Facial Coding tests Jaguar’s rebrand impact. Is feeling absent from copywriting? Discover how Jaguar’s bold rebranding fares under scrutiny. Explore how respondents react emotionally to new marketing strategies..
Table of Contents
In late 2024 and early 2025, Jaguar announced its rebranding, starting with a flashy new advert promoting its new identity of “exuberant modernism” with its ad Copy Nothing. With this, Jaguar claims that “we’re here to delete ordinary. To go bold. To copy nothing.” In contrast compared to other automotive ads, Copy Nothing lived up to its name, featuring an otherworldly desert-like landscape with striking models and bold messages (without a car in sight).
When the ad was first released to the public, car aficionados, advertising creatives and everyone in between had their opinion on it (and it even got political at one point?!) – essentially, the consensus among people was a resounding ‘just what have I watched?’ and ‘why would Jaguar do something like this?’ This got us curious – why the polarizing reaction?
Our team at Affectiva Media Analytics at iMotions always talk about ads and videos needing to promote a cohesive storyline, and that having edgy or novel concepts can – when done tastefully and consistent to the messaging – prove to be a beneficial addition. So how does this edgy, novel idea pay off for a classic brand like Jaguar that has been in the automotive space for almost 90 years?
We created a study testing the Copy Nothing advert with our friends & family group. This study was of a monadic study design – those who opted into participating in the study watched the ad once, followed by completing a short series of survey questions to capture demographic details, ad likeability and brand affinity – (And don’t worry, we also tested the concept car video – results to be coming very soon!)
Ready, Steady… Go! Our Facial Coding findings
When first looking at the data, we recommend researchers to look at top-line measures such as Expressiveness (emotional engagement), Valence (net positivity and negativity) and Attention. We found that there were high levels of Attention in the ad, but also constant levels of Expressiveness without any significant peaks or valleys. People were attending to the content, but there was not necessarily anything incredibly dramatic (think: an ‘aha!’ moment, a plot twist, or a punchline) to drive Expressiveness apart from the final branding moment revealing the new logo.
On the other hand, Valence was found to leaning more negative through the ad (below), especially towards the scene leading up to the final branding moment where the models assemble, look in different directions and go off screen, revealing the “copy nothing” messaging and new Jaguar logo.
While Valence may have slightly increased towards the final branding moment, there were no instances of positive valence taking place during the ad. While negative isn’t always a bad thing to have in an ad, it depends on the context and type of content. In this situation, this can indicate the need for content optimization to elicit a higher positive response from the audience.
Disseminating Expressiveness – deep diving into facial expressions
We found that the predominant reaction occurring with viewers was Brow Furrow (below, blue). We also looked at Smile (below, green) and found that smiles were incredibly flat throughout the content, with some slight smiles towards the end of the final branding.
Brow Furrow, depending on the context, can indicate a multitude of reactions, including tension, confusion and in some cases, dislike. A high level of brow furrow and flat smiles indicates an overall negative reaction to the advert, which is further confirmed by survey responses that we reviewed where respondents claimed to have middling to negative attitudes towards liking the Copy Nothing ad.
Does bright colors, a new logo and edgy messaging appeal to the audience?
The classic Jaguar branding with the strong lettering and the iconic leaping jaguar appears to have disappeared in Copy Nothing, replaced by more curved lettering and the implication of a bold new image and chapter for Jaguar. With this, it appears that the intent may be to appeal to wider – perhaps younger – audiences and inspire them to consider purchasing a classic British car. But does it indeed work?
When breaking down the results by age demographics, we found that Smiles for the ad were scarce across all age brackets. However, smirks (think: a lop-sided, asymmetric smile) were higher among those who identified as being between 18-34 years of age (below, blue).
Smirks can be an indicator of skepticism – so perhaps the thinking that this ad’s novel approach could appeal younger audiences towards the new Jaguar and its branding may have backfired in this instance.
Has Jaguar truly broken the mold?
While a polarizing ad, Jaguar has certainly made its mark as another luxury brand that has gone through a massive effort to rebrand itself as an edgy and innovative company like other contemporaries. There appears to be two different camps of thought: some may argue that it’s art, and art is designed to divide its audience and to get people thinking and reflecting.
Others may say that it’s a luxury car brand, and at minimum there should be a car as the focal point of the advert. If anything, Copy Nothing is certainly a large step away from the typical car adverts that we may see that showcase cars doing down a windy highway, or the familiar narratives of cars being able to bring people together and build memories with family and friends.
Our take from the data? From our analysis, we can see an emotional disconnect taking place. Jaguar may want to shift their strategy into being proactive in taking steps to build an emotional narrative – whether it’s incorporating surprising moments to get people excited and shocked about the new branding, heartwarming nostalgia to bring existing and new Jaguar enthusiasts together, or some kind of positivity to generate joy to viewers.
With Jaguar’s Type 00 concept cars being displayed at various global design and high-profile events, Jaguar has solidified itself as being the talk of the town when its campaign first launched. While bold in its choice of color and language, it also leaves room to see if other luxury automotive companies will follow Jaguar’s steps in the future.
Stay tuned to our next case study blog which features the Jaguar Type 00 concept car, where we will cover how facial coding and eye tracking can be beneficial for concept video testing!
