TV ads at 60: Paddy Power, M&S and McVitie’s on the role of TV advertising

This is a competitive market and our competition spends [a lot] in TV. Betting is around live sporting events on TV, [so we] stimulate by advertising at the right time and occasion when people can make a bet.

[The] brand does play on wit and humour and generally [you] need a dynamic medium to do that. But having said that my personal belief, just weeks into the job, is that we should probably be a bit clever and smarter in other channels.

Gav Thompson, chief marketing officer at Paddy Power

TV is still an important tent pole but it is clearly no longer the primary one. [TV commercials are] the tip of the iceberg but the richness of the content and the versatility of the different formats is now coming from other areas too.

I think we are doing 37 different formats across multichannel for [the current] campaign, from social to YouTube, so you will see an expression of the same campaign but with more interactivity than the past.

Patrick Bousquet-Chavanne, executive director of marketing and international at M&S

When developing a TV creative it’s key that it not only links back to the overall brand idea, and is engaging and relevant, but it needs to work well across multiple channels. [There are] more channels now compared to a decade ago with the many developments in digital.

When you have a powerful brand proposition it gives you a strong platform from which to develop. Building the creative execution from that core idea allows you to essentially build a consistent brand message that is appropriate for the channel.

Kerry Owens, brand director at McVitie’s

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