This week TAG Heuer steps back in the future with the launch of its new advertising campaign, spearheaded by the familiar tag line “Don’t Crack Under Pressure“, which the company previously used from 1991-1994. Yes, it was that long ago and only ran for 4 years, but that is what good advertising does…tricks the mind to make you believe that you saw it only yesterday.
Don’t Crack Under Pressure
Last year I wrote an article that stepped back through the history of TAG Heuer’s advertising campaigns, which you can read here. Two of the best original “Don’t Crack Under Pressure” ads from that era are shown below.
The original campaign was built around sports, which of course made sense when you recall the line of watches offered at the time- the steel “Six Features” collection. As TAG Heuer once again focus on sports-style watches, the campaign returns and like the original, the spotlight is on TAG Heuer’s sporting ambassadors.
Campaign Overview
The first four images (including the McQueen image at the top of the page) of the campaign are built around sportsmen and women, with Patrick Dempsey featured thanks to his second life as owner and driver for the Dempsey Racing squad.
There is one notable face missing: Leonardo DiCaprio, whose contract with TAG Heuer has not been renewed and is no longer an Ambassador. While Cameron Diaz is still linked with TAG Heuer, she is not involved in this first set of ads.
We hear that there are new deals soon to be announced with other sporting teams, so watch this space.
We’ll let the marketing experts make their own assessment of the images, but to my eyes they are certainly better than the old style, which featured the ambassadors holding their watch in a somewhat unusual fashion (below)
Launch Video
The video below has been put together to launch the new campaign, and is worth watching if for no other reason that the footage of the Porsche 917 taken during the Le Mans movie.
What does the new campaign mean for TAG Heuer’s strategy?
We’ve written a few articles about some of the changes that are happening at TAG Heuer at the moment, and the new campaign is a further step in the direction towards focusing on the sporting aspect of the brand. There has been a lot written about the change in strategy, some of it right and some of it wrong. Stay tuned and we’ll bring you the full story shortly on how Stephane Linder and his team are tackling the big strategic questions 12 months into his term as CEO and what this means for the 2015 range.
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