More companies need to embrace storytelling and creativity in how they approach corporate messaging. This is probably the first and last blog post I will do about PSA’s from 10,000 feet in the air, but thought this was worth sharing. See below.
video
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.
Is Pepsi becoming the new Redbull?
As a Brand matures, they begin to diversify. The brand architecture becomes less about corporate colors and identity, and more about a brand experience and lifestyle. Pepsi has been embracing this strategy with its “Max” line, proudly encouraging fans to carpe diem.
Damien Walters has been a youtube sensation for a few years now. Below is his 2011 showreel. He has bee a figurehead in the freerunning and pakour community for quite some time.
In addition to seeing Pepsi continue to evolve as a brand, the other thing worth mentioning here is how they are using celebrity talent for brand transference. Youtube is rapidly becoming a place for talent discovery and recruitment. As the web has given a voice to everyman, talent and quality content is accessible to all. Some brands like Pepsi have moved into content creation using youtube sensations to draw a larger buzz on social media.
I think this campaign is a win-win. Damien Walters gets to showcase his amazing talent to a larger audience, and Pepsi continues to expand its social capital to a younger generation with an exciting new ad campaign. This campaign speaks to the future of brands becoming their own syndication channels of user curated talent.
-pd
Magna Carta Jay Z Album Marks Milestone in Corporate Collaboration
What does it mean that major albums are co launched by a mobile company for an artist? Jay Z teased the release of his Magna Carta album today signifying a milestone in artist marketing. The video above showcases tracks, producers, and story, but its presented by Samsung Galaxy. More and more we are seeing corporate endorsements of the changemakers and creatives of our times, and I personally am intrigued on how this awareness and shift in paid media dollars will effect content creation. What does it mean when a new album from the heart is cosponsored by a secondary brand ? This is commonplace in sports, and social entrepreneurship, but music has usually only maintained this relationship after the fact. Ex. Tailor Swift and Pepsi. However, to co associate your personal brand with a tech brand seems like a new frontier in a pre launch environment. Do you think any other artists will follow this trend? Or for a brand like Samsung, maybe this is the best time in the “hype cycle” to endorse a product / person to get the maximum brand transference to impact their bottom line. What do you think?
-Patrick
ps. The other interesting note is that he teased the announcement using imagery via social media. More and more, Artists and personal programming channels are being used to interact with fans wtih RTM ( real time marketing ) rather then relying on older PR channels and wire services.
Nike #Fuelband app adds pictures. Still waiting for #Vine option
The Nike Fuelband app just added the functionality to share your goal progress with a picture. This simple change in user experience was a brillant marketing decision. Although I am not sure I always want to hear about my friends working out every day, this helps hearing about nike plus in two ways.
1. With a picture, I get to tell my workout story or active day in a more visual way that I choose and am accustomed to on Facebook. We all know that images get more shares and likes then text alone, so this makes sense in how the app would evolve. I would imagine that this gives my friends a better picture of what I am doing, but also is more entertaining to see and watch then just a sentence about a workout routine I may not care about. The ability to add a picture makes this experience about the story and the person rather then just the number. And in a way, it might add more Nike+ stamps onto other lifestyle activities. What if every picture you took during the day had a fuelband stamp rather then just when you hit your goal? Its a great opportunity for nike to move more into the storytelling space.
2. This will also help serve as an earned media database for images for Nike+. Now all the nike plus stories are sharable. They can find a home on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. Images are more likely to tell the nike plus story and be told and received in a new way. Ultimately breathing new life into the nike plus ecosystem, and raise awareness of the digital brand.
2 other features I would love to see:
1. Video. Video clips would be natural extensions of this UX. And sometimes a video can really show a better story then a snapshot alone. Vine integration would be awesome. hint hint.
2. Networked apps: Lets say I was skateboarding with my buddies. What I would really want to do is to take a photo of someone else doing a trick and tagging their fuel moment to that picture. As much as we love taking photos of ourselves in this narcissistic era, sometimes you just cant while you are active. But your buddy can. Not sure how this could work, but it could be really great for content production. Perhaps the best way to implement this would be to have an API that would allow for the nike fuel points and timecodes to be exported to other medias.
Everyone is an athlete. Now we just have more ways to tell the story. Share on.
-pd
where the “Pepsi Like machine” hits a tipping point between earned media dollars and privacy
“The Pepsi Like machine” in addition to being buzzworthy makes really good business sense. Lets look at this from a math perspective.
According to 2 different sources ( link 1 Link 2 ) the cost of a “fan” is over a dollar. One says 1-7 dollars, another says way over 100, but lets skip over all the different methodologies and say its over a buck – this way we get to agree on the main insight rather then the details of why the research is wrong. So, what is the cost of a soda ? Maybe 75 cents, or 1.25 ? The beauty of the coke like machine is that people are opting into a loyalty program for a free sample. The cost of giving away that soda is equal or less then the amount of dollars they would have spent to gain that fan. Additionally, the documentation of this stunt by pepsi translated into earned media dollars ( via viral video and blog editorials ) which is bound to give pepsi an edge in awareness and brand equity – that is… free advertising.
This was a great execution of digital marketing moving its way into physical computing that makes sense. They are also very lucky that they are some of the first ( not the first ) to ask people to trade their social capital for real assets. Because if everyone starts to ask fans to like their product for a free, people will start to value their privacy more then the transaction that occurs. A reverse tipping point comes into play between free stuff and privacy.
The other interesting thing here to note is that documentation has make this appear to be a huge campaign when this really just occured at once concert. Lets say it only had a reach of 100 ( I have no data to back this up). The video of this campaign itself far exceeded the actual number of people that got free product. This is where many guerilla marketing campaigns have gone where they set up a special campaign to reach only a few ( 007 promotion comes to mind (coke )) and most of the effort is spent on sharing this story throughout social networks in place of paid media. It really shows an interesting trend in how marketing dollars are moving from paid medias to earned and owned networks.
Good vs Better 