Cake (advertisement)
Encyclopedia
Cake is a television and cinema advertisement
launched in 2007 by Škoda Auto
to promote the new second-generation Fabia
supermini car
in the United Kingdom. The 60-second spot forms the centrepiece of an integrated advertising campaign
comprising appearances on television, in cinemas, in newspapers and magazines, online
, and through direct marketing
. The campaign and its component parts were handled by the London branch of advertising agency
Fallon Worldwide
. Cake was directed by British director Chris Palmer. Production was contracted to Gorgeous Enterprises
, with sound handled by Wave Studios. It premiered on British television on May 17, 2007.
The campaign was a critical, popular, and financial success. It has been credited for the significant improvements in awareness and public opinion of the brand, and received honours from a number of advertising festivals and awards ceremonies, including several from the British Television Advertising Awards, the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival
, and the Creative Circle Awards.
", performed by Julie Andrews
. This begins a montage of shots of white-uniformed cooks moving trolleys of ingredients and performing cake preparation work such as zest
ing orange
s and mechanically mixing cake batter
. Several large blocks of madeira cake
are taken from the oven, starting a time-lapse sequence of the brick-like cakes being arranged into a pile and being mortared with buttercream icing. After a shot of gloved hands kneading orange sugar paste
, a woman pours melted chocolate
into a pot of Rice Krispies
. The sugar paste is pressed between rollers, and the pot of Rice Krispies emptied into a mould. Layers of Battenberg cake are mortared together with raspberry jam
. The Rice Krispies are removed from the moulds and arranged as panels around the madeira structure, creating the rough outline of a car. Jelly mixture
is poured into a mould while another cook attaches Fox's Glacier Mints
to a fondant base to create a headlamp
. Long lines of liquorice are wrapped as belts around pieces of a madeira engine. A tin of golden syrup
is poured in place of lubricant. The engine is lowered into the front of the car while pastry chairs are lowered into the interior. The jelly mould is removed to reveal a brake light, and a tyre made of chocolate fondant
is wheeled in and various details such as liquorice windscreen wipers and a front grille
made of chocolate Flakes are added to the car. The bonnet
is lowered and icing sugar
is dusted onto the roof before a fondant Škoda logo is attached to the front. The closing shot is of the team lined up around their creation, which now appears to be a cake replica of a Škoda Fabia, with the tagline "The new Fabia. Full of lovely stuff." across the bottom.
Advertising agency Fallon began representing Škoda in 1999, and its first campaign was for the first generation of the Fabia supermini, the successor to the Felicia
, in early 2000. While the previous advertising agency, Grey London
, had succeeded in improving the company's image, Škoda cars were still the butt of many a joke, and were seen as "naff" by British consumers. Fallon took a lighter, self-denigrating approach - the strapline of the first series of ads (Vandal, Factory Tour
) played off the disbelief of the public that a Škoda car could be of high quality, using the strapline "It's a Skoda, honest." The campaign was a tremendous success, dramatically reversing public opinion of the brand. Sales of Škoda vehicles increased by record amounts during the period in which the campaign aired.
Upon the launch of the second generation of the Fabia, Fallon chose to shift the focus away from improving the Škoda brand as a whole and towards pushing individual aspects of the cars. The strapline for the Fabia, with its numerous "smaller, helpful features", such as hooks for carrier bags in the boot
to keep shopping upright, was to be "full of lovely stuff". The idea for a commercial based around building a car out of cake came from a conversation between creative director
s John Allison and Chris Bovill. Approval was given for a campaign on a cake theme targeting couples aged 35-plus, with a budget estimated at around £500,000.
and the acclaimed Old Lions
for Carlsberg in 2006. Palmer's plan was to shoot the production of an actual life-sized Fabia cake with little or no computer-generated imagery
. With the air-date for the finished piece set only four weeks from the start of the project, of which Easter
celebrations would occupy a large portion, there was no time for any research. All decisions were to be made on the fly, during the production itself.
The on-screen crew consisted of six home economists
led by Sarah Tildersley, three sugar chefs, a machine operator, two prop
experts, and four special effects modelmakers from Pennicott Payne Ltd, with a large production team off-camera. Filming was done in Shepperton Studios over four days, with baking machinery rented from baking equipment company Brook Foods, though preliminary work such as casting moulds for the Rice Krispie panels was done a week beforehand. Production finished exactly on time, with the final touch—the Škoda badge—fitted at 2:30am on the last day of the schedule. The crew planned to donate the remains of the cake to local charities and hospitals, but after four days under hot studio lights, it was no longer thought fit for human consumption, and was donated for composting to the East London Community Recycling Project in Clapham
. However, a few pieces, such as the chocolate speedometer
and marzipan
wing mirror
s were kept for posterity.
and direct marketing
, were handled by advertising agency Archibald Ingall Stretton, who had worked with Škoda for eight years prior to Cake. The online elements of the campaign included a dedicated microsite
, which was linked to through baking-themed banner ads placed on the sites such as The Times Online, AOL
, and Top Gear. For the direct marketing portion of the campaign, Archibald Ingall Stretton sent out car-shaped a double-chocolate, toffee-fudge cream scented air freshener
s in the mail to potential and former clients.
Cake premiered on Thursday 17 May 2007. The dedicated microsite went online at 6pm, while the 60-second commercial first aired on ITV
, Channel 4
, Five, and on several multichannel television
networks between 9 and 10pm. In addition, a 30-second edit of Cake began airing from Monday 21 May 2009. The commercial spaces purchased for Cake were chosen specifically to reach a mainstream audience, with selections including Big Brother
, Britain's Got Talent
, Coronation Street
, CSI: Miami
, Deal or No Deal
, GMTV
, Grand Designs
, Grease Is the Word
, Market Kitchen
, This Morning
, and Trinny & Susannah Undress...
, as well as television screenings of films such as The Talented Mr. Ripley
and Layer Cake
. The value of the spaces purchased for Cake from its debut until 30 June was greater than for any other automotive commercial.
The campaign was an immediate popular and critical success. Within two weeks, 37,000 people had visited the Skoda Fabia's microsite and a further 260,000 had viewed the clip clip on video sharing
website YouTube
. By June 10, views on YouTube climbed to over 700,000, nine groups had been set up on social networking site Facebook
with a combined total of over 2,000 members, and a search for "Skoda cake car" on search engine
Google
returned over 150,000 results. Market research
conducted by YouGov
showed substantial improvement in the public's perception of the Škoda brand in the UK.
It was lauded by the press, appearing in features in tabloids such as The Daily Mail, and The Sun
, and even as a front-page story in a Czech
newspaper. Reviewers compared the piece favourably with earlier iconic Honda
campaigns such as Cog and Grrr. Paul Silburn, creative partner of Saatchi & Saatchi
, said of Cake: "It's fresh, innovative and engaging [...] It moved car advertising forward. To get such brand recognition without actually seeing the car was brilliant." Cake went on to win a slew of awards, including Golds at the British Television Advertising Awards and the Creative Circle Awards, and a Gold Lion at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival
, one of the most prestigious awards of the marketing industry. According to the Gunn Report
, Cake was the third-most-awarded television advertising campaign of 2008, behind Gorilla for Cadbury and The Power of Wind for Epuron.
Television advertisement
A television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, or ad-film – is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product...
launched in 2007 by Škoda Auto
Škoda Auto
Škoda Auto , more commonly known as Škoda, is an automobile manufacturer based in the Czech Republic. Škoda became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group in 2000, positioned as the entry brand to the group...
to promote the new second-generation Fabia
Škoda Fabia
The Škoda Fabia is a supermini produced by Czech manufacturer Škoda Auto since 1999. It was the successor to the Škoda Felicia, which was discontinued in 2001...
supermini car
Supermini car
A supermini is a British term that describes automobiles larger than a city car but smaller than a small family car. This car class is also known as the B-segment across Europe, and as subcompact in North America....
in the United Kingdom. The 60-second spot forms the centrepiece of an integrated advertising campaign
Advertising campaign
An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication...
comprising appearances on television, in cinemas, in newspapers and magazines, online
Online advertising
Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide Web to deliver marketing messages to attract customers. Examples of online advertising include contextual ads on search engine results pages, banner ads, blogs, Rich Media Ads, Social network advertising, interstitial...
, and through direct marketing
Direct marketing
Direct marketing is a channel-agnostic form of advertising that allows businesses and nonprofits to communicate straight to the customer, with advertising techniques such as mobile messaging, email, interactive consumer websites, online display ads, fliers, catalog distribution, promotional...
. The campaign and its component parts were handled by the London branch of advertising agency
Advertising agency
An advertising agency or ad agency is a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients. An ad agency is independent from the client and provides an outside point of view to the effort of selling the client's products or services...
Fallon Worldwide
Fallon Worldwide
Fallon Worldwide is an international advertising agency headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota with affiliate offices in London, Singapore, Hong Kong, São Paulo and Tokyo. It is a subsidiary of Publicis.-History:...
. Cake was directed by British director Chris Palmer. Production was contracted to Gorgeous Enterprises
Gorgeous Enterprises
Gorgeous Enterprises is a London-based film production company co-founded by Chris Palmer, Frank Budgen, and Paul Rothwell. The company works largely in the production of television advertisements, feature films, and music videos. It was formed by Chris Palmer in 1996, but legally became a new...
, with sound handled by Wave Studios. It premiered on British television on May 17, 2007.
The campaign was a critical, popular, and financial success. It has been credited for the significant improvements in awareness and public opinion of the brand, and received honours from a number of advertising festivals and awards ceremonies, including several from the British Television Advertising Awards, the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival
Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival
The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is a global event for those working in advertising and related fields. The seven-day festival, incorporating the awarding of the Lions awards, is held yearly at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, France...
, and the Creative Circle Awards.
Sequence
Cake opens on a baker cracking eggs into a mixing bowl to the opening strains of "My Favorite ThingsMy Favorite Things (song)
"My Favorite Things" is a show tune from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music.-The Sound of Music version:The song was first introduced by Mary Martin in the original Broadway production, and sung by Julie Andrews in the 1965 film.In the musical, the lyrics to the song are a...
", performed by Julie Andrews
Julie Andrews
Dame Julia Elizabeth Andrews, DBE is an English film and stage actress, singer, and author. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award honors...
. This begins a montage of shots of white-uniformed cooks moving trolleys of ingredients and performing cake preparation work such as zest
Zest (ingredient)
Zest is a food ingredient that is prepared by scraping or cutting from the outer, colorful skin of citrus fruits such as lemon, orange, citron, and lime. Zest is used to add flavor to foods....
ing orange
Orange (fruit)
An orange—specifically, the sweet orange—is the citrus Citrus × sinensis and its fruit. It is the most commonly grown tree fruit in the world....
s and mechanically mixing cake batter
Batter (cooking)
Batter is a semi-liquid mixture of one or more flours combined with liquids such as water, milk or eggs used to prepare various foods. Often a leavening agent such as baking powder is included to aerate and fluff up the batter as it cooks, or the mixture may be naturally fermented for this purpose...
. Several large blocks of madeira cake
Madeira cake
Madeira cake is a sponge cake in traditional English cookery.The Madeira Cake has a firm yet light texture, eaten with tea or rarely for breakfast and is traditionally flavoured with lemon. Dating back to an original recipe in the 18th century or 19th century, it is not unlike a simple pound cake...
are taken from the oven, starting a time-lapse sequence of the brick-like cakes being arranged into a pile and being mortared with buttercream icing. After a shot of gloved hands kneading orange sugar paste
Sugar paste
Sugar Paste icing is a very sweet edible sugar dough usually made from sugar and glucose. It is sometimes referred to as fondant or sugar gum or gum paste. It can be used to cover cakes, mould features and create decorations for cakes and many other uses....
, a woman pours melted chocolate
Chocolate
Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
into a pot of Rice Krispies
Rice Krispies
Rice Krispies is a breakfast cereal that was created by Clayton Rindlisbacher for the Kellogg company, and later marketed by Kellogg's in 1927 and released to the public in 1928...
. The sugar paste is pressed between rollers, and the pot of Rice Krispies emptied into a mould. Layers of Battenberg cake are mortared together with raspberry jam
Fruit preserves
Fruit preserves are preparations of fruits and sugar, often canned or sealed for long-term storage. The preparation of fruit preserves today often involves adding commercial or natural pectin as a gelling agent, although sugar or honey may be used, as well. Prior to World War II, fruit preserve...
. The Rice Krispies are removed from the moulds and arranged as panels around the madeira structure, creating the rough outline of a car. Jelly mixture
Gelatin dessert
Gelatin desserts are desserts made with sweetened and flavored gelatin. They can be made by combining plain gelatin with other ingredients or by using a premixed blend of gelatin with additives...
is poured into a mould while another cook attaches Fox's Glacier Mints
Fox's Glacier Mints
Fox's Glacier Mints are the leading, branded boiled mint in the UK. They have been manufactured by Fox's Confectionery in Leicester since 1918. The mints were developed by Eric Fox, one of the original founders of Fox's Confectionery. Since 1922 the mints have been sold with the Peppy the polar...
to a fondant base to create a headlamp
Headlamp
A headlamp is a lamp, usually attached to the front of a vehicle such as a car or a motorcycle, with the purpose of illuminating the road ahead during periods of low visibility, such as darkness or precipitation. Headlamp performance has steadily improved throughout the automobile age, spurred by...
. Long lines of liquorice are wrapped as belts around pieces of a madeira engine. A tin of golden syrup
Golden syrup
Golden syrup is a pale treacle. It is a thick, amber-colored form of inverted sugar syrup, made in the process of refining sugar cane juice into sugar, or by treatment of a sugar solution with acid. It is used in a variety of baking recipes and desserts. It has an appearance similar to honey, and...
is poured in place of lubricant. The engine is lowered into the front of the car while pastry chairs are lowered into the interior. The jelly mould is removed to reveal a brake light, and a tyre made of chocolate fondant
Fondant
Fondant is one of several kinds of icing-like substance used to decorate or sculpt pastries. The word, in French, means "melting", coming from the same root as "foundry" in English....
is wheeled in and various details such as liquorice windscreen wipers and a front grille
Grille
A grille or grill is an opening of several slits side by side in a wall or metal sheet or other barrier, usually to let air or water enter and/or leave but keep larger objects including people and animals in or out.-Spelling:In the United States, "grille" is used to differentiate the automotive...
made of chocolate Flakes are added to the car. The bonnet
Hood (vehicle)
The hood or bonnet is the hinged cover over the engine of motor vehicles that allows access to the engine compartment for maintenance and repair. In British terminology, hood refers to a fabric cover over the passenger compartment of the car...
is lowered and icing sugar
Powdered sugar
Powdered sugar, also known as confectioners' sugar or icing sugar, is very fine sugar. When intended for home use, it typically contains a small amount of anti-caking agent....
is dusted onto the roof before a fondant Škoda logo is attached to the front. The closing shot is of the team lined up around their creation, which now appears to be a cake replica of a Škoda Fabia, with the tagline "The new Fabia. Full of lovely stuff." across the bottom.
Background
| Ingredients |
|---|
| 10 kg white chocolate White chocolate White chocolate is a confectionery derivative of chocolate. It commonly consists of cocoa butter, sugar, milk solids and salt, and is characterized by a pale yellow or ivory appearance... chunks |
| 3 kg orange Orange (fruit) An orange—specifically, the sweet orange—is the citrus Citrus × sinensis and its fruit. It is the most commonly grown tree fruit in the world.... peel Peel (fruit) Peel, also known as rind or skin, is the outer protective layer of a fruit or vegetable which could be peeled off. The rind is usually the botanical exocarp, but the term exocarp does also include the hard cases of nuts, which are not named peels since they are not peeled off by hand or peeler, but... strips |
| 1 kg angelica Garden Angelica Angelica archangelica, commonly known as Garden Angelica, Holy Ghost, Wild Celery, and Norwegian angelica, is a biennial plant from the Apiaceae family Apiaceae family, formerly known as Umbelleferae... |
| 12.5 kg raspberry Raspberry The raspberry or hindberry is the edible fruit of a multitude of plant species in the genus Rubus, most of which are in the subgenus Idaeobatus; the name also applies to these plants themselves... jam Fruit preserves Fruit preserves are preparations of fruits and sugar, often canned or sealed for long-term storage. The preparation of fruit preserves today often involves adding commercial or natural pectin as a gelling agent, although sugar or honey may be used, as well. Prior to World War II, fruit preserve... |
| 100 kg wheat flour Wheat flour Wheat flour is a powder made from the grinding of wheat used for human consumption. More wheat flour is produced than any other flour. Wheat varieties are called "clean," "white," or "brown" if they have high gluten content, and they are called "soft" or "weak" flour if gluten content is low... |
| 100 kg caster sugar |
| 20 kg glacier cherries |
| 30 kg brown almond Almond The almond , is a species of tree native to the Middle East and South Asia. Almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree... s |
| 20 kg raisin Raisin Raisins are dried grapes. They are produced in many regions of the world. Raisins may be eaten raw or used in cooking, baking and brewing... s |
| 25 kg dried apricot Apricot The apricot, Prunus armeniaca, is a species of Prunus, classified with the plum in the subgenus Prunus. The native range is somewhat uncertain due to its extensive prehistoric cultivation.- Description :... |
| 5 kg cocoa powder |
| 180 fresh egg Egg (food) Eggs are laid by females of many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and have probably been eaten by mankind for millennia. Bird and reptile eggs consist of a protective eggshell, albumen , and vitellus , contained within various thin membranes... s |
| 42 kg chocolate fudge Fudge Fudge is a type of Western confectionery which is usually very sweet, and extremely rich. It is made by mixing sugar, butter, and milk and heating it to the soft-ball stage at , and then beating the mixture while it cools so that it acquires a smooth, creamy consistency... |
| 180 kg orange sugar paste Sugar paste Sugar Paste icing is a very sweet edible sugar dough usually made from sugar and glucose. It is sometimes referred to as fondant or sugar gum or gum paste. It can be used to cover cakes, mould features and create decorations for cakes and many other uses.... |
| 90 kg brown sugar paste |
| 40 kg black sugar paste |
| 50 kg white sugar paste |
| 200 kg cake margarine Margarine Margarine , as a generic term, can indicate any of a wide range of butter substitutes, typically composed of vegetable oils. In many parts of the world, the market share of margarine and spreads has overtaken that of butter... |
| 270 kg icing sugar |
| 40 kg milk calets |
Advertising agency Fallon began representing Škoda in 1999, and its first campaign was for the first generation of the Fabia supermini, the successor to the Felicia
Škoda Felicia
For the Skoda Felicia of 1959 to 1964 see Škoda Felicia The Škoda Felicia, is a small family car produced by the Czech automaker Škoda Auto between 1994 and 2001 . It was one of the first models to benefit from Škoda Auto's takeover by the German giant Volkswagen Group...
, in early 2000. While the previous advertising agency, Grey London
Grey London
Grey London is one of the UK's largest communications agencies with clients including Samsung, P&G, GlaxoSmithKline, Allianz, the British Heart Foundation, Ryvita, Dairy Crest and Toshiba...
, had succeeded in improving the company's image, Škoda cars were still the butt of many a joke, and were seen as "naff" by British consumers. Fallon took a lighter, self-denigrating approach - the strapline of the first series of ads (Vandal, Factory Tour
Factory tour
A factory tour Involves organised visits to factories to see things being manufactured and processes at work. Breweries and distilleries, together with manufacturers of clothes, pottery and glass, are amongst the most popular factory visits...
) played off the disbelief of the public that a Škoda car could be of high quality, using the strapline "It's a Skoda, honest." The campaign was a tremendous success, dramatically reversing public opinion of the brand. Sales of Škoda vehicles increased by record amounts during the period in which the campaign aired.
Upon the launch of the second generation of the Fabia, Fallon chose to shift the focus away from improving the Škoda brand as a whole and towards pushing individual aspects of the cars. The strapline for the Fabia, with its numerous "smaller, helpful features", such as hooks for carrier bags in the boot
Trunk (automobile)
The trunk or boot of an automobile or car is the vehicle's main storage, luggage, or cargo compartment. Trunk is used in North American English and Jamaican English; boot is used elsewhere in the English speaking world. Trunk is also primarily used in many non-English speaking regions, such as...
to keep shopping upright, was to be "full of lovely stuff". The idea for a commercial based around building a car out of cake came from a conversation between creative director
Creative Director
A creative director is a position often found within the graphic design, film, music, fashion, advertising, media or entertainment industries, but may be useful in other creative organizations such as web development and software development firms as well....
s John Allison and Chris Bovill. Approval was given for a campaign on a cake theme targeting couples aged 35-plus, with a budget estimated at around £500,000.
Filming
Once approval was given to the project, director Chris Palmer was brought on board. Palmer's previous work included award-winning spots for Transport for LondonTransport for London
Transport for London is the local government body responsible for most aspects of the transport system in Greater London in England. Its role is to implement the transport strategy and to manage transport services across London...
and the acclaimed Old Lions
Old Lions
Old Lions is a British television and cinema advertisement launched by the Carlsberg Group in 2006 to promote Carlsberg-brand pale lager. The 180-second piece formed the cornerstone of the company's media campaign in England during the run-up to the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The campaign targeted men...
for Carlsberg in 2006. Palmer's plan was to shoot the production of an actual life-sized Fabia cake with little or no computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
. With the air-date for the finished piece set only four weeks from the start of the project, of which Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
celebrations would occupy a large portion, there was no time for any research. All decisions were to be made on the fly, during the production itself.
The on-screen crew consisted of six home economists
Home Economics
Home economics is the profession and field of study that deals with the economics and management of the home and community...
led by Sarah Tildersley, three sugar chefs, a machine operator, two prop
Theatrical property
A theatrical property, commonly referred to as a prop, is an object used on stage by actors to further the plot or story line of a theatrical production. Smaller props are referred to as "hand props". Larger props may also be set decoration, such as a chair or table. The difference between a set...
experts, and four special effects modelmakers from Pennicott Payne Ltd, with a large production team off-camera. Filming was done in Shepperton Studios over four days, with baking machinery rented from baking equipment company Brook Foods, though preliminary work such as casting moulds for the Rice Krispie panels was done a week beforehand. Production finished exactly on time, with the final touch—the Škoda badge—fitted at 2:30am on the last day of the schedule. The crew planned to donate the remains of the cake to local charities and hospitals, but after four days under hot studio lights, it was no longer thought fit for human consumption, and was donated for composting to the East London Community Recycling Project in Clapham
Clapham
Clapham is a district in south London, England, within the London Borough of Lambeth.Clapham covers the postcodes of SW4 and parts of SW9, SW8 and SW12. Clapham Common is shared with the London Borough of Wandsworth, although Lambeth has responsibility for running the common as a whole. According...
. However, a few pieces, such as the chocolate speedometer
Speedometer
A speedometer is a gauge that measures and displays the instantaneous speed of a land vehicle. Now universally fitted to motor vehicles, they started to be available as options in the 1900s, and as standard equipment from about 1910 onwards. Speedometers for other vehicles have specific names...
and marzipan
Marzipan
Marzipan is a confection consisting primarily of sugar and almond meal. Persipan is a similar, yet less expensive product, in which the almonds are replaced by apricot or peach kernels...
wing mirror
Wing mirror
A wing mirror is a mirror found on the exterior of motor vehicles for the purposes of helping the driver see areas behind and to the sides of the vehicle, outside of the driver's peripheral vision .Although almost all modern cars mount their side mirrors on the doors, normally at the "A" pillar,...
s were kept for posterity.
Post-production
Post-production work was performed by Tom Sparks of Alteration Services, with editing conducted by The Quarry. Ancillary elements of the campaign, such as the online presenceInternet marketing
Internet marketing, also known as digital marketing, web marketing, online marketing, search marketing or e-marketing, is referred to as the marketing of products or services over the Internet...
and direct marketing
Direct marketing
Direct marketing is a channel-agnostic form of advertising that allows businesses and nonprofits to communicate straight to the customer, with advertising techniques such as mobile messaging, email, interactive consumer websites, online display ads, fliers, catalog distribution, promotional...
, were handled by advertising agency Archibald Ingall Stretton, who had worked with Škoda for eight years prior to Cake. The online elements of the campaign included a dedicated microsite
Microsite
A microsite is an Internet web design term referring to an individual web page or a small cluster of pages which are meant to function as a discreet entity within an existing website or to complement an offline activity...
, which was linked to through baking-themed banner ads placed on the sites such as The Times Online, AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
, and Top Gear. For the direct marketing portion of the campaign, Archibald Ingall Stretton sent out car-shaped a double-chocolate, toffee-fudge cream scented air freshener
Air freshener
Air fresheners are consumer products used in homes or commercial products used in restrooms that typically emit fragrance. There are two broad air freshener categories: continuous action and instant action...
s in the mail to potential and former clients.
Release and reception
| List of awards | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
EWLINE
|
Cake premiered on Thursday 17 May 2007. The dedicated microsite went online at 6pm, while the 60-second commercial first aired on ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
, Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
, Five, and on several multichannel television
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
networks between 9 and 10pm. In addition, a 30-second edit of Cake began airing from Monday 21 May 2009. The commercial spaces purchased for Cake were chosen specifically to reach a mainstream audience, with selections including Big Brother
Big Brother (UK)
Big Brother UK is the British version of the Dutch Big Brother television format, which takes its name from the character in George Orwell's 1948 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four...
, Britain's Got Talent
Britain's Got Talent
Britain's Got Talent is a British television talent show competition which started in June 2007 and originated from the Got Talent series. The show is produced by FremantleMedia's TalkbackThames and Simon Cowell's production company SYCOtv. The show is broadcast on ITV in Britain and TV3 in Ireland...
, Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
, CSI: Miami
CSI: Miami
CSI: Miami is an American police procedural television series, which premiered on September 23, 2002 on CBS. The series is a spin-off of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation....
, Deal or No Deal
Deal or No Deal
Deal or No Deal is the name of several closely related television game shows, the first of which was the Dutch Miljoenenjacht produced by Dutch producer Endemol. It is played with up to 26 cases with certain sums of money...
, GMTV
GMTV
GMTV was the national Channel 3 breakfast television contractor, broadcasting in the United Kingdom from 1 January 1993 to 3 September 2010. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of ITV plc. in November 2009. Shortly after, ITV plc announced the programme would end...
, Grand Designs
Grand Designs
Grand Designs is a British television series produced by Talkback Thames and broadcast on Channel 4 which features unusual and often elaborate architectural home-building projects....
, Grease Is the Word
Grease Is the Word
Grease Is the Word was the UK version of NBCs Grease: You're the One that I Want!. It aired during Spring/Summer 2007, and was produced by Syco TV ....
, Market Kitchen
Market Kitchen
Market Kitchen is a cookery programme, made by Optomen, that premiered on Good Food in 2007. Presented by Rachel Allen, Amanda Lamb, Matt Tebbutt, Tom Parker Bowles and Matthew Fort, the programme concentrates on seasonal cooking and features visits to a local market to obtain seasonal produce...
, This Morning
This Morning (TV series)
This Morning is a British daytime television programme broadcast on ITV. As of September 2011, its main presenters are Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, and Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes, with various other presenters standing in for illness or contributing to sections of the programme.The...
, and Trinny & Susannah Undress...
Trinny & Susannah Undress...
Trinny & Susannah Undress... is a British reality makeover and fashion-themed television programme on ITV featuring fashion advisors Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine....
, as well as television screenings of films such as The Talented Mr. Ripley
The Talented Mr. Ripley (film)
The Talented Mr. Ripley is a 1999 American psychological thriller written for the screen and directed by Anthony Minghella. It is an adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith 1955 novel of the same name, which was previously filmed as Plein Soleil .The film stars Matt Damon as Tom Ripley, Gwyneth...
and Layer Cake
Layer Cake (film)
Layer Cake is a 2004 British crime thriller produced and directed by Matthew Vaughn, in his directorial debut. It is based on the novel Layer Cake by J. J...
. The value of the spaces purchased for Cake from its debut until 30 June was greater than for any other automotive commercial.
The campaign was an immediate popular and critical success. Within two weeks, 37,000 people had visited the Skoda Fabia's microsite and a further 260,000 had viewed the clip clip on video sharing
Video sharing
Video hosting services refers to websites or software where users can distribute their video clips. Other sites such as file hosting services image hosting services and social network services might support video sharing as an enhancement to their primary mission, but in general, they are not...
website YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
. By June 10, views on YouTube climbed to over 700,000, nine groups had been set up on social networking site Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
with a combined total of over 2,000 members, and a search for "Skoda cake car" on search engine
Search engine
A search engine is an information retrieval system designed to help find information stored on a computer system. The search results are usually presented in a list and are commonly called hits. Search engines help to minimize the time required to find information and the amount of information...
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
returned over 150,000 results. Market research
Market research
Market research is any organized effort to gather information about markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategy...
conducted by YouGov
YouGov
YouGov, formerly known as PollingPoint in the United States, is an international internet-based market research firm launched in the UK in May 2000 by Stephan Shakespeare, now Chief Executive Officer, and Nadhim Zahawi...
showed substantial improvement in the public's perception of the Škoda brand in the UK.
It was lauded by the press, appearing in features in tabloids such as The Daily Mail, and The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
, and even as a front-page story in a Czech
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
newspaper. Reviewers compared the piece favourably with earlier iconic Honda
Honda
is a Japanese public multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles.Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, as well as the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines measured by volume, producing more than...
campaigns such as Cog and Grrr. Paul Silburn, creative partner of Saatchi & Saatchi
Saatchi & Saatchi
Saatchi & Saatchi is a global advertising agency network with 140 offices in 80 countries and over 6,500 staff. It was founded in London in 1970 but now headquartered in New York. The parent company of the agency group was known as Saatchi & Saatchi PLC from 1976 to 1994, was listed on the London...
, said of Cake: "It's fresh, innovative and engaging [...] It moved car advertising forward. To get such brand recognition without actually seeing the car was brilliant." Cake went on to win a slew of awards, including Golds at the British Television Advertising Awards and the Creative Circle Awards, and a Gold Lion at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival
Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival
The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is a global event for those working in advertising and related fields. The seven-day festival, incorporating the awarding of the Lions awards, is held yearly at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, France...
, one of the most prestigious awards of the marketing industry. According to the Gunn Report
Gunn Report
The Gunn Report and Showreel of the Year is an annual publication detailing the most successful print and television advertising campaigns of the year. It is authored by Donald Gunn and Emma Wilkie...
, Cake was the third-most-awarded television advertising campaign of 2008, behind Gorilla for Cadbury and The Power of Wind for Epuron.
External links
- Cake, via the Fallon LondonFallon WorldwideFallon Worldwide is an international advertising agency headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota with affiliate offices in London, Singapore, Hong Kong, São Paulo and Tokyo. It is a subsidiary of Publicis.-History:...
website. (.swf format) - Skoda Fabia: The Baking Of, via the Fallon LondonFallon WorldwideFallon Worldwide is an international advertising agency headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota with affiliate offices in London, Singapore, Hong Kong, São Paulo and Tokyo. It is a subsidiary of Publicis.-History:...
website. (.swf format)