The Carphone Warehouse - A Brief History of Communication

I've just seen the above ad on Channel 4. I have to admit I was quite taken aback by the fact that it is for The Carphone Warehouse.

If you look at The Carphone Warehouse's own history of communications, it's hardly ground-breaking stuff. They have done a lot with sponsorship of major television properties, from X Factor to Big Brother, although the latter ended with the Jade Goody/ Shilpa Shetty debacle.

The new ad, A Brief History of Communication, is a charming stop motion animation by Kristofer Strom, A Swedish artist who, as far as I can work out, also uses the name Ljubilden & Piloten for his music.

Strom also did this ad for the rather cool Pacemaker DJ System (see below - although this appears to have a voiceover by Stephen Hawking rather than Zoe Wannamaker), but it is Minilogue, which has had over 2.5million views on You Tube, which has been the driving inspiration behind The Carphone Warehouse hiring Strom.



It's interesting to note two tactics used by the Carphone Warehouse. One is posting the ad onto You Tube themselves yesterday so that people can find out more from one of the most obvious sources. This allows buzz to be generated, although it's likely that they are also moderating any negative comments. Lloyds TSB did something similar when they launched some of their 'For The Journey' ads. Drench, the water brand, saw viral success for their Brains advert, which sent Snap's Rhythm is a Dancer soaring in the charts
. Comments under the 'A Brief History of Communication video on You Tube are already asking about the music.

The second tactic is that employed by Weezer for their Pork and Beans video. It seems a simple concept and a bit of a no-brainer. How do you guarantee viral success? Piggy-back a successful viral. Weezer used a range of famous internet characters to create a video that has had over 11 million views.

The Carphone Warehouse using Kristofer Strom means a lot of Strom fans will view the ad and it will be discussed in the right sort of creative forums. Minilogue is an award-winning piece and could easily become the same for The Carphone Warehouse.

And I managed to get all the way through the piece without mentioning my major problem with The Carphone Warehouse, namely that they don't sell carphones and aren't warehouses.