Robinsons - Be Natural

Robinsons has clinched the Thinkboxes award for May with a clever bird-themed ad backing the launch of its Be Natural fruit squash.

The 40-second execution tells the story of a busy mum, returning home to prepare to welcome her children home from school. She tidies up, prepares Be Natural for the kids, then grabs a few seconds to herself to flick on the TV and read a magazine.

The twist is that the ‘mum’ character is played by a real bird. She flies into her treetop birdhouse, the interior of which resembles a miniature human home complete with IKEA-style furniture.

The house was custom-built and the bird trained specially for the ad. The concept was designed to highlight the squash’s natural ingredients and explain that it must be kept chilled.

The ad also endorses the brand’s family message. ‘Britvic has a strong innovation and marketing programme, which ensures that family remains at the heart of the brand. This ad is just one part of that,’ says Geraldine Phillips, Robinsons senior brand manager.

The spot generated plenty of buzz online as consumers tried to identify the type of bird in it.

The ad took top spot ahead of Virgin Trains’ ‘Booty train’ ad, which offers a light-hearted take on sexual innuendo implicit in train travel, and Coca-Cola’s ‘Organ player’ spot, which features an eccentrically dressed musician-asmagician playing a customised keyboard in which the notes are produced by furry creatures that sing when given the right stimulus.

‘Britvic has a strong innovation and marketing programme, which ensures that family remains at the heart of the brand’

Geraldine Phillips
Senior brand manager,
Robinsons, Britvic

Ad info

• Client Geraldine Phillips, senior brand manager, Robinsons
• Brief To launch Robinsons Be Natural squash, emphasising its naturally sourced ingredients
• Ad agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty
• Creative team Dave Monk, Matt Waller
• Production company Rattling Stick
• Director Andy McLeod

Other ads on the podium

Virgin Trains - Booty Train

Virgin Trains now offers a greatly improved service following the completion of £9 billion of track upgrades - so this campaign represents an opportunity to promote the new service as well as to relaunch the Virgin Trains brand to current and potential passengers. It is built on the insight that people don't just use trains to get from A to B, they are going on personal journeys to do a whole host of things from sealing a business deal to escaping the city or falling in love. Set to a backing track of ABC's The Look Of Love, this execution features Becky travelling to Manchester to see her boyfriend. It offers a witty and light-hearted take on the sexual innuendo implicit in train travel - notably as we see the train entering a neon-lit tunnel of love. The campaign is summed up in the new endline: "Virgin Trains. Where do you want to be?"

Coca-Cola - The Organ Player

Coca-Cola is seeking to capture the essence of summer with this new campaign, which is part of a wider marketing initiative called "open happiness". This execution features an eccentrically dressed musician-as-magician playing a mighty Wurlitzer in which the notes are produced by furry creatures that sing when given the right stimulus - shots of Coca-Cola. It features a new electro-pop track - Yeah Yeah Yeah La La La - written exclusively for Coke by Calvin Harris, who was given the brief of producing "the sound of the summer". The track will also appear on Harris' next album. As the musician begins to play on a sunny hilltop, he draws a large crowd of kids who appear as if from nowhere and begin dancing in a surreal summery scene. The goal of the campaign, which will be supported by outdoor and digital media, is to create a positive feeling around the brand over the summer months.

Also shortlisted for May 2009

Irn-Bru - Musical

Irn-Bru's strategy this year has been to leverage its unique tone and give people an uplifting kick that would help make them smile through these tough times. And as always with Irn-Bru, the aim is to accomplish this in a way that is maverick, uplifting and inherently Scottish. In this instance, the brand and its agency created a funny Scottish subversion of that most cheesy of genres, the American teen musical, and does so in a way that proudly celebrates the realities of being Scottish over being saccharine and schmaltzy. Set in the fictional Auchendookit Senior High, it shows students performing their own Scottish musical number. Supporting activity includes outdoor and a major online presence on social networking sites. The TV ad follows the launch of an outdoor campaign in February for Diet Irn-Bru, which highlighted the sugar-free benefit of the brand.

Ladbrokescasino.com - Lemur

The brief on this campaign is to let the world know, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that Ladbrokescasino.com is the place to visit for thrills - and the agency has conveyed this with a film showing a surreal, almost nightmarish game of hide-and-seek. It opens with a man running in panic through what seems to be a deserted city - but it soon becomes apparent that it's deserted because everyone is hiding. In hampers, behind security grilles, covered in abandoned shopping trolleys, disguised as mannequins in shop window displays - they're hiding from a giant lemur, possessed of manic energy and able to leap tall buildings. The sort of lemur that always gets his man, especially one who's chosen to jump into a dumpster. As the game begins again with a new "it", the ad concludes with the strapline: "Don't hide from thrills, seek them out at Ladbrokescasino.com."