Their indifference to advertising, though, has slowly been wearing off. The brand just released its 2024 holiday commercial—only its second commercial ever, after last year’s holiday spot—running on streaming platforms including Netflix, Peacock, Hulu, Paramount+, Tubi and Roku. Life is Good has also been doing more advertising year-round through search, paid social and digital, print and more mediums. The company spent $4.25 million on U.S. measured media in 2023, per Vivvix, including paid social data from Pathmatics.
Ad Age spoke with the Jacobs brothers about the evolution of their marketing, the creative approach to the new holiday spot—featuring a visitor from another planet—their thoughts on purpose-based work (as one of the pioneering brands in the space) and how the brand has worked over the years to better articulate the real meaning behind “Life Is Good.”
The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
When did you first realize advertising might be good—even necessary—for the business?
Bert Jacobs: We always looked at transactional advertising as something to avoid, because it seemed like the world was so noisy with that. We don’t want to bother somebody who’s never gone fishing in their life with a T-shirt about fishing. But with the level of information you have these days, you can reach someone who’s in that world. It’s less intrusive.
The other thing that happened was, between 1994 and 2008, we grew from zero to $117 million [in revenue]. Then the Great Recession hit. For several years, our business was going in the wrong direction. We realized we didn’t really know how to manage a $100 million business. It’s the kind of thing founders never want to admit. But it dawned on us to go hire people who’ve been places we haven’t and who can help really lead the business.