JWT’s AnxietyIndex is designed as a place to discuss how brands and consumers are responding to the global recession. With daily content updates, AnxietyIndex.com includes contributions from around JWT’s network, offering a truly global perspective.
“Live fast, save young”—that’s the motto UBank preaches to Australian Millennials in its latest campaign geared at urging them to acquire smart financial habits early in life while promoting its USaver account. (This updates the campaign we wrote about a year ago.) Instead of celebrating the lavish trappings of stardom, UBank cleverly debunks the myth of “easy money and success” that so many young people ascribe to. The spots use catchy graphics and quick cuts to outline how two celebs transformed their 15 minutes of fame into business empires.
“Actress” cheekily asks viewers how they think today’s “it” girl, who seems to have had fame handed to her, got to the top. She “went to film school by day and worked tables by night, saving up all her tips for a film camera”; then, when the public was ready to give her the boot, the actress was ready to start a production company. “Now she’s in the mags, the perfume aisle and the boardroom, making Hollywood work for her.” Finally, viewers are reminded that, “When you see her on the red carpet rocking the free bling and the goodie bag, remember, she’s earned it.”
Considering that nearly 40 percent of young Australians feel their generation was dealt an unfair hand by the downturn, the messaging feels right for an unwaveringly optimistic (though sometimes childish) cohort that’s coming of age in uncertain economic times. It’s assuring to hear that hard work and determination can still pay off, especially if financial planning is approached like a marathon, not a sprint.
The recession has changed consumer sentiment toward low-cost, basic products, which are no longer seen as cheap and down-market but rather a proud social statement—a shift leveraged in an Effie-winning rebranding for Israel’s Tara Dairy (Tara), Tara’s products had been considered outdated for an age when many consumers opt for milk that’s fortified in various ways or low fat, and communication was aimed at older, conservative shoppers.
JWT Israel decided to tap into nostalgia for a “back to basics” message, but with a fun, humorous spin. To illustrate Tara’s tagline, “It all begins with excellent milk,” a series of commercials feature Israeli comedic icon Menashe Noy cast as a typical 1960s dairy farmer on a kibbutz. Tending to his cows in a rolling green meadow, Menashe Noy tells stories about his favorite cow in an old-fashioned and annoying but funny way, with many irrelevant details, jumping from one loosely related anecdote to another. He conjures up a simpler time for Israeli viewers.
The campaign managed to both create an aura of nostalgic simplicity around the brand and position Tara as a youthful, energetic brand.
In writing about the “Cathy” comic strip coming to an end, The New York Times includes a typical panel, showing the perennially anxious Cathy holding her “trophy swimsuit,” an item far smaller than her actual frame. Body-consciousness and anxiety tend to go hand in hand, and two recent ad efforts triggered accusations of helping to feed that anxiety. Ann Taylor’s Loft brand was criticized for Photoshopping models’ waistlines beyond recognition. Then some in the blogosphere cried foul over outdoor ads in New York that featured a stack of Snack Factory’s Pretzel Crisps and the headline “You can never be too thin.” Several critics took on the ads themselves with guerilla-style postings.
Are people simply overreacting? Loft shouldn’t get a pass for shrinking its models. But I’m inclined to cut the Snack Factory some slack—after all, they’re advertising pretzels, not diet pills or a weight-loss shake. But others may feel different, and in an age of hyper-sensitivity, marketers must think of every which way their advertising (even the most seemingly innocuous) might be interpreted.
I’m not saying ads should be vanilla; provocation can be great. But marketers must be prepared to face the consequences, especially given how easily they can be magnified by the megaphone of social media. As we advised in our Social Media Checklist, assume your brand will be embarrassed at some point and have a plan to deal with worst-case scenarios. The Loft later scored some points by showcasing five staffers of various heights and sizes wearing its new pants. And Snack Factory replaced the headline with “Tastes as good as skinny feels.” What do you think? Were these adequate responses?
Larry Hagman, best known as oilman J.R. Ewing in the hit 1980s television show Dallas, is now the face of SolarWorld, a German solar energy company. Long a solar energy enthusiast, Hagman recently toldThe New York Times he was motivated by the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico to speak out. He added: “Since Sarah Palin is saying, ‘Drill, baby, drill,’ I’m saying, ‘Shine, baby, shine.’”
That’s just what the actor says, with his trademark cackle, in a spot for SolarWorld’s new advertising campaign. We see J.R. looking disapprovingly at a portrait of his younger self in an oil field while a background TV screen gurgles with oil-spill images. He walks out of his house and we see a roof lined with solar panels. SolarWorld does an interesting thing here: It’s not only tapping into anxieties around the Gulf spill and the target consumers’ likely aversion to the “Drill, baby, drill” mind-set but is also showing how perspectives can change, even if J.R. is fictional.
At a time when manufacturing jobs in the U.S. are declining drastically and iconic domestic brands like Chrysler have been struggling to survive, many Americans are anxious about the economic realities of a post-recession era, a digital age and a flatter world. With Apple and Google as today’s venerated brands, the skilled blue-collar worker has clearly lost his place at the heart of the economy.
Using slogans like “Everybody’s work is equally important,” Levi’s is tapping into this sentiment and adding an optimistic spin. A press release cites “a new generation of ‘real workers’ … who see challenges around them and are inspired to drive positive, meaningful change.” Ads focus on the company’s donations to the struggling Rust Belt town of Braddock, Pa., and feature its citizens. But some commenters on YouTube and elsewhere gripe that Levi’s isn’t actually bringing jobs to the town and its clothes aren’t domestically produced.
By contrast, a campaign from Chrysler’s Jeep Grand Cherokee is a paean to the idea of “made in America.” A voiceover talks about a nation of builders and craftsmen—“men and women for whom straight stitches and clean welds were matters of personal pride”—as we see images of America’s proud industrial past. Viewers are reassured that “This was once a country where people made things, beautiful things. And so it is again.” (Cue the latest Grand Cherokee.) The tagline: “The things we make, make us.” This campaign seems more likely to connect than Levi’s pitch, which seems to beg the question of where blue-collar hope will come from, at least for towns beyond Braddock.
In Mexico, the national Red Cross has held a fundraising campaign annually, but 2010 seemed to be a particularly difficult challenge, due to Mexicans’ anxiety around the crisis. With people worried about their own basic expenses, what would motivate them to give money away? JWT developing an award-winning campaign (it recently received a bronze at Cannes) that dramatizes how the Red Cross needs people’s donations to keep operating.
The collection box was reinvented as coin-operated kiddie rides—resembling Red Cross ambulances, helicopters and boats—installed in parks, stores and malls. The rides made literal the campaign tagline, “Your help can keep us going,” helping people to see the importance of every donation. In turn, the Red Cross provided families with an outlet for fun.
The campaign was supported by TV, print and billboards; it also generated an enormous amount of media coverage—about $1.1 million in earned media in just the first week. The Red Cross not only prevented donations from dropping but collected 23 percent more than in 2009. This is an example of how marketers can reach anxious consumers by emphasizing fun, providing a real service and re-imagining how the product is sold.
Dulux Paints recently ran a full-page ad in a national daily here indicating a fall in outbound tourism from India thanks to its “Colours of the World” range—they bring the mood and feel of Rome, New York, London and Paris to your home, so you never need to leave. The pitch cleverly appeals to anxious consumers who are cocooning; while spending more time at home, where they feel safe and secure, they still want a taste of adventure within the comfort of their four walls. The ad also comes at a time when a small but growing number of wealthy young travelers are becoming more adventurous and interested in other cultures than older Indians (a trend recently covered byTime). Those who are curious about the wider world but still somewhat fearful of the unknown can get a safe taste of it with an adventurous paint color.
Dulux’s initiative has nicely tapped into these needs, in addition to proving that paint doesn’t have to be boring—a lesson that other products traditionally not associated with adventure/discovery can perhaps learn from.
Tapping into nostalgia and heritage has been a recession marketing tactic among brands across categories and continents (we’ve written about relevant campaigns in the U.K., New Zealand and the U.S.). Harking back to better, simpler times idea can serve as a source of comfort for unsettled consumers.
We’ve seen many instances of this in food and beverage marketing, and the latest comes from Coca-Cola. A new campaign for Mello Yello (Coke’s very low-profile answer to Pepsi’s Mountain Dew) revives the original logo from 1979 and uses the tagline “The original smooth.”Brandweek quotes a brand strategist who says Mello Yello’s retro strategy makes sense given that “things with an edge speak to fast pace, hectic and crazy. People are already overwhelmed quite a bit.”
Recently this trend has popped up in fashion. The New York Times spotlighted several long-established brands that have revived bygone looks “in the hope that old clothing styles with a classic feel will assuage consumer anxiety in shaky times.” These include Jantzen (which has updated its swimsuits from various decades of the 20th century), L.L. Bean and Eddie Bauer. A TV spot showing models in L.L. Bean’s Signature Collection amid idyllic New England scenery includes the tagline “Inspired by our heritage. Designed for today.” Tapping into the brand’s history seems like a good way to assure shoppers looking to spend on items that are more timeless than trendy.
We’ve seen various brands encouraging hope and optimism as a marketing strategy for the recession. In Pakistan, two multinational brands are using this approach in a country where the downturn is one of several factors increasing anxiety and unrest. Pepsi Cola Pakistan and Mobilink (the country’s largest telecom service provider, owned by Egypt-based Orascom) are aligning themselves with the national cricket team, which seems to be one of the only sources of cheer for Pakistanis these days. A series of Pepsi commercials feature upcoming stars and old heroes. For a nation that shows high levels of nationalism mostly when a cricket match is on, this seems like a smart approach, especially for foreign-owned companies that could benefit from showing their allegiance with a popular Pakistani cause.
In Bob Herbert’s recent New York Timescolumn, he uses a phrase that triggered a response in my aging brain: “worst-case scenario.” The context for these three words was the horrible oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and BP’s apparent surprise that something this horrendous could happen. Thinking about the concept at the heart of this little saying, I began to wonder if there’s something wrong with the way we calibrate for catastrophes. Perhaps our determined cultural optimism (or, more correctly, our collective anxiety about negative consequences) is one reason that otherwise brilliant people resist thinking about how bad things could really get. “Worst-case scenario” planning is turning out to be one planning practice that’s in urgent need of a complete re-think.
Dulux Paints recently ran a full-page ad in a national daily here indicating a fall in outbound tourism from India thanks to its “Colours of the World” range—they bring the mood and feel of Rome, New York, London and Paris to your home, so you never need to leave. The pitch cleverly appeals to anxious consumers who are cocooning; while spending more time at home, where they feel safe and secure, they still want a taste of adventure within the comfort of their four walls. The ad also comes at a time when a small but growing number of wealthy young travelers are becoming more adventurous and interested in other cultures than older Indians (a trend recently covered by 
