13 Comments

1. Marty from new yawk,
   October 10th, 2008 at 12:06 pm:
   

   Doug is great! I really enjoyed those tv ads. Very funny!

   
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2. Mike N.,
   October 10th, 2008 at 8:37 pm:
   

   Liked the first one, the last shot in the second one, the one with the tongue, was a little….well….eeewwwwww…..

   
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3. andy,
   October 10th, 2008 at 9:08 pm:
   

   Both ads are great! doug is brilliant.

   
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4. Alex in Swansea,
   October 11th, 2008 at 1:03 am:
   

   Dougs awesome! Love the ad with Geoff in!

   
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5. Vikki,
   October 11th, 2008 at 7:12 pm:
   

   I like the 3 I’ve seen so far .Saw the Doug shows you around the offices of Absolute Radio ad Friday on tv . I gotta say I adore Doug already,what a cracker he is ,I’d love to meet him LOL .Massive congrats on the ads. I honestly enjoyed.Hope to see lots more of Doug in the future :-).

   
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6. MARK O,
   October 12th, 2008 at 9:32 am:
   

   Very funny TV ads on Saturday 11th October with the midget outside the radio station.

   
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7. Gavin Kelly,
   October 13th, 2008 at 9:27 am:
   

   I am sorry, but I dont like the 2 ads I have seen (but well done for hitting me twice on TV, you must have some good scheduling - or you are targetting saddo parents that dont go out and watch crap TV). Real shame that in the next break I saw a Smooth ad that was more positive.

   What do I mean positive?. The ads seem to tell us what Doug doesnt like (and Absolute?). I get very little of what Absolute does like from the ad. Luckily I am a listener and like what I hear. I just dont see how ads that are so complex like this will encourage trial. And I am assuming they are to encourage trial.

   I dont identify with Doug and feel uncomfortable about him.

   Smooths ads were simple to the extreme and just simply show what music they are playing. I dont listen to Smooth, but was forced to think “oh that would be interesting to hear”, or at least ,oh thats different to what I think they play.

   As a listener I was dissapointed because I think you have a positive message about a station that is playing more music and giving you different stuff to hear all day. Neither the outdoor or the TV I have seen position that message. In fact I am not convinced they position any message very clearly. Give your creatives a clearer brief, or sack them and spend your cash on putting out the message clerly.

   It would be interesting to know what the intention of the campaign is.

   
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8. Glyn Britton,
   October 14th, 2008 at 2:09 pm:
   

   Hi Gavin,

   The approach that Smooth are using works well for their radio station, because they only play a limited number of songs from a similar genre. With Absolute we wanted to communicate the variety of tracks played, but research with listeners taught us that it isn’t credible to simply claim that; you have to demonstrate it. Sadly it costs a fortune to use tracks in advertising, so we couldn’t just play lots of music to demonstrate the variety.

   The intention for the Absolute campaign IS to show the music that they play – hence the use of tracks by the Killers, Kaiser Chiefs and Pulp in the ads that are showing at the moment. But in addition we have to quickly establish a new brand in people’s minds, hence the Doug character and use of humour.

   Sorry you don’t like the ads – it’s hard to please everybody and still stand out. We feel that they ARE positive – while Doug doesn’t like musicals / dodgy CDs / people who criticise Absolute, the ads always finish with him showing his appreciation for the music with his catchphrase “that’s good, that’s real good”.

   We hope that the use of that “real good” catchphrase, the use of those brilliant real music tracks, and the strapline ‘discover real music’, would combine to give people a pretty clear message that Absolute radio is all about real music. And hopefully give them a giggle too.

   One question: Why does Doug make you feel uncomfortable?

   Glyn (from Albion, the agency who worked with Absolute to make the adverts)

   
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9. Marty from new yawk,
   October 14th, 2008 at 3:52 pm:
   

   @Glyn- The ads that Albion came up with are wonderful. Doug is so versatile. I can’t wait to see the different ideas and situations you have in mind for him.

   
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10. Alistair MacPherson,
    October 15th, 2008 at 10:30 am:
    

    I do like the ads and yes they do stand out against other ads. However, I only managed to catch one ad having looked for it against your schedule. You need a sustained campaign over a several weeks for this new brand to be properly noticed otherwise your efforts will be in vain.

    
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11. Glyn Britton,
    October 15th, 2008 at 1:27 pm:
    

    Hi Alistair. Glad you like the ads. As you can see from this week’s media schedule (http://onegoldensquare.com/2008/10/absolute-radio-tv-ad-schedule-wc-13-october/) there will be plenty more opportunities for people to see them. In fact over the 6 week campaign, most people should see them around 10 times.

    Also look out for lots of extra stuff from Doug that will be distributed exclusively online. We’ve filmed loads and we’re going to be releasing it gradually.

    
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12. Glyn Britton,
    October 15th, 2008 at 5:54 pm:
    

    @Marty. Here’s Doug in a situation that you might enjoy - a personal message for you! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6z6DS_uf1w

    
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13. Marty from new yawk,
    October 16th, 2008 at 3:47 am:
    

    Thank you Glyn and thank you Doug. Very kind of you both.

    
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