Fronted by two fictitious sports casters – Ken (played by Mark Neely) and the clueless Phil (played by Tim Baltz) – commentating courtside in a series of comic commercials, AT&T’s ‘Just OK Is Not OK’ campaign activates its NCAA partnership through the 2019 hoops tournament.
Baltz’s character, clueless color commentator Phil, who thinks his job as the color commentator is to actually comment on colors, also misunderstands when he’s asked for insight into his time as a player, claiming that those stories would not be appropriate because he’s now happily married, and reveals – in another commercial – that he thinks a guy who got a rebound is actually on the rebound.
Launched days ahead of the start of March Madness 2019, the NCAA presenting partner’s spots present a range of comic scenarios were it would be wrong for things to be ‘just OK’ – although the narrative examples they show are much worse than OK.
The long series of ads include one spot in which Phil misunderstands when he’s asked to give some insight about his time as a ‘player’,
another in which he confuses the meaning and intention around the word ‘rebound’,
plus an ad in which the word ‘freebird’ causes commentator confusion,
and another in which he thinks the role of a ‘color’ commentator is to comment on the ‘colors’.
The consistent message is that AT&T wants to remind us that commentating, like communication, is one of those occasions when ‘Just OK is not OK’.
The spots, which all carry the campaign’s ‘Just OK is Not OK’ tagline, they also include Bob Christianson’s CBS college basketball theme as a soundtrack.
As well as television, the campaign runs across the brand’s digital and social channels (including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube).
The campaign was developed in harness with the Omnicom Group via creative led by BBDO, digital by BBDO Worldwide and media handled by Hearts & Science.
The brand’s tournament activation is also supported by the usual bracket initiative as well as plenty of bracket fun,
.@ATT Wins http://t.co/yEZoSuvmGq’s March Madness Advertiser Bracket: http://t.co/VJmK5eC3Fj @HaldisGonsalves pic.twitter.com/IGbfU685zd
— iSpot.tv (@ispottv) April 9, 2015
And then there were 68. Who will emerge victorious? Choose your #MarchMadness favorites right here. #ForTheThrone pic.twitter.com/aB9SABQROF
— AT&T (@ATT) March 18, 2019
When the 13th seed beats the 4th seed and there goes your bracket… #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/aUZvkb5xEz
— AT&T (@ATT) March 22, 2019
as well as various game-related content linked to its presenting partner status.
Another look at Brandon Clarke's BIG PUTBACK! ?#MarchMadness | #Sweet16
Presented by @ATT pic.twitter.com/Ev1HF5XvZP
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 29, 2019
The campaign promotes AT&T multi option offering for fans to watch all 68 teams and 19 days of March Madness live, online and on device across four platforms: DIRECTV, U-verse TV, DIRECTV Now and on the DIRECTV App (as well as its 5G Evolution programme).
Comment:
Sure, some of the spots are fairly funny and entertaining enough, but if rule one of successful advertising relies on having a message that is simple to understand, then we aren’t entirely convinced that this initiative fulfils the basic requirement.
Some consumers clearly weren’t too impressed.
Dear @ATT,
I'm sick of Phil the color analyst on your #MarchMadness commercials. Enough already. pic.twitter.com/TCqMSHtDno
— Leftfielder™ (@DaleMoss2) March 29, 2019
@ATT These guys do not come close to the March Madness Dan Band campaign, which was #FUNNY. I know I don’t have to miss a thing, but I sure do flip through to another game when one of these bogus ads appearpic.twitter.com/MZfSE6Rfz5
— Mike Midler (@MikeMidlerHD16) March 23, 2019
Links:
AT&T
https://www.instagram.com/att/
https://www.youtube.com/user/ShareATT
NCAA March Madness
https://www.ncaa.com/march-madness
https://www.youtube.com/user/ncaa
https://www.facebook.com/ncaastudents
https://www.instagram.com/NCAAsports/
Omnicom Group Inc
BBDO
Hearts & Science
https://www.hearts-science.com
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