Back to the Future

21st Jan 2010 A passion and truth by Chris

Photo by fluzo

Opposites attract! With the possible exception of Nicolas Sarkosy and Carla Bruni, I’ve never totally subscribed to this theory. But having had a sneak preview of Tom’s article, I feel that there is an interesting relationship between highlighting trends for 2010 and reflecting on the creative campaigns and creative strategies of 2009, and even more interestingly (for me at least) using them both to help us engage with audiences and business opportunities over this coming year.

Even though Nassim Nicholas Taleb warned us against using historical evidence to truly predict future behaviours in his excellent book Black Swan, I think that as 2009 was a bit of a black swan in its own right for many of us both personally and professionally, we can in this case make an exception and take many learnings from the last twelve months and build on them over the next twelve.

In fact this is the subject of both a presentation I gave here at WAA as part of our Big Think series and also a lecture I delivered at the University of Birmingham just before Christmas.

So with apologies to any Michael J Fox fans who have inadvertently stumbled upon this, my Back to the Future strategy is built on five creative pillars from 2009 that I believe have introduced to us new ways of thinking, both in the way we approach business and the way we engage with our customers. And though these all may have been born in a recession, each will grow and develop long into the happier, healthier, bouncing future.

• Offer the comfort of certainty

2009 saw many brands including Hovis and Persil using their heritage to provide a sense of comfort and certainty to their customers, pointing out they’d all been through a lot together over the years and come through on the other side. However, one brand that took this creative strategy and really delivered was Hyundai with their offer to take back the car at no charge if you were to lose your job.

• Surprise with unexpected little victories

As a creative strategy, this dovetails rather nicely into the trend of random acts of kindness, but last year it played an even more fundamental role. For a while a lot of people were making a lot of personal sacrifices. Families - and mothers in particular - were stuck with that dilemma of wanting to do what was right for the family budget but at the same time doing what was absolutely right for their children; a tension that was creatively and commercially resolved beautifully in Walmart’s helping you save the traditions of Christmas campaign.

• Centre on bringing together family, friends and home 

Even though we may be living in a personalised world of I-this and I-that, family, friends and home became more important last year as witnessed in campaigns from IKEA (home is the most important place in the world) and Dentyne (make face time). This is a trinity that will continue to become even more important this year.

• Be as creative and flexible as your customers 

During recession we all have to become a little more imaginative and inventive in the way we approach things and much more flexible about what we accept. This does not mean we have to put up with second best, it just means we have to reframe our thinking. Sainsbury’s love your leftovers campaign captured this thought perfectly, giving us permission to not feel ‘guilty’ about re-using food (indeed you could argue we should feel more guilty about wasting it in the first place) and giving us inspiration to create something special.

• Invite them on a mission…

… especially if it’s a worthwhile one such as Pampers and UNICEF. Not only does this tie in well with the concept of ‘Generation G’, it also helps to create strong emotional connection and longer lasting relationships with consumers.

Of course there are many more examples both of creative strategies and creative campaigns that we could also look to (such as Selfridges' Future A-Z 2109, which takes the view of rather than reclaiming the past to show comfort and certainty, instead own the future) and from which creative and business inspiration for the next twelve months can be drawn. But the interesting (and exciting) thing for me is that some creatively rich new areas have opened up in the last few months that reflect new consumer behaviours, which, along with new creative technologies, are going to provide opportunities for us engage with not just this year but long into the future.

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forex robot

Posted about 1 month ago at 13:02 on 27th Jan 2010

What a great resource!

 

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