THE BOOK OF LISTS: The 10 Best Regional Press Ads

1. John Lewis - "new TV"

Part of a large regional press campaign that ran in titles including the Nottingham Evening Post, the Birmingham Evening Post and the Aberdeen Press & Journal, it supported John Lewis' autumn range of products. Running in titles in areas close to John Lewis stores, it mixed strong colour executions with a message to drive people into stores.

Agency: Burkitt DDB
Media planning and buying: Burkitt DDB

2. Syntegra - "Scottish marathon"

This ad ran in the Edinburgh regional press to raise awareness of Syntegra's support for the Edinburgh marathon. The image used colour to recreate the Scottish flag, which was made to resemble a finishing line.

Agency: Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy
Media planning and buying: Starcom MediaVest

3. Sainsbury's - "style"

This campaign ran in dozens of regional titles to support the launch of Sainsbury's new range of kitchen and dining accessories. The ad has a clean feel to it, picturing the Sainsbury's tableware range along with the line "Style. Now being served at Sainsbury's."

Agency: Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO
Media planning and buying: PHD

4. Safeway - "frying pan"

A small campaign to promote an offer in the Basingstoke area. Its strength is in the striking image, showing a woman with a frying pan on her head, used to express an otherwise run-of-the-mill deal.

Agency: Clemmow Hornby Inge
Media planning and buying: Manning Gottlieb OMD

5. Homebase - "do my cushions look big on this?"

Part of a campaign that boasts some excellent copylines. This is the best of them and supports the Homebase sofa range with the line: "Do my cushions look big on this?" The copy is supported by an image of a plump-looking sofa.

Agency: Lowe
Media planning: PHD
Media buying: MindShare

6. Land Rover - "smile please"

A colour campaign to promote a £3,000 discount on the Land Rover Discovery. Well-shot execution that is set in a photographers' studio and shows the Discovery ready to be photographed. It is backed by the line: "Discovery, now for £3,000 less. Smile please." Good use of media placing saw the ad running in titles where demand for the four-wheel drive vehicle was high.

Agency: Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R
Media planning and buying: MindShare

7. Chanel - "makeover"

This spot communicates the launch of a personal makeover offer via Boots stores. It shows a close-up of a model's face overlaid by water droplets to create an elegant autumn feel for the promotion.

Agency: In-house
Media planning and buying: Starcom Motive

8. COI Communications/DVLA - car registration

In its bid to tackle car crime, the Government wanted to increase the number of cars with vehicle registration documents. It decided to mimic the behaviour of used-car salesmen by taking press ads in classified sections of regional titles. These ran simple copylines to urge car owners to get the correct vehicle registration documents. During first half of 2003, cars sold without vehicle registration fell from 35 per cent to 11 per cent.

Agency: Leo Burnett
Media planning and buying: Starcom MediaVest

9. BA - weekend flight offer

An example of a blue-chip advertiser using the medium to great effect, BA used regional press for a series of strip ads to encourage take-up of offers. The ad uses the line: "Prices this small and you still haven't taken her away for the weekend?" The ad uses the clean look adopted across the campaign, with a series of price offers to cities.

Agency: M&C Saatchi
Media planning and buying: ZenithOptimedia

10. Credit Card Fraud Protection - "chip and pin"

Part of a large cross-media campaign to launch the latest fraud-prevention device, this ad used the line "It's nothing to worry about. Unless you're a criminal". The image takes the form of the back of a credit card with copy across it.

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi
Media planning and buying: ZenithOptimedia

This article was first published on Campaign