The o2 Brand : What Can Apple And Allison Johnson Learn?

sunilramansunilraman
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Okay.. UK and Euro people, I just saw on my TV the latest o2 ad where as it zooms in you see snowflakes, jellyfish, etc... made up of o2 pdas/mobiles.



Awesome. Quality concept, irreverent yet catching and intriguing. Consistent, grand-looking nature and city themes have often been used to imply the pervasiveness of o2.



Along with HP's ++++ campaign, I would rate o2 and HP's campaigns to be the freshest thus far. iPod sillhouettes are catchy and strong but conceptually slightly vacous IMHO



What do you think Allison Johnson (ex-HP), now just joined Apple as Senior VP for Marketing Communications reporting directly to Steve Jobs, can do for Apple? What can she learn from o2?



UK and Euro people are you sick of o2 advertising? Can that freshness and innovation, work for Apple???



Also the o2 speaker ad blows my mind, goddamn UK advertising can sometimes be on a whole new cerebral level...

http://www.visit4info.com/details.cfm?adid=14931



USA and International people, check out the ad above... Have you seen the snowflake/jellyfish o2 ad?



While o2 is a major telco-type thingy, it is aiming to be a digital lifestyle brand like Apple...



Feedback appreciated, I know all you Apple kids appreciate aesthetics and good ideas 8)

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    danielctulldanielctull Posts: 586member
    I wouldn't put O2's adverts at the top to be honest. I would say that different countries have different tastes. A lot of people I know also mock that HP add with the pictures of people in the street.



    If Apple want's to look a decent advertising look at Honda's latest offerings over the last 3 years:



    Starting with the revolutionary Cog advert, I don't know about America or elsewhere, but it is legendary in the whole of the UK. Simple looking (but actually very tricky) and effective.



    Then the Hate something, Change something ad. It's the cute graphics, which seem to be all that's cool at the moment, think Nemo and The Incredibles, and the catchy song which puts in one complete package.



    Lately there's an incredibly simple ad for their FR-V people carrier using dots and squares. It is fantastic and amusing. Sid in boot is great.
  • Reply 2 of 10
    dfilerdfiler Posts: 3,420member
    First I had to figure out what o2 was.



    Not a bad ad, but nothing that really perked my interest. At least it isn't annoying. Perhaps that's because it is just "cool" and doesn't make any attempt to inform the audience or sell the product.



    Goes to show... tastes differ I guess.
  • Reply 3 of 10
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    daniel, thanks for those links... yeah i guess i enjoy the style and abstracted high-brow emotion of o2 speaker-thingy kind of ads...



    not into populist, kitchy or cute stuff, but appreciate the input! i respect the dot concept... after a while i finally got it after i kept saying "where's the family???" "has the movie downloaded already or what???"
  • Reply 4 of 10
    danielctulldanielctull Posts: 586member
    Previous adverts have got annoying by boring me to tears. One advert featured shots on a sea front, all blue hue, and listing famous trio's of people in an attempt to get across the idea of calling two people for a cheaper rate. There must have been 10 groupings with these names appearing. DULL



    Dunno if you guys have seen the BMW ad with the Prodigy song on it. That's classy, but one bit in it has a little kid kicking his tricycle, it's worth watching to see that bit.



    Give me an advert I want to watch. That's where the success will come. Honda did this big time with Cog, by offering a DVD of the full length ad with a behind the scenes. It sits proudly in my collection. I know most of my friends have it too.



    Also, I'd LOVE the Orange (phone company) cinema adverts to come out on DVD. Don't suppose anyone has seen them? It features a board of directors for an Orange film committee with a guest star proposing an idea for a film then the directors slating it and putting in mobile inks. End statement: Don't let a mobile ruin your film. They are hilarious, I literally laughed out loud in the cinema
  • Reply 5 of 10
    danielctulldanielctull Posts: 586member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by sunilraman

    not into populist, kitchy or cute stuff, but appreciate the input! i respect the dot concept... after a while i finally got it after i kept saying "where's the family???" "has the movie downloaded already or what???"



    Yeah, the sites not as good as the actual advert, which has narration and dots appearing, and rectangular dogs called Syd appearing in boot (trunk i believe you guys call it...)
  • Reply 6 of 10
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    Found a link for Cog

    http://www.ebaumsworld.com/honda-ad.html



    Dude on that side claimed it took 600+ film takes to get right It's brilliantly produced, but I think 3D computer graphics played a very key role



    Hmmm... doesn't do anything for me though



    Wow tastes really do differ. Could the iPod be such a big hit because besides all that Apple did, they also got LUCKY ??
  • Reply 7 of 10
    danielctulldanielctull Posts: 586member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by sunilraman

    Found a link for Cog

    http://www.ebaumsworld.com/honda-ad.html



    Dude on that side claimed it took 600+ film takes to get right It's brilliantly produced, but I think 3D computer graphics played a very key role



    Hmmm... doesn't do anything for me though



    Wow tastes really do differ. Could the iPod be such a big hit because besides all that Apple did, they also got LUCKY ??



    Yeah over 600 takes and no nothing was 3D computer animated, I saw the behind the scenes...



    I think Apple got very lucky in a way. Sony were almost there, I had one of their first MS players 4/5 years ago, and if it had really good software I would be using Sony stuff now. The jog dial is very similar to the wheel on iPods (in the way it works, not in looks and design) and navigation was very similar. And this was 2 odd years before the iPod came out. Sony's biggest mistake was Atrac. If they had offered a music store to get the Atrac songs they would've won. So Apple were lucky at the timing of the iPod, lucky that no-one had done it already, but skilled in that they knew what they had to do from Sony's mistakes.



    (Btw, Sony's the ONLY company you can compare Apple to in this situation, because of the Atrac/AAC proprietary files.)
  • Reply 8 of 10
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    Wow, some questions are answered. . . I always wondered what O2 was, given the fact that their brand emblazons all sorts of high profile sports teams. I thought for sure that it was some sort of financial institution. . .
  • Reply 9 of 10
    g_warreng_warren Posts: 713member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by danielctull

    Sid in boot is great.



    Woof, I agree, Honda adverts are fun and thus catchy. The one thing Apple needs to do is capatilize on the iPod and start marketing its other products, the time for this is right now. We need iMac, Mac mini and OSX adverts. I think they did a good job with the iPod silhouettes, the U2 especially was pretty cool.
  • Reply 10 of 10
    low-filow-fi Posts: 357member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by danielctull

    Previous adverts have got annoying by boring me to tears. One advert featured shots on a sea front, all blue hue, and listing famous trio's of people in an attempt to get across the idea of calling two people for a cheaper rate. There must have been 10 groupings with these names appearing. DULL



    Dunno if you guys have seen the BMW ad with the Prodigy song on it. That's classy, but one bit in it has a little kid kicking his tricycle, it's worth watching to see that bit.



    Yeah, I like that ad. Very clever hidden message too: cars that steer and drive using the front wheels are not great. Verrrry clever.
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