Full Marks for Tom in the new TV ad

The Facts of Lice from Tracey Harman on Vimeo.

The world of head lice treatment has just got a whole lot simpler thanks to a new TV campaign for SSL International’s Full Marks Solution.

Different treatment times, different efficacy levels, pesticide vs non-pesticide – all these factors lead to a very confusing place for parents trying to identify the best way to treat their child for head lice.

In response, MECH developed an advert that demonstrates the benefits of using the Full Marks Solution. Based around the characters Tom and his Mum, The Facts of Lice provides all the information needed in a really straightforward way, from a 10-minute treatment time, to the child-friendly way in which the solution works.

The advert was created in-house by those clever bods in the Motion department - everything from the characters, to the script, to the animation.

In addition to the TV advert, the creative on the Full Marks website has been refreshed and updated with content from Dr. Chris Steele. It includes free school downloadable resources to provide support for teachers, educational content to engage pupils, and advice for parents tackling head lice.

A social media campaign engaging with both parents and teachers will also be launched around the critical back to school period, with the launch of a facebook page and a blogger outreach programme.

Haliborange lets MECH shine too

Seven Seas has launched a new TV campaign, "Let Kids Shine" as part of its rebranding activity for Halibrorange.

The TV advert focuses around a creative platform - Haliborange, Let Kids Shine, and shows footage of children hoping to shine in whatever they do.

This campaign is part of a full communication relaunch including packaging redesign, interactive website, the Haliborange Shiny School and Facebook page, and other PR and in-store activities.

Check out the cute body popper...

Haliborange - Let Kids Shine from Tracey Harman on Vimeo.

Home is where the heart is, and the cinema, and the pub, and the restaurant...

Home is where the heart is, and the cinema, and the pub, and the restaurant…

This summer the long fought battle between going out and staying in rumbles on.
As out-of-home activities feel the strain of the recession, consumers are again looking to their homes as a refuge, somewhere to shield them from the gloominess of these financial times.

The ‘cult of the home’; the appetite for consumers to invest in their most valued possession, is something that we have touched on before. In times gone by terrorism, violence and in some cases bird flu were cited as drivers for keeping consumers indoors. However, this trend isn’t losing impetus; in fact it is growing. Not only is the economic crisis resulting in a tangible change in circumstance for most consumers, an impending swine flu pandemic is keeping people firmly shut behind their front doors. It’s not hard to see why we think this trend is here to stay.

Despite the housing market crash meaning that houses are no longer the powerful financial asset they were pre recession; they are still home. The concept of home means much more to the consumer mid recession as people develop a heightened emotional attachment to their pile of bricks and mortar. Times are tough, the harsh realities of the world are ever present and people are looking to their homes as a place to escape, a place of reassurance. In short, a safe haven from all their worries.

As well as being a cocoon, a nest and a fortress, the home is increasingly being used as a one-stop-shop for entertainment and communications, a ‘multi-purpose venue’ for living. As UK pubs close at a rate of 52 per week, people are choosing to transform their homes into the new social hotspot in preference to washing away money down the local boozer. This is being facilitated by advancements in in-home entertainment technology. Home cinema’s HD TVs, blu-ray players and gaming consoles such as the Nintendo Wii have all added to the attraction of the living room. People are investing money and time into their homes with the aim of curbing future spending on out-of-home ‘luxuries’ and consequently are easing the pains of recession. Everyone’s a winner.

Of course, to accommodate this multi-functionality, homes need to be increasingly flexible. With houses in general getting smaller, fewer and increasingly compact rooms must house numerous different functions. For example, only 37% of households have a separate dining room, meaning the kitchen or living room must include a dining area to accommodate the current infatuation with home cooking.

A room may need to act as an office during the week, but come the weekend it may be transformed into a gaming room, a drinking venue or a crash pad for the friends and loved ones who’ve popped round for an evening or indeed weekend of high technology entertainment.

It would be easy to assume that there is little opportunity in this apparently saturated marketplace, however we beg to differ. The cult of the home is a trend that spans all ages and demographics, from the ‘boomerang’ generation of students returning home post graduation to the increasingly techno-savvy ‘silver-surfers’. Could this actually be an opportunity to expand your consumer audience, to target a group that was previously off the radar? For example, levels of DIY are historically low with younger generations as they shy away from larger projects. Is there a market for household DIY courses, or gardening training to accompany products? Could YouTube host a line of video training aids for your company’s natty range of DIY products? Whilst the Nintendo Wii has seemingly boosted the family gaming market could future innovations be tailored to even older generations? Who’s to say that virtual reality and online gaming won’t completely replace the bingo halls and gentleman’s clubs of today, as people stay connected and active all from the comfort of their own home?

Whatever it is, companies need to be creative, trend or no trend, the British public are now most definitely a recession-savvy audience. They are careful with their spending and are constantly on the lookout for the best deal.

If you fancy a chat about anything we’ve mentioned feel free to pop into McCann Erickson Communications House, sorry McCann Erickson Communications Home, and we’ll happily put the kettle on...

Social Networlds

With an incredible one out of every thirteen humans now defined as an active internet user (that’s someone who uses the internet at least every other day), our friends at Universal McCann have just released their 4th ‘Power to the People’ survey. This survey looks at the use of social media across the globe and is the biggest survey of its kind.

This report shows that Social Networks are the fastest growing of any online social media tools, now almost two in three of all active internet users have joined a social networking site (64% in the UK). Whilst a couple of years ago we may have expected the popularity of such platforms to wane with time, actually this could not be further from the truth.

Not only do we regularly update our own social networking profiles, we also love to visit the profiles of our friends and families. Globally 71.1% of all of active internet users have visited a friends’ social network page (64% in the UK). These numbers continue to grow and as yet show little sign of abating, and 17% now use their mobile phones to access and update sites. Social networks quite literally never leave our sides.

This continued rise in popularity may be in part attributed to the increased functionality of these platforms; it is now increasingly common for users to upload photos and videos to their personal profiles. Of course it can come as no surprise that eventually social media platforms would begin to be rationalised. No longer do individuals have to go to separate sites to upload photos and or videos, blog, and talk to their friends, they can now do this all from the same platform. Different social media channels are converging as life online gets simpler.

Social networks are set to stay as a medium of choice for consumers, however many brands have yet to leverage their power. Most importantly we must remember that consumers do not use these platforms to engage with brands, they are there to engage with their social group. Brands that don’t help or worse, get in the way of this will not just be ignored, they may be punished. On the flip side however, if brands create interesting and helpful applications or objects which enhance the online networking experience, they stand to gain more than they will from many traditional media channels. Nothing is more popular with consumers than things which allow them to bond with their friends over shared experiences.

Added to this, social networks are developing methodology allowing for extreme targeting of the consumer alongside high quality tracking and measuring capabilities. This makes social networks a highly accountable and dynamic environment, ultimately giving you control of who you talk to and when.

Social networking is the future, are you ready?

Binghoo – News of the MSN Yahoo Merger

It has been announced this week that Microsoft and Yahoo have finalised the deal for Microsoft to power Yahoo’s search engine. Microsoft’s previous bid for the Yahoo takeover at $47.5billion. However rather than the full takeover that was previously on the table, the new deal is a revenue share model with MSN taking 12% of all search revenues for providing its technology.

The initial deal is for a 10 year period and reflects Microsoft’s aim to provide Bing, their newly released search platform, with the traffic needed to give it the scale to potentially compete with Google within the search arena. Increases in Bing’s search market share are expected to rise from 6% to 15% as a result of the deal.

For Yahoo, relieving themselves of investment into their search product has the positive impact of increasing cash flow but what happens at the end of the 10 year period for both parties? MSN would potentially lose the search market share they had built and Yahoo would have to heavily reinvest within search technology. Online commentators are already speculating that the deal is more groundwork for a potential MSN acquisition of Yahoo.

Whether the joint venture can present a credible threat for Google in the UK is yet to be seen. For the management of PPC activity, the move to one interface for both engines makes investing time into optimising for Bing more worthwhile in terms of potential ROI from activity.