Get marketing news you'll actually want to read
Marketing Brew informs marketing pros of the latest on brand strategy, social media, and ad tech via our weekday newsletter, virtual events, marketing conferences, and digital guides.
Okay, hear us out. Taylor Swift’s re-recorded Red album came out November 12. Four days later, Cartier released an ad that could pass for a Red music video.
- Much of the ad is, in fact, red—but moreover, it’s pretty celeb-studded, featuring stars like Willow Smith, Maisie Williams, and Troye Sivan dancing to the 1974 song “Love Is All.”
- But Antoine Bonodot, ECD at Publicis Luxe, the agency behind the ad, told Marketing Brew the similarity between the Red album and this warm ad is just a “happy coincidence.”
Bonodot also told us Publicis Luxe and Cartier usually start working on the brand’s holiday ad about a year in advance. And despite the pandemic, this ad was no different—the pair worked on this ad for roughly an entire year before it debuted on the 16th.
Why it matters: In November 2020, Covid vaccines weren’t even available yet, making it difficult for marketers to predict, well, anything about what society would be like in a year.
The mask ask: Last year, Bonodot couldn’t predict if masks would be the norm in ads by now. But he told us that his team “took the bet that masks wouldn’t be necessary in the ad.” Covid precautions like testing were taken during the shoot, but no masks appear in the actual spot.
According to Bonodot, that’s because Cartier’s brand identity has always been associated with dreams and idealization. This dreamy motif gave the Publicis Luxe team (which has worked with Cartier for almost 10 years) enough confidence to create an ad about togetherness in a year where being together wasn’t exactly the norm.—PB