Purple Ronnie, the poetic cartoon character, will make his first
appearance in advertising early in July after teaming up with the
blackcurrant drink brand, Vimto.
The doyen of rude rhyme, who rose to fame on more than 20 million
greetings cards, mugs and books, will make his debut in a TV campaign
created by the Manchester agency, Cheetham Bell.
Breaking on 3 July, the campaign aims to revitalise the 90-year-old
Vimto brand, which is a childhood staple in the North of England, but
much less well-known in the South. It is also designed to pull together
the diverse potential market for Vimto, which includes children, their
mothers, and teenagers, who drink Vimto away from home in cans and
cartons.
Each ad, be it TV, press or poster, features a Purple Ronnie poem
tailored to suit a particular audience or publication. For example, one
newspaper ad reads: ’The Sun is my favourite paper/’cos a lot of the
stories are shockers/but I have to drink Vimto when I turn to page 3/to
cool down after seeing those knockers.’
Peter Walter, Vimto’s marketing manager, explained: ’We can use the
poems to talk about the benefits of the drink in a way that’s not
naff.’
Walter is making the coverage for the campaign as broad as possible,
booking space in prime-time programmes such as Baywatch and Brookside,
through Vimto’s media agency, Hackett Tinker Frost.
Press ads will appear in a variety of publications from newspapers to
teen magazines and the women’s press.
The campaign was art directed by Andy Cheetham and written by Nico
Hercules of Cheetham Bell, with Giles Andrae, the creator of Purple
Ronnie.
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