Home
Services
Papers
Contact
Clients
People
Ad of the month
Ad of the Month - May 2010
Thomson Holidays "Ash Cloud Peace of Mind" (click to view ad)

Beattie McGuinness Bungay
A topical ad has a big advantage in the effective communication stakes - it can strike a cord with its audience via an issue of the moment and gain not only their attention, but also a greater chance of the message being read and absorbed. It's also an opportunity for the advertiser to show its empathy with the target by reflecting the way they feel about the issue.

This is what Thomson did with their ad that appeared just after the main Ash Cloud debacle - they reported the fact that 92% of a sample of 1,800 Thomson holiday-makers agreed that they "handled the situation well". At this time, consumers not yet on holiday were wondering how they would fare if something like the Ash Cloud happened again - the news was full of stories of stranded holiday-makers let down by their travel companies, spending thousands of pounds trying to get home. The focused message from Thomson saying they would not let their customers down was an extremely relevant approach.

Topical ads sometimes work well by being relevant to the issue of the day, but may not integrate so obviously with the rest of the brand's communication. In this case, the TV ads from Thomson's main campaign (featuring the Jim Reeves' "Welcome to my world" music), dramatise the extreme lengths to which Thomson will go to make their holidays perfect - a close fit with the "we take care of you, even in a crisis" message of the Ash Cloud ad. BMB also links the Ash Cloud ad into the rest of the campaign by using similar visual layout and typography.

Featuring research results in an ad is of course not new (Whiskas "8 out of 10 owners who expressed a preference" et al), but has several advantages when it comes to communicating superior performance - research is based on objective facts, not just one person's opinion; communicating that the brand does research in itself says that the brand is customer-focused and if you can, it is always so much more convincing to get someone else to blow your trumpet for you!