Brand Barometer - Prehistoric duo give Volvic a boost

Volvic mineral water's last campaign had cavemen inventing the wheel and pole dancing. Its new ad campaign features a dinosaur called, in a somewhat surreal touch, Alan, and a talking volcano called George.

The ads continue Volvic's existing "volcanicity" branding, but now have George the volcano explaining to Tyrannosaurus Alan how the water is "filtered through my handsome volcanic rocks". The campaign has also launched Volvic's new Revive energy drink, which, we are told, plays an important part in Tyrannosaurus Alan's carefully orchestrated plot to wipe out sabre-toothed tigers.

The ads are voiced by comedian Matt Berry from The Mighty Boosh, and we are now halfway through the six spots in the campaign, the first for Volvic by its new ad agency, Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R.

The first of the ads debuted in mid-April, and since then Volvic's figures on BrandIndex have suggested that it has had a positive impact. Volvic's buzz rose from +3 to peak at +8, though it has since declined. General impressions of Volvic shot up from +16 in early April, to +25 when the ad campaign broke. While it has declined again from the initial peak, it is still up 3 points at +19. Quality is up too, from +15 in early April, to +19 now.

The ad seems to have taken off on the internet as well. Google returns almost 20,000 results for Tyrannosaurus Alan, and his cry of "Come on world, I'm Tyrannosaurus Alan, and I'll have you for breakfast" crops up on forums, blogs and social networking sites. Checking the figures on BrandIndex, the campaign seems to have had particular appeal to the internet generation - among under-40s, buzz rose to +10 and general impression to +30.

METHODOLOGY - YouGov's BrandIndex is a daily measure of public perception of more than 1,100 consumer brands across 32 sectors, measured on a seven-point profile, with data delivered on the next day.

YouGov interviews 2,000 people each weekday, more than half a million interviews per year.

This means you can spot trends as soon as they happen, not when it's too late. Respondents are drawn from an online panel of more than 130,000.

The score is the net rating: people are asked to identify the brands to which they have a positive response, and then those to which they have a negative response, to whatever is the prompt measure.

The net score is the positive minus the negative.

The seven measures that make the complete profile are below.

Each is taken independently - in any one survey, any individual respondent is asked about only one measure for the sector, not all seven. Therefore, none of the readings influence each other within the survey.

1. Buzz

2. General impression

3. Quality

4. Value

5. Satisfaction

6. Recommend

7. Corporate reputation

In addition, we supply an index score.

by Sundip Chahal

www.brandindex.com.

This article was first published on Media Week