The latest development of the TAG Heuer ‘What are you made of?’ campaign takes the brand’s message a step further and supports its new strategic directions by focussing on the strength and beauty of the brand’s models, as reflected by the exceptional nature of its ambassadors: Brad Pitt, Uma Thurman, Tiger Woods, Maria Sharapova, Kimi Raïkkönen and Jeff Gordon.


Uma Thurman and the Link Diamonds / Brad Pitt for the Carrera Tachymètre.

The signature ‘What are you made of?’ has not changed: the question still interrogates but is never intrusive. It opens up a true mental dialogue with celebrities about their exceptional successes in sport or film, as well as the positive emotions they generate among their worldwide audiences.

‘What are you made of?’ offers values but never imposes them: to each his or her hero, to each to find him or herself in this quest for self-recognition.

The following are involved in this new ‘What are you made of?’ campaign:

•Brad Pitt for the Carrera Tachymètre.
•Uma Thurman and the Link Diamonds
•Tiger Woods with the Link series
•Maria Sharapova highlights the TAG Heuer F1 Diamonds and the Aquaracer Diamonds
•Jeff Gordon wears the Carrera Racing
•Kimi Raikkonen illustrates the Carrera models
•Yao Ming defends the Aquaracer
•Shah Rukh Khan represents the Aquaracer and the Link
•Juan Pablo Montoya remains loyal to the Carrera


Kimi Raikkonen illustrates the Carrera models / Maria Sharapova highlights the TAG Heuer F1

Evidence of personal influence

The new version of the ‘What are you made of?’ campaign is still a new campaign, as strong as the ‘historic’ campaigns of the TAG Heuer saga. Its originality is immediately visible from the photographs that blend sport and glamour in an atmosphere that is more elegant and luxurious than ever before.

With this new ‘What are you made of?’ campaign, TAG Heuer is opening itself up to new fields of expression, blending leading sports champions with the glamour of stars of the silver screen and fashion. Developed by Inox Graphic Design, an agency in Neuchâtel that is more and more widely spoken of in luxury watch circles, this campaign will be launched in the international press in July 2006.

New international talent has been added to boost this visual identity

•Joël von Allmen has taken the portraits of Tiger Woods, Uma Thurmann, Maria Sharapova, Jeff Gordon, Kimi Raïkkönen and Juan Pablo Montoya. In addition, he supervised all the visuals for the products magnificently highlighted them in terms of their detail and lighting;
•Patrick Demarchelier’s photographs of Brad Pitt and Yao Ming have undergone a similar degree of post-enhancement.

The keys to their work: images that are more directly related to the question ‘What are you made of?’ Everything is in the look of this unique team of leading ambassadors and the expressive density of their mental strength. All will be looking you straight in the eye, forcing you to ask yourself ‘What am I made of?’

•The watches associated with each ambassador clearly strengthen their influence.
•The ambassadors are backlit and their look of piercing determination gives full meaning to ‘What are you made of?’ The meaning is traced from the ambassador and leads straight to the product reinforcing the quest for self-recognition.
•The watches themselves are presented in a more sophisticated manner, angled and set off by a slight shadow showing the detail of their dials and diamonds.
•The colour backgrounds have been enhanced to reveal more of the strength of these images in which the grain has been emphasized and the light carefully reworked to add more glamour to the overall effect. The halo of light forms a triangle between the brand, the ambassador’s face and the product: all brought together in a single proposal.
•‘Swiss avant-garde since 1860’ is added to the TAG Heuer logo of which it is now an integral part.
•To the strength and beauty of Uma Thurman, TAG Heuer combines the strength and beauty of a Link Chronograph set with diamonds. The same applies to all the other visuals that follow the same rationale as this quest for self-recognition.

TAG Heuer or creative communication

A watchmaking legend personified by the mental strength of its muses and its watchmakers capable of the most extraordinary exploits
In the past several years, the TAG Heuer advertising campaigns have left an indelible mark on the history of watch advertising and have etched out new approaches for the luxury market. Some of which have even become legends of contemporary advertising.

Throughout its history, the TAG Heuer brand has always presented a pioneering and innovative spirit in terms of its advertising. In the 1930s, the brand was seen on the wrists of skiers in long dresses. In the 1950s, to assert the reliability and resistance of its ‘civilian’ chronographs, the brand used Swiss army soldiers coordinating their watches. In the 1960s, Jack Heuer had his racing car driver friends wear his watches, like the legendary Joe Siffert and the great names of Hollywood, like Steve McQueen and Paul Newman: the notions of sport and glamour would forever be associated with the brand from this time on.

In the 1980s, a slight shift and a touch of humour with Ayrton Senna, triumphant on the podium, a magnum in hand: ‘Champagne Resistant to 200 m’.

Since the 1990s, mental strength, the mother of all watchmaking, sporting and cinema exploits, became the common thread running through all TAG Heuer campaigns.

The early 1990s were marked by the ‘Don’t crack under pressure’ campaign with Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher.

In 1995, the ‘Success. It’s a mind game’ campaign illustrated the mental pressure that conditions an athlete’s victory: a swimmer in his lane, with sharks in the others; a hurdler leaping over razor blades; a horse rider jumping from one skyscraper to another; a yacht tacking on the edge of a huge waterfall.

Numerous international awards were won by this advertising campaign, considered by the professionals as one of the best in the 1990s.

With ‘Inner Strength’ at the end of the 1990s, TAG Heuer directly asserted the pre-eminence of the mental over the physical, intelligence over force, finesse over brute strength, and associated actresses, such as Kristin Scott-Thomas with top-level sports celebrities. This mental strength was again the theme of ‘Another Side of Me’ in 2001-2002 that revealed the strength and beauty of Zang Ziyi, Marion Jones and Ines Sastre, the mirrors of the brand’s women’s collections.

TAG Heuer is a reference brand for champions who bear witness to their passion for sports performance through the watches used in the campaigns. These campaigns have evolved very rapidly: TAG Heuer cannot simply reassert its commitment to sport and merely emphasise the exploits of those who wear the brand’s colours. At the dawn of the 21st century, TAG Heuer will strive to get across the message of where the inner force of these champions comes from, from where they derive their determination to push forward their own limits.

In 2003, ‘What are you made of?’ associates new icons with TAG Heuer: aficionados of beautiful watches will now also be able to identify themselves with the charisma of the celebrities who wear the brand. Tiger Woods, Steve McQueen, Ines Sastre, Shah Ruk Khan, Ai Tominaga and David Coulthard are their heroes. This new campaign will rally both women and men behind the strong values that form a close association between success in sports, universal glamour and personal passion.

In 2005, ‘What are you made of?’ will enter a new dimension by asserting ‘Sport and Glamour’ even more strongly with the appearance of Brad Pitt, Uma Thurman, Maria Sharapova, Juan Pablo Montoya, Jeff Gordon and Yao Ming alongside Tiger Woods, Kimi Raïkkönen and Susmita Sen.

In 2006, ‘What are you made of?’ offers new images, new emotions and new watches.

TAG Heuer, the reference in prestigious sports watches and chronographs since 1860, is now the fourth luxury brand in the world watch market. The Swiss watchmaking company draws on its active engagement in the world of sports to create the most accurate measuring instruments and sports watches in the world, such as the calibre 360 presented at BaselWorld 2005. From the Olympic Games in the 1920s to its role as official timekeeper for the legendary Indy 500, TAG Heuer, in a constant quest for innovation, excellence, performance and prestige, continues to aim ever higher, as reflected in its partnerships with Team McLaren Mercedes in Formula 1 racing, world vice-champion in 2005 with its two drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and Kimi Raïkkönen. With world number 1 golfer Tiger Woods and tennis player Maria Sharapova, Hollywood superstars Brad Pitt and Uma Thurman, and Bollywood icons Shah Ruk Khan and Sushmita Sen, TAG Heuer more than ever stands for Sport and Glamour!

Source: TAG Heuer

www.tagheuer.com

Contact: [email protected]
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