Leveraging an existing brand to get liftoff in another new industry

I recently spotted an ad in Maxim magazine for a fragrance for men. Whether this ad is leveraging off an existing brand to get liftoff in another market or simply gaining brand reinforcement, it works.

It is called Adrenaline and features two pics superimposed of a man in a suit and then the same main bare-chested and obviously competing in sport, both focused on the finish line somewhere off page to the right of the reader.

Key words reading from left to right below the pictures are Surge, Rush, Fierce and Thrill. All very obviously connecting with the name of the fragrance and denoting the man that is driven both at work and play.

The reader at this moment will be wondering why I am highlighting this ad that is quite ordinary and doesn't stick out from the crowd. A bit of a recipe ad although it might work if the agency did their homework and placed it in the correct media and grabbed the attention of the buying market.

The punch line in the ad is the uber brand that will make many guys want to buy this or rather many of their wives and girlfriends. Understated at the bottom of the page and almost nonchalantly placed is the word Adidas.

What a pleasure it must be to have a brand like that behind a fragrance. Adidas was the word that caught my eye and if it hadn't I wouldn't have bothered to read it. This is a run of the mill ad for a fragrance that is saved from relative obscurity by a household name that makes the immediate connection between the fragrance and David Beckham.

Some theory will tell you that brand extensions don't work but given the leverage that can be gained from the mother brand there are some that have to work. It won't be as big an effect but the boots could in turn gain leverage from the fragrance.

Of course, the fragrance may not sell well and Adidas may cut their losses. An example of why brand extension is wrong? No, just a mega brand searching for new territory and customers and maybe testing some market research..

Of course there are sports people that read maxim so there is almost incidentally some brand reinforcement for the boots that are never mentioned at all in the ad.

About Richard Clarke

Richard Clarke founded Just Ideas, an ideas factory and implementation unit. He specialises in spotting opportunities, building ideas and watching them fly. Richard is also a freelance writer.
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