Kellogg's Vs Post

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago during the depression of America in the late 1920’s there were two main brands of packaged cereal, Post and Kellogg’s.

When the depression hit no one had any idea what would happen, as the concept of ready to eat packaged cereals was still a relatively new market and perhaps more of a luxury item when placed next to the more traditional cereals of the day such as oatmeal and cream of wheat.

Post went ahead and did what most companies tend to do when things get tough and predictably reigned their expenses and slashed their advertising budget.

Interestingly Kellogg’s looked ahead and doubled their advertising spend, they came up with the Snap Crackle and Pop campaign for Rice Krispies and aggressively marketed all their brands across the country, by 1933 Kellogg’s became the industry’s leader, a position they have maintained to this very day.

How to stand out

When everyone is advertising at full throttle it can be very difficult and expensive to stand out from the crowd. When everyone has reigned in their advertising, you can get a huge return on investment, and if done properly with a full service design agency it could be the safest bet you ever made.

So are you a Post or a Kellogg’s?

Are you ready to rush out, start advertising and marketing your way out of the recession, well if not, you should be. A study of advertising during the recession of 1981-1982 revealed those companies who  maintained or increased their advertising budgets grew precipitously over the next 3 years compared to those companies who had slashed budgets and enjoyed only marginal improvements. 

It is true that recessions usually make the strong stronger and the weak weaker. The weak will focus on surviving, and while money in the bank certainly helps in these leaner times, its the bold ones who can establish themselves as market leaders even leap-frogging their way to the top!

So which are you, or should I say which will you be?

We just love an opportunity to get our creative juices flowing, so when funk / soul group Dumhi approached us and asked us if we'd art direct the music video for the 'All Children Need' song and comeup with a brand and create them a sweet accessible website, we just couldn't wait to get started!

Dumhi had the idea for the All Children Need single which came about as way to raise funds for the Children in Need annual appeal.  Dumhi needed a forum to raise awareness of the single and their mission to raise money for this worthy cause and happily Alight were able to offer the solution's they needed!

It was an early start at our Nottingham studio where we held the green screen video shoot and with 20 children ruining around - excited parents and grandparents on hand to watch and keep the children entertained, it was all go. The band arrived with all their equipment - then it was lights, camera action!  It certainly called for pizza all round at the end of a long but rewarding day!!!

With our creative director on hand to oversee the shoot, postproduction Specialist James Curran plus the talents of James Knott for photography - it was a winning formula resulting in a poignant and intriguing video.

The finished product has been shown on many music channels including MTV and been selling on iTunes raising money for the BBC's Children in Need appeal.
To see for yourself visit www.allchildrenneed.com