Food adverts overtake cars

THINGS are getting hot in fast-food kitchens around South Africa and it is showing in their advertising.

Eight of the top 20 best TV adverts of 2012 were for food companies, a sharp move away from previous years in which alcohol and cars got the nod from consumers.

All new adverts in South Africa are measured by the local wing of global research company Millward Brown, using their Adtrack Research Survey.

The 20 "best-liked ads" are established using the Adtrack "newcomer" measure, a survey carried out about two weeks after a new commercial is launched. About 1500 new brand adverts were tested last year.

The surveys evaluate TV adverts by establishing what it is that will drive people to spend their money. It is a moving goalpost because what people like and watch this year might not be as relevant next year.

Charles Foster, the regional MD of Millward Brown, said the increased appreciation of fast-food adverts was most likely a sign of economic circumstances. People tend to be more interested in and aware of adverts that are relevant and represent what they are likely to buy.

There is a close correlation between adverts that people find interesting and entertaining and how much they will spend .

There is no recipe for how to make an advert entertaining, but typical attention-grabbers are humour and celebrities, both of which appeared frequently in the 2012 top 20 list.

A combination of both was used in the Romans Pizza advert Barry Hilton with Schoolchildren, created by Blue Horizon, which came ninth. John Nikolokakis, CEO of Romans Pizza, said humour was a good fit for the brand. He said Hilton made sense because he was funny and familiar.

He said advertising spend for Romans Pizza had doubled over the past three to four years.

Francois de Villiers, executive creative director at Haas Advertising, which developed last year's best-liked advert, Spur Sign-writing, said competition was fierce in the restaurant and fast-food industry. Spur is a brand with deep South African roots and a broad audience base. "People with a taste for life" describes most South Africans.

The advert leverages the power of great food to wreck concentration. The sign-writer working next door to a Spur restaurant takes days, instead of hours, to finish his job and makes a typo on the shop name.

Brett Morris, chief creative officer at Draftfcb SA, was in charge of making the Wimpy Missing Lunch advert, which was second in the most-liked list of 2012. Wimpy is an iconic brand and Morris said his team felt a responsibility to retain its status. The advert has humour and strikes a chord, especially with office-bound people, about the sanctity of one's packed lunch.