Adwatch (June 29): Moonpig.com delivers its message

Simple but effective, the ad taps into rich emotional territory in a modern way.

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I would have loved to have been around for the brainstorm on this company name. 'Right, what about cardsdesignedbyu.com? Uniquecards.com? Personalcards.com? Wait, what about Moonpig.com? Boom. Job done, mine's a pint.'

Before Moonpig, Father's Day cards consisted of a cartoon bloke stood on a golf course with the line 'Number one Dad'. These days, there is no need to settle for anything so mundane. Now, you can let your imagination and creativity run riot on a website and have the personalised, professional and glossy item arrive through the post. When you have a product idea like that, the best strategy is to just show it.

Moonpig's latest TV spot has a Father's Day focus, showing, among other things, vignettes of a dad's face being painted by the kids while he's fast asleep on the sofa.

They then take a picture, turn it into a card online and watch with glee to see his reaction when he opens it. It's not saccharine, but nor is it laugh-out-loud funny.

It is, however, a simple, light-hearted demonstration of a great product idea, and it has Moonpig topping Adwatch this week.

For years, Hallmark has tried to illustrate the joy a greeting card can bring, albeit in a schmaltzy way, which doesn't always sit well with us Brits. In more ways than one, this Moonpig ad is different. For a start, there's something special about getting a personalised card.

Someone has gone to the effort and put some thought in, rather than just popping into the BP garage at the last minute. The product and spot have tapped into this rich emotional territory in a modern way.

The ad demonstrates the end result - the actual joy of receiving the fruits of someone's toil and ideas - with humour relevant to this century.

Will Dad care that, technically, the kids have made him look a bit of an idiot? No. He loves it and is thrilled that the moment they have captured has enabled them to share a joke. It's obvious, but it's effective.

The voiceover is the equivalent of a product demo, explaining what is possible with Moonpig and how it works. It may seem to labour the point, but if you assume that not all Moonpig's target audience are computer-literate under 35s, maybe there is method in the madness. It makes the process easy to understand, and the accompanying visuals demonstrate the potential for fun.

This ad is never going to set the creative world alight, but as a vehicle for explaining a fairly new concept to the masses, especially those for whom Hallmark was the gold standard, it does the job.

Adwatch (June 29): Top 20 recall
Latest Jun-22 Brand Agency/TV Buyer Recall
rank       %
1 (–) Moonpig.com 

Wordley Production/

MNC

50
2 (–) Colgate Sensitive  Y&R Paris/MEC 48
3 (–) Asda 

Saatchi & Saatchi/

Carat

45
4 (–) Funkypigeon.com  DLKW Lowe/Carat 44
5 (2=) Sky 

Sky Creative/

MediaCom

40
6 (–)

Cadbury Dairy

Milk Chocos 

Fallon London/PHD 39
7= (–) Marks & Spencer 

RKCR Y&R/Walker

Media

38
7= (–) The Co-operative 

TBWA\Manchester/

PHD Rocket

38
9 (–) Laughing Cow  Y&R Paris/OMD UK 33
10 -14 ING Direct 

Beattie McGuinness

Bungay/PHD

30
11= (–) Quorn  Dare/Starcom 29
11= (–) EDF Energy 

Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO

/MPG Media Contacts

29
11= (5=) Morrisons  DLKW Lowe/MEC 29
11= (–) Pizza Hut 

Abbott Mead Vickers

BBDO/Starcom

29
15 (–)

Vanish Oxi

Action 

Euro RSCG London/

ZenithOptimedia

28
16= (9=) Tesco 

The Red Brick Road/

Initiative

27
16= (–) Aldi 

McCann Erickson

Manchester/UM Manchester

27
18= (–) Argos  CHI & Partners/Mindshare 25
18= (–) Currys/PC World  M&C Saatchi/Walker Media 25
20 (–) Matalan 

Bartle Bogle Hegarty/

Feather Brooksbank

24
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