Please read this article and let me know what YOU think

[radioxkiss]

This is for one of my advertising classes. I need to get other people's feelings on this besides mine .Thank you!

THE venerable theme for Timex, "It takes a licking and

keeps on ticking," looks to be taking a final licking.

The Timex Corporation, in a campaign from its new agency,

Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners in New York, is dropping the

"licking/ticking" slogan - introduced in the 1950's and

brought back in the 1990's - for a theme intended to help

update its image. The goal is to freshen the Timex appeal

with consumers ages 18 to 34, whose wrists are increasingly

sporting other watch brands like Kenneth Cole, ESQ, Marc

Ecko, Fossil, Guess, Swatch and Swiss Army that they deem

more hip.

The theme change, to "Timex. Life is ticking," is part of

an advertising makeover after Timex left its agency of 16

years, Fallon Worldwide in Minneapolis, part of the

Publicis Groupe. (THE NEXT SENTENCE SAYS ALOT ABOUT

ADVERTISING.)........The new campaign, with a budget estimated

at $6 million, is indicative of efforts by marketers of

familiar products, especially in competitive categories, to

freshen once-powerful pitches that are now perceived to be

working about as well as, well, a stopped watch.

"This is not to dis anything we've done in the past," said

Mark Shuster, senior vice president for marketing and chief

marketing officer at Timex in Middlebury, Conn., who joined

the company five months ago, "but we have an opportunity to

take the brand forward."

" `It takes a licking and keeps on ticking' was very

consistent with a durability message, and was very

effective," Mr. Shuster said. "But durability is now almost

a given because as technologies have improved, people have

caught on to it. Our thought was, is there a way to evolve

beyond durability, to look for that something that captures

more of the spirit and mindset of today."

There are of course significant risks in replacing

"licking/ticking," which ranked No. 40 on a list of the top

100 campaigns of the 20th century compiled by the trade

publication Advertising Age. Timex, the United States watch

market leader - the Swatch Group is first worldwide - would

be poorly served if it were to give up the benefits of the

previous theme, like the awareness and recall the longtime

slogan has among consumers, without achieving improvements

in measurements like modernity or relevance.

"I don't want to be negative, but I am underwhelmed by the

concept," said Timothy R. V. Foster, the founder of a

company in London called AdSlogans Unlimited, when asked

his reaction to the new theme.

" `It takes a licking and keeps on ticking' is brilliant,

because the slogan says the benefit," Mr. Foster said.

"With `Life is ticking,' I have a tendency to want to

complete the slogan; it doesn't sound like it's finished."

(SHOWING THE BENEFIT OF A PRODUCT, IN THIS

CASE THE WATCH IS STRONG AND WON'T BREAK EASILY...IS

VERY IMPORTANT...WE WILL LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS IN CLASS...)

Needless to say, Timex and Kirshenbaum Bond, part of the

Kirshenbaum Bond Creative Network, plan to work assiduously

to convert critics like Mr. Foster. That will be the aim of

print ads in the "Life is ticking" campaign, to appear in

September issues of magazines with younger readers like

Details, Entertainment Weekly, FHM, InStyle, Jane, Lucky,

Marie Claire, Men's Health and Transworld Snowboarding.

The ads seek to draw attention by illustrating Timex

products and features in eye-catching, nontraditional ways.

For instance, a watch with a heart monitor is promoted with

a photograph not of a fit runner but of a heart attack

breakfast of bacon, three eggs and fried potatoes. The

Ironman Sleek watch is promoted with a photograph not of a

trim triathlete but of a bulging belly.

An Ironman Data Link watch with "reminder" features is

promoted with a photograph of a reminder missed because

Timex was not there: a dead goldfish floats in its bowl,

the "Feed fish" message unseen. And a shock-resistant watch

is promoted with a photograph meant not to absorb shocks

but to create some, depicting a flasher in a raincoat

unveiling himself to passers-by.

"The brand is so iconic, but sometimes `iconic' can seem

dated," said Rob Feakins, an executive creative director at

Kirshenbaum Bond. " `It takes a licking and keeps on

ticking' is one of the greatest tag lines in terms of

memorability, but it's no longer relevant."

After all, Mr. Feakins said, "most people with a watch

expect it to work."

In the review for the Timex account that ended in December

with the selection of Kirshenbaum Bond, "we presented two

campaigns they didn't buy," Mr. Feakins said, referring to

Timex executives, "but they liked our thinking, so we went

back and did a huge exploratory on the slogan."

"We wanted to create a point of view for Timex that wasn't

about telling time anymore, but was more about what you

make of that time," he added. " `Life is ticking' is

attached to the old tag line, but it's done in a more

tongue-in-cheek way that's more relevant to this audience."

In tests of the new "bolder, more pointed" tack the print

ads are taking, Mr. Feakins said, consumers said "they felt

the brand could go there." The plans for the campaign

include a commercial to run in movie theaters in the fall,

he added, with television being considered.

Mr. Shuster praised Kirshenbaum Bond for coming up with a

campaign that the initial tests showed could "help change

people's perceptions about the Timex brand." The agency has

what he called "a terrific history for taking brands and

making them more contemporary and relevant," listing

examples like the Target discount chain owned by the Target

Corporation and the Liberty Mutual insurance company that

is part of the Liberty Mutual Group.

Timex is one of several recent assignments gained by

Kirshenbaum Bond, which is being closely watched by its

competitors to see if it can deliver results. The others

include the Song low-fare airline being started by Delta

Air Lines and Jergens skin-care products sold by the Kao

Corporation.

[Xpander]

Seems pretty good at a glance. What's the objective of the paper? Because it reads like an article more than anything else.

My 2 cents on the whole Timex issue:

Maybe I haven't been paying attention, but it seems to me Timex haven't really been doing too good of a job maintaining their brand image; traditional, hip or otherwise. My perception may be skewed living here in the city, where the watch adverts that I see tends to be for the "newer" brands such as Swatch and Tag Hauer (mainly outdoor/promotions versus indoors/print media); regardless, I just don't recall the Timex brand vividly, even its traditional "takes a licking/keeps on ticking" slogan.

Is "Life is ticking" a good slogan? I can't say. But where "hipper" watch brands have been associating themselves with image(s), be it trendiness/athletics/what have you, Timex seems to have focused exclusively on the product itself (as you can tell from the paper). I think it might have been a good idea for them to at least try to propagate their original slogan with an improved brand image before they went on and changed it altogether. "Takes a licking and keeps on ticking" was a pretty damn powerful image, and I'm just not all that positive that the new slogan can go so far.

Nice paper, but potentially bad move on the part of Timex.

[someclown]

It is too long.

[therunner]

Originally posted by someclown

It is too long.

werd

[maximman]

Originally posted by radioxkiss

"This is not to dis anything we've done in the past," said

Mark Shuster, senior vice president for marketing

Did the senior vice president for marketing just say, "dis"?

I agree with Xpander, it does read like an objective newspaper article rather than a report for a class.

It is very informative, however.

The print ads that they're suggesting would make awesome TV commercials. Starting with an extreme close up of the watch and then zooming out really fast with the totally unexpected images that they describe.

[majinbuu]

keep the old slogan!

i dont need to be reminded that life is ticking....

what are they trying to say? by showing you their watch with a fat guy, or the "heart attack breakfast" are they trying to tell me exercise? wtf?

[crowina]

too long for me..but to say "Timex. Life is ticking" is not smart. we know that life has to end at some point we just don't know when. how would you like to buy a watch that may be like life, can die at anytime you just don't know when.

i'll go to canal and get a knock-off thank you