Why is EDF Energy’s current campaign fronted by a small orange turd?

No understand.

dunno – but it’s frikkin’ awesome and listens to Electric Dreams while riding a hoover.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkqRbkLdiqc&feature=player_detailpage#t=14s [/video]

Me neither, a few threads asking the same!

I though it was what happened when you left Morph too close to a gas fire.

No understand.

Judging by the frequency of the same question being asked you don’t need to understand what’s behind it, just that it works.

Either because it’s what the agency convinced EDF to take as the best idea, or there’s some research somewhere demonstrating that customers found EDF unfriendly and too corporate (or something similar) I would imagine.
It’s more friendly/accessible than nPower’s logo don’t you think?

Oh, and because it’s intrigued you enough to spend several seconds of your precious personal time posting it on this forum which a) means you’re more likely to think of EDF next time you’re thinking fuel bills and b) you’ve just given them several thousands of pounds worth of free advertising!

Small orange turd?

???

Why is EDF Energy’s current campaign fronted by a small orange turd?

To get you talking about EDF Energy’s current campaign fronted by a small orange turd.

dunno – but it’s frikkin’ awesome and listens to Electric Dreams while riding a hoover

This ^ – they have you talking about an ad for electricity without knowing why. Wish I knew why it was better being orange than blue but it is

a cardboard one came through the post – it looks like a cleavage. arse or tits. not sure.

i thought that thing was advertising baked beans

a cardboard one came through the post – it looks like a cleavage. arse or tits. not sure

please don’t pass it on, it’s yours, you can keep it

a cardboard one came through the post

I got one of those. It had my door number hand-written on it, for some reason. Are they actively avoiding spamming existing customers? I’d be tempted to switch to them for that sort of corporate behaviour.

Whatever the reason for using it, it works.

Angela’s had to have the phone physically wrestled out of her hand to stop her changing our gas supplier “in case you get one when you swop”

😐

(Actually, it is quite cute and vaguely amusing)

What’s so difficult to understand? Create a daft/likeable/novely character – sell more stuff. Like those meercats. Simples.

Where can I buy one?

OK. I get it that it is the job of the Small Orange Turd (SOT) to get the EDF brand into the public psyche. But would the presence of the SOT really make anyone switch suppliers without it first explaining in some detail the financial benefits? And if so, who in the right mind would accept fiscal advice from a SOT?

dunno – but it’s frikkin’ awesome and listens to Electric Dreams while riding a hoover.

Watched that last night, still humming the bloody song this morning.

hora junior loves that turd. His eyes light up when the ads come on

I had no idea what the small orange turd was advertising and don’t care.

Not clever at all – the usual too clever by half advertising. Stupid and annoying.

the only clever thing is the person who came up with the idea selling it to the company and persuading them its useful and worth(presumably) a load of money.

Its good for advertising small orange turds, its a waste of money for EDF

I thought it was supposed to represent a flame!
advertising doesn’t work on me, and I expect many other ignoramuses… yes, I remember the small orange poop , or the weird alien puppet family, or the meerkat, but do I know what they’re advertising? not a clue.

I had no idea what the small orange turd was advertising and don’t care.

Its good for advertising small orange turds, its a waste of money for EDF

From no idea to brand awareness in 30 seconds from the biggest marketing skeptic in the whole wide world.
It works.

Brakes – according to the marketing folk on here you and me do not exist.

Apparantly we are fooling ourselves and the universal symbolic language of advertising works on us without us realising

From no idea to brand awareness in 30 seconds from the biggest marketing skeptic in the whole wide world.
It works.

I think the modern parlance is Pwned.

I doubt whether it will be a waste of money for EDF – I suspect it’ll prove very successful. Maybe it is stupid and annoying to some folk (STW is hardly representative), but overall I bet it achieves what it set out to.

TandemJeremy – Member
I had no idea what the small orange turd was advertising and don’t care.

Not clever at all – the usual too clever by half advertising. Stupid and annoying.

the only clever thing is the person who came up with the idea selling it to the company and persuading them its useful and worth(presumably) a load of money.

Its good for advertising small orange turds, its a waste of money for EDF

Very very wrong, EDF is a big clever company that employs clever people. They don’t just buy advertising without metrics and ROI models. The British creative industry is also one of the best, you might not understand it but that doesn’t mean you should knock it.

For example

comparethemarket.com website is now ranked as the 4th most visited insurance website in the UK – up from 16th in January 2008; and overall sales have more than doubled year on year as a result of the TV ‘meerkat campaign’.

And all because a creative chap came up with an idea to use Meerkats

its a waste of money for EDF

evidently not as people are talking about the company on a bike forum lol

mrsconsequence loves the little dancing turd ‘cos its cute’ she doesnt care that she doesn’t know what its meant to be, its happy and cute so next time she thinks about an energy supplier she’ll probably think of EDF.

how is that unsuccessful?

~So what is it selling then? I still do not know 🙂

Told you so

TandemJeremy – Member

Brakes – according to the marketing folk on here you and me do not exist.

Apparantly we are fooling ourselves and the universal symbolic language of advertising works on us without us realising

It’s raising awareness not selling anything

~So what is it selling then? I still do not know

As someone who was offering to run for the Green Party, you should!
TJ, you go to shops and you buy things. Marketing on various levels affects you and help you in your buying decisions. To say you’re not affected is quite simply ridiculous.
You might consciously fight against advertising, but not marketing.

I quite like the ad’ and I’m guessing the idea of the campaign is less about providing information (cheaper/more reliable/etc.) but about altering the way that we think about EDF. It’s quite possible they have little in the way to offer on costs and “USPs”. British Gas and other energy providers have in the past generated goodwill and familiarity through the use of similar figures that provide a fuzzy warm feeling. Being a non-English and largely faceless company too, and facing competition from UK providers, you can see why they’ve chosen this approach. Given that the energy market is tight and competitive, any advantage that may have us clicking over one provider than another when all other things are equal is probably what they are looking for.

mrsconsequence loves the little dancing turd ‘cos its cute’ she doesnt care that she doesn’t know what its meant to be, its happy and cute so next time she thinks about an energy supplier she’ll probably think of EDF.

My sister-in-law bloody loves the thing, she’s got the cardboard spam up on her wall, along with a small plastic model of it. :/

TandemJeremy – Member
….according to the marketing folk on here you and me do not exist.

Oh for that to be true, well for one of you anyway 😆

It’s actually a Keepon, which was developed by some sciency people to help children with autism and learning difficulties become more sociable.

Shame that if it ever becomes successful it’ll always be known as the orange turd off the EDF advert.

hora – Member
hora junior loves that turd. His eyes light up when the ads come on

+1

My daughter now dances (in reality, sort of wobbles a bit) whenever the Hawaii 5 0 music comes on, she doesn’t even need to see the turd thing.

Personally, I love ‘electric dreams’ so more of the same please creative people.

Matt

Just bought some tangerines, wotsits and a butternut squash. The kids can have a go at making their own small orange turds.

It’s actually a Keepon, which was developed by some sciency people to help children with autism and learning difficulties become more sociable.

Shame that if it ever becomes successful it’ll always be known as the orange turd off the EDF advert.

Wow, didn’t know that! The STWiki strikes again, crowd-sourced knowledge, love it! 😀

I love people who live in the UK (a capitalist society) who say they’re not affected by marketing…

So you’ve never bought anything ever in your life then, or given money to a charity, or voted? Or made a choice about anything you’ve paid for ever? I presume everything you own has been made from scratch by you…?

This post tells you how powerful the campaign is… even HtS, a marketing cynic I gather, has spent precious personal time giving their new thing a name – what in the business is called ‘engaging’ with the brand…

So you’ve never bought anything ever in your life then, or given money to a charity, or voted? Or made a choice about anything you’ve paid for ever? I presume everything you own has been made from scratch by you…?

No – we buy things for what they are – not what they are marketed as. This is the subtle thing the advertising types fail to understand. There is a difference