Weetabix are returning to TV with a new advertising campaign, kicking off with ‘Steeplechase’, and resurrecting their famous strapline “someone’s had their Weetabix” .
The activity, which started during an X-Factor ad break, has been thought up by WCRS and the first round of advertising features a new ‘humourous’ direction for the brand.
The advert, which will be present in 30, 60 and 90 second formats, includes a talking horse which, when taking part in a race, falls at the first fence and encourages his jockey to go on and try and win the race. Of course, the jockey does.
Here is the 90 second version.
This seems to be a lighter take on the Compare The Meerkat campaign, by including a talking animal with a ridiculously over the top accent.
Now what I want to know is, how much did Weetabix pay to get that 90 second prime time slot, and could that money have been better put to use with a social media campaign?
There are no social media elements to the current activity and I somewhat think they’ve missed a trick here. On first viewing, 90 seconds is far too long, and I think thats even in it’s shorter incarnations, the novelty will soon wear off, and I predict it will soon become “that annoying Weetabix” advert.
This is the fundamental problem with advertisingt. Once you’ve had the message pushed at you, you tend to switch off and ignore it. There is no refreshing of the content, simply the same images, sound and video being peddled 10 times a day.
Three Things Weetabix Could Have Done
Create a character to tell the Weetabix story, make the horse the ’star’ of the advert and leveraged the obvious affection for it as a way of connecting on Facebook and Twitter. With this advert, there is no Weetabix story being told except “buy our cereal, it will make you run faster than a horse”.
Kept the advert to 30 seconds and engaged with the blogosphere, offering the fuller cuts as exclusives to certain writers. This gives the brand a more personal edge and encourages the bloggers to share their exclusive content.
A quick Google blog search tells us there is no activity taking place around Weetabix. Blogger sampling would provide an opportunity for bloggers to try Weetabix, re-acquaint themselves with the brand, AND share that video.
What do you think of the new campaign?
3 Comments
November 4, 2009 at 09:42
I think you’re spot on. The first time I saw the ad it entertained…but mainly because I was intrigued to know what it was for. Once it’s lost that surprise then you’re right, it just becomes irritating.
Perhaps they could also engage the community for a bit of user-generated content, a video-based competition or something…you know, “show us what you can do once you’ve had your Weetabix…”
November 4, 2009 at 16:48
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November 4, 2009 at 21:49
Totally agree – it’s a good foundation to build on, but as normally seems to happen, there’s a refusal to commit to taking the story any further!