"This Is What We Do"

I'm sure most of you have read the Media Guardian article on the new campaign launching this Saturday.

All from archive footage, with no expensive design bills- like the last such campaign (Perfect Day, 1997).

Three of the four adverts are available to view- these are Kabul, The Office and Wall, with Snow Leopard (based on the hunt for said creature in Planet Earth).

I think they're quite understated but very effective.

The official BBC Press Release gives more details.

Just a second purely presentational point- the decision was taken to use the now famous BBC blocks as turning screens at the end of these in house produced promos. I'm just wondering whether the same 'brief' or idea has been given to Red Bee for expansion into the new BBC One package, that we know is designed to work across the BBC Masterbrand.

Just a thought.

It is powerful; very nice use of the clips turning to show the BBC logo letters in their boxes.

Nice to see they've opted for a straight black background - simple and effective, always has been.

This has to be the best BBC Promos they have ever produced.

Of course the BBC have been running a 'This is what we do' advert every hour on the hour for nearly a year now...

The BBC News 24 countdown!

Although Perfect Day was a promotion for the BBC's music programming rather than the corporation as a whole. Incidently I still find it strange that anyone thought that a song about heroin would make a good promo for the BBC!

The trails look quite good, I certainly think that the basic, cheap nature of them is a very good idea especially after several high profile expensive flops. Its just a shame the 'things that they do' aren't that recent

But why did an external ad agency have to be involved?

And the choice of a man whose last job was in soft drinks for head of marketing - what can one say.

Yes, because everyone can only be good at one thing, can't they

Saying that, I'm not sure I *get* these. For a start, why does the BBC have to advertise itself in this way? Practically everyone in the country knows what the BBC does anyway. I really can't see any need for these adverts, especially as they're only going to be aired on the BBC. Pointless!

the bbc brand and what it stands for is the greatest asset the corporation have. the only reason the bbc survives is because it is deemed "special", standing for something the majority of the public believe commercial rivals do not. as long as people are shelling out 100 and something £ a year for the beeb its important to remind the very same punters what exactly makes the bbc special and what it is they are paying for.

its really not unusual - brand adverts as opposed to product specific adverts are widespread, look at the s c johnson and the channel 4 "my favourite swearword" etc promos for example.

Everyone knows what Coca Cola is, but they've still got a phenomenal marketing spend. Brand Awareness, the marketers will tell you, is everything. Plus it's probably a gentle reminder about the licence fee being value for money.

Well, if they will keep on selling things off, then they won't have much else left...

I do quite like the newsy ones - the implication seems to be 'we do extraordinary things, but, y'know, it's just the day job'. I'm less convinced by the David Brent one, though, possibly because I'm a bit fed up of the clip, and it seems a bit frivolous in comparison.

I think they're rather nicely made and quite effective. I am however, surprised that they wanted a reminder of the whole 'John Simpson liberating Kabul' incident in which he got hugely carried away with the sense of his own importance and provided a fair bit of embarrassment and mickey-taking for the BBC at the time.

Well the Snow Leopard advert which hasn't been released yet is from this year (Planet Earth). The Iraq War wasn't that long ago, and the other two are 2001/2 ish.

I agree that when the three clips are watched in succession The Office clip appears a bit out of place, but in practice I think we're more likely to see the "Newsy" clips in junctions around news-type programming on BBC One and Two (and obviously News 24), and more comedic type clips in junctions around light entertainment and comedy.

The potential for future trails from the BBC archive is simply massive- I'm sure this campaign will run very successfully well into the summer.