Jaguar's declining sales figures necessitated a bold departure from convention to differentiate itself from competitors. The brand's 'New Era' relaunch strategy with its ‘Copy nothing’ ad has sparked extensive debate regarding its effectiveness and potential impact on the company's future.
Praised for its creativity but criticized for the absence of product – it has captured media attention but couldn't capitilize on it. At Realeyes, our attention and sales prediction data signals how creative performs for long-term sales:
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| Visually Complex Multiple characters pull focus across several scenes. |
Emotionless Low to mid emotional engagement throughout. |
Poor Brand Recall Brand presence is weak in the final scene. |
Attention Drives Sales
Capturing audience attention is essential for building awareness, fostering engagement, and prompting action. Without it, even the most captivating messages struggle to resonate or drive conversions. Attention acts as a crucial link between ad delivery and its effectiveness.
Go Bold or Go Home
For any luxury brand, maintaining exclusivity requires appealing to a select audience rather than the masses to avoid losing its distinctive, premium identity. The Jaguar brand relaunch is free from winding mountain roads, desert highways or nocturnal cityscapes and has instead casts a Star Trekkian crew of expressionless, striking protagonists – each of which demand focus. As car ads go, Jaguar have zigged.
No Product, No Problem
Many iconic brands have successfully launched memorable campaigns without the need to showcase their products. It is the departure from the brand's legacy that's significantly at play here, but the absence of a strong pay-off (Kahneman’s peak-end-rule) came with brand recall consequences.
Tesla's Elon Musk jibed, “Do you sell cars?”, while marketing strategists extensively debated the absence of “heritage” and “brand equity” in their online discussions.
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| Honda’s “The Cog” | Cadbury’s “Gorilla” | Guinness’ “Surfer” | ||
| A Rube Goldberg-style chain reaction of car parts working in harmony. Focused on precision and engineering ingenuity rather than the actual car. | A gorilla plays the drums to Phil Collins’ In the Air Tonight, symbolizing the joy the brand wants to evoke. No chocolate shown; the focus was purely on emotion and entertainment. | A man waits for the perfect wave while surrounded by crashing surf and galloping white horses. The idea that good things come to those who wait—tying to the Guinness pour time without showing the beer. |
Campaigns like these succeed because they connect on an emotional or intellectual level, leaving a lasting impression without overtly promoting the product. It’s tribal warfare, but for Jaguar it seems most critics are outside of the tent.
Shape of Things to Come
EV designs are somewhat converging due to the proven efficiencies in aerodynamics and battery packs influencing similarities in shape and proportion, so brands need to work hard to drive distinctiveness.
Jaguar’s unexpected tactics has redefined its brand perception, disrupted convention to elicit audience engagement. The very act of this bold move shows purpose, and authenticity which should attract new audiences, who will ultimately decide Jaguar’s future.