Align with behaviour / Vestel recognised that it’s easier to play into an existing behaviour than to create a new one. This campaign took off because it acknowledged a tradition that already exists within Turkish wedding tradition and worked with, not against it.
As Contagious co-founder Paul Kemp-Robertson and lead strategist Chris Barth divulge in The Contagious Commandments: Ten Steps to Brand Bravery, to correctly align with behaviour a brand needs to truly know its audience and context. ‘Key to success in this area is listening,’ the book reads. ‘Marketers need to get to grips with what people are doing or saying in areas adjacent to their idea and then move in that direction, rather than expect people to change their behaviour and go out of their way to interact with advertising.’
Own the occasion / This campaign not only ensures the brand is front and centre as a wedding is happening, but also guarantees (participating) newly-weds will visit a Vestel store to exchange their token later on. Normally, Vestel is fighting competition to draw newly-weds into their stores. During this campaign, which lasted for an entire year, couples had no other choice when it came to cashing in their tokens for gifts – the brand eradicated the competition.
Vestel has managed to enter and own the wedding ritual by solving a pain point for guests who have to pay increasingly high prices for gold and increasing footfall by requiring newly-weds to exchange tokens in-store. While the idea of having TVs and fridges pinned to your wedding garments might seem a little clunky, the distinctive assets still represent money that guests have spent. And pinning money, or any representation of wealth, pays homage to a long-standing Turkish cultural tradition.
