Renault - Is that your crap?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy2gcxf-Cps

This was the original ad that introduced the world to Va Va Voom. Its a ridiculous concept but like all good ads, its a phrase that forced its way into the language and people still use it today even though Renault have a dropped the concept altogether. I did find it funny however when I spoke to French colleague of mine who said that they'd never seen the ad in France and had never heard of Va Va Voom. Its a great ad for that reason, it also manages to be funny and even features Thierry Henry (who is very difficult to hate).



Renault left Titi and moved onto the Ben vs Sophie/Britain vs France/Twice the Va Va Voom ads. They are slightly cheesey but I think they're funny, the keep in the spirit of the Clio and I think we can all agree that the French representative played by the gorgeous Annelise Hesme is a babe. It embodies everything that the car and the brand has come to represent in this country and it remains to this day and funny and memorable ad.


(excuse the endline, it is the only copy of the video I could find)

So why, Oh dear God why?! have Publicis ditched these funny and memorable ads for a product that I wouldn't be wrong in saying that the public quite like? Not only have they ditched these ads and the Va Va Voom campaign, they have replaced them with utter crap. They are so poor that people who have no real interest in advertising have brought it up in conversation!
The 2 campaigns "Is that your car?" and "Remember when you said you wouldn't buy a Renault?" are pretty awful offerings, especially with how competitive the small hatchback market is already. VW Golf, VW Polo, Vauxhall Corsa, Mini and even the Smart Car are all enjoying far more success with their advertising which is exactly what it should be - fun and memorable!

Rant over!

Tom

x

PS. I do actually drive a Renault Clio - from the era when they advertised VA VA VOOM, I hope mine is intact!

First day of school!

Firstly, a massive thank you to Pravda, and particularly Simon Sinclair for giving us the opportunity of this placement. It might be for a week, it might be more, all I know is, that Ciaran and I have to work our little beards off!
For years they've given us advice in lectures along the lines of "work your arse off, make yourself indespensible and when you're gone, make sure they miss you!
Tomorrow we get to put all that advice into practice. In all honesty I'm expecting some bottom of the barrel briefs, lots of tea making and lots of nervous introductions but lets have some fun eh?!
First day of school all over again.

Peace out

Tom

Well Hot Damn

Well what do you know, we have a week long placement with Pravda! Apparently we have "A Lot Of Work To Do"tm but Simon told Liz who told me that he would like to have us in for a week or two to really 'push us'.

It could be as soon as Monday, so I'm cacking myself a bit. Woop!

Ciaran x

Pravda - Our First Book Crit

So we have literally just stepped out of our first book critique, with the 'Head of Chaos' from Pravda. I'm jotting this down now in the fear I may forget how it all went. We presented seven briefs, with a total of nine campaigns throughout. I'm not going to lie, but I was nervous as hell.

We sat in silent for a good ten minutes or so while Simon Sinclair had a look through our book, stopping about half way through to talk about some of the stuff he had seen. My Intercontinental Title pages seemed to do the trick, but we'll pretend the spelling mistakes and running around didn't happen in the morning.

He seemed to laugh at the right places, and smile at the correct imagery so in my brain it went well. Not brilliantly, because he didn't high five us and immediately give us a job, but I don't think it went that badly, because he literally told us that one campaign was "really good", and liked strategy behind some of the other campaigns but told us the imagery needed a little push.

I'm feeling quite indifferent at the moment, probably because the book critique wasn't on their turf, but I imagine I'll find out later in the day if we were popular or not. I'll just end on a bit of advice he gave to us, but it may have to be paraphrased; "I'm not going to say 'it's how many cocks you suck' but... you know".

Ciaran x

TBWA - We Still Love You

So today, as promised by the lovely Paul Burns and Adam Richardson from TBWA Manchester, we had the chance to talk through the work that Say Wat?! pitched on Wednesday for the D&AD workshop. We were also set a couple of briefs, including one that's very VERY hush hush, and only we from MMU have access to it! I'd tell you what it is, but I rather like TBWA and don't really want to antagonise them.

As already stated, the best work on Wednesday would have gained a placement at TBDubz over the summer break, and Tom and me were raring to go. Unfortunately the brief wasn't exactly awe inspiring, what with it being about Carex hand wash, and including some strict industry style guidelines.

We presented two campaigns, and a host of online and ambient work and today we found out that our work was literally pipped at one of the last hurdles to the placement. The online media was favoured; (Our squirt characters became little lemmings, similar to the mega drive game, trying to find their way to a pair of wet hands), and the ambient squishy squirts seen all over the land were held in high regards from one of the original art directors on the brief, but it was our TV work that let us down. I sort of feel a little responsible because the things Paul mentioned in our critique, were the areas I was working on. However, we got some fantastic advice, of which I'm hoping Tom will add to;

• Keep it short
• Keep it concise
• Present the strategy - present the idea - close with the repeated strategy
• PRACTISE PRESENTING - Come prepared with notes, and don't do a Paul Daniels, Debbie Mcghee double act.

We'll be contacting TBDubz for a book crit over the Easter break, and hopefully we'll gain that elusive placement we're searching for, but until then it's back to the grind. Afterall;



Ciaran x

A Belated Welcome

Why hello there! I don't think we've had the pleasure. My name is Ciaran Watkins, and I'm the second, and much beardier half of the Say Wat?! Creatives team. To keep introductions short; I'm lazy. I should have been contributing to this blog from the start, but I left it to my much better looking and dare I say, talented team mate.

Now that's me off the hook, I shall end this introductory post for fear of confusion. I look forward to your comments, if anyone actually reads the thing. I think it may be time to purchase the elusive .co.uk domain name. I also need to work out a blog sign off as all the cool kids are doing it and I'm obviously very impressionable. TTYN, or XoXo; the choices are endless.

Ciaran x

TBWA we love you!

Sorry for posting one after the other, its the only chance i get!

TBWA was a massive success! Well, not a massive success because the best team on the night were told they would be offered a placement and we didnt win, so not totally successful! (Well done Parisa and Dan btw).

We felt it was a really tough brief, mainly because of the large number of restrictions the client had placed on it, but Ciaran and I were happy with what we presented. Our 2 campaigns were funny and got across what we wanted to say and I think we really impressed them with our online and ambient stuff. I think we impressed ourselves with some of our problem solving skills.

It was also great to get inside the offices because not only was everyone massively helpful and friendly, but it looks incredible in there.

On a slight tangent, it's frustrating that the D&AD workshops have been so stop/start because it's a really good group of guys and girls and there's some really good work being produced. For the record, we love the Birmingham kids from the workshop, a) because they're all really nice guys and produce some fantastic work, and b) because they're the only guys who ever want to drink with us after the visits.

Also a big thanks to TBWA Manchester for providing us with beers which made my post-St. Pat's hangover feel amazing!





Peace out

Tom

x