Jaguar’s LGBTQ+ focused magazine ad named most effective of October

 

Readers of Attitude magazine will have struggled to miss Jaguar’s ‘Live Loud’ advert within its pages over October, with the ad’s vibrant orange colour and simple design grabbing immediate attention.

In fact, thanks to its distinctiveness and emotional resonance, the ad was the most creatively effective magazine ad of the month in terms of public response, according to Kantar’s ‘The Works’ study.

With its eye-catching colour scheme and ‘Dare to be Original’ tagline, Live Loud performed in the top 8% of all ads in the UK for engagement. The ad is seen as involving, distinctive and interesting, falling into the top 75% of ads on distinctiveness.

Live Loud is part of a long-term partnership between Jaguar and gay men’s magazine Attitude, which sees the car brand partner with its awards show. The Attitude Awards are the largest awards the LGBTQ+ community hosts in the UK.

The partnership goes back around six years, Jaguar Land Rover UK’s marketing director Anthony Bradbury tells Marketing Week. This ad is just the “latest chapter” in a “long and evolving collaboration”.

It can be very tempting to overload an ad with information and messages. Congratulations to Jaguar for being brave enough to be single minded and not fall into that trap.

Lynne Deason, Kantar

“We’ve seen really good synergy between [Attitude’s] activities and audience and our brand,” he says.

“What’s very important to the LGBTQ+ audience is the ability to express their individuality, and of course they’ve sometime had to do that at quite some personal cost. But that spirit of individuality is actually very closely tied into Jaguar.”

Jaguar founder William Lyons once said “Jaguar should be a copy of nothing” – one of Bradbury’s favourite quotes.

On top of that, customer research by the brand has shown people who tend to buy Jaguars are “quite self-confident”, and want to express an alternative choice.

“So there’s a natural symbiosis with the mindset of the audience, which is one of the reasons it works so well,” he says.

Engaging with the LGBTQ+ audience was not something the brand wanted to “dip in and out” of, however. “It’s something that we try and commit to, and it was a learning journey on both sides… We wanted to try and ensure it had some longevity,” Bradbury says.

Feel-good factor

The theme of individuality and its resonance with Attitude’s audience is what led to the ad’s tagline, Dare to be Original.

“That goes right back to our founder’s thought,” Bradbury says. “And we think the F Type is a very distinctive sports car. There isn’t really any sports car like it and again, that’s because it goes right back to the heritage of Jaguar sports cars.

“But of course, Dare to be Original is a thought that matches very well with the LGBTQ+ audience.”

Similarly, while Live Loud has “obvious product references”, as the car’s V8 engine is known for its distinctive and loud raspy sound, it again plays into the idea of living for yourself.

“[The campaign] has always been rooted in the expression of the individual, being proud to express yourself,” Bradbury adds.

Shifting perceptions takes time and persistence. It’s a step along the way in doing that, to make sure that people understand that Jaguar is a modern, relevant, progressive brand.

Anthony Bradbury, Jaguar Land Rover

Produced in association with Marketing Week and the Advertising Association’s Trust Working Group, ‘The Works’ study asked 750 consumers what they thought of five of October’s top print ads – 150 consumers per advert.

The Live Loud ad evokes a powerful emotional response, with a feel-good factor in the top 6% of all UK ads. ‘Attracted’, ‘proud’ and ‘excited’ were particularly popular emotions evoked by the design.

The ad was also highly liked, with 44% of people claiming to either love or like it compared to a norm of 30%.

Kantar’s head of creative excellence Lynne Deason explains: “Emotion is a growth and success driver for all brands, but is especially important for premium and luxury brands, making it particularly positive to see the emotional power of Live Loud coming through as one of its strengths.”

According to Deason, the distinctive creative “halos” on to what people think about the brand, conveying a “strong” feeling that the brand is different to others, another key growth driver. The ad scored in the top 25% of UK ads on this measure.

At first glance, the F-Type car in the middle of the ad draws the most initial attention (see image below), with consumers latterly drawn to the Jaguar logo and Live Loud campaign title.

As one participant in the study said: “There was no overpowering noise – just the car speaking for itself”. Another branded the orange colour as “stand out”, and the car as “beautiful”.

“Live Loud is a great example of powerful magazine advertising, and a showcase of how a distinctive, bold yet simple idea inspired by the brand’s strategy that showcases the beauty of the product in an emotionally evocative way can be highly effective,” Deason says.

“It can be very tempting to overload an ad with information and messages. Congratulations to Jaguar for being brave enough to be single minded and not fall into that trap.”

Measuring success

For Bradbury, the main success measures for this particular campaign are around its ability to shift attitudes and brand perception.

“It’s what we would call a nurture campaign. This is not about trying to sell cars tomorrow. This is trying to find partnerships with organisations and audiences that we feel will resonate well with Jaguar,” he says.

In particular, Jaguar tracks consumer agreement with the statement ‘Jaguar is a brand for people like me’. “That’s a really important metric we want to try and build over time. We want people to be really proud and to desire a Jaguar because of what it says about them,” Bradbury adds.

But while Jaguar is “very proud” of the products it builds today, Bradbury believes the brand has some work to do to ensure perceptions of the brand are representative of the modern brand, and not its decades of history as a business. While its legacy does have “huge positive associations” around product performance, it doesn’t necessarily yet resonate as the “progressive” brand it wants to be seen as.

“And of course, shifting perceptions takes time and persistence,” Bradbury says. “It’s a step along the way in doing that, to make sure that people understand that Jaguar is a modern, relevant, progressive brand.”Jaffa Jonuts scores hole in one with September’s most effective outdoor ad

At Jaguar, long-term brand building campaigns are essential, Bradbury adds.

“We’re very keen to always ensure it’s a priority of what we do because this is not an impulse purchase. After your house it will be the most expensive thing most people buy. A lot of thought goes into it. And therefore a lot of both rational and emotional reasons go into the decision making process.

“It’s a relationship that will build over time and you can either nurture that relationship and try and build it or you can not take good care of it, in which case it will wither on the vine.”

In advertising, branding can be a “challenge” for brands in the automotive sector, Kantar’s Deason says, where there are common advertising tropes used and executions from brand to brand can look very similar.

However, “although this ad may be showcasing a car centre stage as many do, there is so much about it that makes it different,” she explains. “It’s the simplicity of this ad, and the interest and curiosity that it arouses, supplemented by the integration the iconic logo that is ‘jumping jaguar’, that ensures that the brand leaps through.”

Overall, the ad landed in the top 26% of UK ads for branding, a key effectiveness measure.

According to Bradbury, the early results of the campaign have seen “very positive” movements in sentiment towards the brand, as well as a particularly strong shift in brand advocacy.

In magazines, ads are often welcomed and embraced as part of the experience, Deason adds. “This ad for the Jaguar F-Type leverages that to drive its success. People are looking for stimulation and something interesting within a magazine context,” she says.

“Our brains are programmed to pay attention to things that are distinctive, that make us feel something and that are meaningful and personally relevant. This ad delivers them all.”