Now here's a question for you: do you have room in your wallet or purse for another card? Everything ‘80s retro is in at the moment (there's even an e-zine devoted to the decade: "Retrorama; Eighties Edition") ... so how about stuffing your wallet to its leather gills with credit/charge/store cards? No, a bit gauche for the post-noughties?
Quite. So if you are flogging plastic, you better give me a damn good reason to open my wallet.
Are you listening at the back, American Express? Dear old Amex was the daddy of exclusivity eons ago. And now...
Well, who cares frankly?
How does the card marketer overcome a general indifference to lower league financial services? Well, Amex has taken the view that there's nothing new or interesting to say about the card or what it does. Fair enough.
They haven't even revived the idea that this card is "not for everyone". Perhaps such elitism plays badly with all us would-be egalitarians.
Instead, the strategy is one of "misdirection". You know, the conjuror waves a big hanky, and while you're attention is focused on that, an elephant appears on stage as if by magic. Not exactly, but you get the idea.
What is Amex's big silk fluttery hanky? Would you believe: concert tickets.
Really, really good concert tickets, mind you. So good that to quote the ad, "Get any closer and you'll be in the band". The line is accompanied by a jazzy illustration of a machine head from the musician's POV. Nice.
But that's not all. You get points. And points mean prizes. Stuff yourself on enough pasta (paid for with Amex) and you could have an iPod. Amazing!
And ... er ... that's it.
The ads seem to be targeting the "young, affluent, music-loving metropolitan set". Or some such. All built around the rather earnest-sounding proposition of "Realise the potential". (As it's American Express, the strapline is of course TMed.)
It's all a bit, well, plastic. In the descriptor music-lovers, the key bit is "love". Emotion. Passion. Thrills. Even danger.
This campaign has as much of that as a tepid cup of tea.
If they persist with this strategy, I suggest the whole team sits down and watches ‘The Future Is Unwritten', Julien Temple's biopic of Joe Strummer, before they write any more ads. Then we'll see if there's any 'potential' here or not.
Simon S Kershaw is a creative consultant. A former executive creative director at Craik Jones, Kershaw writes a weekly column for marketingdirectmag.co.uk and the DM Bulletin.
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