IRRITATING jingles and D-list celebrities are the key to a memorable advertising campaign, research has revealed.
A list of television advertisements most easily remembered by viewers was topped by car insurance brand Sheilas' Wheels, which features three Australian girls in evening wear singing an infuriatingly catchy tune.
The survey of adverts shown during
2007 also revealed consumers were more likely to recall an appearance by Kerry Katona for Iceland than the Spice Girls' endorsement of Tesco, for which they were reportedly each paid £1 million.
The research, from trade publication Marketing, is a summary of the magazine's weekly polls of thousands of viewers over the year.
The Sheilas' Wheels ad had the best recall rate in the weekly charts – in one week in June, 78 per cent of the public said they remembered it over any other brand.
Although the result doesn't mean viewers liked the advert, industry experts said consumer recall was a vital first step in any campaign. For advertising experts, memorability is more desirable than the so-called "Cinzano effect" where viewers can recall what happened in an advert and the famous names who appeared, but cannot recall the brand.
The phenomenon is named after a campaign starring Joan Collins and Leonard Rossiter for the vermouth which were among the most talked-about adverts in Britain except many believed they were for Martini or Campari.
Chris Bowden, head of marketing for Sheilas' Wheels's parent company, eSure, admitted: "If some people don't hate your advertising you'll never get noticed.
"We went for a lurid pink theme and a really catchy tune. Our research shows women find the resulting advertising empowering, not patronising."
Adverts for Churchill, the insurance firm, featuring a nodding dog with an "Oh Yes" catchphrase, were placed third on the list.
The rest of the top ten includes promotions which are unlikely to ever win awards for creativity but have made their mark in the public consciousness such as sofa giant DFS, PC World, Asda and Woolworths.
Lengthy and expensive films, such as one where a domino effect creates a giant model of a Guinness or the arty mini-movies of Stella Artois, are noticeably missing from the list.
Viewers were also more likely to think of Marks & Spencers adverts based on a seductive voice describing tempting dishes than they were to remember the expensive campaign starring Twiggy and Erin O'Connor.
A spokesman for Marketing said yesterday: "Of course celebrity pulling power doesn't always work.
"And several of this year's best-recalled ads are also strong contenders for the rundown of the most irritating ads.
"It is, of course, possible for an ad to get noticed without the cringe factor."
