Comment by Michael B. Moore on December 31, 2011 at 10:31am

Here's a fun holiday ad from Converse.  Beyond the creative itself, the commercial is strategically intriguing for a couple of reasons.  One, its an almost singularly tactical ad - in that its only business objective seems to be to promote its '2 day shipping for the price of ground' promotion.  I can't remember seeing another commercial in this category trying to accomplish such a narrow task.  Second, for me, the ad brings up the unique contrasts of this brand: that it competes in two different markets, talking to two different consumers, with two different types of products.

And herein lies the strategic rub.  Which Converse is this?   Is this the performance, athletic, basketball oriented Converse or its counter-culture, un-athletic, casual twin?  Its actually not difficult to surmise  here, but it nevertheless reinforces the longstanding conundrum with Converse - that it means different things to different people.  What other brand can occupy almost completely opposite positionings at the same time?  It would be as if Apple also operated Radio Shack under its name or like McDonald's having stores that sell Vegan, health food - under the McDonald's name.  While strategically (and logically) bizarre, it seems that Converse has been talking to its two distinct groups for 30 years - so it "works".  One can't help but wonder whether this strategy naturally inhibits the growth of either side though.  These brand Siamese Twins, IMO, desperately need to be separated!

In evaluating the advertising, a couple of things come to mind.  First, while I generally LOVE subtlety, there needs to be more Converse brand ID here.  Are these Cons, PF Flyers, Skechers, Boxfresh, Heelys, Simple, Penguin or any number of other brands that have adopted the Chucks look???  Realistically, one could go through the entire spot and not be sure.  And then the final frame displays a very stylized logo that doesn't deliver the clearest presentation - and only for a brief moment.  If I'm Nike, don't I want consumers to be crystal clear what brand is making this offer?  The holiday window for the promotion is small; who knows what kind of media budget was behind this, and there's always lots going on around the home during the holidays.  There are plenty of reasons why the message might not get out.  I'd want to be a bit more demonstrative about where this deal is coming from.

More broadly, while probably very effective at delivering the message (2 day shipping), I'm not sure the ad works hard enough to deliver any kind of a strategic brand message.  What I get from this, holistically, is the business message wrapped in a humorous -  wacky, mildly Old Spice-esque - package.  The strategic brand builder in me would just simply ask, is wacky "fun" all that this side of the Converse brand is about?  Even with this very tactical core message, I'd want more of a nuanced, fuller strategic message intertwined somehow.  

The "Big Creative Idea", obviously, revolves around the bemuscled chucker.  Is there enough "Essence of Converse" in the spot to deliver both the business AND brand message though?  Is there a compelling emotional hook to grab consumers?  You know emotionally powerful branding works on the casual Converse consumer too!   That said, this old time Converse fan just loves seeing the brand back - in whatever form or fashion that takes.

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