Over the last decade or so, the consumer landscape has seen fundamental shifts as individuals become as empowered as large organisations. Brands have honed an ability to change fortunes of the masses and not just the elite few.
The potency of this ability was in a campaign shared by Wright, showing how reacting to populism can lead to effectiveness to some extent. For more than 60 years, Colombia has been blighted by insurgency despite its natural resources and educated population. Marxist guerrillas have been funding themselves through kidnappings, gold mining and illegal drug dealing, and committing terrorist acts once every three days in cities and towns.
Lowe took on a multi-year campaign for the Colombian Ministry of Defence. "Connecting literally with the entire population when you don't even have a populist product is a tough marketing challenge," Wright said.
The agency's 2011 'Operation Christmas' campaign targeted a certain part of the Colombian jungle where 52 per cent of FARC guerrillas are believed to be based. Interviews with 200 ex-guerrillas revealed an insight that Christmas is the most sensitive and emotional time period for them. "Communicating very hard-edged things can be done better through emotion," Wright said. "Never be afraid to tell human stories, as magic is our best logic."
Consequently, two anti-guerrilla contingents brought 2,000 LED lights in two Black Hawk helicopters into the jungle. Trees alongside strategic walking paths in the guerrilla stronghold were covered with the lights, with a military mechanism that could detect movements placed nearby.
When the guerrillas approached, the trees lighted up, with banners exhorting them to demobilise into civil life. The powerful, timely and well-located messaging of "If X'mas can come to the jungle, you can come home" encouraged 331 guerrillas to re-enter and re-integrate into society.
"The real output of the campaign wasn't only the guerrillas who walked out of the jungle, but a sea change within the Colombian population in thinking that peace is possible," Wright commented. "This is the ultimate example of an act, not an ad."
This strong and rare example of activism is akin to George Orwell's quote of "advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket", Wright said.
"We struggle as an industry with the notion of populism, we are ashamed of embracing big populist ideas," he said. "Populism has the burden of size since it appeals to the interests of ordinary people. That is the hardest thing to do well without going to a lowest common denominator because people all want to do interesting stuff."
However, the need to connect with billions of people has forced agencies to find a populist yet modern way to engage. When deployed in less challenging circumstances with a "populist product" such as detergent, as Wright described, it is easier for companies like Unilever to achieve marketing effectiveness.
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