LONDON, UK– LONDON Advertising has been telling their clients what other advertising agencies worldwide have been telling theirs: you should still advertise. After all, though limitations may have arisen due to the current situation and new unexpected challenges have arrived, that doesn’t mean the audience is no longer watching or listening to what advertisers have to say.
To that end, London Advertising released a series of 10 radio ads promoting themselves and advertising in general. To as they say “add a dollop of quality” to their spots, the agency tapped the distinguished voices of Dame Helen Mirren and Liam Neeson to speak on their behalf.
“We believe if you advertise through a crisis or recession, when your competitors aren’t spending, you will gain market share. That’s why London Advertising is advertising. This is an advert for London Advertising,” Neeson says in one 20-second spot.
“It doesn’t cost a fortune to make a memorable TV campaign, just a memorable idea. This is an advert for London Advertising,” Mirren says in a 10-second spot.
“Are you a company owner? A chief executive officer? A managing director? A chief marketing officer? Or a marketing director? Good. This advert is aimed at you. This is an advert for London Advertising,” Neeson says in another 20-second ad.
“How many advertising agencies can you name? Well, now you can name one more. This is an advert for London Advertising,” Neeson says in one that runs for 10 seconds. He then says in another, “A good advert should be simple, stand out, and you should remember who it’s for. This is an advert for London Advertising.”
“Of all the adverts you’ve seen in the last 24 hours, how many do you remember? Let’s hope you remember this one,” Mirren declares in a 20-second ad before closing with, “This is an advert for London Advertising.”
In one very simple 10-second spots, Mirren simply says, “This is an advertising test. Please visit LondonAdvertising.com.”
“This is an advert for London advertising. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, the writer loses his job,” Mirren notes in a very ironic spot. In another, she just says “London Advertising” nine times in different ways before closing with “This is an advert for London Advertising.”
Finally, Mirren asks, “Does advertising work? We’ll find out. This is an advert for London Advertising.”
As if to reflect the minimalist approach they took with their radio ads, their billboards also went down that road with very short copy on the neon green background that is part of London Advertising’s own corporate brand personality. At the bottom of each billboard is that now-familiar line of “This is an advert for London Advertising.”
Some of the billboards reproduced the copy in the Neeson and Mirren ads while others echoed the campaign’s sentiments. If one just stated, “It’s time to get this recovery started,” another said, “Only 8% of advertising is remembered. And of that 8 percent, half the time, people don’t remember who it’s for.”
This ultra-minimalist approach strips down advertising to its bare bones, stating simple facts with such short copy that there is no way to confuse the message for anything else than what they say it is. Namely, that this is an advert for London Advertising.
By taking away a lot of the bells and whistles that we often associate with modern advertising and placing the agency’s name right there for everyone to see, London Advertising is definitely promoting itself, but it is also showing how creative they remain even in lockdown.
The global communications agency based in London has been voted agency of the year for six out of the last seven years and their latest campaign only goes to show that they’re not stopping anytime soon.
