Building on the saccharine story of postman Keith and Piggy Sue, Vodafone has released a TV spot for Christmas featuring the pair of protagonists connecting with Keith’s family.
Keith uses video phone technology to contact his family members and ask what they got for Christmas while he cradles his beloved Piggy Sue appropriately sporting some red antlers on her head in line with the festive season.
Everything seems to be going well and all is jolly until Keith’s relative, Roger comes on screen bearing a roasted animal which looks suspiciously porcine. Naturally, Keith protects Piggy Sue’s sensitivities by covering her eyes at that moment.
We first met Keith and Piggy Sue when the bemused Postie came across a stray pig standing by its lonesome in the middle of the road. Keith then grabs his mobile phone and tries valiantly to reach people throughout the district to see if they are Piggy Sue’s estranged owner. Keith finally locates the owner of the Pig but as he drives up to see a “free range pork” sign he elects to spare poor Sue her fate.
The popularity of the original Piggy Sue spot featuring Keith in rural New Zealand also drew the ultimate form of flattery when Vodafone Ireland recast the spot replacing Keith with Donal.
The Irish have been suckers for the soppy story of the cute little lost Piggy Sue which tugged at the heart strings and, according to one Irish news source, elicited an emotional outpouring not seen in Ireland for a porcine hero since Babe stole Irish hearts.
The advertisement continues the ongoing theme of “better together,” which has garnered such a positive impact from both viewers and marketers alike with the telco winning Colmar Brunton’s Ad impact award for their newly connected granddad TV spot.
Harriet Dixon from Colmar said in announcing the award the ad had had great impact, with consumers finding it highly engaging and very enjoyable.
“As well as generating strong appeal for the Vodafone brand among consumers, it creates that all important emotional connection which aids brand equity and builds long-term sales. This has all worked together to create a very memorable ad for Vodafone.”
This marks a busy time for Vodafone, not only because of Christmas but also because the 50th edition of the Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards is set to be held on Thursday at Auckland’s Vector arena. This year the event will be hosted by celebrated director and all-round funnyman Taika Waititi, who is currently featuring in a few promotional clips airing on TV3.
- See TV3’s promotional video clips featuring Waititi here.
Vodafone revealed earlier it would try to bring that event to an audience much larger than those in immediate attendance through snapchat. As stoppress reported when the news was released back in October, this would follow in the footsteps of the enormously popular cult music festival, Coachella where 40 million people around the globe tuned in to watch the action via the video messaging app.
