Today’s blog sends its wedding best to a client and takes an advertising trip down Lovers Lane.
Never let it be said that we at Muse aren’t in touch with our emotions.
Only last week Rick was moved to tears by the symmetry of one of his own six-cluster audience segmentation solutions. Meanwhile Rob has often been known to re-count Wayne Rooney’s bicyle-kick against the ‘noisey neighbours’ with a tremble in his voice. And there’s nothing more likely to bring a lump to Simon’s throat than the words ‘last-orders at the bar’.
However this weekend we all gave an extra special “awww” when we read about our client Susan, who is undoubtedly one of the nicest people in marketing. The announcement of her wedding to the broadcaster Andrew Neil in the Sunday papers was the main item of discussion at our status meeting.
It also, somewhat tangentially, sparked a discussion about what constitutes romance in marketing.
Of course in today’s world romance is a thriving category in itself, irrespective of whether you’re a facilitator like e-harmony, an enhancer à la Agent Provocateur (our next-door neighbour) or simply an emergency service as are most garages that sell flowers around the clock. Of late brands have become increasingly inventive about how they pull at our heartstings. Whether it’s Coke’s Invisble Vending machine that only revealed itself to couples or Heineken’s Mysterious Date in a Box, marketers have tuned-in to what really gets our hearts racing.
However in our opinion the genuinely enduring examples of true romance in marketing are still rooted in the advertising of yesteryear. And, love it or hate it, none can claim a greater place in the heart of the nation than the famous Nescafé couple. Whilst many have attempted to recreate the on-screen ardour of the caffeine-based canoodlers, has anything come close to jamming the switchboards as they did when the pair bade their final farewell?
So in an unashamed nod to eighties advertising we invite you to grab a coffee, enjoy this clip from the campaign and raise a mug to romance.
