Er… Bell?
Posted: August 6th, 2008 | Author: Christian | Filed under: Cool Ideas | 11 Comments »If you live in Toronto, you may have noticed a lot of signs in transit and billboards showcasing a mysterious combination of lettering – “er”. I’m pretty sure that this is the launch of the new advertising platform for Bell. Here’s my reasoning:
- Bell gave official notice that Frank & Gordon were fired. Clearing out some space for a new advertising campaign? I think so.
- Bell has a new agency in Zulu Alpha Kilo, headed by a guy who was the advertising genius behind TELUS for years. They’ve had 20 employees in their offices for a couple of months. They couldn’t have been drinking and doing drugs the whole time.
- Bell picked the Olympics to launch the beavers. Past actions are the best way to predict future decisions. They’re probably going to do the reveal on Friday August 8th, 2008 – the opening day of the Beijing Olympics.
- Bell is the only brand with a big enough budget in Canada to launch a massive media buy. Plus, they’ve done it before – remember those big blue boxes last Christmas?
- An anonymous ex-spokesbeaver told me so.
- Christian
Update:
Honestly, no less than 5 minutes after publishing this post, I got an email that shows the creative for the (now confirmed) new Bell ads. Not what I was expecting. Why? Because they’re boring. I’m sorry Bell, but stock photography and new fonts aren’t that exciting.
If this is true, it’s a LAME move by Bell.
It had so much potential!
As Bonnie put it, it’s “more boring than church”.
[...] “er” and speculates that it is part of a new campaign for Bell. And Christian over at Idea Drunk has the “possible” new creative for the er Bell campaign. Possibly related posts: [...]
Well that is VERY interesting … thanks for sharing the link.
This is about as disappointing as the “Obay” reveal.
do we know if ZAK is behind this?
definitely underwhelming. but that’s like most Bell stuff – remember their wrapping paper campaign? That was horribly executed.
The flip-side to remember is Bell has so many product features they need to communicate as a company. They need something simple. That’s why I thought the Beavers worked well but what the hell do i know.
@ Jane
No problem! I was lucky to come across the creative.
@ Chris
Yeah, the problem with teases and reveals is that you have to make sure that the reveal actually pays off, and was worth it.
@ Nish
So apparently, it’s a combined effort from ZAK, Leo, a french agency and Cossette. I have a feeling that Judy John and Zach are probably leading it. Also, I have a feeling that Zach wouldn’t have left to start his own agency to play 2nd fiddle.
this is shit, i thought it was going to be cool
but it just turned out to be bell mobility…
Lame.
still tERibble customER sERvice – let the parodies and satire begin
-ER yeah
I agree. The ads were a poor attempt to draw up anticipation for the rest of the campaign. They were more annoying than intriguing.
At the same time, I’m just happy that I don’t have to see those goddamn beavers ever again. :D
[...] have previously posted on the “Er…Bell” teaser campaign and reveal. There has been debate whether or not the creative is good. The truth is that it doesn’t matter [...]