In my opinion, too many brands are getting lazy. Not all brands – but as I stood on the underground platform the other day I become aware of two OOH campaigns from Jack Daniels and London Pride. I’m all for finding something that works for you and running with it, but the ‘brand heritage story’ has now become something that anyone with half a brain can tap into. Why have an agency churning out the same old print you’ve been doing for years when you could mix it up and do something clever?
It seems to me that so much content whether it be social media or print campaigns are focusing in on the idea that a brand’s back story somehow automatically gives the activity authority and presence. I’d argue that this is working for fewer and fewer brands and yet I’m noticing that one way or another it’s being used as a tactic to instantly position the brand in a favourable light. I’m not saying that heritage isn’t important, if the story is good, it gives the audience a sense of humanity, it gives them a narrative to align themselves with, to tell their friends, which in turn deepens their relationship with brand x. If you’ve got a good story to share, then by all means share it, but is the current print format of picture up top, spiel below really exercising those brain muscles?
Telling the brand story should be the ‘tip of the iceberg’, aligning a brand with a mythic storyline in the vain hope of delivering integrity is not a new nor exciting idea, the company’s founding values have just done all the work for you. We know that time with our target audiences is limited, it’s precious and we have to deliver a strong message, easily understandable message direct to them, bringing them gently into our playing field. The iconic nature of Jack Daniel’s makes them the perfect candidate for resting on the anecdotal streams, but I just feel it’s getting a little lazy.
The ad for the new Jack Daniel’s Sinatra Select, where Sinatra smoothly looks into the distance and blurb unfolds about Frank’s fondness for the tipple and subsequent grave partner revealed as a bottle of the very same stuff. Sure it’s a cool story, but Sinatra did the hard work by drinking the whisky (amongst others) all you had to do was put it up in ink. On the other hand, there’s London Pride promoting their ‘Made in London’ campaign. We’re told a mythical story about the Griffin, a ‘guardian of treasure’ that now features in their logo as a metaphor to guard their precious wares. It’s all a bit tedious though; yes, it kind of a nice story, yes, I’ll probably tell my friends about it, it might even win me a pub quiz point, but I highly doubt I’ll bring London Pride’s involvement into the equation.
Storylines aren’t the only way to add depth and meaning to your brand and I would argue that we need to be getting clever about how we look to add emotive connections with our audience rather than relying on the ‘smoke and mirrors’ approach. (Worse still is if you can tell they’ve whipped up a nice tale completely out of the blue.)
So, what about the guys who don’t have a list of quirky events to fall back on? Are they making their own? Heineken is about owning the here and now and has delved into sponsorship and vamped up its social media to become a forerunner in the beer category. Budweiser has turned to lifestyle and music to enhance their friendship, social, sharing approach. We know when you’ve got a good thing going you stick with it, but whilst I was impressed JD (seriously, good work), next time, why not surprise me? London Pride – leave the horses to Budweiser
