Rotten advertising, good positioning?

Last week Dairy Crest explained that the estimated £5 million cost of the campaign featuring Johnny Rotten (real name, Lydon) for its Country Life brand has been partly responsible for holding back profits.

This on the face of it reflects some confidence in the effectiveness of their marketing approach – as the company put it “in line with our strategy to continue to grow our key brands, we have spent more on advertising and promotions during the year.”  The retention of Mr Rotten (the former Sex Pistols front man) for the last two years, together with a high profile presence on their website is further evidence of commercial delivery.

I confess I have always felt uncomfortable with the idea of a former Sex Pistols (and anarchy advocate) encouraging the UK to eat nice, British butter. But that’s the point, it is a very disruptive combination – one that grabs attention and sticks in the memory.

Disruption is undoubtedly a valuable tool for effective advertising – something exemplified by Swift Cover’s use of Iggy Pop, a brand advocate who would surely struggle to get car insurance from Axa.  Of course, it is not the only option in the advertising tool bag and attention needs to be given to long-term brand positioning implications -  consider FCUK and French Connection. Their mock profanity application of the brand’s initials supported a very successful campaign and sales push, but over time the brand found itself vulnerable to an association with a superficial device that was no longer disruptive or cool.

The good news for Dairy Crest is that Lydon amplifies a buy British positioning that has a greater longevity than Lydon.

What also intrigued me about this week’s announcement was that it follows trading comments in early 2009 that the campaign had boost sales by as much as 85%. This impressive level of growth, you would hope, would allow a profitable return within a year!

The inference must be that the campaign is on-track to deliver a longer term return in terms of sales and/or brand value.  A vote of confidence in the disruptive Lydon campaign certainly, but perhaps a more emphatic backing of a ‘british is best’ positioning.