When
QualitySolicitors (QS) announced that they were to spend £15 million on
advertising, and had hired Saatchi & Saatchi to help, it made a lot of
lawyers sit up and take notice. UK lawyers
have traditionally taken a fairly low-key approach to advertising, and it is
extremely rare to see prime time television ads outside of the realms of
personal injury claims. Opinions were
divided on whether the QS approach was a sign of things to come for the
industry, or a monumental waste of money.
Well, it is far too early to say whether the £15 million was money well
spent, but we can now see the advert they have come up with, as it is available
on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4knygiE7aAE&feature=youtu.be
.
I have to say, I like
it. Designed to work alongside the firm’s
“For Whatever Life Brings” strap-line, the ad is fairly subtle and understated,
showing people in a variety of life-changing situations where they are likely
to need a lawyer.
The sound-track to
the advert (Jimmy Cliff's 'Hard Road To Travel') is wonderful and soulful, and
I can see singer Rachel K Collier having a hit with it as a consequence of the
exposure. But most importantly, a great
sound-track means people are likely to stick with what is otherwise a fairly
long (90 second) advert. It’s a million
miles away from the brash “Have you been injured at work?” adverts we are used
to seeing, with loud presenters endlessly repeating phone numbers to
call, and seems to be aimed at a somewhat more sophisticated audience. I think most of the public are likely to respond positively to it - somehow the aggressively commercial approach to television legal advertising up to now has always seemed to jar somewhat with the values of professionalism and integrity that most of the public want from their lawyers. The QS ad seems to strike a good balance. In fact, if there is any criticism
of the advert that I have, it is that the actual promotion of QS's name is perhaps a
tad too subtle – coming only right at the end, and in a very under-stated
way.
Nevertheless, it
is classy and I am sure it well help to build a quality brand for the 350 firms
signed up under the QS banner so far. Of course, attracting clients to a brand is one thing, keeping them is quite another; QS will have to deliver the goods in service terms if it is to have the real impact in the high street that it is aiming for. But getting clients in through the door in the first place is a good start.
High
street firms need to be applying some serious thought to how they are going to
respond. Clearly, most can't dream of spending anything approaching this amount of money on advertising, so they are going to have to work out how else to defend their positions in an increasingly competitive market.
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ReplyDeleteThere needs to be a once a week ad for 6 months to make any impact. A one off is naive. £15m is quite simply not enough, no where near. Then QS has to actually deliver quality, but take a poll of legal firms exposed to QS, and there may be no real Q being demonstrated.
ReplyDeleteIs the above any real surprise?
I believe the ad campaign is indeed designed to be an intensive one over a period of some months, and not a one-off. For some reason they just chose to trail the initial ad a little in advance of the main release.
ReplyDeleteI can't comment on the quality aspect as I have no experience of working with QS, but yes I agree that an ad may be able to get clients through the door, but only good service will keep them there.