Creative Review
Stephanie is 27 and joined 105.4 Century FM as marketing manager in January 2002. 105.4 Century FM in the North West has the largest commercial broadcast area outside of London, and is part of the Capital Radio Group. Previously she was at bmi british midland, starting as an assistant product manager in 1998, rising to product manager for the North West, before her move to Capital.
High Street Gift Voucher
Agency: Park Group Marketing Department (In-House). Head of Creative: Greg Smith.
I love these. If there was ever a brief met to achieve positive brand association for the client then this would be it. The Ads are clear, concise and get the message across. Use of retailer logos impresses on the viewer that redemption is a reality. The product images are aspirational, and the range of retailers involved impressive. I didn’t know about the High Street Gift Voucher before, but now I would recognise the identity and understand what it could mean for me. 5/5
Kumala Wine Ads
Agency: Poulter Partners. Art Director: Paul Moran. Copywriter: Graham Doran
I’m biased on this product as I’m a customer anyway! The media choice is unspecified, however I am assuming that I would see these adverts in a female glossy magazine, where the reader has time to recognise the cleverness in the execution and digest the copy below. The visual of the wine bottle encourages product recognition and is what would first draw my eye to the ad. 4/5
Sheffield Theatre Annual Report
Consultancy: Iris. Designer: Peter Donohoe.
I personally like this a lot. Being from Sheffield I was already aware of the work Sheffield Theatre does, and I think this piece is an imaginative and no nonsense way of getting what might usually be fairly dull statistics across to its audience. The copy is positive and concise. Visually I’m not sure about the red on the brown background, but that’s more likely to be my eyes ... 3/5
Dept of Health/North East Drug Action Ads
Agency: Different. Different Team: Mark Martin, Chris Rickaby, Sue Storey, Carlo Reale, Stewart Allen, Ian Millen, Neil Bestford, Erin le Quelenec.
For the audience it’s aimed at, I would imagine the comic-book layout of this leaflet really appeals. It doesn’t take much time to take in the message and the target audience could readily identify with the people used in the photography. Finding the correct media to get these messages across most effectively is a difficult job but the tone identified within this choice goes to achieving breakthrough for this campaign. 4/5
Thomson Prometric Ads
Agency: Cicero. Copywriter: Jim Stringer. Art Director: Paul Jolleys. Marketing Director: Martin Milner.
At first I thought this piece was for a water company. Testing return on investment and effectiveness of staff training is a challenging brief. The creative has done this by linking performance testing of machinery to the testing of employee knowledge. This strikes me as a cold association but with high level managers as the target it may do the trick – the colours chosen certainly have a male feel about them. Overall, I think a tricky brief has been handled well. 3/5