As outlined in the linked blog on Family History Live events, I became very interested in the way that the companies were presenting themselves in this forum.

I kept a few flyers to look over

the ways that the services were selling themselves. These are small contributions to major communication strategies on behalf of the three big companies, but in their differences – and in the issues they underline – we can begin to see how the various organisations conceive of and sell DNA testing.

FamilyTreeDNA was offering three distinct types of test – YDNA, MtDNA, and Family Finder (degree of relationship). On the flyer, each is outlined with particular benefits. So Family Finder is ‘Great test for adoptees’, whereas MtDNA ‘suggests geographic origins’. The flyer explicitly catered to a particular type of user: ‘Have you hit the end of your paper trail?’ Their advertising also linked DNA work with more investigations – claiming ‘More than 8000 DNA projects’ and listing some of the ways that the information was being used by ‘a community of enthusiastic genealogists’. The FamilyTreeDNA flyer was the least professional, an A4 printed piece of paper, and feels more community-led and low key (although prices were in dollars, so it also felt unspecific to the Irish context). The point of the ‘Comprehensive Database’ is made thoroughly, though: ‘A genetic genealogy database is only as valuable as its scope’ is a very telling comment, as is ‘As our database grows, so can your match list’. This presents the participant as contributing to this growth in knowledge, in a kind of characterisation of the relationship as mutually beneficial – if you join, it will be better for you, and for us, and for all the users of the service.

AncestryDNA of course advertised its size and scale: ‘AncestryDNA is the largest DNA network in the world. And more people means more possible connections. Who will you discover?’. The slick flyer had DNA information on one side and ‘mainstream’ family history on the other. The motto for the ‘mainstream’ is ‘Uncover your family history. And discover what led to you’ (the narrative motif of this type of work), whereas DNA leads with ‘Explore more of your family story’, suggesting something more complex, rounded, rich in the experience. The DNA testing will help the user uncover ethnic origin, find new relatives, discover new geographic locations. The letters DNA in the logo are modern, clean, almost brutally scientific in contrast with Ancestry’s ‘leaf’ logo. The flier is attractive, engaging, and well produced, seeming to promise that the user will be part of a dynamic, worldwide group.

MyHeritage similarly split the DNA and the ‘mainstream’, but made much of this through the format of the flyer. On the LHS MyHeritage advertised ‘Who were they’, a way of investigating your ancestors and ‘your family’s fascinating story’. This clearly contrasts with the more studious advertising of FamilyTreeDNA and the more ego-driven Ancestry flyer. The background was yellow with some faded handwriting, and an image of a young man in slightly unfocussed sepia. Thus the ‘mainstream’ family history was linked with age, heritage, social history, and the biography of the past.

In contrast the RHS had MyHeritageDNA offers the opportunity to ‘Uncover your unique ethnic origins and find new relatives’. The letters DNA in the logo are modern, contemporary, angular and almost hip (the A has no cross, the D is sharp), in contrast to MyHeritage’s slightly stylised tree. The image for this is a young, very contemporary model with beard, luxuriantly curled moustache and slicked back hair; he wears a lumberjack shirt and is styled as much as possible to suggest ‘hipster’. The split between the services is clear. Despite the fact that they are interlinked, one does not necessarily need the other. The shift here is important. One side asks ‘Who were they?’, the other ‘Who are you?’ Temporally the move between tenses is crucial here. MyHeritageDNA is clearly presenting a lifestyle service and one that is being advertised to a youthful audience.

The ease of the service is obviously being advertised, too, with FamilyTreeDNA offering a mailing service, and a series of ‘limited time offers’ MyHeritage was also offering a code for free shipping, and AncestryDNA offering a special deal on price for those attending the event. These are clearly services, being offered for money, and the loyal customer is being rewarded for their being at the particular physical event.

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