lost three minutes.com
Lastminute.com ran three consecutive 1 minute TV ads across three different TV channels at the weekend. They were billing it as an “amazing TV first”. Seems a bit more like a “media-buying first” to me, which makes it considerably less amazing.
Anyway, they found it sufficiently exciting to email their entire customer base about it. And this was probably the only way anyone would have known what the hell was going on.
I (yes, I was sat at home at 9.50pm on a Saturday night) remembered what was happening about 45 seconds into the first 60 seconds of random people giving me the thumbs up. Then a three-second countdown appeared on screen saying “more good stuff happens in 3-2-1…” (At this point I knew to change channel to catch the next ad and sure enough there it was - more randoms giving me the thumbs up.)
Firstly, I wouldn’t call 3 minutes of non-descript morons giving me the thumbs up “good stuff”. And secondly, if I hadn’t known what they were up to I’d assume someone was just really enthusiastic about the next advert - there was next-to-no branding and nothing telling me the ad continued on a different channel.
So, while it was technically quite impressive to see (purely on the stations’ behalf) I’m sure it sailed completely over most-people’s heads. Lastminute obviously didn’t get the stations to agree to verbally push people onto the next channel, which is a real shame because it won’t have worked for anyone who just stumbled across the ad. Apparently there is also some competition element to the campaign (something about counting thumbs) but I guess that just ticks off the digital box.
Ultimately it felt self-indulgent and very confusing for anyone outside the media/advertising industry. Still, apparently lastminute.com only did it because TV advertising space is so cheap to buy these days… they’ve clearly got money to burn.
