The Conservatives have been running lots of different advertisements all of which use the same mnemonic – a big red piggy bank.
The mnemonic is a shorthand for the large amount of money that the Tories claim working households will need to save in order to be able to afford extra taxes that the Labour Party would raise if they get into government.
When I first saw the Big Red Pig as a poster execution I thought it was a pretty average execution. Nothing wrong with it, it makes sense, but nothing particularly inspiring.
But as the Tories have continued to deploy it in different ways it’s become more powerful.
As is often the way with characters in advertising.
From the Meerkats, to the opera singer for Go Compare, to the Churchill dog, when I first saw them I thought they were mildly amusing.
But through endless repetition and reconfiguration they have become incredibly powerful.
Byron Sharp, a well-known marketing expert, talks about building “distinctive memory structures” to help brands be salient. In research on different types of assets that create “memory structures” it’s been shown that characters are more powerful than other things like colours, fonts, or shapes. This is because they can more easily convey emotions, tell stories, and create a connection with the audience.
Creating a successful brand character doesn’t happen overnight. It requires time and continual investment. For a brand, this could mean years before it starts to yield serious returns.
But because political parties get a vast amount of earned media coverage, they can build equity in a notion – or a character – very quickly.
If the Conservatives continue to deploy the Big Red Pig in new and ever more menacing ways, I could imagine it becoming a piece of iconic political imagery.