This week our lovely new spot for Visit Wales airs on telly. We're chuffed to show off the country in all its glory, especially as this time we've taken cues from the Welsh themselves. We sought out three couples to talk about their emotional attachment to a certain part of their country and brought their favourite places to life through a fabulously filmic ad. 

We go beyond the epic landscapes and stunning vistas you'd expect to see in marketing for Wales by unveiling an equally beautiful but less expected side to the country. We see Dafydd and Rhiannon at the haunted South Stack Lighthouse lauding the wild nature of this Northern spot in Anglesey; Rachel and Craig talk animatedly about the international art exhibited on their doorstep at the National Museumin Cardiff; Tony and Eileen share their experience of outdoor hot spas overlooking stunning west coast beaches at St. Brides Spa Hotel, Saundersfoot in Pembrokeshire.

This ad (along with two more which will be released in March) aims to entice more mature visitors. With more free time to travel and with more money at their disposal, they are an important group for Wales to attract. 

This is also the 'Welshest' ad we've made for Wales, featuring Welsh couples, shot by a Welsh director, and all to the soundtrack of an up and coming Welsh band (Trwbador – Red Handkerchiefs). Check in again in March for more ads starring Welsh couples sharing the best of their country.                             

Retail Week has published a piece entitled "Do retailers' marketing efforts tally with Christmas sales results?.

It reports on research that ranks our campaign for Tesco – our first work for Britain's biggest retailer -as strongest of all the supermarkets' efforts. Here's an extract:

Have retailers’ Christmas performances tallied with the effort they
put into their marketing? As they announce their sales figures for the
Christmas period, MediaCom looked at social sentiment via its Twitter
Tracker, YouGov’s BrandIndex and YouTube channels to track their impact.

Tesco was the top ranking supermarket in our Twitter Tracker… taking the top spot for most of December. It seems producing
multiple ads with popular music tracks helped Tesco’s campaign stay
fresher for longer than its competition. When looking at Buzz scores
Tesco has been the only major retailer to be in negative territory for
most of the year, but the Christmas campaign has given them a
significant boost which is set to be reflected in improved sales
figures. However, it is yet to be seen whether this creative new
marketing will mark the beginnings of a turnaround for the brand.

…Looking at overall video views, social buzz, and public sentiment, it’s
clear than John Lewis has had another great year. It’s elsewhere where
we see some bigger surprises – Asda, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s have all
fallen a little flat, whereas Aldi and most surprisingly the
until-recently underperforming Tesco have had a much better public
response. 

Our campaign for Tesco in the crucial Christmas trading period focused on the little things that make Christmas special and aimed to show how Tesco helps make these things possible.

Meanwhile, it has been widely reported that Tesco shares rose 3% on its announcement of best Christmas sales growth of the last three years.

Chief executive Philip Clarke said the results were ‘encouraging’, but cautioned that there was ‘a lot more to do’.