What people PAID to say

[picture of KRUG Champagne Vintage 1973 label]
Comment: KRUG is still very much around and this vintage carries a price tag of around £750 today…

“ONE GREAT HABIT WELCOMES BACK ANOTHER
[The Abbey National Crossword Puzzle No. 1 - complete with clues and a note that a free copy of the solution was available at any one of their 517 branches]”

Comment: The Abbey National became the Abbey which now, of course, is part of Spanish company, Santander, which in 2009 boasted 1300 branches (including Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley)…

Another

“I arrived back at Heathrow to find ‘The Times’ unexpectedly waiting for me. I was less surprised to see the Volvo, though equally gratified, as my luggage had inevitably multiplied on my travels”
[This was followed by a picture and the words of this conversation discussing the merits of the car on the journey into London between the narrator and his chauffeur, Parker (…? ), whilst doing The Times crossword...

“It’s good to have ‘The Times’ crossword back” I said.
“Yes, I didn’t find it too difficult sir”. I could hear the smile in Parker’s voice”…]

Comment: This ad has to be one of my favourites for its wit and originality! The Volvo 264 GLE featured in it was an automatic 6-cylinder saloon car at £9995. The equivalent would be around £27,000 today.

And another:

One cartoon above another – Both feature a middle aged, middle class couple seated at the kind of breakfast table you’d only find in residences with well proportioned rooms and plenty of space (and maybe the odd servant or two… ).

Looking a bit closer: The top cartoon has tankard with Heineken written on it and foam coming out the top; the man is frowning; the paper he’s reading is DAILY SCANDAL
Bottom cartoon: The tankard is empty; the paper is now THE TIMES; the man is happy

Caption underneath: Heineken. Refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach.

Comment: Another beauty … The absolute power of the brand when you don’t even need to show it! I don’t know about you but I had forgotten that campaign went back that far!

One more

“You can’t beat the Times

[picture of Concorde's nose soaring from bottom left to top right of page; and the following words at the bottom right hand corner]

New York in 4 hours
Washington in 4 hours 10 mins.
Bahrain in 4 hours 10 mins.
Dallas in 8 hours.
Singapore in 9 hours 10 mins.
British Airways Concorde”

Comment: Since the last commercial Concorde flight on 24 October 2003, the British Airways fleet of seven Concordes have gone to their final resting places at museums around the world.

Just a few more …

[ Somber, stark, white on black]
“Our condolences to the Guardian and the Telegraph
and our congratulations to The Times.
The Canada Life Assurance Company”
Comment: Nothing else necessary …

This was quite neat
[Picture of elegant female hand removing the cork from a full bottle of Harveys Bristol Cream; glass next to the bottle; wording between the cork and the bottle:]
“CELEBRATE A RETURN TO CIVILISED TIMES”

And this a bit clever

“‘Have you ever wish you were better informed…?’
said the Man-in-the-Sun
[Picture of man with Sun head talking to man with Moon head with copy running alongside]
“Only for the last 292 days…” sighed the Man-in-the-Moon.
Congratulations to The Times and their long-awaited and most welcome comeback.

Get the best out of LIFE with SUN LIFE ASSURANCE”

Comment: To really appreciate this one it helps to know that ‘Have you ever wish you were better informed…?’ was a cornerstone to the marketing that reminded the nation of its loss whilst The Times was out of circulation

And this

“Happily we can once again offer you The Times with your breakfast at the Hilton.
Welcome back. Things haven’t been the same without you.
Hilton International London”

Comment: I’m guessing there was just the one back then. I just typed Hilton International London into Google and was given a choice of 22 hotels…

Actually there was NO COLOUR in newspapers back then so I’ve taken a bit of a liberty with the illustrations above to brighten this post…

And in Classified…

The Announcements columns on the back page were dominated by ‘Welcome back’ messages from recruitment agencies, property sales and letting agencies, holiday and travel companies, piano and percale sheet providers…

…along with a two-liner stating that:

“THE ASHBROOKE-PEMBLETON-FFRENCH’S are not amused.”

To put this in context

The newspaper hadn’t published for almost a year and had not been able to engage on a regular basis with many of the people who had been its readers, advertisers and employees – the whole offer to anybody and everybody was on hold.

It was an acid test of the ‘brand’. Any activity had to focus on keeping the brand alive for all the right reasons and connotations whilst not being able to deliver a da*n thing.

“Relationship Marketing” and “Relationship Management” weren’t terms that were bandied about in the late ’70s yet I believe they were essentially what we were talking about here.

The marketing department had done a superb job with their campaign and those of us still employed did as much in the way of PR as humanly possible. And it seemed to have paid off…

Just goes to show: Nothing’s really new, is it?