LJ Sedgwick

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August 17, 2017 by LJ Sedgwick Leave a Comment

Do you need to revamp your marketing every month?

We’re just over halfway into 2017. The internet already buzzes with ideas about the need to revamp your marketing as we slide into the rest of the year.

Some experts even recommend changing things up every month. I can’t help thinking that makes a rod for your own back. How can you ever measure what works if you’re constantly changing things?

But some companies have managed to use the same advertising principles for years at a time. So the question remains…

Do you really need to revamp your marketing every month?

With the array of available marketing options, is it necessary to revamp your marketing every month? The success of Absolut Vodka says "no". Find out why!

Back in 1980, Absolut had just a 2.5% share of the vodka market in the US. They sold just 10,000 cases that year.

Something needed to change. So they hired TBWA to make a difference to their advertising.

Enter, the “Absolut Bottle” campaign.

It ended up running for 25 years and contains over 1500 separate ads.

This is the very first one.

With the array of available marketing options, is it necessary to revamp your marketing every month? The success of Absolut Vodka says "no". Find out why!
The very first Absolut ad in this campaign.

By the late 2000s, Absolut was importing 4.5 million cases per year.

That’s half of all imported vodka in the US.

So how did they revamp their marketing?

The product itself looks pretty boring. The bottles are actually based on traditional medicine vials sold in Swedish pharmacies.

After all, vodka was once prescribed to cure medical ailments in the 16th and 17th centuries.

TBWA couldn’t change the actual shape or design of the bottle. The restricted brief meant none of the usual advertising tropes applied, like portraying particular lifestyles.

So Geoff Hays took a different route. He chose to differentiate the product by telling a different story based on the bottle itself.

He paired an image of the bottle with a simple two-word headline.

The classic, simple shape of the bottle worked well with the concise, witty slogans.

So why did it work so well for so long?

The format was described as: “A bottle, two words, and a little bit of wit”. The underlying message remains the same in all 1500 of the ads.

The bottle, and thus the brand, was a modern icon.

Later in the campaign, objects were cast in the shape of the Absolut bottle.

With the array of available marketing options, is it necessary to revamp your marketing every month? The success of Absolut Vodka says "no". Find out why!
Absolut Geneva

A professor of popular culture at Syracuse University pointed out that “these looked more like covers of The New Yorker than advertisements.”

During the campaign, Absolut commissioned more than 800 artworks by Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Annie Leibovitz, Helmut Newton, John Irving, Lady Gaga and Jay-Z.

The message was clear. “A cool brand for cool people”.

Sadly the campaign did run its course. By 2005, commentators felt the brand looked tired, and “no longer as cool as it used to be”.

But getting 25 years out of a single concept just proves you don’t need to revamp your marketing every month.

What can you learn from the campaign for your own marketing?

1) Look at the story you can tell with your tech product or service.

Make a list of its core features. Now pair those features with what they actually provide for the user. The gap between the user before they use your product and their life after they use it is your story.

Absolut managed to tell a very subtle story using the shape of their bottle. It’s classic, simple, durable.

Just like those old medicine bottles.

2) You should also play with imagery.

Don’t just stick to the obvious. Look at popular culture. The below example only worked because of the controversy created by the Young British Artists in the 1990s.

With the array of available marketing options, is it necessary to revamp your marketing every month? The success of Absolut Vodka says "no". Find out why!
Playing with contemporary art.

When you’re brainstorming ideas, write them all on a large piece of paper.  When you’ve filled the page, fold it in half.

Force yourself to work with those on the lower half of the paper. They’ll be more interesting and less obvious than the first ones you came up with.

Your copy is crucial. Without the tagline the Absolut ads make little sense. If you need help coming up with your copy, drop me a line and we can talk!

3) Look for associations between your product and your target audience.

How can you tell people this is the brand for them in a more subtle and nuanced way? Remember their aspirations and desires.

People who bought into Absolut wanted to feel cool and clever too, just like their ads. People who buy Apple products feel differently about themselves than PC users.

Thinking sideways unlocks more interesting marketing. Can you take inspiration from music, fashion, current affairs, or art?

4) Don’t follow trends.

Following trends can be great if you get stuck for ideas. Look at the major tech firms – almost all of them have switched their logos to flat design from the mad array of gradients, drop shadows, and fonts that we had a few years ago.

But the problem with following trends is that you get stuck in a cycle of having to revamp your marketing every time the trend gets stale. If you pick something intrinsically true to your product, the lifespan of that idea is much longer.

For example, Apple puts its ‘why’ before its ‘what’. Its ‘why’? They ‘think different’. Everything they do is different from what everyone else is doing. That results in the ‘what’; cool, sleek products that other companies rush to copy. Their marketing reflects that so they don’t need to keep revamping it because the why remains the same.

And if something works, stick with it! It did run out of steam but the Absolut campaign ran for 25 years.

Over to you! Do you revamp your marketing on a regular basis? Let me know!

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Filed Under: Digital Marketing Tagged With: absolut ad campaign, advertising, creative storytelling, digital marketing, marketing, revamp your marketing

September 26, 2016 by LJ Sedgwick 2 Comments

5 easy ways to get the most out of Instagram

Last month, Instagram introduced its Stories function, clearly as a competitor to Snapchat’s Stories features. On Saturday, CBS News announced it would be using Instagram Stories in its coverage of the Presidential debates.

While ABC will stream the debates on Facebook Live, CBS want to keep an editorial feel to their coverage. It will feature original Stories by the anchors and reporters, as well as “curated Stories from political experts and voters across the US” (engadget).

But in order to share Stories, people need to be following you in the first place. If you want to get the most out of Instagram, then you need to remember it’s social. If you just show up and want likes, then you’ll probably be disappointed. No one likes attention seekers who give nothing back.

If you want to use Instagram in your marketing, you might be wondering how to get the most out of the platform. Here are 5 simple things you can do!
So easy!

So here are my 5 easy ways to get the most out of Instagram!

1) Use hashtags

Hashtags function like search terms within the app. Post your artwork? Try adding hashtags like #art, #artaday, #sketch, or use the materials you’ve used, like #fineliner. Consider taking part in challenges, such as Inktober. Just make sure you check out what other people are doing.

Tag the brands you use. Use hashtags for the places where you are. All of them allow other people to find your work by browsing all work tagged with that particular phrase.

If you want to use Instagram in your marketing, you might be wondering how to get the most out of the platform. Here are 5 simple things you can do!
Hashtag.

2) Follow people

This goes without saying. You might be using Instagram to show off your own stuff, but you should also be interested in what other people are doing!

Consider it research, or consider it ‘being interested’. You’ll probably find that you end up with more followers if you follow more people.

If you want to use Instagram in your marketing, you might be wondering how to get the most out of the platform. Here are 5 simple things you can do!
Find people!

3) Be reciprocal

If someone follows you, check out their feed. Is it cool? Follow them back. Did someone like one of your photos? Check theirs out and like one back. Blogging also used to work like this a few years back, but it’s more prevalent on social platforms now.

If you’re trying to promote your art or design work, starting conversations and posting comments is a great way to get people to remember your name, as well as your style.

4) Post good, consistent content

This goes without saying. If you put crap in, you’ll get crap out, so make sure you share stuff people might actually want to see.

My Instagram supports my fiction writing, so I share photos primarily of places I go, books I’m reading or interesting things I’m doing. After all, they all support my writing. Remember, your brand is how people describe you when you’re not in the room, so post images that people ‘expect’ to see, or associate with you.

If you want to use Instagram in your marketing, you might be wondering how to get the most out of the platform. Here are 5 simple things you can do!
A clean feed.

5) Be human

Remember that you’re human, not a marketing machine. Social media users are more savvy than a lot of marketers give them credit for, and if all you ever do is post images connected with your brand or product, people will get bored. They want to see cool things you’ve seen, interesting places, funny messages – remind them there’s a person sharing the images, and not Data from Star Trek.

So now you’ve got all of those things in play, you’ll pick up more followers, and you can start using Instagram Stories too!

Over to you! Do you use Instagram? What makes you follow someone?

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: advertising, instagram, marketing, promotion, social media

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