Balance - fair enough. I don't think the ad worked either, it was a good effort that didn't succeed.
I wonder if they have a new marketing manager at Qantas? One of the banes of my life used to be whenever a new one popped along because that always meant they'd change perfectly good stuff just to make their "imprint".
Clear examples are the "rebranding" exercises that were all the rage a few years back. After claiming the need to refresh and reinvent the company in order to reinvigorate it the marketers rushed around spending shedloads of cash. The usual result was confusion. From memory Lee Iococca got it right (IMO) when he said "we've spent 50 years building this brand and you just want to throw that away" or words to that effect.
To me that's what Qantas have done with this campaign. They're looking to make a break with the past, they want to move with their customers but they didn't quite hit it. The Schoolkids choir became an icon, for all his commercial success the new one is just insipid and doesn't stand out from the pack, there is no "cut through".
For much of the rest I guess we agree to disagree, I certainly accept you were engaged by the American style ad but that's because you see yourself as one of them, you are the insider. And with the exception of immediately post 9/11 that's where that type d thing belongs - internal feelgood promos. The general public doesn't care about any of that, they care about what you will do for them and how you will make them feel.
Either way I suspect the new Qantas ads will be refreshed in 12-18 months or so. Unlike a relatively anonymous choir a solo artist or readily identifiable group has a much shorter shelf life as brand representative before they get stale. Children never wear out, you just need new footage every couple of years and you're done.
From an advertising perspective, the concept of putting customers at the forefront of their campaign is expressive and meaningful, however the message was executed poorly.
This I totally agree with.
As soon as you start seeing quotes like "As Pullen describes it, “the most multi-channel, multi-dimensional campaigns ever launched in Australia”." you have to start asking if Pullen's ego or the marketing teams' collective ego has overridden any commercial focus. I'd lay pretty short odds that Pullen has an agency background not an in house company background, the choir and "Australia home" campaigns were more the type of campaign in house people run when they are in charge, this latest one involves rock stars and tries to show just how clever the marketing people are with the result the message is nowhere near as powerful but from a creative perspective they can wank on about symbolism and immersed messaging and all sorts of BS when they meet their mates for Friday night drinks.
Seriously, there was massive recognition of the "Australia Home" theme, it didn't focus on Peter Allen, it evolved and brought in kids choirs and some spectacular footage of what Qantas can deliver you to. Note that use of "what" not "where". Where is simply about a destination that you get dropped off at, what is what Qantas are going to do for you, how they will make you feel better etc. Instantly recognisable no matter where you hear it QANTAS used to have an ad campaign that would actually draw people from other rooms to watch adverts as soon as they heard the music so they could fantasise about the latest offering.
This one doesn't do that, it sounds just like the rest of the background noise.
it's about peace and nourishment of the soul in these troubled times where the media are spending a huge amount of effort convincing us how hard life is despite the fact that it generally isn't (for Australians).
Are they advertising a commune or a transport company?
They are a luxury goods company (in the target market of this ad) and need to advertise accordingly. They don't do backpackers on price, they do comfort and luxury and experience for more affluent types. If backpackers fly them then great, but they don't want anything to do with price wars. They're defintiely NOT selling a commodity like transport, they are selling something much higher in value and are charging accordingly.
They are selling how they make you feel so good that your precious holiday experience you may have saved many years for will be maximised with them.
That's where Dixon started and Joyce delivered even more major damage to Qantas, the public has been confused for some time about what QF stands for. This appears to be an attempt to get back some of that prestige feeling. Not sure it will be successful but I suspect that's what they're trying to do.
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Originally Posted by worrals
Seriously, thanks for the insight and you obviously know your stuff with this so I'll ask the question...what about product? Even with an esoteric ad, shouldn't you still show someone using the product somewhere? Even weirdo beer ads have someone drinking the beer at some point.
No probs.
Let's try the Socratic method way of answering this:
What do YOU think the product is?
My thoughts are:
It certainly ISN'T transport. It ISN'T aircraft or technical experience or any of that hard tangible stuff.
It is emotive, happiness and joy and hope for something the punter can focus on and look forward to experiencing, and Qantas want to be part of that whole process, not just the transport bit.
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Originally Posted by worrals
I get the feeling that the people who like this ad are the enlightened advertsing types who know a lot about the medium, a bit like people who appreciate Jackson Pollock paintings or Steven Berkoff plays which leave the rest of the population either and/or . Does that make us unenlightened? Probably, but so are the majority of airline customers, art gallery visitors and theatre goers. Most people just aren't all that sophisticated. Are they pitching their ad to the several thousand advertising experts who 'get' it or the remaining millions who don't?
I think you're spot on. They've overdelivered on "clever" at the expense of "immediacy" and "cut through". That's one of the problems with marketing campaign, you spend so long working through the process of developing them that you get so familiar with your output that you forget it has to be consumed and understood in 30 second repeats rather than the hours, days and weeks you have had to understand it during the development process.
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Originally Posted by worrals
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The soundtrack titled ‘Atlas’ by Daniel Johns, devours a chilling and eerie state preparing the audience to witness something special, setting off an emotional state for viewers.
In their opinion. In mine (and it's subjective but so is theirs) it's a bland dirge.
Ad types love spending money engaging stars to work in their campaigns, they get to talk and hobnob etc.
The question on this one is what value does this person bring to your brand and brand values? As far as I can tell the answer is zero in this case.
Of course advertising is always about selling the emotion not the product, but it needs to be clear to the punters that the emotions follow on from the particular product. Otherwise the message gets murky and I think that's the problem with this ad. Any ad has to say 'this is our product and it will make you happy'. The reason for the happiness depends on the product (maybe it's a Big Mac, one of the most successfully advertised products of the 20th century, maybe it's a Jaguar with a supermodel/Daniel Craig in the passenger seat) but the message doesn't change. I don't see that message in this ad. What to Qantas do and why will they make me happy? The ad doesn't answer that, in fact it doesn't even ask the question.
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They are a luxury goods company (in the target market of this ad) and need to advertise accordingly.
Agree entirely, but it's a luxury transport product, not (for example) a luxury drink product or a car product. I don't think the ad makes that clear at all; even if it looks premium, you're left wondering if a top of the range leather sofa is going to float down from the sky or if everyone's suddenly going to march into David Jones.
I think an effective ad needs to specify at some point what the luxury product actually is. It 's like advertising a top of the line Aston Martin and never showing the car. AFAIK this never happens in luxury car ads, and I think that's for good reason. Even companies who target the $300,000 vehicle market make sure they show the $300,000 vehicle. In a lot of cases I reckon luxury goods advertisements are actually more conservative and formulaic than cheaper equivalents, with some alcohol brands being the notable exceptions. The big fashion houses (who of course make most of their money on non-premium products like perfume), the big jewellers, the premium unit developments and other AFR magazine regulars tend to stick to very conservative ads. Possibly the luxury market actually prefers that.
I guess other examples of luxury transport would be top level cruises and escorted travel, scenic train trips, trips to Antarctica and similar. The advertising for those products tends to follow the well worn theme of 'here's our swanky seats/cabin that will get you to these amazing places, surrounded by wealthy, attractive people like you believe yourself to be.' This ad doesn't do that; in fact it's wall to wall bogans doing bogan things. Nor does it use the classic 'humour/irony' mix that's been effective for a number of price sensitive or bogan targeted products such as Freedom Air, BCF or the RACQ.
As for the Socratic question, like most of us on here it's really impossible for me to answer, because I work in the dreaded Industry. My perception of an airline (any airline) is radically different from that of the average punter and coloured by inside info and personal biases. I agree 100% that people are confused about what Qantas is at the moment. Like most of us I have the battle scars from a thousand barbeque discussions with non aviation people to prove it, particularly since the grounding. However, I don't think this ad gets anywhere close to helping people answer the question. Maybe they don't know what the product is.
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The question on this one is what value does this person bring to your brand and brand values? As far as I can tell the answer is zero in this case.
Agreed. Who wants to be Daniel Johns? Half the country won't have heard of him and the other half has forgotten him. We're not talking Nicole Kidman here. With a few notable exceptions like Jimmy Barnes, people who were in famous bands don't usually transcend the band and gain their own individual fame. I agree that it was another 'let's impress our friends who also work in advertising' move on the part of the creators.
Mind you the Screaming Jets did an awesome job for Impulse's inaugral flight many moons ago...
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I took on some marketing postgrad courses to try and understand what it is they do and how they think...
Brave. I've got a great book on Afro-Carribean Voodoo which may be of more assistance...lots more fun too.
Last edited by Worrals in the wilds; 25th Jul 2012 at 11:25.
Romulus and Worrals, some good posts guys! Great read....
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where can I see this ad?
here,
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(I am not in OZ at the moment)
Come to think of it,......
if I was out of the country and saw this ad, on the right day, say away from your family at Christmas time, (many of you on here know what that is about..) it would make me very homesick and probably a bit emotional, that "Aussie lifestyle thing" we all miss when we are away..... from this perspective, (outside looking in or Internationally focused for Australians,) and to be fair, in this respect, the ad's a winner!
...that "Aussie lifestyle thing" we all miss when we are away..... from this perspective, (outside looking in or Internationally focused for Australians) to be fair, the ad's a winner in that respect!
Watch five minutes of the Shire or Being Lara Bingle and you'll feel better. Honestly.
Actually it plays better the second time around; I think the main problem is the voice over. If they'd cut to a few nice 747 livery/crew/ big swanky seat shots at that point it probably would have worked.
On the second viewing the main message is that Qantas Gets You Home, which isn't a bad one. I just think that some shots of exotic places where you might be homesick would have added to the mix. 'Go whoop it up/ cut some business deals in Honkers and we'll pick up the pieces' sort of thing.
After all, if you're watching telly in Australia, you're already home. It's a bit like an ad for expats, rather than a 'go fly places' for the bored majority sitting At Home. Maybe the designer is overseas and missing his Mum?
P.S. nice photoshop with the oranges BTW.
Last edited by Worrals in the wilds; 25th Jul 2012 at 10:37.
Watch five minutes of the Shire or Being Lara Bingle
Shouldn't it be, Watch five minutes of the Shire and/or Being Lara Bingle... Surely you wouldn't put me through both sets of torture in one sitting...Worrals....
Anyway, hasn't Lara migrated to NZ for a bit of ad work.. or something?....
Surely you wouldn't put me through both sets of torture in one sitting...Worrals....
A dear relative defected from Sunny Queensland to Cronulla and I've been rubbishing her ever since the show was first mooted... The pity is that Cronulla is actually a lovely place and I was secretly jealous. You have to punch where you can...
Agreed, blow.n.gasket. Raise you one with the remixed version, which would have worked better than the existing soundtrack. They could have played the irony, which is the current fashion in advertising...
What's funny is talking to Yanks and recent visitors to Yankland, the home of advertising. Apparently over there, premium advertising is dead. No-one cares about premium anymore; the key word is 'exclusive'. You sign on to a website, you get text updates about where a cool restaurant might be, you spend half the night trekking through New York alleys reading updates on your phone, end up in a phone booth with a number to call, disappear into an unmarked basement and there's the restaurant. They do pizzas, but they're pizzas other people Haven't Heard Of. Special pizzas...
Yet again, Qantas miss not only the boat but the schedule for the boats' arrivals and departures. Running a text message club with exclusive entry to the Chairmans' Club would have been cheaper and more effective...the inhabitants might have objected but they're mostly pollies and ex board members who don't pay for their seats anyway...
Last edited by Worrals in the wilds; 25th Jul 2012 at 11:18.
I loathe advertising, and avoid where possible, so couldn't even tell you where or when the shire or being masterchef or lara bingle can dance or any of that rotten reality TV crap is on, where they pay peanuts for amatuers, but charge a premium for advertising...I PPRuNe instead or read books or whatever
But without even trying how much better are these recent offerings??
Well thats interesting, just sitting here in London, listening to 2GB. A calller has just suggested that AJ bury his head in a block of concrete on Bondi Beach if he thinks that is the best ad Qantas can come up with. I dont think the message is getting through.
Has the Qantas Advert missed the mark? Yep its more of Australia than Qantas. Shows just how misguided and misdirection the CEO and the Board have with the Qantas Brand....How do you win back people when the CEO & the Board grounded the Airline.... It time Qantas went back to its roots, time it started competing and not trying to play catch up....time it forged some new routes...yeah I know dream on...
Fliegenmong, Thanks for the posts, the three clips, all have a very good vibe about them, for me, the second one is very clever, portrays a strong "happy ship" theme.. Ah, the Brits, they can do "pride."
Nor does it use the classic 'humour/irony' mix that's been effective for a number of price sensitive or bogan targeted products such as Freedom Air, BCF or the RACQ. 
However, I don't think this ad gets anywhere close to helping people answer the question. Maybe they don't know what the product is. 
or read books or whatever
