Great new in-house work
New campaigns from M&S, BBC Creative and Specsavers are proving the creative quality of in-house teams
As well as creating a forum for sharing insight and ideas in our in-house community we like to use this newsletter to showcase some of the great work that in-house teams are doing.
In the UK over the past month, major campaigns from three of the UK’s leading in-house agencies have been leading the way.
M&S Foods made big news last March when it announced that it was moving the creation and production of all advertising assets, including TV ads, in-house, under a new team led by Robbie Black. Last week saw the release of Can I App It?, a new commercial from the team demonstrating the multiple uses of M&S’s app, all to a reworked version of Tribe Called Quest’s Can I Kick It?
Credits:
Executive Creative Director: Richard Robinson
TV Producer: Rachel Amess, Charlotte Kirk
Production Company: Outsider
Director: DOM&NIC
Producer: John Madsen
DOP: Stephen Keith-Roach
Edit: Ed Cheeseman @ Final Cut
Post Production: The Mill
Sound: ClearCut Sound Studios
Robbie Black will be joining us at our IHALC One-Day summit on March 30. Details and tickets here
BBC Creative has been on a roll of late (Winter Olympics trailer anyone?). More great new work has been promoting the return of two major drama series, Killing Eve and Peaky Blinders.
For Killing Eve, BBC Creative sent boxes of chocolate truffles to influencers and media personalities with a note, supposedly from the deadly Villanelle herself, saying “Sorry about the poisoned one baby”. One of the six truffles was laced with chilli, inviting the recipient to play a version of Russian roulette with their gift and share it on social media.
The stunt was covered on The Drum here while the BBC’s One Show crew had a go too
And to mark the return of Peaky Blinders, the agency persuaded Birmingham City FC to temporarily revert to its original name of Small Heath Alliance ‘by order’ of the gang. “For the game, the Birmingham City players will leave the tunnel to the sound of the series' theme song, Red Right Hand, and Peaky Blinders-themed hoardings will surround the pitch,” the BBC reported. “Fans will be able to get a Small Heath Alliance matchday programme, ticket office staff will wear flat caps, and the BBC has produced a number of Small Heath Alliance scarves that will be laid out on seats around the ground.”
The series was also trailed with a huge mural by street artist Akse (P19) on the side of a house in Digbeth, where much of the show is set
Finally, Specsavers has marked 20 years of its Should’ve campaign with an array of new work across TV, cinema, digital, social, OOH, radio and in-game executions (as reported by Campaign here)
The TV work centres around a housing estate. In a 30-second TV spot, supported by four 10-second shorts for YouTube, a delivery driver struggles to find the right flat to drop off his package, while stories around other residents highlight Specsavers’ audiology services.
The brand is also running sponsored idents on ITV and Channel 4 where continuity announcers get in a mix-up when they cannot read their scripts properly.
And special-build OOH ads featuring supposedly badly-installed posters have been getting lots of social shares (and coverage in The Drum here)
Creative Review has an interview with Specsavers’ deputy CD Richard James about the evolution of the campaign here
Specsavers’ Julia Arenson will also be joining us for our IHALC one-day summit, talking of which…
UPCOMING
It's the big one: Our next In-House Agency Leaders Club One-Day Summit is on March 30. A unique one-day, peer-to-peer knowledge-sharing and learning event for leaders of in-house agencies, from IHALC and WDC, in partnership with Adobe Workfront.
Maximising the In-House Advantage
You will leave with a deep understanding of:
* The competitive advantages of the in-house agency
* Evidence of how these advantages are used in practice at other IHAs
* The barriers to exploiting IHA advantages
* Communicating the value of your IHA to the business
* A plan of action to make the most of the in-house opportunity at your IHA
With Robbie Black, Head of Brand Communications at Marks and Spencer, Julia Arenson, Head of Creative Operations, Specsavers and Sean Thomas, Executive Creative Director at Jones Knowles Ritchie
Register for tickets here
For the next episode of IHALC’s In-House Life series, in partnership with Adobe Workfront, host Patrick Burgoyne will be talking to Sachini Imbuldeniya, Founder of Studio PI: The award-winning photography and illustration agency with a mission to promote equality and celebrate diversity across the creative industry. In addition to her work at Studio PI, Sachini is also the Creative Director for News UK’s award-winning creative content agency The Bridge Studio. We will be joined by Lucinda Parish of Adobe, a marketing operations expert who helped set up Santander's in-house agency and has since advised both external agencies such as Dentsu and IHAs (including at Camelot) on people, processes and technology.