Supermarket giant Coles have already indicated their interest in affiliating with the world of music, as evidenced by their notorious marketing campaign in which British rock veterans Status Quo reworked their 70s hit ‘Down Down’ into a jingle for an ad campaign.
Love it or loathe it, the supermarket chain are smart when it comes to harnessing the power of music in association with its branding, and now, perhaps to make amends for the hours of enduring ‘Down Down’ while wandering their aisles, Coles have revealed a new promotion in which they’ll be giving away more than 10,000 tickets to Aussie concerts.
Actually scratch the ‘making amends’ bit, as the company is giving away tickets to shows from hugely successful boy band, One Direction, as News Ltd reports. It’s a shame about Coles’ choice of musical partner for their new promotion, but the overall concept and competition idea is still an interesting one.
Shoppers (well, parents of 1D fans that is) buy specially marked products – including brands like Coca-Cola, Cadbury, Oral B, Rexona, and more (mmm, detecting a theme?) from Coles between 5th June and 30th July enter the details on a competition website for their chance to win one of the 10,000 tickets up for grabs. It’s a shame about Coles’ choice of musical partner for their new promotion, but the overall concept and competition idea is still an interesting one.
There are 110 double-passes to existing One Direction shows in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney for the band’s totally sold out Australian Tour, as well as 2,500 four-person passes to a special Sydney matinée show, which takes place on 6th October.
The competition is obviously capitalising on the blinding success of the British tween band and their countless, underage Aussie fans, but the competition once again shows Coles dabbling in the world of music. And it may be the chance to win tickets to One Direction now, but in the future, perhaps it’ll be a more ‘mature’ act that will get the supermarket’s seal of approval.
As previously mentioned, it’s not the first time Coles has dabbled in the world of music, and their latest ticket giveaway indicates its far from the last; the company recently tapped Status Quo for another song rework, this time adapting their 1979 tune ‘Whatever You Want’ for a new marketing campaign.
Which, honestly, didn’t need much tweaking at all to get the glory of grocery shopping across, the opening verse already fits Coles perfectly: “Whatever you want/Whatever you like/Whatever you say/You pay your money/You take your choice.” Diabolical.
The Coles-ified version of ‘Down Down’ also landed an Adelaide radio station in hot water in January when South Australian broadcsater 5DN was found in breach of commercial radio advertising guidelines for airing the rehashed version of ‘Down Down’ because it was contexualised as music rather than advertising content.
Though several other radio stations in Adelaide were caught doing the same thing (what is up with Adelaide radio? Who is requesting this song?), 5DN were stung because the four minute long jingle, was played between The Bee Gees and Dionne Warick, without the necessary preface warning that it was an advertisement.
The radio station argued that listeners were intelligent enough to know the difference, but the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) requirements state that advertising material is prefaced as such before it plays. The station said that a disclaimer was supposed to play before the Status Quo advert but a technical issue kept that from happening.
Still interested in the Coles promotion? Then let the clean cut One Direction lads tell you all about it…
