If you said Mars, you are probably 1) British and 2) someone who recognises the value of a good endline.
A few months ago there was an article in the Guardian dissing 'catchphrases', which I disagreed with on a whole heap of levels.
Mars wasn't one of the examples they featured. But they might well have done. So I was interested to read in this morning's Marketing Week that, after a succession of highly memorable alternatives ('Must be Mars' anyone? Or 'Pleasure you can't measure'?), Mars are returning to the line that made them famous.
Albeit with a slight variation - 'Work. Rest. Play longer'. Because, apparently, it will be reintroduced first on the Mars energy drink, which lets you exercise for up to 50% longer (hmmm, not completely sure that sounds believable).
Anyway, going back to their roots just makes sense to me.
The fame of our long standing brands was mainly built when you really did get a lot of bang for your advertising buck. Which is why their advertising properties remain so front of mind to this day: they got firmly lodged in people's brains, and in popular culture (sometimes even for those who weren't there the first time round). And once rooted in this way, these properties are hard to shift (it's all in the nueroscience), particularly given the fragmented media environment we now have, and the lack of large scale, culturally impacting oomph this means.
So rather than try and update these brand by doing something completely different (because brands can't stand still; they have to move with the times), surely it makes more sense to build on the (mental) foundations that already exist, presenting/reinterpreting these in a new and relevant way?
