The rise of play
Polycrisis, coined in the 1970s, the term has found its apt time now. As historian Adam Tooze puts it “If you've been feeling confused and as though everything is impacting on you all at the same time, this is not a personal, private experience,” .“This is actually a collective experience.”
Our audiences are a part of this too. Burnt out by the hustle culture, marred by constant provocations of politics, climate, or war, along with the challenges of the chaotic world, they are exhausted and are desperately seeking respite in any form, even in microdoses. Brands can play a pivotal role here. But how? you’d ask.
‘In every real man*, a child is hidden that wants to play’- Friedrich Nietzsche
Play is the universal language that transcends age and culture. It embodies a mindset defined by inquisitiveness, unbridled imagination, and liberation from monotony and worldly despair. It ignites the brain, firing up the cerebellum and the frontal lobe, transforming moments into memories and forms a mental map for navigating the world. Tapping into its diverse shades - be it nostalgic whimsy, pure joy, enchantment, gamified experiences, or clever humor - allows brands to forge unbreakable bonds, captivating audiences and consumer interests through an innate sense of emotion. In this commentary, we attempt to understand how brands can tap into the power of play to reinfuse optimism in this time of deep turbulence. While The Lego group’s Play's impact on culture, Barbie’s You Can Be Anything, Louis Vuitton's creative collaboration with Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, and Nike’s Made to Play are classic creative examples, let's look at some other categories and brands that have leveraged the power of play, playfully.
The Unexpected Playmakers:
‘Why should other categories have all the fun!’ thought the boring, mundane categories such as banking and finance for a long time and finally unleashed some creative gems such as the rebranding of Next Insurance amidst the fear laden gray world of insurance companies. Building a narrative around using insurance as a tool for intelligent risk-taking and growth, encapsulated in the rallying cry "Get Going", the rebranding was brought to life visually with a vintage, hand-drawn style evoking resilience and positivity, helping the brand to communicate substantively yet cheerfully across channels. Yay! To break away from fear-mongering. Psychologically speaking, making consumers feel at ease provides a dopamine hit that people are looking for in their every day, often burnt-out lives. The Indian financial startup CRED’s Viral Great for the Good ft Rahul Dravid Ad that leverages humor as a shade of play in a category which traditionally had steered away from it is also a testament to ‘the need for respite from the obvious’.
Play for social good:
Designing for an emotional and cultural collective is a powerful strategy for promoting inclusivity, sustainability, and/or a more conscious goal, and through this brands can be agents of hope and real change. On a mission to create moments of joy in public spaces, British-Nigerian artist and designer Yinka Ilori’s work makes art and design accessible to all. Merging his unique design style of colorful rendezvous with the once upon a time inhabitants of the park-flamingoes has inspired the design for the new playground The Flamboyance of Flamingos' inviting a sense of community, evoking a sense of joy and expanding the horizons of imagination for children and adults.
Play it by the ear:
Tudum… reminded of Netflix? I can feel you are nodding(wink*). With brands trying to break the clutter amidst the always sound-on world of their consumer, sonic branding is a powerful tool at their disposal. Sonic in different forms brings people together, engages our primal instincts, and spreads happiness in the face of uncertainty and if we talk about connections and engagement, sonic is powerful. Frito-Lay tortilla brand Tostitos' unleashed its ingredients-sound for fans to remix songs on TikTok using the virtual keyboard. #TostitosRemix lead to drumming up hundreds of remixes on the platform. The viral campaign is a smash hit with 109.7 Million impressions, 3.8 Million total engagements, and 200+ entries, potentially making Tostitos the sound of summer.
Play on the surface:
Physical spaces are a brand's love letter to the consumer. By designing physical brand environments such as packaging, retail etc. more playful and imaginative, brands can ignite unexpected moments of wonder and joy of discovery for the consumer. Inspired by nature's hues of blue, pinks and greens and merged stunningly with the vivid colors adorning the Island, the happy interiors of SALT of Palmar, the adult only retreat, manifests the true colorful soul of Mauritius. The creative character, bold colors and unique use of geometry of the built space offer a sense of discovery and surprise for the audience. Another iconic example is for a brief that asked for new ways to grow in a pure white category, AKA dairy. The small Swedish Oat milk brand, Oatly, used its packaging as the prima media space. The hand-drawn typography and the graphic filled packaging with tongue in cheek, irreverent messaging such as “Wow! No Cow” made it irresistible for people to pick it up to know more, making it one of the hottest brands out there!
And lastly, there are the classic- Pop & fun avatars of play:
At its core, fun frees humans from the stagnation of the contours of the ordinary. Amidst the chaos, Playful brand storytelling laced with fun can crack open more engagement, recall, conversions, and equity. The Lay’s integrated #SmileDekedekho campaign that leveraged its packaging to drive social engagement and conversations by mapping each influencer’s smiles and matching them to different flavor variants. The sheer fun campaign was an instant hit and a great example of how brands can leverage the child inside each of us. Another quirky innovation -The sparkly cereal glitter that makes your cereal bowl a disco party using edible glitter is a definite bringer of 1000% fun.
When the optimism of the social fabric is dwindling, culture interacts by finding creative respite, and even small moments of positive emotions can bring hope to jaded consumers who are looking to brands to delight them, excite them, and perhaps even make them feel alive. Therefore, the bottom line is to be more playful, find those moments, innovations, or insights, and keep ‘play’ as the compass- a lens through which brands act and engage with their audiences, and tread a journey for their consumers towards little rays of optimism, hope, and resilience.
*implying humans.
Written by Swati Baweja