There was a time when ads didn’t just sell — they became pop culture. From Virgin Atlantic to 118 118, the brands that broke through all had one thing in common: they prioritised entertainment. So why has advertising stopped being fun — and what will it take to make brands irresistible again, asks former CMO of Virgin Atlantic, Simon Lloyd.

There was a time when advertising didn't just sell — it stuck. Lines like “The future’s bright, the future’s Orange,” or the moustachioed joggers of 118 118, or even the delightfully absurd Compare the Meerkat campaign weren’t just commercials — they became part of the national conversation. These brands earned cultural capital by being surprising, sticky, and (most importantly) entertaining. I’ve been fortunate enough to work in iconic brands such as Virgin Atlantic, BBC iPlayer, Nokia and 118118 mentioned above and the common denominator for all of these is that their number one priority was to entertain the customer. As we used to say at Virgin Atlantic, once your brand becomes irresistible, the competition becomes irrelevant.

So why aren’t we seeing that anymore?

In my view the reasons are complex and multiple, a perfect storm of performance metrics and data obsession, a lack of bravery and risk taking and the diminishing impact that senior marketing leaders are having at the top table.

The rise of performance marketing over brand building

This is the perennial debate that we shouldn’t need to keep having. It’s an open and shut case, we need both. Marketing today is obsessed with attribution. Every pound spent must be measurable, justifiable, and preferably drive ROI yesterday. As a result, long-term brand building has taken a backseat to short-term performance. Campaigns that once aimed to own a moment in the cultural zeitgeist are now optimised for clicks and conversions.

But culture can’t be A/B tested. You have to take risks. And brands have become risk averse.

Chris Moss, my long-term mentor and former boss is in an ideal position to comment on this. Chris was the original brand architect behind Virgin Atlantic, 118118 and Orange. In his opinion we predominantly operate in a world of “spreadsheet marketing”. “We are obsessed by metrics, likes, views, conversions etc and an overload of endless channel fragmentation. We have become conditioned into planning with a channel and distribution mindset rather than an impact mindset. For impact you need brave, bold thinking but impact needs the right media opportunities”

Death by data

In the age of big data, creativity is often sacrificed on the altar of precision. You end up with campaigns that are hyper-targeted but emotionally flat. Orange didn’t succeed because it targeted 25–34 year-olds interested in tech. It succeeded because it told a story of optimism, simplicity, and a bold, unified future. As Chris again states, “Creativity is the Oxygen of a business and culture is the heart, you need both of these to endure”

Interestingly the data dominant comparison sites have fought it out for their place in culture. Comparethemarket.com took a dull category (insurance) and gave it an eccentric soul. No one asked for meerkats, but no one forgot them either. Arguably though, they too are at risk of slipping into mediocrity as they become more obsessed with optimising every last piece of the customer and product journey.  Nathan Harrington the current Head of Brand at Aldermore Bank but formerly of GoCompare,  talks of how the marketing strategy was the business strategy. “When GoCompare launched, the only way it could win was to compete outright for share of voice but also knew they needed to out compete the meerkats for a place in culture”

Maybe then, creating cultural brand moments is a byproduct of aggressive commercial dominance rather than a strategic focus on creating an enduring cultural brand?

Fortune favours the brave

Many senior marketers that I speak with are always searching for that special brand moment, a unique territory and space which their brand can occupy and differentiate them from the competition. The reality is that product differentiation and addressing all the rational levers of customer decision making such as price and unique features are the necessities of differentiation but not the driving force behind buying decisions. This is the well documented, the ‘system 1’ of human psyche. Leading with a brand positioning that captures the imagination and addresses an emotional need shouldn’t therefore be under so much challenge. This is why we talk about being brave and bold, not because the risk at resonating at a customer level is the challenge (provided it’s based on a deep customer understanding) but because of the complicated web of internal stakeholders with multiple opinions and priorities. Not only is the media and customer channel fragmented but also the internal landscape that a marketer must navigate. Would Apple, with the iphone, had the impact it had, almost killing Nokia overnight, if they had tried to compete at purely a rational product feature level rather than leading with design desirability and an emotional ideal?

Tony Barr, the former PepsiCo and Wendy’s marketeer puts it like this:

“The best marketing leaders understand that boldness and social currency are ROI super-multipliers.  They’ll add value to the brand both in the long term AND the short term.  Any promotional work will be supercharged off the back of great brand messaging. In contrast, ‘safe’ or rational advertising that appears to be ‘risk-free’ is massively wasteful because wallpaper creative is largely ineffective.  Logically therefore, you’re better to aim for the moon creatively, as if it fails, it will be the same as pumping out a dull execution.  But if it succeeds…….!”

The opportunity is still there, culture still craves personality

People still crave shared moments. Just look at how quickly the nation rallies around a particularly good Christmas ad or a cheeky out-of-home campaign. The success of brands like Duolingo (with its TikTok-savvy owl) or Ryanair (with its brutally honest social media) shows there’s still room for brands with personality.

The brands that will win in the next decade will be the ones brave enough to entertain again — to be weird, witty, and worth remembering.

The future used to be bright — and orange. Now it’s beige and forgettable. But it doesn’t have to be. Brands once made culture; they can do it again. All it takes is courage, leadership, creativity, and a willingness to matter.

Simon will be writing a column for MAD//Insight throughout the year.