GiffGaff Live Brief and Research

I'm working with Harry to produce a set of work that responds to one of the briefs in the 'New Blood Awards' competition run by D&AD. We decided to choose the GiffGaff brief as this was one of the few briefs that asked for an animation to be made for them, and we immediately had an idea as to what we could make for it. 

The brief requires a 20 second advert, instagram story assets and digital display banners, all of which we believe can be animated. After reading the requirements for the brief, we researched the history of GiffGaff to when it started in 2009, and looked at the previous adverts they've released. I did a thorough analysis into four of their adverts while Harry put together a mood-board of the style our animated advert would take. I chose these adverts as they all appeared to be very different from one another on first glance but after analysing them, I could pick out features that were similar for all of them. 

I also looked at some of the art on their website to get inspiration.

We then decided the rough direction our animation would take. We want to incorporate the following things into our advert:

• Monty Python/Terry Gilliam style artwork
• Old-fashioned technology/machinery to describe new technological processes
• Stop-motion cutout animation format using black and white photographs in a collage style
• Incorporate the brand's doodles, black and white noise bars and their colour choices
• An informative plot that goes through the 4 stages of recycling your phone
• GiffGaff workers in lab coats wearing their brand's 'digital noise'
• Key underlying messages: ease and speed of recycling, friendly/helpful GiffGaff team

What Went Well

• We know the style we're going to work in
• Researching the company's previous adverts helped to pick out similar features
• The GiffGaff brief will be a manageable task for the time we have and was the most animation-related brief

Criticism

• We haven't yet worked out the ins-and-outs of the instagram stories and banners but these will most likely be shortened versions of the main advert
• The plot we have in mind will need to be cut down to fit into 20 seconds of TV space.

We will next go on to developing a script that can fit into the 20 second time-limit.

Further Research

The term 'giffgaff' is a Scottish phrase meaning 'mutual giving'.

Giffgaff was launched in 2009 and is based in Uxbridge. It only serves customers in the UK and claims to be the 'mobile network run by you'. The brand started as a 'pay as you go' scheme and slowly evolved into offering a range of products for its customers through their 'goody bag' offers (these are bundles of minutes, texts, data). This then evolved again in 2012 to where the 'goody bags' could be renewed automatically. They do not have phone contracts however like most other networks. GiffGaff is also interesting as they don't have a customer service phone line or their own shops to deal with issues/complaints. Instead this is all done online by email and their website.

GiffGaff have always tried to be different and disruptive in a good way and this shines through some of their adverts. In 2013, their advertisement campaign called 'Don't be scared' received a lot of complaints for being too gory. Later that year, another advert was pulled titled 'Different takes guts' for not being suitably age rated and being too violent. Another in 2014 also got taken down by the Advertising Standards Authority for the same reasons. It's clear that GiffGaff is a company that tries to break/test social conventions in its marketing strategies.