Mecca has announced the launch of a new brand campaign including a 30 second TV advert to be broadcast on commercial terrestrial and major satellite channels from today (Thursday 25^thApril) until 31^st May.

The campaign follows a comprehensive review of marketing activity for all channels aligned to the new strategy for the leisure gaming company of bringing together club, online and mobile for the first time and introduced by Brand Director James Condon.

The TV advert features a new multi-channel brand strapline – Come and play at our house – and focuses on the fun people can have playing with Mecca. A tactical ad, it aims to drive people to Meccabingo.com where they can double their deposits, resulting in ‘double the fun’. The advert was created by RKCR/Y&R with media buying by Carat.

To view the advert, click on the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-8uAxinGRM
Paul Meadows, Head of Brand for Mecca, comments, “The new brand campaign is designed to bring together the different ways that people can play – in club, online and on mobile – and reflects what we stand for – fun, laughs, people and winning. We are passionate about giving our customers new games and more ways to play and all our marketing activity will reflect this.

“The campaign stems from the fact that everyone needs a little fun and excitement and that it’s even better when it’s shared with other people. This insight will shape all our communications as well as our multi-channel offerings and how we interact with people.

“It’s an exciting time for the brand as it brings to life our ambition to make Mecca an entertainment brand with real human warmth and one of the friendliest gaming brands in the UK.”

Believed to be a gaming industry first, Mecca also recently launched Mecca Mag – written and produced by Result CC – a customer magazine which is sold in all 97 clubs with a cover price of just £1.

London, 4 April 2013: RKCR/Y&R has launched a haunting ‘Fire Kills’ campaign for DCLG (Department for Communities and Local Government) to highlight the vital need for people to test their household smoke alarms.

RKCR/Y&R research identified the effectiveness topical cues to increase people’s likelihood of remembering to perform a task. Using the prompt of switching clocks to British Summer time, and in reverse to Greenwich Mean Time in October, results have shown that the use of such ‘Behavioural Association’ tactics will make us over 3 times more likely to remember test smoke alarm at these landmark dates.

Almost 58% of people who died in a fire, did not have a working smoke alarm which raised the alarm to give them that crucial time to escape.

The online video present a young boy exploring the burnt-out shell of his former home. We see him examine his old toys and a clock, then turns to the camera and asks the viewer to make a life-saving promise this Easter, to repeat after him “I swear on my child’s life, to test my smoke alarm on clock change day, to give my family the best chance of surviving a house fire.” A pause between each sentence gives the viewer time to reflect on the weight of the message. The film ends tragically by revealing that the young boy was killed in the blaze.

This heart-wrenching video, by director Stevie Russell, serves to reminds everyone what is at stake in a house fire and that one is more than four times more likely to die in a fire if you don’t have a working smoke alarm.

RKCR/Y&R has produced a cross media campaign for the BBC called ‘Where Next?’. The brief was to demonstrate the broadcaster’s continued commitment to innovation for public benefit across its 90 year history, taking the viewer on a journey of broadcast, technological and creative advances from 1922 to the present day.

RKCR/Y&R used a combination of footage from the BBC archive, adapted and shot scenes as well as animation and CGI to demonstrate key moments of innovation, segueing from one frame into the next, as each character moves from one scene of innovation to another.

The team behind the campaign searched through archive footage to find clips that would match up and worked with Aardman to recreate Morph, Matthew Herbert of the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop to create the soundtrack and The Mill post production house to blend scenes and mash together The Ministry of Silly Walks’, Ceefax and Johnny Ball presenting microcomputers on Newsround.

The campaign will run on TV and radio across the BBC’s channels and stations and will point to a ‘Where Next?’ site on bbc.co.uk featuring an interactive timeline of the BBC’s innovations. The campaign will be renewed throughout the year with shorter TV trails that demonstrate on-going innovation.

Alison Hoad, vice chairman of RKCR/Y&R, said: “The BBC as an organisation is constantly innovating with a public purpose. From colour television to BBC iPlayer, the BBC innovates to make our lives richer. It has been a fun and stimulating challenge to tell that story by piecing together all of the BBC’s fantastic archive footage. The journey we have portrayed takes you through such a wide range of innovations and advances from 1922 all the way to the present day that you really are left with a sense of pride at all of the things that our national broadcaster has created over the years. Not only that but it is exciting to think what game changing innovations the BBC will bring us in the future”

The TV launch trail will premiere on-air this weekend and will run throughout the year to highlight on-going innovation at the BBC.

The new campaign was developed by Creative team Barnaby Blackburn and Gustavo Kopit and Creative Directed by Toby Talbot, Ted Heath and Paul Angus. The launch TV trail was directed by Anthony Dickenson, director at Pulse Films, and was produced by Red Bee.

RKCR/Y&R has launched a viral music video for the BBC and Digital Radio UK called “Endless Dove.”

It features D Love, the diminutive new star of digital radio, his pet dove, and huge up and coming talent Phebe Edwards. In the promo we see D Love serenading Phebe, but it soon becomes clear where his real love lies. With his dove of course.

The film was recorded in the world famous Sarm studios of "Do they know it's Christmas" Band Aid fame, and Phebe plays on the same piano that Queen recorded Bohemian Rhapsody on.

The music video is part of a larger integrated campaign featuring D Love. There are three TV spots, interviews with his dove, posters, online banners, in store, digital radio guides, and radio ads which will be aired across the BBC Radio network and on over 60 commercial radio stations. He has also been interviewed by BBC Radio DJ’s Fearne Cotton, Richard Bacon, Suzie Klein and Clive Anderson as part of his launch.

The new character has been created by Algy Sharman and Al Brown and ECD Toby Talbot, along with Peter Martin, directors at Sweet Shop and model makers Millennium FX, and was produced by Red Bee.

RKCR/Y&R has launched the new D Love trail to ‘spread the love’ for Digital Radio and BBC.

D Love is the diminutive star of the campaign across BBC TV, BBC Radio, commercial radio, online and in store to highlight the benefits of digital radio.

He is a 15-inch tall, smooth dressing soul puppet, from Stockport - although in his mind that’s just outside Detroit. Think of him as somewhere between Lionel Richie, Isaac Hayes and a Thunderbird puppet.

The TV ads depict the diminutive soul man spreading the love for digital radio with his pet dove and encouraging others to join the movement. He is always accompanied by his faithful pet dove, played by a real life pigeon that had been reared around the puppet since it was a chick. A real love at first sight story.