Feb, it’s a wrap

Feb 2023 is a wrap, and so it becomes that time of the month to reflect on the month that was and chat about the most memorable campaigns.

Despite it being the month of love, I’m not going to feature any Valentine's campaigns- if you missed my take on who did it best, here it is, instead this month, I’m featuring three brands that have got people talking.

It’s important to prefix that these brands all have deep pockets for execution and media support-  so I’m less interested in the output and production values, but more in the core of the ideas, and what we can learn from them.

1. Through their eyes

In Australia, 83% of female-identifying gamers have experienced offensive behaviour online. Most play in silence with their mics turned off to hide their identity. 

Maybelline created Through Their Eyes, a project where they disguised the voices of two prominent Aussie male gamers, and gave them female profiles in an online first-person shooter game, so they could experience what it was like to play through female eyes. The results were eye-opening.

This genuinely made me feel so angry.

Whilst laddered in gaming, it is applicable to so many intrsutries and situations.

The challenge for you

How can you create something that is grounded in a deep insight that shines a light on a new or novel perspective it gets people to rally behind it and share and talk about on your behalf? I call this the shareability of the idea, and especially if you are limited with media budget to push the idea out into the world, what can you bake into it, that gets people to seed it out on your behalf?

2. On the catwalk

Did you know that there is enough clothing on the planet to clothe the next 6 generations?

That means your grandkids, kids, kids, kids, kids will be able to wear the clothes that are available on this planet already.

But we’ve grown up in a time, where excess was celebrated. You never wanted to be seen in the same thing twice.

Secondhand and charity shop purchases were seen as less than, a bit grubby.

And this is an important place to start, to drive behavioural change you have to understand first the perception that needs to be changed.

The job to be done is to position second hand as cool, as desirable, as a treasure trove of possibility that can express your uniqueness of you.

It’s why I love the term ‘pre-loved’, it’s why I thought the eBay partnership with Love Island was a stroke of genius and it’s why I am obsessed that Oxfam had a fashion show at London Fashion Week last week.

All the clothes came from Oxfam’s own stores and were styled by the British stylist Bay Garnett. Every look was available to buy on eBay after the show, helping to raise funds for the charity.

It's initiatives like this and the ones listed above, and all the ones done by the amazing rental brands out there that will slowly and surely chip away at the negative perception and hopefully in the future it will become uncool to wear new.

The take-out

Behaviour change ultimately starts and ends with self.

So if you are in any way attempting to get people to reconsider their perception on anything, you have to think about self- where are they now, where do you want them to be and what is the delta between the two and therefore the job to be done.

It is within this gap that you need to play. For Oxfam in the quest to reposition second-hand as desirable, they chose the execution to be a London Fashion show, but it could have also been a pop-up that positioned a premium high-end boutique, or a 6-page spread in Vogue that was styled and shot by a top fashion photographer. 

3. Y2k

90s and early 2000s is having a resurgence.

And Klarna the payments platform is jumping on the onto the bandwagon by partnering with queen of the early naughties Paris Hilton.

Together they have launched ‘House of Y2K,’ an interactive pop-up in Los Angeles that explores the evolution of shopping and trends from the 2000s through today.

Designed to highlight three themes - technology, fashion, and beauty - the pop-up will transport guests back in time to the dial-up era where shopping was anything but smooth, before guiding them into a modern, serene Klarna world, filled with elevated shopping touchpoints, makeover moments, and iconic items from Paris Hilton’s private archives. The pop-up coincides with the launch of a Paris Hilton x Klarna limited-edition velour tracksuit, available exclusively through the Klarna app. Whatever your views are on Klana, there is no getting away from the fact that this is slick.

The take-out

Let’s pause for a moment and remember that Klarna is a payment enabler.

PayPal and Stripe are also payment enablers, but you don’t see people flocking to them or talking about them. That is because Kalana doesn’t see itself as a product, it sees itself as a brand- a brand that “allows people to complete their look”.

This subtle reframe means that rather than talking about the functional and rational benefits that come with using Klarna, they appeal to the emotional side and they do this in a way that taps into the social narrative of their core target demographic. 

What have I missed? What have you seen this month and what has it taught you?