I’ve got great memories of being a kid, singing “My dad picks the fruit that goes to Cotteeeeeeeeees, to make the cordial, that I like best!”.
There’s something magical about a great jingle. When a catchy lyric goes beyond background music and entrenches itself into popular culture (“I feel like Chicken Tonight, like Chicken Tonight”) it generates a sense of brand loyalty that can linger for years after the original ad campaign has come to an end.
Fond childhood memories = emotional connection = brand loyalty
Almost any child of the 80s would remember some of these classics:
· “Aussie kids, are WeetBix kids. Aussie kids, are Weet-Bix-kids!”
· “Decore de de Decore de de... As I shampoo my hair, I really love, my Decore…”
· “I feel like a Tooheys, I feel like a Tooheys, I feel like a Tooheys or two!”
· “You can tella Wella woman by the way she wears her hair, you can tella Wella woman anywhere”
· “One day, you’re gonna get caught. One day, you’re gonna get caught. One day, you’re gonna get caught with your pants down” (Holeproof Underdaks)
· “Every day, in a million ways, every home needs Harpic!”
And even earlier, these beauties were getting stuck in people’s heads:
· “We’re happy little Vegemites, as bright as bright can be”
· “I’m Louie the Fly, I’m Louie the Fly, straight from rubbish tip to you” (Mortein)
· “I like Aeroplane jelly, Aeroplane jelly for me!”
Whether the advertising world was distracted by the advent of computer graphics, or consumers had simply outgrown the naffness, jingles went out of fashion in the late 90s. That’s not to say that there weren’t jingles in the late 90s, but just like TV theme songs, they needed a break.
Now that late Gen-Xers and early Gen-Yers have turned into adults with money, jingles are back!
In the last fortnight, two ads in particular have caught my ear.
In common they have a distinctive soundtrack, the colour red, and a focus on price. But boy oh boy, have they made distinctive impressions on television audiences.
On one side of the equation you’ve got the latest installment in the Coles “Down Down” campaign, and on the other, you’ve got “Robin da Hood”; a quirky integrated campaign from Virgin Mobile.
The good, the bad and the tone deaf
Twitter went mental last week with hashtags such as #stopcoles and #downdown trending, and not in a good way. It was apparent that people were not impressed – in fact, by and large they were appalled – by the rework of 1964 hit Downtown by Petula Clark. Coles has taken a well-known song, mangled the lyrics (to me it seems they made them up on the way to the shoot), and selected an ‘every day woman’ to shout each line while colleagues with big red fingers dance down the aisles of a supermarket.
Above all else, the lack of tunefulness of the Coles ad star is what seems to have caused the most offence. The Good Guys have been using a similar concept for a few years, except their singing is in tune and the lyrics rhyme. That adds up to a memorable jingle. And that’s effective.
Coles, however, is arguing that its current ad campaign is effective. I agree that recall will be high. People will be well aware that Coles prices are “Down Down”. Will that make more people shop at Coles? I say yes – at least for now.
I do question, however, the longevity of the campaign’s success. This campaign, which began about a year ago with a less-annoying jingle, focuses solely on price. The promise is “Prices are down, and staying down”. That’s an awfully big promise. For how long will prices stay down? Can I expect that I’ll still be able to buy a loaf of bread for a dollar in a years’ time? Will price cuts come at the expense of other desirable supermarket qualities such as quality, produce freshness and customer service? What impact will these low prices have on farmers?
My fear for Coles is that campaigns focusing on price alone will start to lose impact very quickly. Prices can’t get much lower than what they are currently advertising. It’s very hard to promise that “prices are down, and staying down”, when they’re at rock bottom already. At some point something will have to give. Prices will have to go up. And uh oh… Coles will break its promise.
Maybe Coles isn’t interested in long term customer loyalty. What do you think?
The skinny bloke in the red tights with the self-styled mullet
Virgin Mobile has gone all medieval with its latest campaign, and I love it. The first time it came on in my house we all stopped talking to watch the TV. The branding wasn’t in our faces. It was non-existent. As we followed Robin da Hood on his journey through Sherwood we wondered “What the hell is this ad about?”. Right at the end we found out it was for Virgin Mobile. Is it going to make be switch mobile phone providers? Not right now. Does it cut through the mountains of telecommunications jargon about caps, bonus credit, free-talk, off peak, blah blah blah? Yep.
The campaign goes across all media. The messages are consistent and the characters are thoroughly entertaining. People are invited to engage with the campaign on a whole new level. The key messages are softly woven into the campaign touchpoints, unlike the Coles ad where the key messages are screeched at you as if you’re at a rug warehouse closing down sale.
The danger of this is that the key messages might get missed all together. Recall of the campaign might be high, but what good is that if people can’t remember the company or product being advertised? I must admit that after seeing the ad for the first time and marveling at the level of detail the creative team went to, I actually thought it was for Vodafone!
The advantage of this campaign, however, is that people are willing to watch the ad again and again, and will be more accepting of further installments. By this stage, brand recall will be high too. And as long as Virgin Mobile doesn’t stuff up and let customers down, the campaign should be effective – long term.
Will either of these ad campaigns permanently etch themselves into our brains? In 20 years from now will we be able to recite all the lyrics? Pfft. I don’t think so. In the short term though, both these campaigns are effective, but for different reasons. I’m really keen to know what you think. Which is the better campaign and why?
Until next time,
Gem.
