Episode 143 - Relate The Hornicultural Society Ad Reviewed by Sky
Humour and sex ed go well together… but for over 65s?! In this week’s episode we look at Relate’s ad, The Hornicultural Society, chosen by Contagious and created by Ogilvy.
In the UK, surveys show that the over 65s prefer having sex to any other pastime, even gardening. But what do you do when they need a bit of education on STIs? Relate came up with a gardening-inspired approach (after all, gardening is their no. 2 pastime!) 🥕🥬
🍆 The artwork, the approach, and the message of this clip was spot on for our guests Adina Smith (former Director, Marketing Strategy, at Kroll) and Amy McKiernan (Campaign Manager at Sky), who gave it 4.5 out of 5. Watch and tell us what you think!
Episode 143 - Relate The Hornicultural Society Ad Reviewed by Sky
Transcript is automatically generated, so not perfect, but you get the idea!
Dan Moseley 0:00
Welcome to Advertisers Watching Ads. The weekly show where we invite brands to review other brands' ads.
Dan Moseley 0:28
This week, we have two brilliant guests with us, and I'll hand it over to introduce yourselves.
Adina Smith 0:32
I'm Adina Smith. I live in New York, and I was last at Kroll but I've been at top agencies and Fortune 100 companies in brand and marketing.
Amy McKiernan 0:42
Hi, I'm Amy. I'm a Campaign Manager for Sky in Dublin, Ireland.
Dan Moseley 0:46
This week's ad, chosen by Contagious is Relate and The Hornicultural Society. So we're going to watch that right now.
Dan Moseley 1:22
So we're gonna ask you to vote out of five for this week's spot. Three, two, one... Oh, four and a half. Okay... First question I had was, was this a topic that you were both aware of before you saw the spot?
Adina Smith 3:23
I was not aware that, first of all, over 65, the number one hobby was sex, but bravo. And that you could still get gonorrhea. It never occurred to me. And my mom is in assisted living and my father died when she was 80 and when she was 84, she found a boyfriend. And we were speaking about topics related to having a new boyfriend. And it never occurred to me to use protection at her age. And if I'm not thinking about it, my mom wasn't thinking about it and neither was her then beau.
Amy McKiernan 4:02
It's a topic that nobody would really address, and it's kind of a taboo that you don't really think the older, over 65 are having any sex of... First off, that caught your attention and gets people talking as well because it's something that you'd kind of pinpoint that to like college students or under 30 to be more careful and safe and, yeah, I just thought it was brilliant and it was so humorous. Yeah, I think humor in advertising and campaigns just makes it so much more memorable and it just, I think a lot of advertising can be a little bit boring and just kind of, here's the point and you know with safe sex it's very like, you're a bit like, "Okay, okay I'll use a condom." Whereas this is like, "Have fun, but use your condom at the same time."
Adina Smith 4:45
And you know, if you're trying to grab people's attention, you're not going to do it by lecturing or just fact finding or bullet points. So I loved the humor and I thought it was a really brilliant way to reach every generation. So I think this is a great way to reach people who were taught to believe that this was taboo.
Amy McKiernan 5:07
They had the old generation with younger generation as valid, bespoke, it's mischief, it's funny, and it's got huge media coverage as well. So I think, when I was looking, like, the out of home advertisements, I was kind of like, is that the right placement for them? But it's also hitting the younger audience and it's starting a conversation with everyone. So I thought it was really good.
Adina Smith 5:28
Really, I mean, when you're at, you know, a gardening center, first of all, it's a marketer's dream. There's no clutter. If that's their number two hobby, that's the best place to be. And it's also very clever. I believe the condoms are free too, and biodegradable. I thought the media was terrific. They also did out of home. Ogilvy, they hit it out of the park with this. I just think that really being in that place does promote exactly what Relate is trying to promote. So I thought the media was genius.
Amy McKiernan 5:59
One question I kind of had is like, how many garden centers were they in? And was it just a one for like a couple of weeks? Or are they still there? Or is this just kinda to make it tie it all together?
Adina Smith 6:11
I don't know. But I think I heard that they were only in one chain of gardening centers. As far as Relate goes, I live in the US and Relate is a UK-based service center, so I didn't know about it, but I did look into it and they are fantastic. I wish we had that here in the states. So I did not know about them, but I found out about them. So that helped as well because they cover mental health, women's health, every kind of benefiting thing that we all need. I learned a lot from this.
Amy McKiernan 6:42
Yeah, I suppose the thing I loved that was just so bold and risky and you know, it was familiar as well with the use of the emojis. You know, everyone has that on their iPhone, on their keyboard, they use them daily. So when you see they up on a big billboard or bus stop, it's going to make you stop because it's familiar. The copy was just brilliant as well. It's punny, I think so many brands are lacking that as well. When you look at like Durex ads, they're quite sexual and fast-paced and everything like this for this has like more kind of wholesome, lighthearted twist on it.
Dan Moseley 7:12
Did you both have a feeling of, you know, could this come to life in my market? Is it, is it transferable?
Amy McKiernan 7:19
I definitely think so in Ireland because everyone just likes to have a laugh and everything like that. And it's a bit of "craic" as we like to say. So I'd definitely love to see it in Ireland. I think it would be a great talking points and get the media across, the message out there.
Adina Smith 7:32
There will be people like at the beginning of this ad that will be absolutely outraged. I do not personally understand that and I think they must be very tense. But I believe this would absolutely translate to the vast majority, and I think we would actually appreciate it overall. I think it would be much more of a success than a criticism here.
Dan Moseley 7:55
Is there anything that you might've done differently or any kind of opportunities that you think they didn't quite tick the box on?
Amy McKiernan 8:02
I don't think there was any really fault in the campaign, but I would have loved to see like more like over 65 talking about it with maybe like their daughters or their sons or the younger generation or to have an 18 year old and a 65 year old talking about it. I think the conversation would have been really interesting to see as well. But overall, I thought the campaign was brilliant.
Dan Moseley 8:22
Do you think work like this would inspire other parts of the industry to think about that audience differently?
Amy McKiernan 8:26
I definitely think it's going to inspire a lot of brands to question norms, be more bold and risky, and I think including like the older generation in their targeting as well, and then getting them talking about their brand, and their product by including all demographics as well.
Adina Smith 8:47
They use like very Georgia O'Keeffe type of onion visuals. And of course, we all know, eggplant visuals and all of those very mature and fun stuff. But it was, it was really a great way and that was cross-generational. I think that would speak to, you know, boomers down through Gen Z. The artwork, the approach and the message. Nobody wants gonorrhea. I'll speak for everyone, and if you disagree, that can be another show.
Dan Moseley 9:14
Yeah, quite looking forward to the TikTok reaction where they realize that their parents and grandparents are having sex. That would be a...
Adina Smith 9:20
Oh yeah, nobody... Your parents are not human beings.
Dan Moseley 9:25
Well, yeah, look, thank you so much for joining us. It was a really, really, really fun campaign to talk through this week. So, really appreciate your time.
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