Poster Watch: and the best are…
Sure’s Invisible Stick deodorant campaign easily outpaces the other nine posters in the recall charts this month, but Nike’s ‘Sportspeople’ poster proved to be the nation’s favourite with a 73 per cent approval rate
Recall % all adults Sure 44 Royal Mail 36 Nike 36 Siemens 28 Cadbury’s Snowflake 26 Homechoice 21 IKEA 21 ITV football.co.uk 18 Revlon 16 Mothercare 12
Liking % all adults Nike 73 Sure 66 Royal Mail 66 Siemens 66 Revlon 59 Cadbury’s Snowflake 54 Mothercare 53 Homechoice 46 ITV football.co.uk 38 IKEA 37
Rank Orders Recall Liking Sure 1 2= Royal Mail 2= 2= Nike 2= 1 Siemens 4 2= Cadbury’s Snowflake 5 6= Homechoice 6= 8 IKEA 6= 9= ITV football.co.uk 8 9= Revlon 9 5 Mothercare 10 6=
The two latest executions in the Royal Mail’s long-running “I saw this and thought of you” campaign and Nike’s “sportspeople” tied for second place in the Poster Watch survey, both scoring 36 per cent recall. Twenty-eight per cent remembered the Siemens’ posters, just two per cent more than for Cadbury’s Snowflake. Homechoice, the TV programme control service, and Ikea’s late-night opening announcement shared sixth place, recalled by just over a fifth of passers-by. Eighteen per cent remembered the ITV football website ad, sixteen percent Revlon’s “Chilli” lipstick and nail varnish poster, and 12 per cent the Mothercare website ad.
The liking scores are unusually high across the board this month. Three campaigns: Siemens, Royal Mail and Sure, tied for second place, liked by two-thirds of all adults. In many editions of Poster Watch, this score would have easily secured any of them the top slot. This month, however, they were easily outpaced by Nike, which was liked by just under three-quarters of the adult population.
Three other posters appealed to more than half ASI’s interviewees. Six out of ten liked Revlon’s winter colour campaign, placing it a clear fifth. Cadbury and Mothercare tied for sixth place with 54 per cent approval.
Ipsos-ASI interviewed 300 adults aged 18-60 during September 2000. They were shown photographs of ten current posters, with the advertiser’s name and logo removed, and asked which ones they had seen before, and whether they liked or disliked each one.
Contact Simon French: 020 8861 8145
Recall % all adults Sure 44 Royal Mail 36 Nike 36 Siemens 28 Cadbury’s Snowflake 26 Homechoice 21 IKEA 21 ITV football.co.uk 18 Revlon 16 Mothercare 12
Liking % all adults Nike 73 Sure 66 Royal Mail 66 Siemens 66 Revlon 59 Cadbury’s Snowflake 54 Mothercare 53 Homechoice 46 ITV football.co.uk 38 IKEA 37
Rank Orders Recall Liking Sure 1 2= Royal Mail 2= 2= Nike 2= 1 Siemens 4 2= Cadbury’s Snowflake 5 6= Homechoice 6= 8 IKEA 6= 9= ITV football.co.uk 8 9= Revlon 9 5 Mothercare 10 6=
The art of making heads turn for weeks at a time
The great thing about posters is their visibility – you just can’t miss them. Press ads are hidden amongst the pages, television is getting more and more cluttered, and people are flicking from channel to channel, but a poster is up there, making an impact, for weeks. But compared to TV and press, you only have one image and half a dozen words – so it is the hardest medium to do well.
The Royal Mail is still a charming campaign. It’s a good strategy, because it prompts people to send “something in the post”; and the lines are witty – I haven’t any criticism.
The Sure campaign is noticeable, and based on clever illustrations of the visible/invisible idea, underpinning the “invisible” deodorant – and the risqu “visible quickie” should get them extra coverage from the PR factor.
The Homechoice posters have established a striking visual style – I recognised one of their print ads upside down on someone’s paper in the tube even though I couldn’t read it. Unfortunately it leaves you guessing how the service works; the headline and the baseline just repeat each other, when they could supply a bit more information – perhaps enough to make the audience want to follow up the enquiry telephone number.
Rob Morris is creative director at Edge/GMC
