Spring notoriously signals new beginnings, meaning most industries lean on this symbolism for their own gain. Venelize de Lange from media update considers how publicity campaigns can offer an edge to an overdone story by rooting a brand's future in its own history.
Spring Day — a favourite among many, and after a dreary winter, who can blame the masses? Life dances across cities, reviving barren trees and colouring in our neighbours' gardens.
This time of year famously represents new beginnings, however, for South Africans, it is not just about a clean slate and an exciting future — we also pay tribute to our heritage on 24 September. It's a reality that creates a beautiful symbolism, one where stepping into the future doesn't mean forsaking the past.
Every Spring, brands communicate how they're turning a new page, in whatever capacity that might be, as the season always calls for it. While publicists scramble to get as much attention on whatever new development has a brand occupied, journalists and other media professionals that deal in audience attention have their focus elsewhere: what's the real story, and is there even one to be told?
The brand announcements that make the cut are the ones that publicists frame with the brand's history intact, no matter how green they are. What is the founder's original story, or is there a long-standing relationship between the brand and a specific community? There needs to be something that makes the "new" credible in the first place.
Ferrari is an apt example. The Italian icon introduces a modern hybrid supercar or pivots into the unexpected world of high-end fashion. Yet, every new venture is filtered through the same founding mythology.
To this day, Ferrari operates with the soul of a mid-century racing team first, and a luxury commercial brand second. Whether it is a piece of clothing or an electric engine, the "new" is never inauthentic because it inherits the raw, uncompromising competitive spirit that Enzo Ferrari breathed into the company decades ago.
There will always be something better on the horizon, it's the price of innovation, but heritage brings its own brand of substance. The campaigns that remind their audience where a brand came from are the ones staring success in the face.
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*Image courtesy of Canva
**Information sourced from Strathmore University