How to use film & TV to sell your products (without paying $$$)

The campaign takes place on a chaos-filled boat, synonymous with both seasons of the White Lotus. The caption under the image above reads: “It looks like an ordinary vacation, but there is a different feeling…”. This could double as a tagline for the show and movie themselves.

Another example: here we have a more mature cast member, Mino Sassy, who ensures that “not a year goes by without treating herself to a voyage”. We see Jennifer Coolidge’s character, an older woman just like Mino sparing no expense for her summer vacation in both seasons of The White Lotus.

Here’s why it works so well.

Even though Mango didn't use any of the cast (which would have come at a serious premium $$$), the campaign appears to be in the same family of aesthetics as the show & film.

By subtly referencing them, Mango is able to draw on and attract audiences that are familiar with and fond of them. This is a technique called invoking brand recall. This is something we try to include in all of our client campaigns, especially when we’re directing commercial ads.

The ability to recall something in marketing is when, a customer has seen a brand or items in one place (such as worn by a celebrity, influencer, or on a billboard), so by the time they’re in-store or shopping online, they are more likely to buy from that specific brand because they (sub)consciously recognise it. Customers are more likely to buy because trust has already been built by referencing ideas and concepts they resonate with - without a brand like Mango having to pay millions in £s/$s for licensing exact text or imagery from film and TV.

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It’s very similar to dating or forming a deep friendship

As every interaction becomes more frequent, your relationship matures and your trust in that person grows. The lengths we’ll go to for a close friend are always further than for an acquaintance. Similarly, how quickly (and how much) a customer will spend their hard-earned money with a brand is directly connected to how much they trust it. 

Now, this may not have been intentional by the Mango creative team, but it’s likely some of the visuals and ideas were inspired by these shows or at least on a company mood board out there somewhere. And it works.

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