James Bond's Branding Masterclass

By: Giles Martin,

Why is this film a Masterclass in Branding? To answer this question, you have to see the ad first, of course! So please watch it before reading any further.

I’m not going to talk about the fabulous creative concept, which sets up the duality and confusion of Daniel Craig and James Bond, and the cleverness of the writing which weaves the concept into a Bond-like story. It’s a brilliant idea and brilliantly executed. And this just makes the ad even more powerful. 

Instead, I’m going to focus on only a part of the ad’s effectiveness, and how I see the branding working. More and more of our clients are asking about and thinking about branding, and typically it is not well understood or executed by D2C companies. Hopefully, this exercise might help demystify it somewhat, and invite some further smart conversations about what branding is and how best to execute it in tandem with hard-hitting performance campaigns. 

This is a story-based ad, and part of the beauty of the branding here is that it doesn’t distract from the story or its power. This is essential. If you’re going to use storytelling as the branding device — and there is a lot of evidence to suggest that telling stories is one of the most powerful ways to build brands — the story must be strong. You need to dedicate time (air time) to the story and do not have the luxury — if that is the right word — of hawking your product heavily.

Instead of pushing the brand, a good story-based ad, like this one, is supposed to generate emotions among its audience that can then become attached to the brand in their minds. Some of the emotional responses this ad elicits (at least for me) are delight, wonder, amusement, respect, enthusiasm, interest, and curiosity. How would you like your prospects to feel that way about your brand?!

This is illustrative of why branding is worth undertaking, and why the Economist reports “Brands are the most valuable assets many companies possess,” going on to quote Millward Brown’s estimate that brands account for over a third of the value of the S&P 500. Ready to brand, then?! Let’s begin!

The ad opens with “Heineken Presents: Daniel Craig vs James Bond”. It’s presented like a feature film! This sets up the expectation that it should be something worth watching, worth paying attention to. This is a ballsy move. It raises expectations, which can be risky. But if you can fulfill them, it really pays off. These implicit associations make the brand aspirational.

Note also, before we even get to the action, this is a two-minute spot. You must be confident in your product to invest in a full 120 seconds of production, and be willing to pay two or four times the typical media cost to air your ads. This assuredness echoes the confidence we talked about in the prior paragraph. Confidence then becomes linked subconsciously with the brand in the audience’s minds. This is a brand that knows it’s good. Viewers can feel confident about this brand, and themselves too.

So, on to the action! The very first shot is of an aspirational place. Daniel Craig is sunning himself on a rock by the water somewhere beautiful. You want to be in this place, sunning yourself on this rock. This immediately deepens and strengthens the aspirational quality already established with the “Heineken Presents” billing.

In the opening shots, there is strong, simple, smart, and subtle branding. Nothing in your face. Nothing crass. Nothing salesy. There are two sun umbrellas branded Heineken, and a waiter walks to DC with a single bottle of Heineken on a silver tray, carried in one hand. The fact it’s a single bottle on an otherwise empty tray not only draws attention to the product, but also implies importance, and the luxury of space.

The waiter and the tray may seem like small touches, but they’re very smart and most likely very important (see Paul Feldwick’s upcoming book for more on this.) A silver tray is associated with luxury, with lordship, with the highest quality. And the way the waiter carries the tray, with one hand, brings to mind true professionalism (excellence). This is how people carry trays in truly aspirational places, where the service is of the highest quality and emphasizes the importance of the object carried, like a note to a king. 

These are just some of the powerful yet subtle aspirational signals linked to the Heineken brand in this footage of the waiter — and it’s only seconds of film! Luckily for marketers, the subconscious mind — where almost everything happens — processes information at lighting speed, and no additional time is needed for these branding devices to work here. When you see how quickly and subtly this is happening, it’s easy to understand why so many people claim —falsely — that they are not affected by advertising. 

Also note the most obvious and important branding device: Daniel Craig has ordered a Heineken. If he drinks Heineken, you may want to as well, because after all (if you’re a man) don’t you want to be Daniel Craig? 99% of men would say yes. This is the most basic and hefty tip of the aspirational scales. (There’s an interesting question which arises here, which is how effective is this commercial with women? Please share your thoughts!)

We then have a whole 40 seconds with what appears to be NO BRANDING. This could be looked at as a cardinal sin, and the guys at the Ehrenberg Institute would indeed tell you that one of the things that is proven to drive higher levels of brand recall is not allowing long gaps in the ad without brand mentions (or shots of the brand). So in one way, again, this is risky. 

This is just part of the reality of branding, however. It certainly can be risky. The risk is part of the game. That’s why the question at the bottom of our branding quest at Oxford Road is, “how can it be made less risky?”. It’s important to deeply understand different models of how branding works, and to analyze outstandingly good brand ads — which brings us back to our task here…

This is not the type of branding ad in which a 40-second branding gap equates to a marketing sin. Far from it. The 40 seconds is dedicated to telling and quickly evolving a story and a tone. The 40 seconds capture our attention and draw us in. They unfurl an inviting narrative about a guy disappearing, an unexpected taxi ride, and a case of mistaken identity with a helping of tongue-in-cheek drama. 

Even though the Heineken brand doesn’t appear here, the James Bond music surrounding the scene is actually a kind of branding of itself, as it comes with a pre-built package of positive associations (badass, winner, high-roller, undefeatable, world-beater, sexy, drama, excitement, etc.) This is amazingly powerful in and of itself. If you doubt that, bear in mind these associations are so valuable to marketers that they are paying tens of millions of dollars for the rights to use them. 

So even though the brand doesn’t feature in these 40 seconds, these seconds are still serving the branding. And so are the following shots (and their concomitant aspirational associations): the taxi driving across the gravel-sand road (adventure, far-off lands), the overhead shot of the taxi on a plateau surrounded by trees (high production values, cinematic feel, quality, foreign lands, adventure, natural beauty), and the tractor driving past in town when the taxi pulls up (authenticity, reality, levity.)

Moreover, this “unbranded” 40 seconds actually serves to make this both a better story AND a better commercial. It makes the story more believable, relatable, attractive, dramatic, and adventurous. But at the same time, it’s creating a patchwork of desirable associations and emotions encircling Heineken. Finally, the heightening of the emotional engagement primes the brain for making stronger neural connections (i.e. stronger brand associations.) So even if there is no ‘traditional’ branding happening during this time, it is actually very effective.

However, (as the Ehrenberg guys note – and we should listen to them!) it’s not good to let too much time pass without showing your brand, and so the team makes another good choice here: to bring in the brand again, but to do it again in a tasteful, understated way, that does not distract from what you really care about (the story.) The next branded moment is at 52-secs when DC is running through the streets chasing the taxi — when a Heineken lorry drives past. It appears again two or three seconds later, although (interestingly) doesn’t show any branding in that particular shot. Perhaps it doesn’t matter — so much good branding work is already being done.

When DC finally sits down at the beautiful bar at 1:53 our peak branding period begins. First, we see hundreds of Heineken bottles lining the inner table of the bar, as well as a Heineken tap for good measure. It’s been over a minute since we’ve seen the brand by this point. When it appears again here it is accompanied by DC’s satisfaction in accomplishing his mission (arriving at the bar at last.) Our mirror neurons heighten our emotional response at this time and hence the brain’s capacity for being imprinted. His response to being given the Martini glass also heightens our emotional response. When DC finally gets his Heineken (remember, he wanted one originally back on the beach) he pulls the sort of faces and subtle body positions that tell you he is incredibly happy, satisfied, and completely badass. And isn’t that actually what we all want more than anything at the end of the day? It’s wonderfully aspirational.

And it’s no coincidence that these strong and profound emotions are happening just after the moment you are seeing lots and lots of Heineken for the first time, and simultaneously with seeing DC himself finally enjoying his bottle of Heineken. This is the point at which the positive associations with Heineken and the brand imprinting are at their peak. 

What has Heineken achieved with this ad? They have told you Daniel Craig, and James Bond, for that matter, drink Heineken. That in itself will probably make millions of men (unknowingly) order Heinekens at bars all over the world and pay for the cost of the sponsorship in itself – before we even consider the more subtle branding that’s been achieved. But of course, it has done much more for the brand (and the business) than that. In the minds of the audience Heineken is now dramatic, a movie producer, desirable, exotic, adventurous, has a sense of humor, is interesting, authentic, desirable, aspirational, happy, badass. This is everything branding should be. It’s creating an irrational and emotional preference for the brand.

The rubber hits the road when your (potential) buyer is faced with a buying situation: in a bar, at the supermarket, in a gas station, at a ball game. The stronger their emotional and irrational connections to Heineken, the greater their inclination to choose it over a competitor at that moment. The impact of branding on people’s neurology may typically be tiny; but if you multiply up that tiny impact by millions of people in millions of buying moments all over the world, every day, that tiny impact on their neurology turns into a whole lot of extra revenue for the brand.  (And really high-quality ads like this have a neural impact that is far greater than the typical tiny effect of a typical ad, and so even more revenue is generated.)

In summary: if you’re hesitant about branding, know that it can have enormous value. If you’re skeptical about its practice, know that risk can be reduced (with a more scientific understanding.) If you’re unsure of if and how and when to approach it, that’s perfectly normal. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. We suggest you talk to a discreet, qualified professional. We would always be glad to hear from you.