Branding Lisbon 'Yes' & 'No'

WORDS: BRENDA MCNALLY & PAT KINSLEY

“Yes, yes, yes.” Three simple little words; Music to anyone’s ears. But not, as it turned out, for the voters at last years Lisbon Treaty Referendum. Instead of supplying the expected ‘Yes’ we did an Amy Winehouse and said “No, no, no.” Who would have guessed that the No vote had a chance of winning? Certainly not the Government or the rest of Europe.

It’s easy to see why the Yes side felt confident. Under normal circumstances, it’s human nature to want to join the group and move forward. In the normal course of events a Yes vote is a no brainer. So where did the Yes brand go wrong and will it be a No brainer or just another No vote when we revisit the polls in October?

If anything the Yes campaign was a text book exercise in how not to brand. Instead of a clear message with a unique selling point from Ireland Inc we had political in-fighting among the main parties.

The key to successful branding is keep it simple. All the most popular brands have one clear message. The reason for this is, we tend to remember and associate ourselves with simple things and choose to ignore or forget complex ideas. Take Virgin, although this brand has several very different products, there is no confusion about the umbrella brand. We know that all the products fall under one unique selling point: the Rebel brand.

Not so with the Yes side’s brand strategy. Ben Dunne captured the essence of the problem when he advised the nation: “If you don’t understand it, vote No.” The key mistake was a failure to answer the question: What’s to Brand. We were never sold the bigger picture, ‘The benefit and importance of being part of Europe’. The fundamental issues were lost in all the conflicting and confusing analysis, which was often based on party political fighting. The Yes side didn’t band together to drive home their message. In branding terms we weren’t given a clear reason to buy-into the bigger picture, so we couldn’t see the forest for the trees.