Features
Visual case study: American Express ‘Are You a Cardmember?’ Campaign
In recent years American Express has struggled to find the right message to reach customers in the ever-evolving marketplace of charge cards. The company has employed such memorable campaigns as “Do you know me?” (1974 to 1987), “Membership has its privileges” (1987 to 1996), and “Do more” (1996 to 2004). In its latest attempt the company has once again tapped Ogilvy & Mather to launch a new campaign entitled "Are you a Cardmember?" featuring celebrities in real-life situations while extolling the benefits of being a Cardmember (note the company uses the term Cardmember rather than Cardholder). The campaign which was launched in April 2007 with an estimated budget of $400 million to $500 million has featured tennis great John McEnroe, professional snowboarder Shaun White, and comedians Larry David and Tina Fey. Meg Asaro and Karen D’Silva from Spark Visual Research take a closer look at the images used by American Express to ask the question "Are you a Cardmember?".August 07 Case Study: American Express 'Are You a Cardmember?' Campaign
Karen D’Silva
Tina Fey is one of the latest celebrities to join American Express' campaign captured by Annie Leibowitz. AMEX for years was known as the business card of choice. Now as they compete with Mastercard and Visa for the consumer market, they invite stars to tell their own life story. Not only is Tina Fey a comedian, actress, writer, performer, businesswoman… she’s also a mom. With such an impressive resume, her proudest moment is her daughter saying please and thank you. The campaign falls nicely into today’s life/work blur. Tina is juggling her work and home life. Even though she is a big star, her life is relatable to you and I. Further, AMEX can make this life possible because they allow their “members” to do more.
The story for this campaign is reiterated by the execution of the photograph. Just as the Renaissance painters did, Annie Leibowitz demonstrates how light can be used to create drama. Though the image looks chaotic, there’s a calmness to the image. Front and center, Tina, her work and family are spot lit. With this inner light source, we can’t help but see our character as the heroine. Also, there’s almost an optimistic quality to the moment. Though almost buried in paperwork and to-do lists, she does not wear the look of defeat. Rather Tina is totally in control of her situation. Tina, like many of us, realizes it is all about balance. We want to try to fit it all in, while keeping our centers intact.
Meg Asaro
For the last few years, AMEX has been delivering this campaign under the strategy I like to call ‘Humanizing Celebrity’. Most brands put celebrities on a pedestal, paint them in makeup and sell the fantasy of what it must be like (we are lead to believe) to live a celebrity lifestyle. They hawk perfume or clothes, wigs or watches under the impression that with this item, ‘I too will live like a celebrity’. Here, the opposite has happened. It is as if she is happily dethroned, content to stew in the mess of her everyday. By doing so, AMEX puts the viewer on the same level as the celebrity. We feel equal to her, recognize the details of her life and think, hey, ‘our life is pretty rockin after all’. This is why humanizing works, we feel better in the truth of our lives.
The other point illustrated in this image is that creativity is messy. Many times it is through chaos that the best ideas are born. Photographically, the chaos is controlled with the lighting, forcing our eye to both the mess of the paperwork and the calm of their faces, concurrently. She might be buried under the chaos of her existence but she does so happily and by choice. If you watch the on-air ad, you witness our heroine as the eye of the storm of her life. But, what a cool life! In the ad, they purposely, I imagine, nod to the daily life of her creative role on 30 Rock. Tina Fey is classic Gen X, following her own path, calling the shots, making it all happen. You feel like you are with the in-crowd by simple association.
This brings me to my final point. With this ad we also witness a shift in American pop culture. For the last 50 years or so, the Baby Boomers have driven what we watch, what we read, listen to etc. Generation X has finally grown up and are becoming decision makers and icons in their own right. Think Oprah to Tina Fey, Tom Cruise to Seth Rogan from Knocked up. We dive more into this notion at Photo Expo in New York on October 18th. Please visit the news page on www.sparkvisualresearch.com for more information.
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Meg Asaro & Karen D’Silva are the Principals of Spark Visual Research. For more information about the authors visit the bios for Meg Asaro, Karen D’Silva, or www.sparkvisualresearch.com. D’Silva and Asaro also publish their own newsletter for professional photographers seeking highly applicable market research presented specifically for use in conceptual planning for commercial photography productions.
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