Have a look at this …
I’ve got to be honest, I think it’s one of the most amazing ads I’ve ever seen.
Not – of course – because it’s good, but because there’s so many things in it to hate, I don’t know which one I loathe more.
From the cliched photograph that is obviously trying to associate with street culture through to the absolutely fucking awful oxymoron/pun of ‘Future Retro’ and ‘Deja New’ … there is an endless amount of hate inducing triggers in this ad.
But even those things don’t come close to releasing my inner rage as ‘Time Tracker’.
TIME TRACKER!!!
It’s a watch. A bloody watch. Yes, they ‘track time’ but they’re attempt to make it sound like the future of watches makes me literally want to kill.
Oh I am thinking about how I’d do it.
Maybe a wooden post so I can smack them around the head.
Or maybe a canon, so I can shoot them far, far away.
Or maybe … oh hang on, I know what I’ll do … I’ll make them wear that ‘time tracker’ and refer to it in the same way, so their shame will be all encompassing and complete.
Time Tracker is a perfect example of something I’ve been seeing more and more of … repositioning that isn’t repositioning.
Repositioning is about helping culture look at your brand in a totally different way.
When Wrigley’s chewing gum moved from being a sweet to a dental care product … that is repositioning.
When Poloroid cameras shifted from photography to being a social lubricant … that is a repositioning.
When Old Spice moved from being used by men to being valued by women … that is repositioning.
A watch going from telling the time to tracking the time is not.
And yet I am seeing more and more work that is trying to position themselves as a catalyst for change when they’re doing nothing but re-articulating the category expression.
One of the categories doing this the most is the financial sector.
There are more new ‘banks’ than at any point in my life.
All with quirky names.
All claiming to be revolutionizing the industry.
All stating they are being developed around the needs of their customers.
And yet not one of them seems to realize that as much as they’re trying to be seen as disrupting the banking industry, they’re doing it in exactly the same way as everyone else.
Disruption but without distinction.
But here’s the thing, are they even disrupting … because so many of them are trying to communicate you can ‘trust’ them. I get trust is important wherever money is concerned, but it is also the backbone of the industry … so in essence, they’re saying ‘we’re different’ and yet they are communicating in exactly the same way as the establishment.
In essence, they’ve become the beast they claim they were created to slay …
But they’re actually worse, because not building any distinction into their offering or behaviour except their name and choice of pastel ‘brand’ colour means all they are really building is commodotisation.
Of course that’s probably because their business plan is to be bought by the establishment and so they don’t care about long term thinking, but this – just like the idiots behind that Nixon watch – is the new ‘best practice’ for brand and business strategy.
And we wonder why the business community questions our ability to talk business.