TP’s Heart & Brain become the most beloved advertising mascots in Poland

TP SA – the name stands for Polish Telecommunications, a former monopolist in the telecom business in Poland, now owned by France Telecom – is certainly a company that had to struggle to change the negative image it had inherited from the past.  It has been perceived as expensive, bureaucratic, slow and delivering poor customer service.

Heart & Brain - TP's advertising characters since 2010

Not much had changed until a year ago TP launched a new campaign format which brought to life two distinctive advertising mascots – Heart and Brain – which personify the campaign’s core idea: Whether you listen to your brain or your heart, TP’s offer is always the best for you.

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Since their first TV spot, the new characters became extremely popular and evoked a lot of positive reactions which was quite a surprise for such a disliked brand as TP SA.  The main strength of this campaign is how the two characters are created, always in opposition to each other, but still having a strong emotional connection.  They don’t advocate TP’s offer in a direct way, they’d rather test it as any customer would.

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Heart is always emotional, brave, a bit naive and quick-tempered, whereas Brain prefers to think it over, sometimes he tends to be shy and over-intellectual, but he always shows a lot of patience and tolerance for Heart’s extravagant behaviour.

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The popularity of the campaign manifests itself in all areas – the mascots are a popular auction item at Allegro, a Polish auction and e-commerce portal; the TV ads score very high quantity of views on YouTube and a Facebook fanpage of Heart & Brain has just reached 520 000 fans thus becoming the 2nd most popular Polish fanpage on Facebook.

TP's Heart & Brain fanpage on Facebook - over 520 000 fans!

What are the other factors of this campaign’s success? For sure, continuity, regularity and good quality - TP delivers a new TV ad or an internet viral spot every couple of weeks.  Heart & Brain are not about one brilliant execution (although there surely were some outstanding ones), but about the repeated formula for success.

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Each new spot contains the same conflict of personalities between Heart and Brain, but it’s always set in a new environment or dressed up in a new surprising costume.  And it always has witty copywriting flavoured with a unique sense of humour!

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The business results of this campaign have been just acknowledged by the jury of Polish edition of Effie Awards which awarded Publicis Warsaw, the agency which created the campaign, with Grand Prix of 2011 edition of effectiveness contest.

TP's Heart & Brain - press adverts

Juliette Binoche tells Polish people why she likes Credit Agricole

Crédit Agricole, the largest retail banking group in France, decided to rebrand Lukas Bank, its Polish subsidiary to bear the groups name Credit Agricole Bank Polska S.A.  For the massive rebranding campaign that started just a few weeks ago Credit Agricole hired an Oscar-winning French actress Juliette Binoche who happens to have some Polish ancestry.

Credit Agricole has grown for 117 years - from now also in Poland. You'll like it as me, Juliette Binoche

Juliette Binoche was one of three French actresses that were considered for the campaign – the other two were Audrey Tautou and Sophie Marceau.  The creative team which developed the idea of the campaign must have been inspired by a highly popular French movie Amélie (also known as  Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain) which contains a funny montage sequence in which Amélie (played by Audrey Tautou) tells us the things she likes and dislikes.  In the first TV spot – that launched Credit Agricole brand in Poland – Juliette Binoche reveals that she likes: simple things, chocolate, the look on the winner’s face, honesty, fairness, to have friends all around the world and things that have history.  She dislikes: financial gibberish, dishonesty, small print, empty promises and small banks that tell fairy tales…

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At the end of the spot we learn why we should fall in love with Credit Agricole  just like Juliette Binoche did – it’s because Credit Agricole has 117 years of history, ranks as one of the biggest banks in the world with over 54 million customers in 70 countries and still likes things that are sensible, fair and simple.  Juliette Binoche closes the ad by speaking some poor Polish – she says: Try to like it [Credit Agricole] as I do.  Credit Agricole’s Polish tagline is: Simple and Sensible [prosto i z sensem].

Credit Agricole's newspaper ad with Juliette Binoche

The rebranding campaign employs all the major media: TV, outdoor, internet and press.  What is a bit strange is that it completely ignores predecessor’s brand (Lukas Bank) and simply launches the new brand as if it entered the market out of nowhere. Lukas Bank was one of the key players in consumer finance segment in Poland – it was particularly strong in installment plan sales at some major retailers.  This affected the brand’s image and made it difficult to turn Lukas Bank into a universal bank.

I assume this might be the reason why Credit Agricole is not introduced as the successor of Lukas Bank which it obviously is as it owned the bank since 2001.   The second TV ad that followed the one with Binoche is a typical product-oriented spot which promotes the “first account” for students.  Its hero – a student – in the similar manner tells us things he likes and dislikes…

The campaign was created by a new agency called NestPoint.  The ad with Juliette Binoche was directed by talented Polish female director Małgorzata Szumowska and photographed by Michał Englert.  Below you may watch the Making of the ad.

The threat of annihilation in Plus’ parody of Star Trek series

After the completion of a campaign inspired by the British sitcom Fawlty Towers, Plus – the second biggest mobile network in Poland – kicked off a new campaign which again reveals quite specific source of creative inspiration.  The new campaign of Plus’ pay-as-you-go offer is set at a spaceship which clearly recalls the Star Trek‘s Enterprise. British actors hired for the Fawlty Towers campaign are also cast in the new one and seem to enjoy the sci-fi convention.

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The new campaign communicates a special offer of internet called Internet Tamer, which users of Plus’ prepaid tarifs can have free-of-charge when they top their account. There’s a common belief among Polish consumers that using internet by mobile phone is very costly and this campaign and promotion intends to change this attitude by inviting consumers to test it for free.

Plus' billboard ad / copy: Try out the free-of-charge internet in your mobile

In the second TV spot the brave crew of the spaceship faces the command of self-destruction. The guys discuss how they dislike the self-destruction thing, especially that one of them has just activated the free-of-charge internet package with Plus.  The ad closes with the voice-over  urging us to try out the offer before it’s too late.

Advertising Agency:  303, Warsaw (Poland)

Director:  Michał Sabliński

Production:  Papaya Films