BAYO What's Your Mix Campaign - Alternative Studies

Dear Bayo,

You've had had quite a week. You were expecting excitement for a new campaign, but suffered the backlash of a poorly executed idea instead. There's a chain of blame you can trace, perhaps, pointing a finger at the creative team, another to your own marketing team, but what's the point? There was a series of bad decisions, and what was a campaignable idea was proven to be, yes, campaignable, but only to ridicule itself.

I do not offer more ridicule. You have gone viral. Everyone and their followers are creating mockeries of your "What's Your Mix?" ads. I will not shoot at the low hanging fruit, and glorify myself with easy jokes.

Instead, I'll offer you free professional consult. I love a good challenge. And what's great about this exercise is that neither of us loses anything.

Let's review the campaign, and look at ways we could have done it differently.

The Challenge: Invigorate the brand by daring the consumers to "mix and match" their look. As this is a bold step from traditional notions of "building an ensemble", the challenge is to introduce the idea that "creating your own look IS what makes your outfit fashionable."

INSIGHT: WE ALL HAVE OUR OWN UNIQUE MIXES.

Where You Went Wrong: You interpeted "unique mix" as something genetic and inherent. You positioned models with mixed lineages as "beautiful" and "world class".

THE CRITICAL FLAW: UNLIKE CREATING AN ENSEMBLE,  one CANNOT CHOOSE THEIR MIX.

THE SOLUTION: UNIQUE MIX = The sum total of characteristis and experience that each individual has.

THE EXECUTION YOU SHOULD HAVE GONE FOR:

Juxtaposing the images of "eclectic" ensemble with "character" models, we create "personalities" which the consumers can relate to.

Note: All images herein are used to demonstrate "peg looks". I do not own these images, and I am not using them to promote the brand "Bayo".

[Study 1]

Copy: "50% Haute, 50% HOT"

[Study 2]

Copy: "Full-time Columnist. Part-time Rockstar. Oft-times Inner Child."

CONCLUSION: The critical flaw in the execution is that you defined and prescribed the mix, positioned it aspirationally, without awareness that the consumer cannot control the "mix" as you have defined it (genetically). As an aspiration, one cannot aim to achieve a mix that is part-Filipino, part-something else. However, when you LET THE CONSUMERS DEFINE what their mix is, you then engage the brand into a conversation with your market. You are now asking them to be bold and inventive in DEFINING THEMSELVES BY MIXING AND MATCHING THEIR LOOKS USING YOUR PIECES.

You're welcome.