As we leave Summer 2022 behind, it’s time for a new season of campaigns. Autumn/Winter 2022 has started and with holidays such as Halloween, Bonfire Night, Christmas and New Years, companies are about to put their all into their marketing strategies to get us talking, shopping, and clicking. This season the focus is on reassuring consumers, reaffirming security and comforting the nation.
September marks the start of the new academic calendar, the media is abuzz with ‘Back to School’ ads, normally focusing on the latest garments, accessories, stationary, as well as marking the end of summer and the beginning of Autumn.
This autumnal season, as the cost of living rises and the nation may feel unsafe or unsecure, the focus is on ensuring Britons that there are resources, options, and security available to them. It may come by way of brighter narratives, such as Tesco mobile’s heroic trolley, or upbeat, colourful, and musical like ads from Asda and NatWest.
NatWest’s 2022 campaign ‘Tomorrow Begins Today’ aims to get people initiative-taking with their savings and money management. This upbeat, people-centric campaign focuses on how to use resources, which is crucial in helping individuals cope with the steep and dangerous rising cost of living in the UK.
Using characters from previous ads, the range of adverts focuses on different talking points or focal points- moving home, keeping track of savings accounts, or opening a business account.
Another notable aspect of the campaign is its environmentally conscious production. The emphasis of media in recent months to be ‘greener’ is a hopeful endeavour to combat the harmful effects fast and large-scale media productions can have on the environment.
The philanthropic efforts of NatWest through this campaign adheres to the current political climate, spotting a gap in the market to create conversations and comforts for audiences alike. By engaging with current issues that audiences are experiencing, the campaign is actively commenting and acknowledging problems and solutions for its audiences.
The campaign explores and explains concisely how people can use the bank and banking app resources but adopts a casual, conversational tone that feels approachable for audiences across different media platforms.
The cleverly used words of Gwen Stefani, what are you waiting for?, haven’t gone amiss either! Making a campaign memorable can be as simple as using a catchy, 2000’s pop-hit, one that sticks in your head for a day or two…
Phones are a necessity nowadays: they are our connections, our televisions, computers, planners, alarms, cameras, and so much more. However, for many people they are still a luxury, especially considering the cost not just to purchase a smartphone, but also run one.
The disappointing and unhelpful conversation with a phone company call center employee seals the deal of the reality of modern phone contracts. Tesco’s objective of this campaign acknowledgement of the rising costs of phone contracts and how this directly hinders individuals.
The imagery of a supermarket trolley saving the day or (Tesco’s slight hero-complex) may seem farfetched, but they are offering an economic solution, and as a trusted brand it may just pay off.
The trailing trolley reminds us that a good deal is always close by, in a place we hadn’t originally thought.
Set to the sounds of Enrique Iglesias’ ‘Hero,’ Tesco has proven once again that they don’t take themselves too seriously and can be in on the joke with its audience.
Also adopting a musical and bright approach, Asda’s 2022 back-to-school campaign features a catchy rap beat, with clusters of school kids adorably singing along, paired with an upbeat and light-hearted attitude.
Asda are focusing on making life easier for its customers, understanding that school uniforms are essential, expensive, and extremely short lived.
The colourful campaign addresses the issue of the cost of school uniforms, without explicitly commenting on how expensive they can be for parents. The messaging is gold in this campaign as it focuses on parental stress without being black and white, depressing or debilitating.
‘Uniform for the people’ is a radical campaign name, suggesting a plethora of meanings (some more so political than others) but overall suggests how ASDA is the company that provides for communities, or ‘the people’, constructing a narrative that ASDA is the trusted or go-to brand for families for affordable and quality clothing choices.
The focus of this campaign is its lack of gender-bias and overall, an idea of sharing the product between people of all diverse backgrounds. Perfume for all, as it were.
The campaign tagline ‘The new fragrance’ feels reminiscent of traditional adverts claiming their product as the ‘new scent for men’ or the ‘new fragrance, for her’. But it’s lack of pronouns leave the tagline feeling empty at first, only for us to realise that’s it, it’s simply the ‘new fragrance’. Quite the subversion.
The celebration of youth is visible through its trendy aesthetic of cool, down-to-earth, urban visuals, focusing on city rooftops, industrial structures, and motifs.
The campaign also emphasises the sustainability and environmentalism policies Diesel has implemented during recent years, focuses on the fragrances plastic-free packaging and refillable content.
The focus on future-thinking strategy, in terms of environmentalism and post-gender theology, is what helps retain Diesel as an innovative and unconventional brand and lifestyle.
Finally, the return of the King… Or Colonel.
KFC’s iconic advert has returned back to our screens and thankfully so. One of the most intertextually rich, narrative-driven, coolest, simplest concepts, it’s layers of complexity wrapped in the single action of showing KFC knockoffs, reminding us there can never be another like KFC.
The Godfather-esque aesthetic, from classic car to smooth music, to the all-knowing voiceover, this advert leaves little to be desired and reminds us of KFC’s brand, legacy, and our loyalty to each of those attributes.
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Posted by Luke on Thursday 29th September 2022
