Group think / Nearly 70% of Gen Z and 77% of millennials use Apple’s Find My location-sharing app (formerly Find My Friends). What began as a tool for finding lost Apple products evolved into a normalised means of connection within friend groups. Life360 knows that trying to compete with Apple with similar messaging around products is futile – Apple is a master at creating beautiful, high-performing products and at positioning its devices as potential lifelines using powerful storytelling. Here, Life360 has cleverly positioned itself as the location-tracking service for families.
Whereas Apple only offers tracking for its technology and through attachable AirTags, Tile offers a wide variety of tech products to suit a household’s diverse practical and budgetary needs, from credit card-shaped Bluetooth trackers to lost and found QR stickers, perfect for lunchboxes or bike helmets. The stickers cost $14.99 for 15 stickers and Tile trackers begin at $24.99, compared to $29 for an AirTag.
Targeting families is also a smart move to trigger network effects – once one or two family members start using a product and the Life360 subscription, other family members will be compelled to subscribe to join the tracking ecosystem.
Find the funny / The effectiveness of this campaign lies in the execution of the absurd and darkly humorous storylines. What is essentially a product demonstration becomes a memorable, engaging spot because of the heightened entertainment, quality and humour. The spots begin with relatively pedestrian problems (a lost coat, a teenager missing curfew) and escalate to ridiculous, unanticipated outcomes that catch the audience off-guard.
In real life these outcomes are not nearly as dramatic but the spots capture the intense anxiety parents experience with fairly low stakes problems. They elicit a high arousal response – something that market research authority Karen Nelson-Field says is crucial for brand and campaign success. Viewers are more likely to share videos that produce heightened emotions, much like the polarising Nothing Satisfies Like Pot Noodle campaign from earlier this year. Pot Noodle and Life360 both understand that the more extreme a concept, the more likely it will evoke a strong response and higher recall from consumers.
