{"id":4249933,"date":"2020-05-07T15:03:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-07T13:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/insight\/strike-a-chord-without-conforming-using-your-brand-to-kickstart-recovery\/"},"modified":"2020-05-07T15:03:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-07T13:03:00","slug":"strike-a-chord-without-conforming-using-your-brand-to-kickstart-recovery","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/en-nl\/insight\/strike-a-chord-without-conforming-using-your-brand-to-kickstart-recovery\/","title":{"rendered":"Strike a chord without conforming: using your brand to kickstart recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\n\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tBack to all articles\t\t<\/span>\n\t\n<\/a>\n\t\tStrike a chord without conforming: using your brand to kickstart recovery\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/picture>\n\t\n\t<\/div>
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\n\t\tLizzie Powell\t\t
\n\t\tVP of Growth, Experience and Engineering\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\tDate\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t7 May 2020\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\tIn a recent report,\u00a0\u00a0What Should Ads Look Like in the Time of Recession?<\/a>, the question was asked, \u201care people responding to ads differently?\u201d during the coronavirus crisis. The report looked to establish the mood of the nation, whether opinions have pivoted and, if so, how? To understand what kind of ads are connecting with consumers, the report compilers looked at their ad-testing data and found that there has been no reduction in advertising\u2019s ability to connect with audiences, but there are better performing approaches than others. So what approach should your brand take to its current advertising?\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\tMarketing based around fluent, recognisable brand characters and familiar setups are performing well. Obvious examples include long standing campaigns like Compare The Market\u2019s meerkat, and Go Compare\u2019s Gio Compario. Also think about familiar brand devices, like\u00a0Tesco\u2019s \u2018Food love stories\u2019<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0black and cream design in every Guinness ad<\/a>. These brand devices naturally lend themselves to agile work, as the setup is already well established; a proof-point of a long term, brand building strategy.

The report found that three ad topics were connecting more in recent weeks: togetherness, community and place, and nostalgia. The issue is, that this approach is obvious. It\u2019s obvious enough to have spawned an entire genre of advertising during the lockdown period.\u00a0Nicely compiled in this video<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0torn apart in Mark Ritson\u2019s most recent column<\/a>, the combination of a blatant \u2018togetherness\u2019 approach and reliance on filmed-at-home content has caused collective amnesia around the importance of ensuring the brand stands out from the crowd.\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t