Search results matching tag 'galaxy'

t galaxy unit with mags.JPG

917682 — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 09:59:00 GMT

Tesco places a Galaxy unit next to the magazines with the aim of capturing impulse purchase among readers.

Has the Dairy Milk Gorilla stopped beating?

1225254 — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 14:44:00 GMT

Campaign suggests that, despite TNS figures showing Galaxy significantly outstripping sales of Dairy Milk we should applaud the Gorilla ad because, if nothing else, it has performed a service to the advertising industry. I'm sure Cadbury's are delighted. Even Private Eye pointed out that while Dairy Milk was breathing new life into Phil Collins, Galaxy was targeting core female chocolate afficionados with a tie-in to the release of Sex and The City.

Far be it from me to suggest that an old fogey like Bill Bernbach has anything to teach the young guns at Fallon, but he did say "Technique for its own sake can be disastrous. Because, after a while, you're so anxious to do things differently and to do them better and funnier and more brilliantly than the next guy, that that becomes the goal of the ad, instead of selling the merchandise".

Although imaginative and lovingly crafted you do have to ask, did the Gorilla sell the product by appealing to people likely to buy it? Was there too much Gorilla and too little brand? In its viral format, did it lead them effortlessly to a campaign site packed full of choccy stuff? Did it capture any data? Or does this Gorilla have no clothes? What do you think?

Mad Men, the Gorilla and Galaxy

1319935 — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 10:17:00 GMT

One insight from the Mad Men TV Series was just how ‘competitive’ (read selfish and self-obsessed) the ad men were in 1960. Plus ca change? Chatting over a brisk lunch with an old buddy in Soho, we discussed the fall of Fallon’s Gorilla in face of recent research damning the campaign for failing to grow market share. My friend pointed out that there are probably agency people all over town going “ha – it didn’t work! Told you so. One off.” A more detailed look at the numbers showed that the Galaxy’s share has indeed grown by 12%, but size of share relative to Cadbury’s is 40%. Now there is a well travelled view that it’s far ‘easier’ to grow smaller share aggressively, but there does appear to be something behind the change in that Cadbury’s had changed the packaging and the promotion of the product, but haven’t done anything to the product. Galaxy (and Dove as the brand is know in Asia) had changed the packaging and promotion, but also the product. The chunks are smaller, rounder, more appealing to women, as is everything about the brand. Cadbury’s may well have tried to target ‘everyone’ which is always a tricky brief.

Why has Dairy Milk lost market share to Galaxy?

2308643 — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 09:30:29 GMT

Despite having one of the most talked about ad campaigns in years and an increased ad spend, Cadbury's Dairy Milk brand has lost market share in the take-home category to rival Galaxy - owned by Mars.

Market research company TNS suggested that Dairy Milk's 'Gorilla' ad only succeeded in reinforcing the brand's position, while Galaxy benefitted from a smart marketing strategy which focused on its target audience.

Was the Gorilla ad a dud? Or a PR triumph which failed to deliver sales? And is a creative comms planning strategy more effective at cutting through the clutter in 2008 than a big, blustering TV commerical? Does Cadbury need a new approach in its marketing strategy?

[Poll]

A Galaxy far, far away...

2182355 — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 11:23:00 GMT

In the dimly-lit bedrooms of sandy-haired indie kids all over Scotland, you can just about hear tearful snuffles above the mournful wail of Joy Division's Isolation.

And why shouldn't they weep? Indie station Xfm is to be no more, rebranded instead as part of the mainstream dance Galaxy network.

Whichever stations' playlist you prefer, and in truth there's good and God-awful on both, Xfm as a brand stood for far more than the blandness of Galaxy ever could.

It's true to say that Xfm has become far more commercial than it was in its ramshackle pirate beginnings, but when the music scenes it represents have been wholly co-opted by Bigco looking for a bit of scruffy hair cool, in comparison it held up well.

And what now for the London and Manchester stations? Are they, as Global currently suggests, big enough music cities to make safe an even slightly edgy station such as Xfm?

It would be a great shame for the decade-plus, dedicated work of certain Xfm staff to establish the station amongst the bland radio output of the UK, for it to be dumped in favour of a network sell more in tune with advertisers' requirements.

But we'll see. I suggest you listen while you can, because for all its flaws, Xfm would be greatly missed if it became no more.

Sucks to be a daytime jock (and a local sales team?)

1841938 — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:42:29 GMT

News today that Global Radio have decided to jump into Ofcom's new deregulated content rules by networking parts of its Heart and Galaxy network

Heart in London, East Mids and West Mids will share everything except Breakfast, Mid Morning, Drive and one four hour show on Saturday and Sunday. And over at Galaxy Yorks, North East, Birmingham and Manchester everything except Breakfast and Drive (and that one evening show on Saturday and Sunday) will be networked between them.

Now, what i'm not going to do is mourn the loss of localism in a woe is me, weren't the 80s better way. Times change. Also Heart and Galaxy are built around a specific music proposition and whilst there are local elements that isn't the focus. Indeed, Heart East Mids bestriding Leicester and Nottingham does not at the moment bring together two groups of people who care deeply about each other.

For national advertisers it makes things much simpler. I'm sure there are a few sales execs when they book S&P across a load of radio stations dread the random selection of ROTs that return. One jock saying one agreed thing across everywhere is much easier.

However, local radio, even on these regional stations rely to a certain degree on local revenue. Especially when those poor local fellows are often charged at least three times as much as their national brethren!

Whilst clever technology will switch the right mix of spots for the right FM transmitter, commercial radio has seen and S&P and on-air plugs for web microsites become a key sales proposition. Removing more local programmes will mean its harder to 'get away' these local promos and will no doubt result in a more cluttered breakfast and drive. Something that could be bad news for local advertisers and the local sales team who've got to deliver it.