The Inspiration for the Aucland TV Ad
In many ways the Aucland TV ad, shown below was great. It won a Silver Lion in Cannes and the uproar it created was amazing!
The inspiration had come to us from this series of TV ads that Outpost.com had run in the US:
They have similar dark humor and irreverence and are lots of fun. Arguably, the Aucland ad is better because at least it conveys what we did – auctions – while the Outpost.com ads revealed nothing about Outpost.com (they sell computer equipment online).
That said, the ad was ahead of its time. Few people in Europe at the time understood the Internet let alone auctions on the Internet. A simpler, educational and descriptive TV ad as our competitor iBazar ran would have been more effective.
Grande pub, je me souviens encore la première fois que je l’ai vue en TV. C’était la grande offensive des startup sur le petit écran. Scandale dans le monde de la com. à l’époque.
A bientôt.
PS: très bons articles en général.
Interesting. The outpost.com ads were funny, they’re self deprecating; which the Aucland ad isn’t. I found the Aucland ad tasteless. (I saw it for the first time today.) A bit more balance at the end would have been better, IMO (for instance, the old person gets to be saved because he/she pays more.) Plus, this ads gives me the impression that there are no rules in auctions, I’m always going to get screwed at the last minute, even when I received some confirmation that the deal is mine. Oh well…
You have a point. We actually worried about that when we made the ad, but decided it was just an ad and most people would find it funny and forgive the fact that the seller switched bidder even though the auction is closed…
> but decided it was just an ad and most people would find it funny and
> forgive the fact that the seller switched bidder even though the auction
> is closed…
Interesting — that certainly works with an audience that just wants
to be entertained, retain what the product does without being set any
expectation.
I guess it worked that way. And yes, those were other times…
Although the Aucland ad is great material for an ad eaters night or film festival, I think the Grey ad made for iBazar served a better marketing purpose, as far as getting a mass audience to use an online website.
I couldn’t find it on YouTube but it was basically featuring a grand-ma (Simone) who – thanks to just a few clicks – set up some kind of garage sale… If a grand-ma can sell and buy things via a (i.e. this) website, then anybody can…
Entertainment vs. Acquisition. Achieving the latter via the first one would indeed be the goal.
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