Written by Colin Gillman | 11 February 2012

The international oil services group Aker Solutions has taken a long-term holding on the Aberdeen Airport Welcome site, in a 12-month campaign booked with JCDecaux Airport. Located on the roundabout at Aberdeen Airport’s main entrance and exit, this high-profile site reaches 3 million passengers a year.

The Welcome site is part of the Aker Solutions ‘My New Colleague’ campaign. It carries a different creative on each side, targeting the arriving and departing audiences.
Jacqueline McCormick, commercial director of JCDecaux Airport says: “Aberdeen is the hub of the UK oil industry and increasingly a key player across the energy sector overall so we are delighted that Aker Solutions has taken this key outdoor location. The audience profile of the Aberdeen Welcome site makes it one of the most sought-after poster sites in Scotland and is ideal for reaching energy sector professionals.”

As the oil capital of Europe, Aberdeen Airport delivers upmarket, affluent audiences.  With 47% of the audience travelling on business, Aberdeen Airport has the second highest JCDecaux Airport business profile of all JCDecaux Airports globally (after Frankfurt). Aberdeen Airport is also Europe’s largest commercial heliport.

www.jcdecaux.co.uk

Written by Colin Gillman | 11 February 2012

CBS Outdoor UK has announced the launch of a new bus advertising campaign in partnership with Gap. Called ‘Be Bright’, the campaign is designed to highlight the brand’s young, fresh and vibrant feel.

Planned by PHD and booked by Posterscope, the campaign consists of 150 gold T-sides, 10 of which will be illuminated as the buses drive along their routes. This format is a first for both Gap and bus advertising in general and will be rolled out across London for the next four weeks.

Jason Cotterrell, UK country director at CBS Outdoor UK says: “We’re excited about this campaign and it’s the first time the bus format has been used in this way. It’s a great example of the versatility and flexibility of the bus format and how it can be used to really communicate a brand message.”

www.cbsoutdoor.co.uk

Written by Colin Gillman | 09 February 2012

Back in the days when a father wanted to steer his child on a career path toward the printing industry he might, as did my father, present the child with greatest gift of all – a John Bull Printing Outfit.

The Victoria & Albert Museum describes the John Bull Printing Outfit as ‘a printing set popular with children in the early to mid 20th century. Its simple design made it easy to stamp short sentences by using the tweezers to insert the little rubber letters into the wooden blocks. The tiny rubber letters would be easily lost, however!’

These days digital printing has surpassed letterpress as a means of printing and even a simple child’s toy has seemingly gone the same way. Welcome to the 21st Century John Bull, here’s your very own HP Indigo digital press made of Lego.

This Lego set was from the now defunct Lego ‘Design by Me’ customisation service which Lego pulled the plug on due to quality control issues. A spokesperson for Lego said: “The Design by Me experience has struggled to live up to the quality standards for a LEGO service. The feedback from Design by Me users has taught us that we would need to rebuild the entire setup of Design by Me to fix this. This would only make the service too expensive.”

Shame, I wanted to design a wide format model for my kids to build this Christmas. Now they will have to put up with a John Bull letterpress outfit from eBay instead.

www.designbyme.lego.com

Written by Colin Gillman | 07 February 2012

McCain Foods UK (Ltd) is using a unique marketing technology, as part of a £1.4 million multi format campaign, to arouse consumers’ senses and demonstrate, quite literally, just how delicious its new McCain Ready Baked Jackets really are.

The company wanted to recreate the in-home experience of their new product direct to the consumers on the streets by bringing them to life througha special outdoor campaign which was booked with JCDecaux by PHD and Hyperspace at Posterscope.

3D jacket potatoes will be appearing at bus shelters across the UK, and are set to heat up the nation and set taste buds tingling during this cold snap. When consumers press a button on the poster, a hidden heating element gently warms the potato and releases the mouth-watering aroma of a slow oven-baked jacket potato throughout the bus shelter. The aroma was developed over three months in collaboration with a specialist scent lab to accurately match the warming scent of McCain Ready Baked Jackets.

In a media first, the bus shelters will also dispense money off coupons, redeemable across multiple and independent retailers, to make it easier for consumers to trial McCain’s latest product.

The Outdoor campaign will include ten fully-wrapped bus shelter specials, fitted with 2-feet high, fibre-glass potatoes, in addition to billboards, roadside six-sheets and point of sale six-sheets at Tesco, ASDA, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s. Digital Outdoor will also reach commuters with tailored messaging on screens in train stations. The campaign is set to be introduced in major cities across the UK, including London, York, Nottingham, Glasgow and Manchester.

www.jcdecaux.co.uk