Saturdays alright for endorsing

Girls are louder

The Saturdays – a girl band once described as a “Girls Aloud for the recession era” – are making some serious inroads on the endorsement circuit of late. It seems ever more clear that the group are Girls Aloud 2.0, waiting in the wings for the long-running and universally accepted girl band to expire properly (rather than splitting temporally to follow solo projects, as recently announced). Universal appears to have the Sats working 24-7 on promotional work, with the group popping up at every promotional opportunity possible. However direct brand alignments are coming in proper now and see the five piece moving into territory well established by Girls Aloud (Sunsilk, Kit Kat, GDH, Ultimo, Coke Zero, Samsung, to name but a few). As usual you wait for ages for a proper endorsement to arrive and then three come along at once.

1. Veet: The girls are currently the faces – and legs – of the Veet and Veet Debut hair removal collections. The airbrushed photo attached to the promo sees them moving from the 50’s Style pin ups they portrayed in their charity single version of Depeche Mode’s ‘ I Just Can’t Get Enough’ to looking like they should be sprayed on the side of a WWII bomber. Beauty products are a natural fit for the aspirational girl band, and although the pay out for this campaign is probably not in the Girls Aloud Sunsilk remit (estimated at £1.2M) it places them in a similar bracket to Taylor Swift who signed her legs up with Gillette last year.

2. Virgin Mobile: Despite the Veet campaign the girls have decided to cover up their legs in black tights for a separate promotion for Virgin Mobile’s Addict pay as you go tariff (I’ve heard you have to let the hair grow to a certain length to use Veet – so maybe that’s the reason). As the new product offers up ‘unlimited flirting’ the photo shoot for the campaign sees them aping the classic Robert Palmer Addicted to Love video, with the girls dressed in black (with Frankie playing the part of Palmer) and sporting white fender guitars. It’s a press worthy idea, despite the fact the group aren’t actually a guitar band. However, I wonder what Cort Guitars – who used to be the sponsor of Una Healy – make of the Fender hanging round her neck.

3. RARE: The final campaign (for now) sees the girls moving into fashion with the launch of their own collections in conjunction with the RARE fashion brand. The limited 10 piece collection of dresses in conjunction will offer up 2 outfits per group member – “enabling fans to wear clothing designed by their favourite ‘Saturday’” . “Our relationship with Rare started with Mollie’s yellow dress in our If This Is Love video, so it’s great that we now get to have our very own range,” say the band. The clothes will be a meld of Hell Angels Chic and 80’s inspiration apparently. It’s not the first time however they have designed for the fashion brand, they sported their own creations at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards UK in 2008. The group also appeared in a ‘The Saturdays heart Rare’ window campaign in 54 BANK fashion stores at the end of last year promoted the RARE range, with a nationwide in-store tour of five BANK stores – Liverpool, Manchester Arndale and Trafford, Leeds and Birmingham. “The girls encapsulate the very essence of our brand – fashion conscious, on-trend and full of fun,” said Rare CEO John Quinn.

Now I like The Saturdays, and I’d happily listen to a double album of their version of ‘I Just Can’t Get Enough’ than ever have to listen to Depeche Mode’s current album again. However, what I think is irrelevant here, as its the fact they tick numerous boxes in the marketing to women category that is drawing in the brand activity in these particular examples. They have a certain ‘every woman’ appeal that cuts across a sizable age range, however for these brand campaigns to truly work they need to leverage more than just a glamorous facade. Cool by association works to a certain extent, but consumers, and especially female ones are demanding more from the brands that are clamouring for their attention.

A recent article on marketing to women through music in our FRUKT Music Intelligence report highlighted the Rise of the Sufranets: a new wave of tech savvy brand conscious females who are exercising their right to vote on your brand. Which means brands need to start the converstions online, before the consumers do it themselves. One example where The Saturdays offered something extra and more interactive was the recent tie up with Spotify, where they served up collaborative playlists to promote the MTV/Body Shop Safe sex campaign. With Gamma women buying into technology, blogging newtorks, and social networking as an extension of their personality, its time for brands to start offering deeper conversations as opposed to just offering a face and a message.