The Mound - #41 Speedos & Selling Out

Welcome to The Mound, a weekly newsletter in which we at Good One Creative pitch— for free — our solutions to the world’s problems.

I read once about an ad-guy who, whenever he reviewed a particularly unsubtle piece of work, liked to adopt an English accent and say, “Pardon me, but I believe your strategy is showing”. 

I have to agree that strategy probably is the underwear of advertising - in that it is equal parts necessary and secret; it is exciting to some - even as the more “natural” creatives among us eschew it altogether, believing pants are pants enough. On the whole, though, we need it because when an ad goes live, it is the company revealing its hand to the table: after so many rounds of escalating costs and decisions, this is our bet. This is why we deserve to win. 

Following their global brand relaunch last week, I believe Speedos deserves to win. 

We spoke about the campaign for quite some time on the last episode of our AdMission podcast - but the short of it is:

Speedos, which has spent the last 20 years aligning itself to Olympic success, has bet it can get the ordinary beachgoers of the world to “Go full Speedo”. Creatively, it’s a pitch-perfect execution: the talent, the look, the location, the music, the vibe… It’s world-class creative - and the execution alone is enough to garner our cheers. It’s the strategy, though, that has me doing cartwheels across the Australian Eastern seaboard. 

This campaign represents the ambition of a much-loved and pretty-much-ubiquitous brand - two characteristics that usually encourage defensive manoeuvres. After dominating the athletic swimwear market for so long, though, Speedos believes the Olympics are not enough. They want more than athletes, than Gold. They want you. 

Like I said, I think it’ll work - and from their success I hope a great many brands will learn to see the cards they’ve left on the table. You think you’re a specialist brand with a tight-knit community of loyalists? Well, then you need to think bigger. Much bigger.

Here’s how we fix it: 

The best way to pitch this manoeuvre is to use an example. So we’re looking for a brand that leads in selling a very specific product to a very specific audience. Enter: XTRATUF. 

XTRATUF makes a good number of things - but the brand was built upon supplying deck boots to the commercial fishermen of Alaska. Since their blue-collar beginnings, they have expanded their product line and audience - to the point of now selling Croc-style slippers to recreational, less ice-hardened fishermen. But their heritage and purpose is clear - they make slip-resistant boots for people that really do not want to slip. 

Now, we admit these boots are not in-vogue; their cut and colouring are a far-cry from the brown Blundstones and Birkenstocks on the feet of just about everyone in Melbourne right now. 

Screenshotted from XtraTuf.com

All it would take, though, is a TV series a la The Bear to get those who currently fantasise about screaming in a kitchen (in Birkenstocks) or remaining tight-lipped on a Tasmanian farm (in Blundstones) to start dreaming of losing a childhood friend to the icy depths of the Bering Sea (in XTRATUFs). 

Best part is, the ads pretty much write themselves. 

You’re welcome, Australia.