Adwatch winners of 1999

Exciting as it undoubtedly is, this year’s one-off Adwatch of the

Decade league should not detract from Adwatch of the Year 1999.

As always, Adwatch of the Year records the past 12 months’ most

memorable TV ads. Every week, NOP conducts a telephone poll of 1000

adults to determine the prompted awareness of every new commercial

running on terrestrial television in more than 75% of the UK.

This year, the feature comprises two superleagues, culled from the 50

Adwatch tables that have appeared in Marketing between December 3 1998

and November 25 1999. The first table features percentage recall over

the year, while the second totals the year’s highest individual recall

percentages .

Inevitably, the first table is partly a measure of media muscle - if a

brand such as BT spends something approaching pounds 85m, that

expenditure is reflected. But there are always a few advertisers whose

performances outstrip their budgets.

Andrex, for example, is reaping the rewards of years of

heartstring-tugging puppy work, an investment which puts it in fourth

place on a spend of only pounds 7.5m. This is a prime example of

long-term branding paying dividends, so that with a relatively small

adspend, a high level of awareness is achieved.

Walkers Crisps, which has featured Gary Lineker in its ads for many

years, is a similar story - although in 1999, its first full year with

Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, it has fallen from fourth to ninth place (and

from joint first to joint fourth in the second table).

Another remarkable performance comes from Somerfield which, despite an

unsettled year - its account moved from RPM3 to Leo Burnett to

McCann-Erickson, and is under review again - has managed to cling on to

eighth place with a minuscule budget of pounds 1.4m.

Meanwhile, the relentless marketing march of the mobile phone industry

reached new peaks: collectively, Orange, One 2 One and Vodafone spent

over pounds 100m, putting all three brands in the top 20 for the first

time.

Overall, however, budget levels are similar to, or down on, last year,

with some brands making big budget cuts - including BT, whose 1999

budget was almost pounds 50m less than last year. BT’s total recall

figures are also lower; in 1998, its work scored 19,449 responses, as

opposed to 12,918 this year.

The lower 1999 scores brings McDonald’s significantly closer to the

number one slot, although its own overall recall figures are also down

by 3000 on 1998.

New entrants in this year’s highest recall over the year table are B&Q,

One 2 One, Orange, SkyDigital, Homebase, Vodafone and British Gas, which

have replaced Oil of Olay, Nescafe, Fairy Liquid and three top retail

names - Woolworths, Boots and Safeway.

The highest individual recall figures are down for the fourth year

running: in 1996, the top percentage was 96%; in 1997, it was 94%; and

last year, it was 88%. This year, BT only needed to reach 86% to hang on

to its number one slot for the third consecutive year. This general

decline may be a result of more campaigns spreading across

non-terrestrial channels.

Highest individual recalls reveal fewer surprises than previous years,

although, as usual, some brands have done particularly well. The

following are some of the more remarkable campaigns.

The National Lottery

Five years after launching the lottery, and with its licence review

looming, Camelot is suffering a downturn in profits and ticket sales.

Yet its new advertising, through WCRS, has achieved great saliency

throughout the year, with a realistic approach and its ’Maybe, just

maybe’ line.

The ad strategy has changed to fit the lottery’s status as a mature

brand, with a new focus on playing benefits, sustaining participation

and a portfolio of associated games. These include the lottery itself,

Lottery Instants, Thunderball and the Big Draw 2000.

Although the best-remembered commercial of 1999 was for ’Winning

Wallets’, many different commercials were running at the same time, all

unified by the National Lottery logo.

Its high recall figure undoubtedly reflects Camelot’s increased budget

commitment (more than double last year’s figure) across all its

games.

B&Q

B&Q, making its Adwatch of the Year debut, is one of 1999’s most

interesting case histories. Bates UK has handled the account for 16

years and has been using the ’You can do it if you B&Q it’ tagline for

five of those years.

But a year ago, marketing director Stephen Robertson quadrupled the

advertising budget and shifted money out of print and into TV ads. The

decision was taken after econometric tests revealed that B&Q’s TV

advertising has an immediate effect on sales.

The commercial which scored particularly highly last month was for a

Garden Vac, but there is no doubt that B&Q’s success is down to

consistency and weight of message across the 85 different executions

created by Bates UK in 1999.

The ads focused on four main areas: new products, value pricing,

projects and own-label products. With a break-blitzing media strategy,

combined with the famous tagline, the familiar apron mnemonic and

employee presenters, the campaign became a regular 1999 Adwatch

chart-topper.

As DIY becomes increasingly popular, B&Q outperformed a buoyant

market.

Its sales were up by 19% in the six months from February to July, while

its market share rose by 2% over the year, to give it almost one-fifth

of the total DIY retail market.

TV Licensing

Since 1992, the number of British households without a TV licence has

fallen from 10% to just 6% - each per cent represents pounds 20m lost to

the BBC. This year, with a heavily increased budget, TBWA GGT Simons

Palmer continued its ’Consequences’ campaign which, for the past 18

months, has targeted people who ’put off’ paying their licence. The ads

stress how stupid people feel when they are fined and have to forego

dream holidays, car renovations or, in the case of this top-scoring

film, their mobile phone.

’Cut Off’, which broke in the summer, showed a woman racing to pick up a

call in a public phone box because she had relinquished her mobile phone

to cover her fine. As she misses her call, she collapses against the

phone box and a passer-by, assuming she is a down-and-out, throws her a

few coins. The commercial was particularly effective in reaching younger

people, who form the bulk of non-payers, and for whom the mobile phone

is an essential status symbol.

Drink-drive

The Christmas campaign against drink-driving is an Adwatch of the Year

regular. Last year’s advertising, the first from AMV BBDO, comprised 18

different commercials which ran for a month over the Christmas

period.

Each recreated a real accident and used the voices of real emergency

personnel explaining, in dispassionate, ’professional’ terms, the

devastating consequences of the accident.

The line, ’Don’t drink and drive: don’t drink and die’ was aimed at all

motorists, but particularly the 17- to- 24 age group. Although 11% more

drink-drive tests were conducted last Christmas, there was a fall of 22%

in drivers who tested positive.

Specsavers

In its six years as a major TV advertiser, the Guernsey-based Specsavers

optical chain has been the only Adwatch regular to create its

advertising in-house. Marketing director Andrew Molle, formerly of

Homebase, chose the in-house route because he wanted ads created by a

team totally dedicated to Specsavers.

That 14-strong team creates frequent brand-building messages, as well as

the occasional blockbuster, to stress Specsavers’ professionalism.

It was one of those blockbusters which, in May, scored 76% in

Adwatch.

The film showed physicist Stephen Hawking, in only his second

advertising appearance, reflecting on the importance of his eyesight as

he travels on a dream-like journey through space.

Specsavers’ advertising strategy is paying off: the chain has not only

succeeded in shaking up the market, but now claims a commanding lead

among optical chains, with its share of new consumers well above the

market average.

Top-performing agencies and media buyers

Overall, 1999 will not go down as a vintage year for AMV BBDO. In

Adwatch, however, the Marylebone Road Mob triumphs yet again as

top-performing agency, with an even better performance than last year -

despite losing its Sainsbury’s TV work. Its 1999 advertising, most

notably on mega-brands such as BT and Walkers, earned AMV BBDO 106

Adwatch mentions, 24 more than last year.

J Walter Thompson, with Andrex, Boots and Kellogg under its belt, shoots

up to second from sixth, while Leo Burnett and Publicis are in third and

fourth place respectively. Out this year are McCann-Erickson and Ogilvy

& Mather, to be replaced by WCRS and two agencies currently in the

throes of a merger, Lowe Howard-Spink and Ammirati Puris Lintas.

In the world of TV buying, Leo Burnett’s revamped media operation has

lived up to its new name, Starcom, by putting in a five-star

performance, with 114 mentions through work for blue-chip clients such

as McDonald’s and Procter & Gamble. Hot on its heels are Zenith and

MindShare, heading a table largely comprised of what used to be known as

’media dependents’ - agency-owned buying operations.

Yet although merger fever dominates the scene, Adwatch of the Year 2000

could well be a watershed league, dominated by a string of new agency

and buying names. Stay tuned.

TOP AGENCIES

Agency                                            Number of mentions

Abbott Mean Vickers BBDO                                         106

J Walter Thompson                                                 67

Leo Burnett                                                       66

Publicis                                                          54

Saatchi & Saatchi                                                 54

Bates UK                                                          52

BMP DDB                                                           43

Lowe Howard-Spink                                                 40

WCRS                                                              39

Grey Advertising                                                  37

Ammirati Puris Lintas                                             37

HIGHEST RECALL OVER THE YEAR

1   1   BT               Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO/

                         The Allmond Partnership          12,918   83.67

2   2   McDonald’s       Leo Burnett/Starcom              12,131   40.51

3       B&Q              Bates UK/Zenith Media              9826   26.43

4   9   Andrex           J Walter Thompson/MindShare        9677    7.50

5   3   Asda             Publicis/Carat                     9624   22.90

6   17  Tesco            Lowe Howard-Spink/

                         Western International Media        6252   27.80

7   18  Sainsbury’s      Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO

                         and M&C Saatchi/New PHD            5743   48.83

8   8   Somerfield       RPM3, Leo Burnett and

                         McCann-Erickson/Universal McCann   5587    1.42

9   4   Walkers Crisps   Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO/MediaVest 5290    5.23

10      One 2 One        Bartle Bogle Hegarty/Motive        5109   46.67

11  15  Iceland          Tom Reddy, HHCL & Partners/

                         Carat Manchester, MediaCom TMB     4869   12.46

12  19  National Lottery WCRS/BMP OMD                       4773   16.70

13  11  Burger King      Ammirati Puris Lintas/Carat        4566   10.69

14  12  Specsavers       In-house/CIA Medianetwork          4453   15.08

15      Orange           WCRS/Mediapolis                    4219   38.01

16  5   Coca-Cola        Edge Creative, Publicis,

                         Wieden & Kennedy/Universal McCann  4132   14.72

17      SkyDigital       In-house/Universal McCann          4124   25.04

18      Homebase         Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO/New PHD   3428   20.27

19      Vodafone         BMP DDB/BMP OMD                    3143   28.51

20      British Gas      BMP DDB/BMP OMD                    2950   32.18

*Source: MMS

BEST RECALL IN ANY SINGLE WEEK

99  98  Brand       Agency/TV buyer              Score     Issue  Budget

                                                    (%      date   (pnds

                                               recall)               m)*

1   1=  BT          AMV BBDO/

                    The Allmond Partnership         86   11/3/99   83.67

2   10  Asda        Publicis/Carat                  83  18/11/99   22.90

3   4=  McDonald’s  Leo Burnett/StarCom             82   24/6/99   40.51

4=  3   National

        Lottery     WCRS/BMP OMD                    81   23/9/99   16.70

4=      B&Q         Bates UK/Zenith                 81   4/11/99   26.43

4=  1=  Walkers

        Crisps      AMV BBDO/MediaVest              81   18/2/99    5.23

7       Persil

        tablets     J Walter Thompson/

                    Initiative Media                79   23/9/99   10.97

8=      Tesco       Lowe Howard-Spink/

                    Western International Media     78  28/10/99   27.80

8=      TV

        licensing   TBWA GGT Simons Palmer/

                    New PHD                         78   26/8/99    7.34

10=     Drink-

        driving     AMV BBDO/MediaVest              77   28/1/99    1.70

10= 11= Nescafe     McCann-Erickson/

                    Universal McCann                77   4/11/99   25.91

10= 18  Vodafone    BMP DDB/BMP OMD                 77   14/1/99   28.51

13=     Orange      WCRS/Mediapolis                 76  28/10/99   38.01

13= 7=  Sky Digital In-house/Universal McCann       76  10/12/98   25.04

13=     Specsavers  In-house/CIA Medianetwork       76   20/5/99   15.08

13=     One 2 One   Bartle Bogle Hegarty/

                    Motive                          76  28/10/99   46.67

13=     HSBC        Lowe & Partners Worldwide/

                    New PHD                         76   29/7/99    7.37

18= 4=  Andrex      J Walter Thompson/

                    MindShare                       75   25/3/99    7.50

18=     National

        Lottery

        Thunderball WCRS/BMP OMD                    75    1/7/99    6.51

18=     Iceland     HHCL & Partners/

                    MediaCom TMB                    75  28/10/99   12.46

*Source: MMS

TOP MEDIA AGENCIES

Buyer                            Number of mentions

Starcom                                         114

Zenith Media                                    105

MindShare                                        94

Carat                                            83

Universal McCann                                 75

BMP OMD                                          68

Initiative Media                                 60

MediaVest                                        59

New PHD                                          54

The Allmond Partnership                          41

This article was first published on Marketing