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.
Over the past 50 years, living standards, life expectancy and material wealth have increased—the only thing that hasn’t is happiness. Numbers from the World Database of Happiness confirm this. During a recession, happiness naturally performs even worse, with consumers experiencing status anxiety more deeply: “Why do others have more than me?”
That’s one of the reasons the happiness economy becomes more important. As a brand that has been leveraging the concept of happiness for years, Coca-Cola has turned out a slew of ads during the downturn that put a creative and inspiring spin on the idea. In one of the latest spots, a university’s Coke machine becomes a “happiness machine,” dispensing everything from sunflowers to pizzas along with a bounty of Cokes.
The two biggest media conglomerates in India and Pakistan have joined forces in a novel initiative: to campaign for peace between the two countries. Indians are anxious about terrorism in general and Pakistani terrorists in particular, according to JWT AnxietyIndexresearch conducted last May—not surprising, given that the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai were carried out by Muslim terrorists based in Pakistan. Aman Ki Asha (Hope for Peace)—touted in a TV spot and this print ad—will see the The Times of India Group andthe Jang Group honestly explore issues such as terrorism and the Kashmir dispute that have resulted in hostilities and mistrust between the two countries; the initiative will also promote cross-cultural exchange.
In India, trust in media has been declining—Edelman’s Trust Barometer Survey recently confirmed this—and so the promise of honest communication is a positive step toward changing negative perceptions of the media, which is known for sensationalism. All the better if the two brands can make some genuine progress in bringing about more goodwill.
Promoting optimism through difficult times has been a recurring theme among marketers. Now New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority is doing the same—very literally—through a public art project. Beginning last fall, the MTA’s Authority Arts for Transit, one of the world’s largest public arts institutions, began adding the word “optimism” to the reverse of 14 million MetroCards.
The idea comes from graphic and conceptual artist Reed Seifer, whose Project Optimism originated in 1995 as part of his senior art thesis. His goal is “to communicate a sense of positive, forward-looking energy into the hands of those using the MetroCard through the simple use of the word.” Rolling out the project in the midst of a recession was a simple and timely idea for a city that’s been badly bruised by the downturn. Its residents are hurting—as of December, Manhattan had the nation’s highest level of unemployment—and Wall Street has become a symbol for all that was wrong with the economy before the bust. “Optimism” is a heartening message for a city that can certainly use a smile.
A growing number of people are finally finding the time to “write that book” after losing their jobs during the recession—enter what has been coined “layoff lit.” The New York Times’ Motoko Rich recently wrote about current layoff lit titles such as Slow Love: How I Got Kicked Off the Fast Track, Put My Pajamas on for a Year & Found Happiness, from former House & Garden editor Dominique Browning, and The Bag Lady Papers: The Priceless Experience of Losing It All, by former Self magazine editor Alexandra Penney.
The theme here seems to be finding the silver lining of starting over. As Matt Buchanan points out in The Sydney Morning Herald, George Clooney’s character in Up in the Air follows a similar narrative, reminding a distraught man he’s laying off about his love of cooking—“his sacking is an opportunity to reset his priorities, to choose to do what he loves to do—to cook again.”
The idea that there’s an upside to the downturn is certainly appealing, and brands such as Allstate are doing well to tap into it.
Kia Motors envisions a new future for the American auto industry in a spot introducing the company’s West Point, Ga., plant, its first manufacturing facility in the U.S.
The commercial features a young boy in 1951 riding a bicycle through time straight into 2010 and the company’s brand new Georgia plant. As the boy rides, a voiceover describes how Kia has evolved over the past 60 years from a bike manufacturer to a leading international automaker. Kia attributes its success to the company’s progressive spirit. Since the 1950s, Kia has continually challenged itself to “come up with better ways to help people get around.” The voiceover goes on to say how the new, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in West Point, Ga., is the company’s proudest achievement yet, not because it demonstrates how far Kia has come, but because it offers “a glimpse of where we’re headed tomorrow.” The commercial concludes with Kia’s past and present alongside each other as the boy and his bike watch Kia’s newest car, the Sorento, drive off into the future.
This spot provides an excellent example of how hope-filled rather than fear-filled messaging can help brands transition into recovery. Instead of focusing on the auto industry’s turbulent past, Kia is shining a light on the future promising better days ahead for the American auto industry and auto worker. In this spot, Kia offers a future in which consumers will be better off thanks to the ambition, innovation and optimism at the core of the company.
In late 2008, we wrote in our “10 Trends for 2009” report that “The reality or the risk of money running short is a real incentive for consumers to find new ways of enjoying what they have and what they can afford. Rather than splurging on extravagant treats and ‘retail therapy,’ consumers will be cultivating simple pleasures as a more suitable and satisfying way to feel good.”
Allstate has been leveraging the theme of small pleasures for a year now (we wrote about a back-to-basics-themed spot last February). In a recent commercial, the insurer addresses this silver lining of the recession—a reassessing of priorities—in a poetic way. “In the last year we’ve learned a lot of lessons,” actor Dennis Haysbert intones. “We learned that meat loaf and Jenga can be more fun than reservations and box seats. And we learned that who’s around your TV is more important than how big it is. That cars aren’t for showing us how far we’ve come, but for taking us where we want to go.”
Getting to insurance, he goes on to say: “We learned that the best things in life don’t cost much. And at Allstate they don’t cost much to protect. So protect them, put them in good hands.”
Allstate continues to make its subtle “Good Hands” pitch (protecting these small things) seem genuine.
Looking back on a year of AnxietyIndex posts, the thing that jumps out is that the best bits on the blog touched on the persistence of the human spirit. It’s really surprisingly boundless in scope—and anxious times are when we realize just how high and how deep it is.
A slew of the commercials posted on AnxietyIndex were especially sensitive and sensitized to this idea. For instance, the Coca-Cola spot from China in which Liu Xiang’s father encourages his son (the hurdle-jumping champion beset by injury) to face momentary failure as, well, just another hurdle. There are many more in that vein.
The ultimate takeaway? We all must rise before we can shine, a notion that marketers around the world have tapped into to inspire and buck up consumers’ spirits.
Migdal Ohr is an organization that provides education and “social guidance” for Israeli kids from underprivileged or troubled backgrounds. With competition for donations particularly stiff in this downturn, it has found a unique approach to attract attention: While most communications for nonprofits focus on the importance of the cause and how the donation will help the needy, this campaign is about how the donation will affect the giver.
Sending the message that anyone can be a philanthropist, a humorous series of newspaper ads titled “Find the fairy godmother in you” shows unlikely types—a mechanic, a biker and a soccer fan—with fairy wings and a magic wand. Instead of asking the public for help, Migdal Ohr is helping the public by empowering just about anybody to express their inner angel.
There was a time when life insurance communication was quite somber, evoking fear about what might happen to your loved ones once you die or suffer an unexpected injury or illness. Once insurance plans came linked with investment in India, however, the sector transformed. People could see money returned even if their policy expired. There are now innumerable players offering investment-linked insurance, and the field is heavily cluttered.
The gears have shifted accordingly in communication, which now features vibrant, upbeat imagery—illustrating freedom from tension because your loved ones are secure just in case. The latest effort from Kotak Life Insurance, an established player, adopts a somewhat different approach. Its new brand positioning is “Faidey ka insurance” (insurance that’s financially rewarding), appealing to the rational rather than the emotional side and approaching insurance the same way as any other investment product. (This is backed by the fact that Kotak is also a well-known investment player with expertise in research and capital markets.)
The TV commercial features a Kotak agent in a living room, discussing child insurance plans with a family; as he talks about parents wanting their kids to take up various professions, the child here turns into an astronaut, doctor, cricketer and rock star. The agent notes that a child’s career path can’t be guaranteed and neither can the returns of a regular insurance plan. He describes how Kotak’s Child Plans ensure better returns, which helps parents finance the child’s education. The agent leaves with a piece of friendly advice: that a child must be given room to make his own career choice.
While much of the Western world is still anxious about the global economy, the sentiment in Asia is quite different. Nielsen’s most recent Global Consumer Confidence Index, released in October, showed significant spikes in Asia. Many Asian countries registered much higher increases in consumer confidence than the global average of 9 points, including Vietnam (+24), Hong Kong (+23), Korea (+22), Indonesia (+21), Singapore (+16) and Thailand (+13).
However, these improvements in sentiment haven’t yet translated into consumer behavior. Across various categories, consumers in many Asian markets appear to be eager to spend—but only if the situation continues to improve. It seems then that anxiety in Asia is no longer centered around the recession but rather the recovery—i.e., a desire that it just happen already so things can go back to how they used to be.
Brands that haven’t already need to shift the conversation from damage control to “How can we help people prepare for the eventual recovery?” We wrote about hope-fueled vs. fear-fueled marketing in our second AnxietyIndex Quarterly report, and amid the anxiety over recovery, nurturing optimism and hope seems to be more relevant than ever.
The two biggest media conglomerates in India and Pakistan have joined forces in a novel initiative: to campaign for peace between the two countries. Indians are anxious about terrorism in general and Pakistani terrorists in particular, according to JWT AnxietyIndex 
Looking back on a year of AnxietyIndex posts, the thing that jumps out is that the best bits on the blog touched on the persistence of the human spirit. It’s really surprisingly boundless in scope—and anxious times are when we realize just how high and how deep it is.
Photo Credit: JWT Israel
