A bumper-sticker for recession

Friday, October 03, 2008

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Tricky Times For Advertising Firms, By James Silver in New York, Sky News Online

Is there any point in brand advertising when markets are in turmoil, financial institutions collapsing and consumers hoarding their cash?

Well, according to the experts the answer appears to be yes ... and no. No, because brands built on images of strength and reliability - from Northern "Rock" to the bull used in the logo of failed bank and brokerage firm Merrill Lynch - seem ridiculous now.

However, carefully-worded advertising messages, aimed at reassuring anxious investors and savers, do have an important role to play.

In a recent article on the marketing business - headlined "In Scary Times, Messages of Strength" - The New York Times reported a competitor of failed insurance giant AIG, New York Life Insurance Company, had been grappling with this conundrum.

Faced with reassuring a public mesmerised by doom-laden TV news reports and newspaper headlines, the company had ordered their advertising agency - Taxi - "to create ads that would play up the reliability of New York Life".

William Werfelman, first Vice President of the company, said: "At a time when well-known brands have gone by the wayside, we want to distinguish New York Life from the public companies and others that have had such difficulty."

But how effective will this approach be, given that the public's faith in the financial sector has been shattered in recent days?

It all depends what your message is, suggests Marian Salzman, recently-installed as Chief Marketing Officer and partner at PR multi-national Porter Novelli, after sixteen years at the top of the advertising business, latterly with JWT.

"Hyperbole is definitely out right now and reality needs to be part of all messaging," says Salzman, speaking in her new firm's downtown New York offices.

In the wake of this crisis, the public, she continues, will no longer accept glitzy advertising messages from the financial sector.

"People will be asking tougher questions from their banks from now on. Flashy brand advertising is just not going to work anymore.

"It's no use telling people everything's fine when it obviously isn't. Faith and confidence is non-existent; it's hard enough to persuade people to keep their money in a bank not put it under their feather pillow.

"So marketing from banks needs to start small and tell people that they've been around for a long time, their money's safe and they have a pathway out of this crisis. And on the other side, well-run financial services institutions will emerge."

What of her own former industry, collectively known as Madison Avenue - in a reference to the days when many of the biggest agencies were based on that posh New York Street? How badly hit does she expect the ad business to be from the fallout from Wall Street?

"I think Madison Avenue is going to feel the pinch in precisely the same way as other well-staffed service businesses," she replies. "Times will be tough.

"But everybody's going to experience tough times: Madison Avenue, Wall Street and Main Street, the man or woman who works from home and the big companies. Anyone who's been dependent on economic growth and cheap credit."

What's more the credit squeeze and continuing instability will have a major knock-on effect on the retail economy, argues the trend-spotter who spent years looking into the future on behalf of JWT.

"We're not going to be acquiring stuff rampantly anymore, even if we have the cash. The time for flaunting it is over. We're going to be a lot more conscientious about what we consume.

"This is going to be the era of home-made soup and spaghetti with tomato sauce," she exclaims.

Trust a marketer to come up with a bumper-sticker for a recession.

Posted by James Silver - On Friday, October 03, 2008

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