Advertising 1999 - the good, bad and ugly

Mr Martin Larkin, managing director, the Larkin Partnership

The biggest advertising bang for me in 1999 was the Telecom flotation.

The communication impacted like a sledgehammer, almost exclusively due to the amount of money that was put behind it across all media types. The combination of advertising and press coverage was overload and, as the campaign developed, it appeared gross.

The pity about this high-impact campaign was that the advertising did not entertain and, unfortunately, like many advertisements, the ones produced by Telecom relied heavily on execution and emerged as yet another Cecil B De Mille production heavily disguising the idea.

There was no doubt about the result of the campaign. The market certainly understood Telecom was being privatised and that a wide offering of shares was available, but the advertising weight behind it was really belt and braces.

I suppose if you throw enough money at anything for long enough and often enough, it does get noticed but I think it is highly unlikely ever to be remembered.

A major fault of the year, however, in designated communication was to go back to Telecom's main shareholder - the Government - for its lack of imagination and ability to communicate the fact that there was a referendum earlier this year.

We were all aware that the McKenna judgment restricted the Government from presenting one point of view but, in this instance, I think it excelled by keeping the whole matter secret.

The vox pops that were conducted by the press and television correspondents indicated a high level of ignorance about the fact that a referendum was being carried out and those who might have had an idea were unaware of what the issues were and what they meant.

The over-sensitivity for accuracy, I believe, allowed the advertisements to be written by lawyers but they certainly failed to communicate. That could have been avoided by professional presentation.

The highlight of my communication year was given to me by Golden Pages, Volkswagen Polo, Nestle Kit-Kat and Persil Tablets. They all had one simple principle in common - a great idea, compellingly brought to life.