Optimistic Marketing

I heard about this video in the car on Radio 4 yesterday. The audio clip made me laugh (which is a good thing in marketing), but I forgot to go on YouTube to find it due the demands of a very busy day. That it, until Andy Spinoza emailed it over just now.
It’s not as art-house as I expected it to be, and I think that because I knew what it was about before I actually saw it, the surprise was spoiled for me. Watch it before scrolling down for my thoughts on it.

Apparently, Blackpool wants to entice a higher number of French visitors to the UK to spend their Euros in Lancashire. They want the current level of tourists to divert from their usual haunts of London and Edinburgh to take in a day or two on the Golden Mile.
Now, I admit that I have happy memories of Blackpool as a kid. Crying on the rollercoaster, sitting in that knackered cast-iron Dalek, pissing the bed I shared with my Aunt Mandy (she was 11, I was 4), eating tooth-rotting candyfloss, going mad for the bumper cars, being amazed by the lights (we were so easy to please in the 70s).
But I’m having a bit of trouble with this advert. It’s knicking the old Boddingtons trick – remember the gondola with the beautiful woman that turns out to be on Manchester ship canal instead of in Venice when she sips some dodgy beer and says “by ‘eck, it’s gorgeous”. That had a phenomenal impact in the early nineties. Boddington’s was everywhere back then. Only problem was the product was crap, so unsustainable.
The other problem I’m having, as a food lover and a Francophile – why in God’s name would anyone from France want to come to Blackpool? Every time I’ve been there as an adult, I have been utterly appalled by the sheer awfulness of all the food on offer. Even when I stayed in the Imperial Hotel, it was shocking.
They try and turn this into a humerous positive by having cute French girl say ” ‘ot pot ” (“Papa” anyone?).
Why can’t they make a video showing what Blackpool’s really about? Still, 14,000 views on YouTube in a week ain’t bad and it’s got people talking. Bonnes vacances a Blackpool!

Mark

The founder of Attwood Digital, Mark is a digital marketing veteran having been working online since before the dotcom boom. He created the world's first online skip hire service in 2003, has created multiple online courses, lectured on digital marketing and even written a book on the subject. He is also an ICO advisor and crypto-enthusiast.