How Pharrell made the music video social

 

Pharell William’s music video took a creative spin on social media syndication, extended cuts, and  a campaign by establishing 24hoursofhappy.com.  The initial short video is complimented by a interactive microsite that has 24 hours of the music video with multiple actors, moments, and events.  A guest cameo by the minions of despicable me are also a nice touch.

What I like about this campaign is that it takes the extended cut idea a bit further.  24 hours of content is probably standard for a music video shoot, but putting it into a day of “happy” seems to fit here.  The idea of a clock, and interactive experience makes being happy anytime, or the vicarious exploration of other peoples happy a valid secondary source of entertainment.

The most innovative part from my perspective though, is that ability to share moments of the footage.  Few artists or companies have successfully managed to get users to share or comment on temporal pieces of art.  Not only will these social moments help drive traffic to the website, thus possibly increase sales, but also allows people to become part of the campaign – the music video becomes active rather then a passive experience. 

 

 

 

I could insert a few happy puns in here.  Overall, I think this was a great multi- tierred campaign with some fantastic interactive components. I think more brands should think about multiple touch points in advertising and marketing to hit this level of engagement.

 

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The Persistence of Memory – Time and Creativity in Planning

Acknowledging the Gaps in How We Use Time in The Planning Process 

Musicians are trained to consider the use of time in creating work.  Many in the video production/ art field as well, but for many of us we have been trained to think transactionally for six sigma results and maximum efficiency.

A financial planner recently asked me to think in decades instead of years. 

It really made me stop and think about how I look at time in terms of my work.  I find that we are asked to think “fast” and “slow” at times depending on the campaign or project.   Most of us will gladly embrace years of historical data to come up with valid insights.  However, the trend we are often seeing is about “real time marketing” and daily feedback loops.  In PR we talk about “extending the news cycle” to compensate for people’s ( or institutions ) short attention spans. Changing time or the perception of time can create some amazing emotional experiences for a user or consumer or planner.

My thought to end on for the night is…

Think big and small at the same time.  Think in weeks, and quarters.  Hourly, and daily.  But try and think in both states.

Having a plan means you can always change it, but being able to set your milestones and think bigger about the entire project may yield new innovative ideas.  It may need real time support or help along the way ( guest blogs, media training interviews, pitching, omni channel outreach ), but the milestones will be in place.

There will always be enough moments to cherish the real time and the journey, but we need to think bigger, and time is a great place to start in thinking big.  hashtag 4 dimensional thought.

If time is our biggest asset, why do we rarely use it. 

-pd

ps. Aside : http://www.10000yearclock.net/learnmore.html