LG goes global with fake TV series to sell TVs

THE march of global ad campaigns continues apace with news that the Korean electronics giant LG is less likely to develop Australian-only ads but take worldwide ones off the shelf and adapt them.
It is a strategy that began its global rollout in America and Europe at the end of last month and is a sign of things to come, say LG executives.
Carli Wilson, LG's category marketing manager, said it was the first global ad campaign for TVs. "We are becoming a more marketing-orientated company and you will see a shift to more of these global campaigns in the future. It's a change from the local [strategy]. The power of the internet has meant that our products have to be global."
Ms Wilson said because Australians were regularly visiting gsmarena.com, an American website, to compare Australian mobile phone models with those from other markets, the days of the local model were numbered.
"We have to have consistent naming practices and marketing. There is less confusion for the consumer," Ms Wilson said.
The push for more global campaigns follows a global realignment of LG's ad agencies earlier this year into the London marketing services company WPP. Locally, LG is serviced by the WPP-owned ad agency George Patterson Y&R and by Mindshare for media buying.
Ironically, the idea for Scarlet was developed by LG's previous ad agency TBWA in America, which lined up the Hollywood director David Nutter - the maker of Smallville - to develop the fake TV series and ads. Conversely, its local ad agencies might come up with ideas that could go global, much as LG's Australian agency, Singleton Ogilvy & Mather, did with the tagline "Life's Good", which was rolled out globally.
Warren Kim, LG's category manager, said he was confident that GPY&R would serve the company well in the future. Commenting on the adaptation of the TBWA idea, he said: "They have done a very good job so far."

-http://business.smh.com/ by Julian Lee


The first global campaign officially broke cover this week with the first phase of a marketing campaign promoting a TV series called Scarlet. The week-long tease campaign, which starred actors Gary Sweet and Home And Away's Sharni Vinson, was unveiled at a party on Tuesday as a promotion for LG's ultra-slim flat screen TV.

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