The stork brings it faster
McCann Erickson's TV ad shows: With Cablecom, you can watch TV the smarter way.
Television McCann Erickson shows: Cablecom is a smarter way to watch TV Cablecom has greatly expanded its TV offering in recent days. Cablecom Digital TV customers have a range of new channels to choose from, such as two specialty channels from Walt Disney or the channels AXN from Sony Entertainment, The History Channel, National Geographic, Eurosport 2, ESPN Classic Sports and NASN. Almost all analog channels broadcast in German-speaking Switzerland and Ticino can now also be received via the Cablecom Digital TV platform. This increases the digital offering to around 130 television channels. To ensure that viewers can continue to keep track of so much television at close range, Cablecom is also providing a new electronic program guide EPG at the same time as the program expansion. The entire system costs CHF 25 per month with a subscription.
McCann Erickson implemented a comprehensive campaign for the launch of the Electronic Program Guide with two TV commercials, four double-sided ads and below-the-line material to explain the product in detail. The campaign is based on a clearly defined consumer benefit and formulates this with the claim: "Always see immediately what you like to see most."
With the miracle EPG box, you can find what you want to watch in the huge selection of programs within seconds: Movies, shows, news, cartoons, action or documentaries. Instead of endlessly zapping through the diffuse program, you program your wishes and are immediately shown on the screen which channels offer the corresponding programs. This is how Cablecom Digital TV will allow you to watch "smarter TV" in the future.
Elaborately designed commercialsThe first commercial demonstrates this with an action heroine modeled on the super agent Lara Croft, who finds the action films she loves in seconds. The second spot shows a sportsman who, after a somersault into the TV chair, finds a favorite gymnastics show in a flash. Other film genres such as cartoons on the Disney Channel or animal programs are used in the advertisements. These were photographed by Julien Vonier.
The subjects each work with a witty connection between the events on television and the respective viewer. The informal level in the text is thus complemented by entertainment in the picture section, when the action figure Lara Croft watches action films or a pregnant woman is delighted by a stork in an animal program. For the Disney cartoon channel offered with Cablecom's Digital TV, the advertisement shows a cartoon character that has been copied into a real environment like in the film "Roger Rabbit" and is watching a Disney animated film on the screen. "If you want to sell the product, you have to work with the genre," says CD Peter Rettinghausen at McCann Erickson.
The elaborately designed spots were produced by Snap Film in Prague, in the same studios where major action films such as "Mission Impossible", "xxx" and "Van Helsing" were shot. For the gymnast's precise somersault into his chair, for example, the action specialists used a stuntman on strings.
Each spot is accompanied by a reminder on television, which prompts viewers to order further information.
In an additional, deliberately conventional advertisement with such information, the new wonder box EPG is depicted as a zapping device. In the program guides Tele and TV Star, this motif is supplemented with a cleverly glued-in fanfold explaining in detail the difference between the EPG and a conventional zapping device.
The campaign is a concrete reaction to its competitor Bluewin, which wants to popularize "smarter television" with a similar offensive (see page 8). The battle for the audience is therefore in full swing, as Cablecom has also announced the introduction of a digital TV recorder for the second half of the current year as a further step towards "intelligent television". This device also enables simple recording and archiving of programs, which can then be watched time-shifted. Naturally, this new type of recorder is optimally complemented by the functionalities of the EPG.
At the end of last year, Cablecom already had 109,000 digital TV subscribers. At the end of 2003, the customer base still amounted to 87,000, so growth in interest also appears to be digitally programmed.
The box for success: Even superheroes and pregnant women know about the speed of the EPG.
McCann Erickson implemented a comprehensive campaign for the launch of the Electronic Program Guide with two TV commercials, four double-sided ads and below-the-line material to explain the product in detail. The campaign is based on a clearly defined consumer benefit and formulates this with the claim: "Always see immediately what you like to see most."
With the miracle EPG box, you can find what you want to watch in the huge selection of programs within seconds: Movies, shows, news, cartoons, action or documentaries. Instead of endlessly zapping through the diffuse program, you program your wishes and are immediately shown on the screen which channels offer the corresponding programs. This is how Cablecom Digital TV will allow you to watch "smarter TV" in the future.
Elaborately designed commercialsThe first commercial demonstrates this with an action heroine modeled on the super agent Lara Croft, who finds the action films she loves in seconds. The second spot shows a sportsman who, after a somersault into the TV chair, finds a favorite gymnastics show in a flash. Other film genres such as cartoons on the Disney Channel or animal programs are used in the advertisements. These were photographed by Julien Vonier.
The subjects each work with a witty connection between the events on television and the respective viewer. The informal level in the text is thus complemented by entertainment in the picture section, when the action figure Lara Croft watches action films or a pregnant woman is delighted by a stork in an animal program. For the Disney cartoon channel offered with Cablecom's Digital TV, the advertisement shows a cartoon character that has been copied into a real environment like in the film "Roger Rabbit" and is watching a Disney animated film on the screen. "If you want to sell the product, you have to work with the genre," says CD Peter Rettinghausen at McCann Erickson.
The elaborately designed spots were produced by Snap Film in Prague, in the same studios where major action films such as "Mission Impossible", "xxx" and "Van Helsing" were shot. For the gymnast's precise somersault into his chair, for example, the action specialists used a stuntman on strings.
Each spot is accompanied by a reminder on television, which prompts viewers to order further information.
In an additional, deliberately conventional advertisement with such information, the new wonder box EPG is depicted as a zapping device. In the program guides Tele and TV Star, this motif is supplemented with a cleverly glued-in fanfold explaining in detail the difference between the EPG and a conventional zapping device.
The campaign is a concrete reaction to its competitor Bluewin, which wants to popularize "smarter television" with a similar offensive (see page 8). The battle for the audience is therefore in full swing, as Cablecom has also announced the introduction of a digital TV recorder for the second half of the current year as a further step towards "intelligent television". This device also enables simple recording and archiving of programs, which can then be watched time-shifted. Naturally, this new type of recorder is optimally complemented by the functionalities of the EPG.
At the end of last year, Cablecom already had 109,000 digital TV subscribers. At the end of 2003, the customer base still amounted to 87,000, so growth in interest also appears to be digitally programmed.
The box for success: Even superheroes and pregnant women know about the speed of the EPG.
Andreas Panzeri
