Schweppes Burst from ipub on Vimeo.
I started this post ready to praise Schweppes for what a brilliant ad this is. And it is a brilliant one as far as ads go. But as you'll see, my experience degrades almost as fast as it was built up during my journey from watching the ad on Dino's blog to researching it more for this post.
Normally I'd just post the ad, mix in a few quick thoughts and be done. But for this, I thought I'd share the story of my experience with it since that is what we're creating now. Experiences. Not ads. Experiences. It's a tragedy really. Anyway, here we go then...
Original Title: Schweppes Burst = Brilliant
Maybe advertising can survive. This makes me believe it's possible. Wow. Simply gorgeous. Highly engaging. Easily the best ad I've seen in a while.
It's like Sony Balls, but maybe even better. I'm very glad to see they've brought some energy and emotion back to Schweppervescence. Hopefully Schweppes will extend this work around the globe. (It appears to only be in Australia now from what I can tell.)
Why I think it's a great ad...
Conveys emotion? Check. Dramatizes the essence of the brand? Check.
Gets my attention and makes me want to watch it? Check+
Is memorable not just for the ad but for who it is promoting as well? Check.
(I know. I know. I love advertising more than your average person, so this isn't an entirely fair assessment. But it's my blog, so just go with it...)
I could be a bit off on this one, but I think I saw a quote recently from Joseph Jaffe that read:
"Where and when advertising succeeds, it will be well received and sought after. However, in most cases, agencies will have to work a lot harder to get consumers to give a damn.”
Well, this one made me give a damn and it's not just because I like the combination of their ginger ale with my Jack Daniels. Yes, to the point of my presentation below, it makes me in some small way, feel better about Schweppes.
This is where it all falls apart...
They have me engaged. Hooked even. I'm wanting to experience more Schweppervescence. So I got to the Schweppes site... I click on Australia...
"No local site available... X"
Wait. What? How is this possible? You're a global brand, you're doing high-quality ads like this one, and you have no web presence in the country you're running this ad in? Really?
Now, I'm not advocating that there should be a matching micro-site for this spot, but there should be a way for me to engage with the brand in some form online if I live in Australia so I can at the very least learn a little more about Schweppes and maybe see this ad again.
Hang on. It gets even worse.
From my brief clicking around on different continents and countries I get more "No local site available..." messages than I do places I can click through to a Schweppes site. This is becoming a big problem.
And yet it goes further down the drain.
Finally I get through to a couple sites. Yessssss! Something. Finally. Oh. No. Don't get too excited. None of the sites I do explore feel like the same brand as the one in the TV spot. They feel far different. Not nearly as warm or inviting. Not nearly as welcoming.
Oh how I'm falling out of love with the TV spot and Schweppes now. They're letting me down by the moment. This really is unfortunate. They had me. The had me hooked. Thirsty for more.
In the words of an old beer commercial... it's a travesty. A sham. A mockery. It's a traveshamockery!
Schweppervescence feels like an emotionally rich territory full of opportunities to do interesting things in the digital space beyond just being able to watch the ad on any number of video and ad sites/blogs.
Yes. It's a beautiful spot. It's scored beautifully. Shot beautifully. Directed beautifully. Edited beautifully. I'll give it all of those things. Five or six years ago, that might have been enough. But it's not now. We have come to expect more. TV isn't the center of the ad universe.
It's too bad they stopped with a beautiful TV spot. It's too bad they were stuck in old ways of thinking about advertising.
Sure, it will probably win some awards and everyone who was a part of it will feel great about it. A few other agencies and ad folk might even say "Damn. I wish we made that."
But at the end of the day, it failed to rise to the new bar for advertising.
Such a shame really. I had such hope for advertising when I started this post.
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For all the details on the ad, go here.
Thanks for pointing it out Dino & Charles.
(Yes, this is how far I've gotten behind on the RSS lately... Must get caught back up!)
