They certainly never imagined that they would be in a position to support their company with national television advertising but when Time Out Pad launched this year that’s exactly what happened.

Time Out Pad is a pressure-sensitive mat with a built-in timer and simple traffic light system to help parents ensure consistent and effective time-outs.

It was developed through the experience of Rob and Ouvrielle when they struggled to keep their son on the naughty step during his time-out periods. They realised the need for a time-out method which would ensure consistency of timing and less frustration for both parents and children.

gro-group spent over 12 months researching and developing the Time Out Pad before it was ready to launch. The company was aware that the Time Out Pad as a product concept was completely new to the UK consumer and therefore it was vital to find a way to present the product in a way that explained how it works and what the effect of the product should be.

gro-group felt that television advertising was one of the best ways to reach parents quickly and to demonstrate effectively the benefits the product could bring. This exposure coupled with a nationwide media relations campaign planned for the launch would ensure that the product reached the correct target audience.

Chris Thain, international marketing manager for gro-group, has worked with communications agency McCann Erickson for many years to position and build the grobag and gro-group brands. “We felt it was obvious to take advantage of their skills in this arena and to utilise their expertise and contacts,” explained Chris.

“Our creative team worked with McCann Erickson to develop a script so that a production house could be briefed on the job. The script development led to the creation of a storyboard which would make the ad work most effectively in the timeframe. We needed to film the advert on location at a suitable house so that we could create a realistic home situation so once we had agreed the creative route we started the process of finding the right actors and location for the job.”

Casting agencies were briefed and auditions were held to find a suitable mother, son and voiceover artist.

The advertisement features a child and mother who are practising the time-out method using the bottom step of the stairs. It shows the difficulties in ensuring timing consistency and the resulting frustration for both parent and child. The introduction of the Time Out Pad concludes the advertisement with a successful time-out and a happy mum and son.

Finding the right location was going to be imperative as it had to fit with the creative brief. “We knew early on that we wanted a house with a particular look and floor plan, however, finding one exactly to match proved difficult,” continues Chris. “Eventually the production team found a house which had the right décor and feel but the wrong layout but it was so close to what we needed that our team measured up all of the camera angles in advance to see if a ‘composite’ shot would work. The angles all looked good, so we ended up with a completely different layout on screen to its appearance in real life.”

In the final commercial you see the kitchen area at the far end of the corridor, where the mum is filmed, with the staircase on the right where the boy sits. In reality, the kitchen was off to the right hand side of the staircase, with a lounge off to the left. The ‘corridor’ didn’t actually exist; it was just a small broom cupboard.

Once all of the different elements had been shot, the production crew then used a process called ‘compositing’ to superimpose the scenes during editing. “With the wonders of technology and a very talented team, the end result is 100 per cent authentic and exactly matches the scenes that were described in the storyboard planning,” said Chris.

The production team for the Time Out Pad advert included set dressers, lighting, sound, a camera team, producer, director, make up and wardrobe, gaffer/grips, runners, the actors, the agency and gro-group.

It took a day’s filming to shoot the entire advert but, as with all television, it took a few takes to get right as Chris described. “At one point in filming the humorous opening shot for the advert, the actress is supposed to fall backwards while throwing a pile of clothes into the air. We used a crash mat to ensure she had a safe fall but unfortunately, one of the crew moved the crash mat between shots and nobody noticed. When the actress threw herself backwards she missed the mat completely and crashed onto the floor. Luckily she was unhurt and, like a true professional, she laughed it off and got on with shooting the scene again.”

We wanted to choose an airing time for the advert which targeted a receptive audience amongst our ABC1D audience demographic. Therefore, the ad was first aired on Channel 4 on October 3rd during the central advert break on Supernanny. It was then rolled out through October onto the IDS satellite channels to accompany programmes such as the repeats for Supernanny, House of Tiny Tearaways and other appropriate parenting programmes.

Other slots alongside popular programmes that were aimed towards our target audience were also utilised. The campaign in total was designed to generate in excess of 1.2million viewers and the TV campaign also helped to get the product listed by key high street multiple stores such as Toys R Us.

gro-group invested a significant sum in the advertising campaign for the Time Out Pad. “Prime time nationwide advertising on a premium channel does not come cheap but it has provided us with a spectacular launch vehicle for the product,” said Chris. “The television advert certainly had an effect on our web traffic with an uplift of 98 per cent compared to the day before and the most popular page was ‘where to buy.”

“Following on with the IDC channels was much more cost effective at the same time as being very precisely targeted. Advertisement production costs can be budgeted according to the brief that has been developed and it was important to closely manage all elements of the budget to ensure that the production is thoroughly planned. We were very lucky in that the whole team (including the three year old Harry, who had never done any promotional work before) was very professional and were able to get the advert in the can in one (long) day, thus keeping the production within budget.”

The Time Out Pad ad can be seen on http://www.timeoutpad.com/timeoutpad/soundbites/timeoutpad-tv-advert/

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