Those of us in the legal marketing sector who were dedicated enough to sit through ITV’s ever-tawdry Dancing On Ice Final on Sunday night were treated to some heart-rendering vocals from Rachel K Collier to a backdrop of emotionally charged scenes during one of the breaks. The London-based Welsh singer/song writer immediately tweeted that she was excited about the possible release of the song and that it sounded “SICKKKK”.
The tune accompanied the much-anticipated Quality Solicitors advert, and while the artistic impact of the ninety-second commercial has been widely lauded – and rightly so – the actual benefit this will have for the chain seems less certain. Even looking beneath the comments to the YouTube link to the advert it’s obvious that viewers are interested in the music but rather apathetic to QS.
Immediate responses on Twitter were also broadly positive, but again had little to do with the chain and were more focused on the music and the emotional effect of the images. Have QS paid Saatchi & Saatchi £15m for a gorgeous ninety second video that leaves viewers ambivalent to the brand and the agency with an award for creativity?
We had been promised a subtle “John Lewis-style” advert for months and in that regard it certainly didn’t disappoint, with the brand not revealed until the last eight seconds of the film. There is risk, however, that it’s too subtle for a brand, that while widely known within the industry has a relatively low brand-recognition score compared to firms such as, well, John Lewis.
Of course, the advert itself tries to turn the concept of hiring a lawyer as a distress purchase on its head, with Chief Executive Craig Holt explaining that “legal services aren’t really about forms and documents and black-letter law, but about life and emotions and people’s families, businesses”. As an advert for the legal sector in general it appears to have achieved this, as has been borne out by the initial emotional reactions.
QS are in a very interesting place as a business because by trying to build a chain of over one thousand locations by the end of the year they could become the firm that people automatically go to because they trust the brand. After all, no other legal brand has advertised to this extent before and this subtle building of an emotional connection might just help them to dominate the marketplace.
Ultimately, we can talk about clever branding all we want but right now I don’t really need a lawyer to help me for whatever life brings. What I do need is to find where I can download the song that is stuck in my head and makes me a bit weepy when I get tired. Whether I’ll remember the company that introduced it to me when I do need that lawyer I’m not so sure. That said; I look forward to seeing and hearing more of the 8,000 slots secured by QS.
