Sound FX: Sheilas’ Wheels still singing a decade after the music stopped

Most of the brands on the list won’t be surprising you – few can resist reciting the sonic asset of Netflix, Intel or Just Eat at a mere mention.

There was one surprise: the appearance of Sheilas’ Wheels in seventh place. Surprising not because the sonic asset is inherently weaker (that’s not for me to decide), but because it’s a brand which has received very little advertising support since 2013.

So what is it about Sheilas’ Wheels that has delivered such an enduring impact? How can a brand with little to no recent advertising support beat giants such as McDonald’s and Haribo for over 14,000 Brits in 2021?

Brand assets and promise

As Ritson identifies, Sheilas’ Wheels is arguably one of the most distinctive brands in the insurance category. From the start, Sheilas’ Wheels had a strong palette of the distinctive brand assets so coveted in the work of Sharp & Romaniuk. The first of these is the sonic asset, which was found to clearly match the personality of the brand (89%) and appealed to over 70%. This emotionally-responsive sonic asset is allied to the Sheilas, the strong pink logo and the 1957 Ford Mercury.

Each of these individual assets worked closely together to help the brand’s launch punctuate the category and clearly demonstrated a genuinely innovative offering of lower prices for female drivers. This is arguably the most important feature of the brand assets serving to cue brand promise.

There’s more to the story than a successful launch and strong assets. Having created a disruptive and distinctive brand in 2005, their advertising was ruthlessly consistent. While the lyrics of the song changed between 2005 and 2013, the fundamentals of the ads remained the same.

Embrace familiarity

The same was true of the media plan: over 80% of budget during that period was on TV, with the time length of 30” only changing for the introduction of sponsorships. The lesson here is that instead of being overly concerned with wear-out or the need for a refresh, the distinctive innovator was allowed to become familiar.

This consistency was helped by a significant budget. In 18 months after launch the brand enjoyed over £10m of advertising support, achieving 7% share of voice (SOV) according to Nielsen AdIntel. Testament to this approach is the whopping 78% recall a new ad received in a single week in 2007.

Despite only being available to half the population, the singing Sheilas were given the support to make them famous, with competitions and even a release of a single. In a short period this approach made the brand part of culture and started a debate in many homes about who made the safest drivers.

The Sheilas’ Wheels effect in 2022

Certainly, in 2022 there are challenges for brands seeking to emulate the success of Sheilas’ Wheels. The increasing diversification of media habits, significant inflation and increasing difficulty in securing completed views of longer time lengths would at the very least require even more investment.

Though the tactics may need changing, the approach of applying a distinctive palette of brand assets consistently and to a wide audience remains a strong strategy for long-term effectiveness. As Ritson’s study highlights, the effects can last longer than many would expect.