Opinion
Planner's Choice: Best branded content of the month
05.07.2006Max Lucas, Account Director Each month we ask a leading strategic planner to choose their favourite S&P idea, taken from entries into our online S&P database. This month Max Lucas has chosen Revels.
"The particular chocolate confectionary delight that you pick when you munch through a bag of Revels is apparently about as predictable as Sven's team selection - i.e. not very. It is only apt therefore that in the month where Sven demonstrates to full effect his "the opposition-can't-predict-our-game-plan-if we-don't-have-one" ethos, Revels too cleverly uses a radio S&P feature to demonstrate the 'fun' of "Revels Roulette".
June's winner, it should be noted, is not a debut entry. The mechanic of "Revels Roulette" has ran earlier in the year, and indeed is central to the TV creative idea. But this is to the credit of the agencies/ clients involved in developing a distinctive communication theme which they have supported across different media platforms. Moreover the team have clearly learned from their previous efforts and made improvements both on a strategic level (growing from a weekend only feature to a weekday & weekend feature to broaden their reach in line with awareness objectives) and an executional one (basically a lot funnier).
The main objective cited for the campaign was promoting Revel's association with comedy. Tyeing up with Virgin's breakfast crew is a great place to start. The trails and live reads got the message across effectively without sounding at all contrived, which can often be a danger with comedy strands. Equally impressive was successfully making the product central to the actual game-play rather than shoe-horning in references or tenuous links to a brand strap-line.
So the editorial features reflected the strategy, but more importantly contributed to memorable and enjoyable radio. A sign of a good S&P idea is how long it can go on for without sounding tired and if the planners/ Virgin continue to develop executional variations then "Revels Roulette" could go on running for as long as, well England's run of losing penalties.
