Media and Communication Campaign Adaptation

VISA Australia Day campaign adaptation – Swedish National Day (Sveriges nationaldag)

The following report will be based on adapting the VISA Australia Day campaign to the intercultural norms for Sweden’s National Day.

Sveriges Nationaldag

Each year, Sweden celebrates its’ national day (Sveriges Nationaldag) on June 6 marking the Swedish independence. It is celebrated where the “King and Queen of Sweden take part in a ceremony at Skansen, Stockholm’s open-air museum” (“The National Day of Sweden”, 2016). The vibrancy of the blue and yellow illuminate the country where the Swedes unite to celebrate their achievements.

The VISA campaign is revolved around Australia Day; which to many Australian’s is a highlight of their year. The ad featured on Instagram displays your typical and colloquial ‘Aussie’ day celebrations: beach, sun, family and BBQ. The ad plays on the emotions of the average Australian and something they would relate to and understand. One can see green, yellow and blue predominant in the images they chose to communicate with us – which all play a large part in Australians’ patriotism (blue being in our flag, and green and gold our national colours). The campaign isn’t very far fetched from what would resonate with the Swedish people as it is currently, however, there are things that can be done to enhance its’ relevance for the Swedish National Day. From the research conducted, there are 5 things that need to be altered to enhance the campaign for the Swedish market, which are: the text (language and relevance to new images), colour, family, the sense of togetherness and cultural tradition.

Text

Since we are going to be targeting Swedish customers on Sveriges Nationaldag, it is important that the text on the image is in correct Swedish. A reliable source of translating will need to be used, to read: “you. me. us” #swedishnationalday #ourday”. This text is important as the Swedish nationals have a very strong sense of togetherness and are not highly individualized. They have a very “we” rather than “I” outlook on society and this outlook is exponentially growing (“Individualism and Solidarity in Sweden”, 2013). As the new images for the campaign will be revolved around family and friends, it is only fitting that the text matches the imagery. Thus, why “you. me. us” works well with the concept of ‘one people’ for the campaign.

Colour

Colour plays an important role in marketing a campaign. As seen wit the current campaign for Australia Day; it touches on peoples relationship with colours that have significance to them and their country. Therefore, it only seems fitting that we incorporate predominant blue and yellow into the campaign to subconsciously attract viewers. When we take a further look at the colour yellow, not only will it be effective in the campaign due to its emotional significance to Sweden, but also the colour itself is extremely viable. Research shows that, psychologically, yellow is the happiest colour in the spectrum. Further, “75% of the pencils sold in the United States are painted yellow” (“The psychology of colour in marketing and branding”, 2016). In a study titled “Impact of colour on marketing” it states that “about 62‐90 percent of the assessment is based on colours alone” when judging an advertisement in the first 90 seconds (Singh, 2006). Therefore, now that we know how important colour is when judging whether a consumer relates to an advertisement and how effective the colour yellow is, yellow will need to be a predominant part of the imagery that is communicated.

Family

Family is an extremely important aspect to Swedish people. They are very social beings and love to entertain their family and friends. Therefore, imagery displaying large family gatherings and dinner parties will be extremely successful in this campaign. Swedish people revolve more of their lives around their family, so much so that the government introduced free healthcare for children, free vitamins, and free bus rides for mothers with children as having a happy and healthy family is an extremely important part of life (“Swedish Traditions”, 2013). When considering their cultural norms we need to take into account, just like Australian’s on Australia Day that their family will be an integral part of their celebrations. Therefore, when incorporating family and friends into the imagery for the campaign, it is suggested that we use images of large groups of family and friends gathering for a meal, as according to a Swedish National site “large family meals and get-togethers are extremely important (“Swedish Traditions”, 2013).

Sense of togetherness

As mentioned earlier, the Swedish people have a very “we” approach to their communities. Therefore, incorporating images that display togetherness is very important. Showing Swedes hand-in-hand and enjoying one and others’ company will be a very successful addition to the campaign. The Swedish people like to congregate in large groups of family and close friends in their celebrations so showing pictures of what they would normally be doing on their national day is an integral part of the campaign, as done in the Australia Day campaign by adding the imagery of a BBQ – getting the everyday Aussie to imagine their own BBQ with their family and friends. The Swedish outlook on life is extremely different to others, they have a saying “lagom” which means “just enough”. They have the idea that they are all one and should all be equal and have everything in moderation – the saying stems from the Viking era and refers to all aspects of their life. “Swedes strive towards lagom because they strive towards moderation. One should work hard, but not too hard; eat enough, but not too much” (“Culture Shock! Sweden”, 2011). This will also encourage the Swedish people to consider how they will want to spend their national day and what activities they would like to do.

Cultural tradition

When considering what types of themes to include in the campaign, it is important to honour the tradition of the nation. The Swedish people wear traditional costumes when celebrating their national day. 1983 was the year that the Swedish people established a national day costume (“Swedish National day costume”, 2001). It will be a very important part of the campaign to feature the costume in one of the images when communicating to the Swedish market; this is because of the strong significance of the costume for their country, marking their independence from Denmark. Also, it shows that VISA cares enough about heir culture to honour their traditions.

In conclusion, the VISA campaign for Australia Day is not very different to the adaptation for the Swedish market as both have a strong connection with family and friends and colours of importance to each nation. Both nations deserve to be celebrated respectively and this campaign adaptation I believe will tick all the boxes, taking into special consideration the cultural differences.

Sources Cited:

Sverige Drakten. 2001. The Swedish National Costume. [ONLINE] Available at: http://sverigedrakten.se/story/SWEA-story.html. [Accessed 23 September 2016].

Policy Network. 2013. Individualism and Solidarity in Sweden. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.policy-network.net/pno_detail.aspx?ID=4417&title=Individualism+and+solidarity+in+Sweden. [Accessed 23 September 2016].

Gregory Ciotti. 2016. The Psychology of Colour in Marketing and Branding. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.helpscout.net/blog/psychology-of-color/. [Accessed 23 September 2016].

Satyendra Singh . 2006. Impact of Colour on Marketing. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.helpscout.net/blog/psychology-of-color/. [Accessed 23 September 2016].

Swedish Institute. 2013. Swedish Traditions. [ONLINE] Available at: https://sweden.se/culture-traditions/p1/. [Accessed 23 September 2016].

Swedish Institute. 2016. The National Day of Sweden. [ONLINE] Available at: https://sweden.se/culture-traditions/national-day/. [Accessed 23 September 2016].

Svensson, C.R, 2011. Culture Shock! Sweden. 1st ed. ,: Marshall Cavendish International (Asia).