OUGD503 - Responsive YCN Feel Good Drinks Research

Oasis Campaign 

Oasis launched a refreshingly honest summer campaign designed to appeal to the fresh new generation- millennials. 

Oasis Senior Brand Manager, Natalie Whitehead-Farr, said of the campaign: “The 2015 campaign is bold and refreshing – using animation to illustrate some of the absurd and funny truths in the everyday life of teens.

“Each piece of content pokes a bit of fun at a modern trend and delivers an Oasis perspective – whether that be on outdoor advertising, gym selfies, reality TV or slow motion product demos. We think this humorous approach will really resonate with Oasis consumers of all ages.”

We can’t help but imagine that the champagne was flowing at Oasis HQ when they realised the campaign was set to launch on what turned out to be the hottest day of 2015 so far!

This a part of Oasis’s latest series of campaigns that attempts to appeal to the new wave of consumers, who place a great deal of importance in a brand being honest, transparent and communicating their values to them. It reflects the two big marketing trends that have emerged in the race to appeal to millennials: humanised marketing and insane honesty marketing.

Whilst traditionally marketing campaigns have focused on promoting the logical and marketable strength of product and services over it’s competitors, insane honesty is a willingness (or at least a perceived willingness!) by a brand to be transparent with their consumers, even perhaps to the point of actively pointing out and sharing their weaknesses. This builds the trust of the consumer by speaking to their unconscious mind ‘Well if they are truthful enough to tell me about their weaknesses, the messages they put out about their strengths MUST be being true!’ a psychological phenomenon commonly known as the Halo Effect.

Humanised marketing is an approach that has developed astronomically since the popularisation of social media marketing. Research consistently shows that the brands that do well online are those that adopt a humanised voice for their brand, reminding their audience that there are real life humans working behind the scenes. With the hashtag #Orefreshingstuff proudly emblazoned across the front of their ads, from the day the Oasis campaign launched, the social media team at Oasis were ready to engage, re-tweeting and replying to interactions with their brand online.

I thought this campaign was extremely effective and it was ticking most of the boxes I would need to for Feel Good drinks, however instead of enticing people to buy feel good drinks for thirst I wanted to adopt a strategy that they wanted to buy feel good drinks simply because of the health benefits. No added sugar or preservatives and the healthiness and good taste of the drink itself. So therefore I decided to adopt a similar strategy of using bus stop boards and bright colours and a shocking tone of voice but using the brands name and concept to promote ideologies of health and well-being.