Picture this:
A big event happens such as, say, a global fried chicken chain running out of chicken. Whoops.
The brand has to react. They have hours to do this — days if they’re lucky.
This is the kind of ad that emerges:
These ads are often called tactical ads and it’s a place where humour thrives. We talk about ‘quick-witted’ and it’s no coincidence that wit is very much at the heart of both this phrase and a great tactical execution. It’s the closest advertising gets to journalism. What’s more, for any ad creative worth his or her salt, working against the clock is a chance too good to miss: back in my full-time agency days, I loved it.
Specsavers is a great example of a brand who do tactical superbly. Formed in Guernsey in 1984, they expanded across the UK then internationally throughout the 1990s. They focused heavily on TV advertising in the noughties, creating ads like this mini-masterpiece from 2008:
On the back of such solid advertising, they had a good tactical headstart. And remember that tagline, Should’ve gone to Specsavers. It’s a damn good one and didn’t Specsavers know it.
In the following decade, they sharpened their tactical chops. For example, in the 2014 World Cup Luis Suárez of Uruguay bit Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini so bloodily that Chiellini even had the teethmarks to show for it. Ouch. Specsavers were quick out of the blocks with an ad that went viral in no time1.
It was so good they then turned it into a billboard in London’s Waterloo station:
Moreover, the brand had the confidence to play around with their tagline. For example, in the 2012 Olympics, North Korea were due to play Colombia in the women’s football event. The South Korean flag was mistakenly raised before the match. Specsavers then put out this press ad, across national papers, the next morning:
Where did these ads get Specsavers? Commercially, they’ve thrived — between 2020 and 2021 alone pre-tax profits rose from £240 million to £441 million. But the brand has thrived culturally too, doing that rare and precious thing: their tagline has entered the language.
How do we know? In May 2020 a senior government advisor, Dominic Cummings, was found to have broken Britain’s lockdown rules. In his defence he claimed he had driven from his home in Durham to a tourist destination called Barnard Castle, 30 miles away, to “test his eyesight.”
Yeah, right.
What happened to Specsavers? A flurry of memes appeared, #specsavers trended on Twitter while, in the week that followed, searches for their tagline surged2.
As for Specsavers, they just sat back and enjoyed the free brand exposure. Was it a stroke of luck that Cummings had come out with this laughable excuse? Sure, but as the golfer Gary Player once said, “The more I practise, the luckier I get.” Without 20 years of advertising behind them, none of this would have happened.
Specsavers’ tactical work is a great example of looking at events through the audience’s eyes — rather fittingly for a chain of opticians. It explores an affiliative style of humour: the suggestion that this isn’t a brand looking down from on high, spouting highfalutin’ slogans, but one sitting on the sofa, watching the match, having a laugh while fumbling with the remote control.
That said, behind the humour are sharp minds at work. If you compare their tactical work with their TV ad above, at first they look radically different. One’s a black-and-white tale about a fictional, grizzled shepherd, another’s about a real Italian footballer. But both land in exactly the same spot, both using humour.
These ads might not win big industry awards, but Specsavers isn’t losing sleep — they’re getting people amused and amusement is getting them creative and commercial results. As a highly controversial World Cup kicks off in Qatar, it might be time to pop on your specs: forget about all the football, Specsavers might be the team to watch.
Many thanks for reading,
Paddy
Book a meeting with me here / www.studiogilmore.com / pg@studiogilmore.com / +44 7866 538 233 / Twitter: @mrpaddygilmore
Daldry, Graham: ‘Want a tactical ad? Should have gone to Specsavers,’ Campaign, 28th July 2014.
Windle, Libby: ‘How Dominic Cummings helped Specsavers but how Specsavers really helped themselves,’ 1st June 2020.