Shakespeare: Wrigley offers some much-needed optimism
The end of the COVID-19 lockdown is in sight, and brands are taking advantage of the shift in the public’s mood in their marketing. ITV are going as far as to predict a summertime advertising boom – powered by the return of Love Island and the European Championships.
While restrictions are set to end in June, Wrigley’s Extra is one brand that’s already reaped the benefits. YouGov BrandIndex shows that its new ad, which focuses on dishevelled consumers joyously celebrating a return to normality, to the tune of Celine Dion’s “It’s All Coming Back to Me” – has made an impression on consumers since its debut on April 30.
Between April 29 and May 5, our Impression metric – which measures whether consumers have a positive or negative perception of a brand – for Wrigley’s Extra rose from 10.6 to 17.0 (+6.4). Reputation, which tracks whether people would be proud or embarrassed to work for a company, more than doubled between April 29 and May 1, increasing from 6.1 to 13.5 before eventually stabilising at 10.3 (May 5).
It’s clear that the ad, at a time when Britons have been getting haircuts, buying more clothes, and generally making more effort with their appearance, has tapped into the public mood. Perhaps conscious of the need for fresh breath at a time when work meetings and Tinder dates are becoming a reality again, Extra’s Value for Money score increased from 2.9 to 9.9 between April 29 and May 5 (+7.0). Over the same timeframe, its Quality score, a measure of whether a brand represents good or poor quality, saw a smaller – but still significant – uptick from 10.2 to 15.9 (+5.7). Meanwhile, our Recommend metric – which asks Brits whether they’d recommend a brand to their friends and family – went from 5.9 to 9.3.
Wrigley’s success with this ad demonstrates the value of marketing which reflects on common, topical experiences; it also offers a dash of optimism for consumers towards the end of a long, bleak, crisis.