a vicious, arrogant, disorganised political nightmare of a client to work on that I salute anyone who gets a decent bit of work through. Yes, I speak from long personal experience – so good on you Monkeys (whom I’ve never worked with).
Print headlines are terrible…could have at least tried to make them funny.
I found the credits better reading than the article. Average campaign.
This campaign is so safe you wear it as a life jacket.
This campaign is quite watchable, even quirky. Consider the degree of difficulty. Telstra is a notoriously bland, middle of the road advertiser, and by all accounts a very, very difficult client.
Compare and contrast this work, which has a twinkle in its eye, with the cadaverous mediocrity served up previously by other long-term agencies over many years.
Have you already forgotten the infinitely forgettable ‘I am, you are, we are Australian’ work which bored us rigid in its many forms? And all the other Telstra advertising over the past few decades which was so invisible it can’t even be recalled?
There is, of course one conspicuous exception: the excellent ‘Dustin Hoffman’/ ‘Bob Geldoff’ series – which, in a piquant irony, Telstra apparently hated.
Alexander Graham Bell and the Three Drunk Monkeys….the bell tolls for thee.
This campaign is as crap as the agency thats put it together. I can’t believe you people think that the monkeys are in anyway any good. Show me one piece of work thats great, no lets make it easy, Good?
these are both fun and memorable on a ruthless client. nice work guys.
Face it.
No matter what Telstra were going to do, most of us were going to hate it.
But considering the dud product they’re trying to sell (a tablet computer phone thingy connected to a very expensive broadband deal), these are pretty funny TV ads.
And the print stuff is excellent.
The ads made me want to get a new home phone – well done Monkeys.
Was Dan Beaumont really involved in this campaign? Damn, he is so hot right now.
A shout out to the Monkeys from Jeff Goodby, one of their biggest fans:
(Jump ahead to it at 8.55)
http://thebuzzbubble.com/e05-pt-3-jeff-goodby-discusses-doritos-hotel-626-and-art-copy-on-the-buzzbubble-in-hd.html
Just sayin’, 5.17 am, that perhaps he sees something you don’t. But hey, what would Goodby know?
12.09, you had me until you said “the excellent ‘Dustin Hoffman’/ ‘Bob Geldoff’ series” then I knew you had no idea what the hell you were talking about.
ummmmm Futurama anyone????
okay so original yeah?
http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Science/Images/futurama-al-gore-head.jpg
Calm down. Calm down. The Monkeys are a mid sized Australian Ad Agency yet to make a significant creative mark on the industry. We shouldn’t expect them to be brilliant at everything. Even the best agencies in the world produce a few duds every now and then. Give them time to prove themselves.
good on ya monkeys, obviously ruffling a few feathers out there.
The TV is average but passable with a 49% mark. The print is rubbish. Perhaps I’m masturbating too much, but can you give us a headline we can read at least. The picture is nice, but that’s more about the five star location than the idea.
I like the campaign with all the animals in it. Those surfing penguins are rad.
Sorry if I came to this late, but that computer socks ad is a pearler. I also remember one where this guy climbs around a room and ends up upside down.
Bring back the 80’s, man!!!
Can someone please tell me what the product is?
If you want the fixed land line types to be using the product then please show them what T Hub does, how it can be used, and help them imagine it being part of their lives – kind of like the iPad ads do.
The emphasis should be on the benefits of the new product, not how much the telephone has changed over time.
Oh, and where was the follow up marketing campaign by Telstra to customers to offer them a package – how about 3 months free, like Foxtel does.
Also, where were the testimonials from people who had trialled the product?
I don’t get how such an ill conceived marketing campaign could come into existence from one of Australia’s main companies.