In an effort to capitalise on January's healthy living phenomenon, Virgin Active have join the countless other gyms in vying for your membership. But instead trying to compete on price points. Yawn. Virgin are taking a smarter approach. Focusing on the reasons why people go to the gym, instead of why people should chose their gym, this new campaign adopts a truly customer-centric perspective. The vast majority of us go to gym "just to stay healthy", so we can keep do all the activities that we love. It more about staying in shape than looking good in the mirror.
Virgin has picked up on this subtle but important insight, to create the "we have got an exercise for that" campaign. This presents the use of their gyms as way to keep you doing your favourite activities. Instead on focusing on the gym itself, this campaign focuses on the users and what really matters to them. And that certainly isn't whether Virgin Active has the latest running machine! People want to stay fit so they can play with their children, go on adventure holidays or going skiing in bunny outfits...... well some of us anyway. The reality is people would rather spend time doing the things they love then hours and hours in the gym. The only reason we go to the gym for an hour or so every other day is so we can keep the doctor away. Therefore, the gym is a means to an end, a fact that Virgin Active knows and embraces!
Aviva has launched a new app that monitors your driving skills. The point of the app is that once you’ve driven 200 miles, you’ll get an individual driving score out of 10. Safer drivers scoring 7.1 or more could save an average of £150 on Aviva car insurance.
Pretty boring stuff right? Wrong.
The new app is being promoted on the basis of playful rivalry; whether that be between the family, partners, the sexes or the counties. For example, taglines like; "Who are the safest drivers, county or city folk" are plastered across the out of home material. The television campaign, the first execution of Aviva's new ‘good thinking’ global brand strategy, features a family from Newport using the Aviva app to discover who is the safest driver. The next instalment of the campaign revealed which member of the Newport family won the driving challenge. And a final instalment will highlight how by sharing their score with Aviva, customers can lower their premiums.
The use of a real family, the story, and the interactive nature of this campaign has turned a bog standard marketing tool into the next Angry Birds. Okay, maybe not. But it has certainly got people downloading it with over 50,000 downloads in the first week.
In recent times we have seen the success of "storyboard" adverts, with the most successful being Compare The Market's -"Compare The Meerkats." True, this will never last that long but the use of a likeable, relateable family helps audiences connect with the adverts and makes them more receptive to what is being advertised. Furthermore by focusing on the rivalry, as opposed to the app itself, makes the app seem as a fun tool to settle some long standing debates, not a means to get you to sign up to Aviva car insurance. The Aviva's marketing team and Adam&Eve,who created the ad, have created a campaign and app that is not only engaging but has successful effected consumer behaviour. Aviva has created an app that is not just functional i.e banking apps but thats also fun! Aviva understands that digital offerings should not be seen as supplementary, but as something that is really important on the customer journey. Aviva wants to be a "digital first" company as it rolls out more online services. As Aviva UK & Ireland customer marketing director Lindsay Forster explains, "In the way we market and promote the brand we will be far more digitally-orientated". With the success of this current app and their plans for the future, Aviva is set to be front runners in the digital space!
Always the pioneer when it comes to their marketing strategy (Glocalistaion- "The World's local bank"), HSBC have incorporated social media as a central part of their #StartsToday campaign. #StartsToday is about helping you achieve your ambitions with a range of products and new offers to help you get your aspirations off the ground. Using Instagram style pictures accompanied with an explanatory hashtag, HSBC wants people to visualise their aspirations for the future in way that is familiar to them. January is notoriously the time when our hopes and dreams for the coming year are at the forefront of our mind. So when everyone is looking for a mean to achieve their goals, HBSC steps in to offer a solution in the form of their #Startstoday campaign. Two small words, but two words that hold so much weight at this time of year.
The use of simple, relatable images with limited text is also refreshing. All to often ads for the banking sector heavily feature numbers and percentages that by enlarge mean nothing to the average passer by.
By using familiar images allows the viewer to interpret their meaning on a personal level which in turns helps them to connect with the ad more. Furthermore, the use of images that do not specifically relate to banking i.e running shoes allows HSBC to be associated with more than just money, it becomes associated with ones lifestyle. All in all, a very good campaign.
Breaking a habit or changing established behaviour is a notoriously difficult task. So not just encourage it? Everyone falls victim to that impulse buy from time to time. Most of this type of buying is done on the internet and Amazon is one of main places people go to practice this vice. This campaign, therefore, encourages such behaviour.
Using humour as its main tool, it shows the act as less naughty and more 'normal'. It seemingly justifies impulse buying as logical and natural, while highlighting how their easy-to-use shopping app can help you impulse buy to your hearts content. Lucky Generals created the two ads for a campaign. Each of the spots shows an Amazon customer being reminded of an item on their shopping list and then using the app to buy it. But this could just as easily be random item that just comes to mind that you had intention of buying. It is truly a great campaign, but when we can't pay the rent at the end of the month we all know who to blame!
As part of the their #loveyourimperfections campaign, Match.com continue to help reduce our apprehensions about online dating.
Online dating services are plagued with profiles that represent an individuals "ideal self" as opposed their actual self. The ideal is a person's conception of how she/he would like to be, whereas the actual self refers to our more realistic appraisal of the qualities we or don't have. So someone who goes to the gym 2-3 times a week, will say that they go 5 times, someone who is 5 9" has an online double which is 4 inches taller, and so on and so on. It is quite understandable that people want to portray themselves in the best possible light and that can lead to a slight exaggeration of the truth. But with all the the cat fishing scandals of the noughties people are losing confidence with online dating. Singles don't want to spends and hours and hours getting to know someone and falling in love with that individuals online persona only to find out that their prince/princess is really a frog in real life. But it isn't only the threat of people pretending to be something they're not. The ubiquitous nature of these inflated profiles means that people feel anxious about putting their "real" self out there for fear of judgement. That's were the #loveyourimperfections campaign comes in. This refreshing strategy uses this consumer insight to make a campaign which reflects brutal truth. It warns off the fakes and encourages people to be themselves online. It tells prospective users the simple truth- None of us our perfect. But that does not mean there is not beauty to be found in our imperfections. This is reflected in the latest out of home material which are simple, uses real users (blemishes and all) and has a witty little imperfection plastered across it. The #loveyourimperefction is positioning Match.com as: The online dating service were singles can meet "real" individuals, not profiles. Hey, thats a pretty good tagline wouldn't you say?
Very simple play on words, but I love it! Eager to capitalise on the January's healthy living phenomenon which typical sees an uplift in green tea sales in the first month of the year, Clipper hope to attract new “considerers” as well as existing green tea drinkers to the brand. The New Year Revolutions campaign will seek to encourage consumers to “turn over a new leaf” in 2016, and combines an outdoor and transport campaign with a playful online video, shot using hidden videos inside Clipper’s 'Truthful Green Tea Shop.' The outdoor campaign is expected to reach 90% of adults across London and the South East during January. The YouTube video will be shared extensively through the use of bloggers and social media. It is hoped that more than a million people to watch the video during the course of this year. The campaign was developed and created by Big Fish. The online video was produced and filmed by Exposure. Personally, I still need to add a little honey to my green tea, but hey, each to their own.
The image of a malnourished, barefoot, african toddler collecting dirty water or searching through rubbish for food, does not have the same effect on us as it would've 10 years ago. Sad, but true. That is not to say it doesn't break out hearts. But its no longer enough for us to reach into our pockets to help fund the solution. The simple fact it is that every charity has uses this image and the proliferation of such images has resulted in the vast majority of those who are in a position to help have become desensitised or no longer believe that their money makes a real difference. There in lies the brilliance of this new campaign. It focuses on the positives and want You have already achieved!
So how did the do it?
Firstly, it starts with a positive message. All to often we see these type of appeals start with horrific images, and that's makes us do two things. Switch channels or switch off. This campaign starts by saying "The countdown to ending extreme poverty has begun."This immediately indicates to the viewer that this is not the usual charity appeal and worth working to see why.
Secondly, the novel use of real British donaters, with whom the viewer can relate, makes them at feel that they too can be part of this larger project. Unlike the traditionally ads which only shows the aid workers contribution this add shows all the contributors. Aid workers, donators and the impoverished people themselves are all seen to be working together to eradicate the disease of extreme poverty. Seeing thus people who you helping, helping themselves is also
Finally, It has long been proven that we love to feel part of the collective. And for many years now advertisers have used social marketing messages that involve call to action that makes you seem part of group. An example of this would be: "Join your fellow citizens in helping keeping these streest clean" instead of " Help keep these street clean." Believing that you adopting the behaviour the majority makes you more willing to participate in the activity. This is the technique that oxfam are using here. They are inviting you to join the countless others who are doing their part in eradicating poverty in a way that shows that you can really make a difference. Sign me up!
