London Advertising unveils major campaign with Helen Mirren + Liam Neeson the day after lock-down ends for a highly unusual client – itself
Ad agencies often tell their clients, brands that advertise in a downturn increase market share. However, few agencies take their own advice. LONDON Advertising is taking its own advice and is today (July 6) launching a major campaign with 10 TV ads, starring Helen Mirren and Liam Neeson, on 9,000 spots on Sky News.
The TV is supported by super-premium digital posters across Ocean Outdoor’s UK portfolio, and Linked-in. The campaign is running from 6th July to 2nd August and will reach 30 million people.
Says Michael Moszynski, founder and CEO, LONDON Advertising: “Our campaign, launching on the first working day after the easing of Lockdown, is a call to arms to all businesses to get Britain going again. We believe in ‘by example shalt thou lead’ and that we all have a duty to help rebuild our economy.”
Says ‘Advertising Legend’ Rupert Howell (founder HHCL, MD ITV): “This is the first time I have seen an ad agency do a major campaign like this for itself. The ads are bloody brilliant!”
The agency’s founder and creative director, Alan Jarvie, explains the rationale: “It is a fact advertising builds brands and fame. We believe the current situation provides a rare opportunity. Audiences are currently higher than normal and media is cheaper, as many companies have cancelled their campaigns. So, we’re doing what we would advise our clients to do; advertise now.
“Our campaign demonstrates the three criteria we believe work must satisfy to be effective: Is it simple? Does it stand out? Can you remember who it’s for? A lot of advertising fails to do one, two or all three of these things.
“We also wanted to show it’s the size of your idea that matters, not the size of your production budget. We would like to thank Dame Helen Mirren and Liam Neeson, OBE, for making themselves available to take part in the campaign.”
Says Phil Hall, joint managing director, Ocean Outdoor: “With the easing of Lockdown on July 4, LONDON Advertising’s campaign is a timely reminder that as people are increasingly back on the streets that now is a good time to advertise as research has consistently proved that the companies who advertise in a downturn, when their competitors are not, will gain market share.”
6 Comments
It wasn’t until the 5th ad where they mentioned that they were an advertising agency that I actually realised that was what they were advertising. I thought ‘London Advertising’ was an OOH company or something along those lines. And if people in the industry don’t know what the hell they are actually promoting, I wonder what chance anyone else has.
(And for reference, I worked in london for 12 years until 18 months ago, and this agency is definitely not one any average person on the street will ever have heard of)
hi hmmm
thanks for your feedback. We had considered your concern, but as are not ‘selling our product off the page’, so to speak, we can focus on name awareness. As a result of our campaign in its first hour at least one more person has heard of us: you.
Cheers
Michael
Why not launch a self-promotion campaign that 99.99% of people who see it (and actually bother reading it) will think it’s some sort of government PSA for advertising in London as a category, rather than your specific business.
I can already envision the lightbulb moment when someone thought this oh-so-meta name was great because it would get you good Google search results.
“Our campaign demonstrates the three criteria we believe work must satisfy to be effective: Is it simple? Does it stand out? Can you remember who it’s for? A lot of advertising fails to do one, two or all three of these things.”
“A good advert should be simple, stand out, and you should remember who it’s for”
Not sure this passes your own smell test. Bold strategy though.
But does it generate ‘name awareness’ if people do not realise the name is the name of an advertising agency. If they think it is a generic government push to support ‘London advertising’ as a whole, then you are not actually generating any awareness for your company.
You should know the below was made in Australia in 2019 by one of Australia’s major media companies to inspire brands to advertise.
https://campaignbrief.com/media-owners-inform-c-suite-about-the-power-of-advertising-in-new-campaign-via-saatchi-saatchi/
Stop ruining our good name, charlatans.