CoolBrands advertising figures put price on cool status

by Danuta Kean, Media Week 17-Sep-07, 16:15

LONDON - You need to spend to be cool if you are not a luxury product or have the presence of Google, according to a survey on advertising from YouGov and the CoolBrands Council.

A £5.3m ad spend at Apple iPod helped the mp3 player to second place in the list behind 007’s favourite car brand, Aston Martin, which spent a mere £3,239 on above-the-line advertising.

Spending heavily on advertising helped online auctioneer eBay, which spent £49.2m during the 12-month period, reach number 13 in the list of the 20 coolest brands in Britain, ahead of cooler-than-thou luxury names Prada and Lamborghini, which spent far less – £2.9m and £1,080 respectively.

Other big spenders on the list include: Virgin Atlantic (ad spend £10.7m), which reached number 10, making it the coolest airline in Britain; Nintendo at number nine with a £9.4m ad spend; and Apple, at number seven the highest-ranking PC company, which spent £11.7m on advertising during the 12-month period.