Following hot on the heels of Skype’s first ever TV ad, we’ve now worked with Skype to develop a series of idents that will top and tail Sky’s Traffic updates. The idents show the different things that can happen while you’re driving, and how rewarding it is to share these emotional moments on Skype. From taking your driving test
to getting a pregnant wife to the hospital,
it’s amazing what Skype users get up to in their cars.
Aimee and Liz wrote the idents, Petrina produced them, Betsan Morris Evans directed them through Bare Films. Check them out and tell us which is your favourite.
Nice work. Exactly what you need for this sort of thing — explaining by example.
The engagement one is my favourite, I think largely because of the moment of showing the ring, which adds another dimension to the video phone call.
Did you consider less momentous events? All the examples are momentous and rare. Can you make more common events as touching (without being cheesy)? A child showing something she’s made, a bit of conversation triggered by something you can see (”are those new earrings?” — what’s the story behind that)…
April 24th, 2009 at 4:43 pmThanks for your comments Lorenzo. Yes we did think about the smaller moments. But the job for this first outing on TV was to drive a mainstream audience to trial Skype. Research showed while Skype’s UK brand awareness is very high, the product features understanding is less strong. So the best way to get these people into Skype is through the more momentous moments which are often the trigger for usage. We think the next TV outing can use smaller moments as you suggest to maintain engagement.
May 5th, 2009 at 9:38 amLiked these ads, but I also thought they could be more powerful if more authentic and less staged. The people seem a little too good looking and the dialogue is what you think you would say, rather than what people actually say. Engagement I find the best because the performance is strongest. Also like the backchat echo of the mother. There’s definitely something in using the power of video to hold things up to the screen. Had this the other week where my brother in law moved the camera to get the babycam view of a mobile I’d sent his new born. Was really funny to see the baby POV playing with the present.
May 8th, 2009 at 4:08 pmI loved the driving test one.. takes me back to when I passed my test and pretty much tried to tell the whole world…of course… I already had Skype so it was easy enough.
Cheers
July 20th, 2009 at 11:45 amI really like these adverts, especially the driving test one, as it shows you can communicate with more than just one person at a time.
July 20th, 2009 at 11:53 amIn response to Mike Williams comment about everyone being ‘a little too good-looking’, I think everyone looks completely natural and not at all like they’ve just stepped out of a beauty salon. Plus, what is the problem with having good-looking people on the television in this country?!