Dear Holiday Extras, Thank you for epitomising, encapsulating, and unequivocally embracing the principle of Steal with Pride with your Hassle Away campaign.
Actually turning a thought-experiment, that many brands might conduct in exploration-workshop conditions only, into reality, is not just impressively brave.
It also brings into focus the gratitude you might feel towards your inspiration, Cillit Bang.
Yes and, you’ve got me wondering whether riding on the back of the well-constructed and deeply-founded memory structures created by Cillit Bang (“Let someone else do the hard work so you don’t have to” – oblique reference to Flash there for nostalgic readers there) will work for you. I admire you for giving it a go.
My (highly simplified and subjective) recollection of the Barry Scott epoch of Cillit Bang (c.2004-2015) is that it was deeply annoying (we couldn’t help but notice it) but highly effective (we remembered it).
Check out a Cillit Bang ad:
“Hi, I’m Barry Scott” and “Bang! And the dirt is gone” entered popular culture. It was highly distinctive and exceptionally memorable advertising, albeit not one for the (jealous?) advertising purists who perhaps saw it, from their creative ivory towers, “as a bit vulgar”.
However, in combination with its category code breaking packaging semiotics, Cillit Bang was like nothing else at the time.
Someone please advise, but my sense is that brand awareness and salience went through the roof. And the advertising objectives were not just met, but smashed.
So will the same formula work for you Holiday Extras?
Or will people see your ad (in the background whilst they look at their phone) and rejoice that Barry Scott has risen again?
Are the residual Cillit Bang memory structures too strong, and attention-spans too lean, for your ad to do the job you want it to do for you?
Have they recessed?
Or are you just doing a job for Cillit Bang?
No doubt you’ve had all these debates internally, and made solid decisions based on a combination of customer response and strategic vision.
Time will tell and I wish you luck.
But in the meantime, thank you – in the true spirit of Barry – for really milking the metaphor:
“Remove stubborn…”
“Wipe away…”
“Cut through…”;
“Sparkling…”
“A clean getaway…”
Thank you for the ironic cleaning product tropes:
The rubber-gloved sponge;
The wobbly green grime;
The sparkly flashes;
The ting on the triangle.
And thank you for finishing with “Less Hassle, More Holiday.
If we were confused, this helps.
Thanks again Ned