Hello, It's Me...er...You

I've been watching Lincoln Financial's "Futureself" commercials for a while now, and I want to like them even more than I do.

It's a really cool conceit: people at meaningful junctures of their lives meet themselves as apparitions from the future.  Two spots take place in hospitals (proud dad seeing his child for the first time; worried wife wonders if her husband will live), while a third, and the least interesting spot, happens when a rich older self visits his younger self sitting in coach on an airplane.

The ghosts of rich-people-to-be offer reassuring (and a little funny) advice to their less- well-off younger selves, and encourage them to be prudent planners.  If you go to the LFG website, a virtual sticky note promises to let the visitor "see your future," only that future is effectively to suffer a sales pitch. 

An agency called 22squared produced the campaign, and here's how its CEO described the work:

    "This new campaign is rooted in the principles of 22squared's friendship marketing model.  Our collaborative process with Lincoln Financial began with the realization that the social tenets of friendship govern the relationships between individuals and brands today. Lincoln Financial has bravely chosen to directly establish relationships with individuals as friends vs. consumers as their competitors often do."

Normally, that much nonsense turns me off completely, but I like the campaign even in spite of the fact that a "friendship marketing model" sounds like a second date along the path to Lovemarks.  It's all blather, particularly the comments about social tenets and relationships.

"Futureself" is a cool idea made into a few TV commercials, along with the requisite collateral marketing that we see all the time.  Here's how it could have been really cool:

• It could have been really funny or moving.  Like maybe somebody was about to make a real mistake.  Or the older self could have a limp because of a skydiving accident that hasn't yet happened to the younger one, yet he tells him to go for it anyway.  The copy for the spots was just too pedestrian, and it consistently defaulted to generic advice on financial planning ("my hair is on fire...yes it is, and it's fortunate that you have sound financial advice...").  Imagine your futureself given 30 seconds to talk to you right now; do you think you'd tell yourself some pablum about being true to thine own self?  Hasn't anybody at the agency seen "Back to the Future II?"
• The consumer challenge could have been more engaging.  The web site is a propaganda site with a nice entry point.  Instead, imagine if the campaign would have allowed consumers to, say, create their own "time capsules" for themselves down the road...this could have required registration, which would enable LSG to start a real dialog with them.  Maybe the challenge could have been to offer a small, specially-priced action -- say, put away $100, or something -- as a gift for your futureself, or perhaps your futurechild?  There are no obvious or simple actions promoted here...just lots of sales nonsense
• The social component could have been legitimately social.  Well, there isn't any social component to this supposedly social campaign.  What if LSG hosted forums for people to share their "what I wish I could have told myself" thoughts with others?  Perhaps users could create "top ten lists of advice" or, more playfully, "predict the future" surveys and contests

I'm sure there are lots more, and even better, ideas that would elevate this smart creative idea into a truly stunning marketing campaign. 

For instance, how about making the stupid company logo larger on the spots' closing screens?  Maybe an easy link to go to, or an SMS # to punch?  How about a challenge right then and there, instead of showing the inert, hard-to-read URL? 

Anyway, I'm sure my futureself would tell me to change the bulb already. 

Comments

[Carson]

In fairness to 22squared, this campaign feels like one that was initially presented with better individual ad ideas that were subsequently watered down by the client.

Not that clients ever do that sort of thing.