There is perhaps no greater force in the online world than cat videos. Wired recently delved into what it called the online cat-industrial complex, ad agency John St spoofed the feline fascination brilliantly with the world’s first cat advertising agency, and a recent cat video film festival in the US drew 10,000 people (it was won by Henri 2: paw de deux). Now Orcon is embracing the zeitgeist with a new campaign starring animated cats Daisy and Gav.
Developed by M&C Saatchi to launch Orcon’s unlimited data and national landline to landline calling plan, the two cats live next door to each other. And, in what could be seen as a feline version of TelstraClear’s TC and Bill characters—and in keeping with the recent penchant for animals in advertising—Daisy’s owner has Orcon, but Gav’s doesn’t, “so he’s amazed at the world of opportunity he’s missing out on”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUD0BE7oe90
“Daisy and Gav give us a simple platform to be able to communicate the benefits of being with Orcon,” says Jeremy O’Hanlon, marketing manager acquisition, Orcon. “Daisy is savvy and world-wise while Gav is a little naïve about the opportunities being with a company like Orcon can offer. While we’ve made sure the cats are accessible to everyday New Zealanders, having Ben [Hurley] and James [McOnie] as the talent behind the cats definitely means we can amp them up or down as we choose.”
The campaign, which also features the tagline ‘Orcon, Orsome’ (David Tua would be proud), was conceived by up-and-coming creative team Wicky Tafau and Frances Cooke and the animation was performed by Andrew Newland and the team at Toybox.
The first in the series of ads goes to air today and there is another planned to launch in two weeks.
Speaking of Orcon, we’re big fans of both craft beer and venn diagrams here at StopPress, so we enjoyed this little brand tie-up that celebrated the similarities between beer nerds and computer geeks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dHSxjWy8Vg
Epic Beer maestro Luke Nicholas enlisted the help of two Orcon engineers—Dan Capper, voice engineer and beer blogger, and Richard Patterson, network engineer and keen home brewer—and together the trio developed the Orcon Pale Ale.
Credits:
Taryn Hamilton – GM Retail, Orcon
Quentin Reade – Head of Brand & Comms, Orcon
Jeremy O’Hanlon – Marketing Manager Acquisition, Orcon
Dave King – Executive Creative Director
Tony Burt – Head of Strategy
James Johnston – Client Services Director
Wicky Tafau – Creative
Frances Cooke – Creative
Jo Simpson – Account Director
Lucy Orr – Account Executive
Nick Barnes – Agency Producer
Toybox – Animation
Andrew Newland – Animation Director
James Hudson – Executive Producer
Peter Ritchie – Head of Colour
Sale Street Studios – Sound Design