Turn Key Blog. Things we've done and the things we love.

Christmas is finally upon us and as we reach the end of the countdown, it’s time to reflect on the adverts that have defined our Christmas 2012.

As October leads into November, there is always the same sense of anticipation; who will make us cry? Who will make us laugh? And who will make Mr Jones from Norwich ring the ASA to complain? This year certainly didn’t disappoint; from walking snowmen embarking on a quest for love to talking aliens, we’ve seen it all.

However, as everyone’s Twitter and Facebook statuses acknowledge, it just simply isn’t Christmas until we’ve seen the iconic Coca Cola advert, making it the favourite ad not just this year, but every year.

Another company which has felt a great deal of pressure to follow the success of its previous hit is John Lewis. In 2011 we followed a young boy and his countdown to Christmas day taking us back to our childhoods and putting a smile on even the sternest of faces. This year the snowman advert did not let us down, but perhaps this is more to do with the popularity of the song ‘The Power of Love’ rather than the initial sentiment of the commercial itself? Nevertheless, it’s certainly a heart warmer!

Two brands in particular that received a great deal of criticism and complaints for their adverts are Morrisons and Asda, who (arguably) portray Christmas day to be more of an ordeal that mothers must suffer and endure. Asda’s strapline ‘Christmas doesn’t happen by magic’ has been considered sexist and offensive. Although the message may offer up some truth, no one wants to be reminded of that by a Christmas advert!

In comparison, the Morrisons advert tackles a similar subject but with a sense of humour, finding the mum in a boxing ring with a Turkey. Although the undertone emulates the sense of stress and dread that the majority of us face at Christmas, the advert provides a great deal of entertainment and humour; particularly during the cold and dark winter months.

Perhaps the most arguably unique Christmas advert of 2012 is Waitrose’s ‘Giving more this Christmas’. The advert is supposed to dispel feelings of commercialism by providing a reminder of those less fortunate, choosing to donate the money to charity than a big budget production. It’s very simple, but is its charitable simplicity enough to stand up to the competition?

The one viral that particularly struck a chord in the Turn Key office is Warehouse’s ‘Morning After Edition #SOS’ which brings a whole new meaning to the 12 days of Christmas. The viral campaign is witty and relatable, promoting the brand’s sense of humour and getting us in the mood for the party season! We’re certainly very glad our Christmas party is on a Friday this year…

Designer Sean Simmonds loves… the More 4 rebrand

You’ve got to admire the detail and creativeness that’s gone into the More 4 rebrand by ManvsMachine.

When you watch the ‘making of’ for the idents, it’s fascinating to see the process they have gone through and the amount of time and effort it has taken.

In our opinion, it’s one of the best channel rebrands out there!

Check out the making of the video here

from on .

Senior Designer Phill Smith loves… this amazing animation

We love this. A perfect example of when designers are let loose!

The only brief was to end on the company logo. Brilliant brief.

The pink jelly/digital characters are well designed and bring humour to what is a very slick and contemporary ident. They capture the motion perfectly as each poor guy is piped around well rendered clear tubes.

See the full 40 second animation here

from on .

We may be going a couple of years back, but as its social media week we couldn’t resist a shout out to the Old Spice campaign, which may very well go down in history as one of the most popular digital marketing campaigns amongst this generation of man.

Old Spice wasn’t particularly well known for its interesting social media campaigns, until they burst onto the scene with an incredibly funny viral video featuring actor Isaiah Mustafa as ‘Old Spice man’.

This impressive and well-worked rebranding campaign helped give Old Spice a younger image, and we think its a sterling example of digital marketing at its finest.

Innocent helps drinkers label their love

To celebrate yesterday’s day of love Innocent Smoothie s, renowned for its witty and imaginative packaging, got its drinkers in the mood for Valentine’s Day by offering consumers the chance to create their own ‘love label’ to wrap around their favourite smoothie bottle. After creating a heart-warming message drinkers could either print out their personalised label, or share it on and – a nice little idea to get those creative juices flowing.

Heineken celebrates Valentine’s Day with ‘The Serenade’ Facebook app

Heineken is well known for its engaging and creative social media campaigns, so it was no surprise to see them jump on the day-of-love band wagon and help internet users share the love. Heineken created the Facebook app to let consumers send personalised songs to potential partners, inviting them on a Valentine’s Day date.

They’ve also spread the word on , where millions of people from across the globe will be able to participate and create their own songs via this viral platform. Check it out

Spread the love

This year, Marmite teamed up with renowned artist Pete Fowler to create a series of e-cards for users to send to their loved ones this Valentine’s Day. After ‘liking’ the Marmite fan page fans got the chance to send three bright and quirky messages of love, these included – “I need you in my life”, “spread the love” and “let’s get together”.

This clever campaign drove people to the Facebook page and encouraged Marmite lovers to share recipes, videos and much more to win fantastic prizes – now that’s some serious social love!

Our hats go off to Royal Dutch airline KLM, who executed a brilliant social media campaign targeting bored passengers waiting for their flight.

Passengers were encouraged to check-in via Twitter and Foursquare and were awarded with a personalised travel gifts from the tech savvy airline – nice!

Take a look at the Toyota iQ TV spots by ManvsMachine. We love the abstract approach, simple colour palette and style of animation. Definitely some of the best idents we’ve seen in a while and we can’t wait for the next series.

The TV spots can be seen here .

The TK studio played a couple of games of bowling for some good old-fashioned team building. Rich won the first game,  Sean fought back in the second and Rich secured victory in the third to take the King Pin title. Here is a collection of the best/most amusing shots.

Brilliantly put together film showing the ideas and the people and the processes behind creating the mag.

These guys are renowned for their music videos more than their tunes. I generally watch their stuff on mute.

Here’s their latest offering.

|