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← Back to IdeasOgilvy On: The Legacy Code — Cracking the Secrets of Enduring Brands
In these times, while many are thinking quarter to quarter, modern brands with legacy can teach us a thing or two about the long view.
Navigating new “shiny objects”, new technologies, new needs, shifting culture and the pace of change makes it even more challenging for any brand to figure out what to stay true to and how to adapt to avoid extinction.
The trick is not to behave like a legacy. Follow these codes instead.
Code 1: Be a living brand that breathes, grows and changes, with your customers and culture. Do not cling nostalgically to your past glory. Live in the now. Own who you are today. Make your brand legacy a new front-page story.
Like Hellmann’s, a 120-year old mayonnaise brand, that recently crashed Charli XCX’s Brat tour with an homage to her banned ‘sandwich bag’ tour poster – re-working their classic heritage and association with sandwiches into current culture in a new way.
Like Dove, a 60-year-old self-care brand that shepherds its powerful legacy of ‘helping more women feel beautiful’ into today’s culture by taking on the ever-evolving enemies and toxic beauty for whole new generations e.g. social media, AI filters, hair shame etc. with modern new policy-changing programs and products.
Like Coca Cola, a 133-year old beverage brand, that ventures into the new frontiers of ‘optimism’ as they show up in music, food and gaming, and collide the latest and coolest experiences in each with ‘Foodmarks’, ‘Coke Studio’ and new flavor launches like ‘Pixel’.
Code 2: Move quickly from Disruption once to Destiny forever. Take on something bigger than yourself, and aim to create or catalyze movements that last, not just moments that fade away. Start ups often stop at Disruption and don’t make it to Destiny.
Like Workday, a 19 year-old software brand. They crashed onto the 2023 Super Bowl scene for the first time and elevated the unsung Finance and HR heroes of a company as the real ‘Rock Stars’ using real rock stars, and they continue to do so as their brand’s north star – championing the movement of employee values and recognition.
Like Powerade, a 37-year old performance-beverage brand, that disrupted Gatorade in sports, but then quickly moved beyond to own a destiny even bigger and more important yet still under-served: fueling athletes’ mental performance and supporting mental health movements with ‘Pause for Power’.
Like IKEA, an 81-year old Swedish brand, that disrupted the scene with affordable yet stylish furniture, but then embraced disruption in higher service of their real customers, not just their egos: everyday families through ‘being second best’ and ‘first steps’. Their disruption was made meaningful, repeatedly.
Like SCJ, a 138-year old consumer products brand, that disrupted with superior products but then kept disrupting with greater purpose: taking on ocean plastics with ‘The Blue Paradox’, reduced-&-recycled plastic product innovations and partners like Plastic Bank – becoming part of a wider legacy with their own.
Like Windex, a 90 year old cleaning product that turned cleaning windows into a movement for more windows in the world for schools, kids and teachers that transformed how they learned and viewed the world.
Code 3: When reinvention is required, don’t simply react to change in fear. Lead the transformation and be the change with pride. Become the industry’s standard bearer yet again.
Like IBM, a 113-year old brand, who has had to adapt to over 5 massive technological shifts from e-business to cloud to AI, and have done so with timely new brand platforms, product positionings, programs and more to lead each new wave. Next wave? Who’s afraid? Let’s create.
Like Verizon, a 25-year old brand whose traditional network superiority was being challenged and commoditized. So they led the change from being another telco obsessed with gigabytes to a life company and embraced their role of network as cultural oxygen and how people lived, worked and played today: with ‘Can’t B Broken’, ‘Barbie Stream House’, new visual identity and a fresh new way of speaking with ‘Pete’.
Code 4: Merge the ‘timeless’ and serious ethos of legacy brands with the ‘timely’ and playful demeanor of the lean start-up. Strive to feel ‘forever-young’ like Amazon (30), Google (26), Gucci (103 years old) and…
Like Cerave, a trusted 19-year old skincare brand, that took the biggest and most cheeky risk of all by creating the influencer-fueled Michael Cerave Super Bowl conspiracy and putting the ‘serious’ brand back on the map with a far more playful next generation.
Like Burger King, a 71-year old fast-food brand, that took their timeless spirit of customer empowerment ‘You Rule/Have It Your Way’ into timely activations at every turn that broke all ‘molds’: from ‘Moldy Whopper’ and visual rules to in-game partnerhips and promos with ‘Stevenage Challenge’.
Code 5: How modern legacy brands behave in tough times is more important than ever. People look to legacy brands for trust, hope, delight, guidance, inspiration during these times. And successful ones have both a backbone and emotional intelligence. Both purpose and play. Both relevance to the moment with inspiration for the future.
During Covid, modern legacy brands like Capital One and Verizon reached out to help small business owners keep running their businesses. Dove celebrated the healthcare community. Today, no one has yet stepped up or stepped out. Will It be your brand?
Need help identifying your brand’s true destiny that will guide all your future disruption; Activating your brand’s new north star against evolving enemies for new generations; Unearthing the living trends that will bring your brand into the papers today; Understanding how your customer, culture and society has changed and decoding the movements and conversations you should be part of or creating; Pinpointing how to weather reinvention and transformation with pride or how to stay ‘forever young’ with the right mix of timelessness and timeliness? Reach out.
A special thanks to Lynnette Wong for her contributions to this article.