Eshin Direct

A Move in the Right Direction

We were born to move. Or so says Cathay Pacific with their new brand promise.

You’ve got people getting jiggy with it to a tribal beat and you can’t help wonder if the creative director came up with his concept just after a recent visit by Stomp to Hong Kong. You’ve got absolutely every bloody target segment you could possibly think of, in possibly every location that an international company could think of (just in case you missed it). You’re thinking, “Wow, what’s all this about?” (Those jaded on advertising have already narrowed it down to an airline, a courier company or an arty McDonald’s TVC).

And then the raw insight, “We were born to move”.

And the brand promise? It’s a nice insight, but there simply is no brand promise. No brand connection to the insight. People were indeed born to move. Rather than fly around the world shooting arty commercials, a little more thought should have gone into joining the dots. Lord knows I love advertising that successfully does an inspirational ad without ever having to show the actual product (think Apple’s “1984″). But I still have the question in my head, how will Cathay Pacific help me move and place it in a position that could be just any other airline (or delivery company, or McDonald’s)?

We are born to move. And so too are brands maybe. It is afterall, a move in the right direction.