In 1965, Fred Smith, an undergraduate at Yale University, wrote a term paper about the inadequacy of the routing systems used by most airfreight companies. After a brief stint in the military, he bought controlling interest in Arkansas Aviation Sales of Little Rock in 1969. There, he saw firsthand the frustrations of trying to deliver packages in only one or two days. Looking for a better distribution system, he came up with the idea of Federal Express. They launched 14 small aircraft from Memphis International Airport, shipping 186 packages on its first night in 1973. Ally & Gargano became the company's first agency. It created the highly successful tagline, "When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight." FedEx targeted its competitor, Emery Air Freight, and decided to do research to see who was better. It filled 47 packages with sand and shipped them by both FedEx and Emery. The result was turned into a 1980 print ad with the caption, "If you're using Emery, you'd better not let your boss see these figures." FedEx’s most memorable commercial is almost 40 years old, a 60-second spot called "Fast Talker." The commercial, with the unique touch of director Joe Sedelmaier, cast fast-talking actor John Moschitta as a senior manager frantically arranging meetings and tracking packages. By 1985, though, the Federal Express-Ally & Gargano relationship ended. Hoping to present a more serious image, FedEx hired Fallon McElligott Rice to handle its advertising. It changed the tagline "If it's important, send it Federal Express." It later added BBDO to the roster, and it’s been FedEx’s agency for over a decade. BBDO returned to humor as a platform and its perennial Super Bowl spots were a standout. Now, FedEx is abandoning its traditional over-the-top humorous approach in favor of an emotional message, using the new tagline, “What we deliver by delivering.” It’s a good attempt to differentiate the brand, in a wholesale lighting business in which it is easy to be commoditized. The work illustrates that it’s not just about the packages, but it is also about what these deliveries mean for the people shipping and receiving them. I caught up with Raj Subramaniam, Executive Vice President, Global Strategy, Marketing and Communications for FedEx, after his presentation at the recent ANA annual conference in Orlando, for a conversation about the new campaign. The shift from advertising that depicted attributes, to one that captures the emotions of receiving a package, is effective and differentiating. “We’ve always operated beyond the norms of what’s expected for a shipping company” Raj told me, “So when it came to the stories we wanted to tell in our new advertising campaign, we knew we couldn’t focus on traditional products and services. “ The shift in the campaign reflects a shift in FedEx’s business model. With the advent of eCommerce the company is transforming from primarily a B2B company to a company that, as Raj puts it, “We now have to talk to our customers’ customers, 300 million strong around the world.” It turns out that the most important aspect of eCommerce, the moment of truth that defines the experience for the whole path, is shipping. But that, of course, is invisible to the customer. Emotions and storytelling make the invisible visible. Raj is a big proponent that culture has to be a big part of brands. “Without a true culture, a brand doesn’t have authenticity, and a brand that lack authenticity will fail”, he said. “The beauty of this campaign, that we didn’t have to go look too far. So we simply manifest our culture in the advertising.” Also See: Top 10 wholesale electronics websites in China
