Barclays Street Party

Only just got round to blogging this. Last Friday Barlcays opened a new branch on Tottenham Court Road and decided to do it in some style.


They created a mini street festival, brought in street entertainers, marching bands and musicians. Lots of hoopla and branded goods being thrown out, bunting and majorettes. They even brought the Barclay's Premiership Trophy down where you could queue to have your photo taken with it.











It was pretty impressive and a lot of fun but it did strike me that it was a bit OTT for something as mundane as a branch opening and in these credit crunch times did feel a little bit ostentatious - on the other hand you could say at least they were bringing some happiness to people on the street.

Direct response banners can be fun

I thought this was a well targeted and well executed campaign to bring to life Barclays' sponsorship of the Premiership.


Too many clients believe that direct response banners don't need an idea, and that ideas and response are mutually exclusive. I even had a client once say that because we proposed an idea in a banner it was no longer a direct response ad, but instead brand response. Sorry, but if it has your logo in the ad, it is brand response. Their is no such thing as direct response without brand.



Here, Dare have skilfully employed a strong sponsorship property and offer with a clever promotional mechanic and nice bit of technology to boot in order to dynamically generate the code. Best of all its nice and simple.