Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance concerning the manipulation of puppets. These characters are both entertaining and captivating which allows them to be an effectual and popular method of advertising for different brands and businesses. Puppets come in a variety of forms such as traditional hand puppets, rod puppets, marionette (string) puppets, stop-motion puppets, ventriloquist figures and animatronic puppets, all of which are unique and offer different styles of performance. This gives a company the opportunity to create an inventive and unique set of characters and accompanying world based on their franchise and brand image.

History

Puppets have been aired on television from as early as the 1900s and have proved influential right through to the modern day. Jim Henson –in the late 1960’s- created many different puppet personalities for “Sesame Street”, and “The Muppets”, proving very popular among worldwide audiences. Sesame Street has had huge commercial success with the Independent reporting,

“Sesame Street has won over a hundred Emmys and has been broadcast in roughly 150 countries. It retains an uncanny ability to both reflect the times, and provide a public service: songs and storytelling to educate its young viewers.”

In the 1980’s the Spitting Image’ puppets were created for television by Peter Fluck and Roger Law. They renewed the 18th-century tradition of satirical puppetry at a time when many innovative British touring puppet companies were established. As a result theatre companies such as Forkbeard Fantasy began using large-scale puppetry in their work.

Why puppets?

Nostalgia: Some puppets bring a nostalgic element to them due to the rich history of puppet use in television. Brand “Three” decided to use a character developed by The Muppets creator Jim Henson in their recent advertising campaign, #MakeItRight. They argue use of the puppet “Jackson” creates a more relatable environment for both younger and older audience members who are already familiar with the style of character; “We always strive to entertain people with our adverts, but with this campaign we had an ambition to connect on a deeper emotional level with our audience by communicating our why and brand purpose… Jackson is a lovable puppet, who was once downtrodden and treated unfairly, just like many mobile customers.” -Tom Malleschitz, Chief Marketing Officer at Three.

Comedy values: Puppets have the advantage of being placed in situations where it would be considered too dangerous or inappropriate for real actors to be placed; they can create another dimension of suspended disbelief. The audience is aware that these puppets are not real and can find amusement in the circumstances that the puppets end up in. To some extent the audience can find entertainment in the misfortune of these puppets.

Creative factor: Puppets have the advantage of being able to be designed or constructed in a specific and unique way. This can be applied to the world they perform in, allowing designers to access more inventive constructions, leading to more exciting and engaging narratives. Further advantages include the puppets being able to interact with human characters. Sesame Street has a reputation for celebrity cameos within episodes to reach out to a wider fan base and boost appeal. Some of these celebrities include James Blunt, Ricky Gervais and most recently Michelle Obama.

Creepy aspect: Not all puppets are cheery and jolly; some puppets can be creepy and chilling despite their entertainment purposes. Some companies purposefully design their puppets to disturb or even terrify their audience in order to make their advert and brand more memorable. In 2010 Birds Eye advertised their fish fingers using a somewhat sadistic polar bear, which states, “I’m watching you.” Despite this creepy element it is considered to be “one of the most successful Birds Eye adverts in the last 20 years” according to the Guardian. Moderate fear or intrigue within an advert has been scientifically proven to increase persuasive power of an advert, as supported by the Hoveland-Yale model; this effect can be easily manipulated with the use of puppets.

Puppet advertising in 2015

Three: Jackson – When stuff sucks #makeitright.

This viral video has a total of 3,481,076 views on YouTube, with 85% of their ratings being likes. The narrative involves the puppet leaving the countryside to work in the city; he has a bleak attitude but then, remembering his parent’s advice, decides to help others in bad situations. The beginning of the video is amusing as the puppet comically keeps being knocked into by people in the rain, gets attacked by a random dog and gets drenched in water as a car drives through a puddle of water. Communications Company Wieden + Kennedy claim the advert will be successful because it is “A playful movement against things that suck, a leader from the Jim Henson bloodline, and a rallying cry to stir the masses in the form of Walthamstow’s finest.” The Jackson puppet creates an identifiable and comic message, crucial in helping Three reinvent its image as the helpful phone company for the people.

PG Tips – Monkey’s monumental mission – Red Nose Day 2015

This advert, adopting PG tips long running brand puppet (Monkey), has done very well for comic relief this year. PG Tips pre-empted it by printing the image of a monkey in climbing gear on the boxes of tea prior to the “event”, using the persona of the puppet to increase anticipation for the advert. In the actual advert Monkey climbs up the tallest building in London: “The Shard”. Use of the now prolific puppet extends far further than just the TV, with Monkey having his own twitter account and merchandise range and PG tips giving out free monkeys in some limited edition boxes, clearly demonstrating how powerful and effective puppets can be as a marketing tool in modern society.

Cravendale Milk – Barry the Biscuit Boy

Cravendale’s surreal new TV spot tells the story of a boy made of biscuit – a biscuitman if you will – that spends too long swimming in a lake of milk and his head falls off. Complaints were made concerning the creepy music and imagery resulting in the company re-distributing it with different music. This has caused a division of opinion with some even creating a petition to bring the old music back, nevertheless all publicity is good publicity right?

Travelodge TV advert 2015 – That’s #Travelodgical

The new advert uses puppets called the ‘Travelodgicals’ to help communicate that the chain has reformed. They are accompanied by their human counterpart; a range of different customers staying in a Travelodge hotel for various reasons. The Guardian states that “Travelodgical Mini-Me to keep you company in an anonymous hotel room might actually be fun” which raises a great point and highlights the medias enthusiasm for the use of puppetry within a marketing frame; Travelodge could actually expand their development further by making personalised puppets for clients.

How can puppets benefit your advertising campaign?

Puppets have proven to be a success within adverts and television, allowing audiences to relate and recall memorable catchphrases and catchy tunes. However the main reason as to why puppet advertising can be so beneficial is because they are so malleable; they can create feelings of nostalgia, humour, can push creative limits and add a certain thrill factor to the advert. Puppets provide companies with a peripheral route to persuasive promotion, meaning businesses can engage non-specific and wide-ranging audiences in highly entertaining and visually memorable adverts, increasing their power of persuasion in a more feasible way. Use of puppetry is a form of promotion small businesses can take advantage of in a way, which, if done well, will create a memorable brand allowing competition with the bigger brands.

References

http://chimeronuniverse.freeservers.com

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/why-sesame-street-still-counts-1815758.html

http://www.sesamestreet.org

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/h/history-of-puppetry-in-britain/

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2010/jul/14/puppets-adverts-string-em-up

http://www.marketmenot.com/progressive-nightmare-commercial/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6jl5RoyMek

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSSn1atR2v4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap3Fuy1bXJI

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/bring-back-barry-the-biscuit-boys-original-song/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5deBpVnnp1I

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/jun/13/new-travelodge-advert

http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/1350082/

http://wklondon.com/

*Please note we did not produce any of the above videos. However, we think they’re fabulous and good to talk about