There is so much written about ad campaigns that have a short life, often changed when a new marketing chief joins a business.
However little or nothing is ever written about ad campaigns that run and run.
One that must get the prize as the longest running single TV ad is Galaxy chocolate. I must have seen it 30/40/50 times over recent years. It’s the one with the Audrey Hepburn lookalike set in an Italian Riviera location and she steals the cap off a coach driver then gives it to a handsome hunk in a beautiful Mercedes. The song Moon River plays away in the background.
That must have cost a few quid.
Now the Mars group are not dummies, in fact they are probably one of the top manufacturers in the UK with marketing at the centre of their business. None of this sloppy approach to changing brand assets we see so often with many big brands.
They are milking (excuse the chocolate reference) their asset in particular on ITV3, the Daily Mail of television, so their cost of production must be tiny annually as their finance team would spread the original, expensive production, over several years – amortising the capital expenditure.
It would be interesting to hear of any other campaigns and/or individual ads that enjoy a long shelf life like Galaxy.
