Ancestry urges consumers to delve into the unknown

Genealogy giant Ancestry is calling on consumers to explore unanswered questions within their own family histories with a new international marketing and advertising campaign.

Questions & Ancestors has been devised by Joan London, and will launch in the UK this week before being rolled out across Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

The campaign is built around the line “You’ve got questions, we’ve got ancestors”, and aims to refresh the brand’s creative presence while strengthening consumer understanding of its offering.

The activity spans TV, online video, DRTV, social, partnerships, digital display and search.

A campaign playbook is designed to support future rollout across all channels, markets and tactical moments throughout the year, giving the brand a platform to show up in contextual and culturally relevant moments.

The new platform is designed to balance emotionally-led storytelling with product-focused creative to educate consumers on Ancestry’s offering – building stronger creative recall for the brand and creating a more emotionally distinctive brand presence.

Joan London developed the work in collaboration with Art Practice and Time Based Arts on production and post-production, Strings & Tins on audio and composition, Creative Culture on cultural insight and transcreation, and One Minute To Midnight on qualitative research.

Ancestry managing director of international markets Sue Moncur said: “With this creative platform we were looking for a relatable and inspiring way to get people thinking about family history. What we love about ‘Questions and Ancestors’ is the way it unites people around a concept that resonates across borders. We are excited to see the creative come to life across multiple forms of media in the coming weeks.”

Joan London managing partner George Fox added: “We’ve loved partnering with the Ancestry team on a campaign of this scale, across multiple key markets.

“At the centre of the campaign is a universal human truth: we all have unanswered questions about who we are and where we come from. Through the Questions & Ancestors platform, we’ve been able to deliver a simple but emotionally engaging message that gets to the heart of what the Ancestry product delivers.”