Today’s ad of the week comes from Skype, whose new advertising campaign, It’s time for Skype, aims to prove the benefits of their free video-call services, compared to Facebook and Twitter.
Apparently Skype will save humanity…
According to AdWeek, Skype’s new £7.5million campaign plays on the much-debated idea that technology prevents us from interacting properly with each other.
Laugh out loud?
The series of ads are made by Pereira & O’Dell and make digs at the impersonal nature of Twitter, Facebook and text messaging, while emphasising the benefits of face-to-face (albeit of the virtual kind) interaction.
Skype want you to call your mum
The ads were launched yesterday at UK transport centres like Heathrow Airport and some underground stations, and will roll out in the US digitally in the coming months.
Skype helps you look & listen, but what about ‘feel’?
The Microsoft-owned company will even have an app on their Facebook page that allows fans to create their own ‘Humoticon’ – a picture of themselves expressing a human emotion – which they can share with their network.
Can you say it all in 140 characters?
Skype was acquired by Microsoft last year for a reported £5billion ($8.5bn), with the software giants pledging to bring the internet telephony company to 1 billion people worldwide.
Because it’s good to talk
Skype promises instant, albeit virtual, conversation
Skype has 170 million connected users and last year handled more than 207 billion minutes of voice and video conversations. But despite this, the company has struggled to make a profit in the last eight years since its launch in 2003, with the growth of social networks often seen as a contributing factor for this.
What do you think of the ads? Leave a comment and let me know, and, as ever, feel free to share this post.
