Radiohead has received a lot of attention and press as a result of their forward-thinking approach to consumer engagement, marketing and sales in the digital channel and age. Last year, the band gave away their music for a limited time with mixed results based on who you heard it from. Clearly these guys aren’t one-hit-wonders in music or in marketing innovation. In a “make tech cool in a popular culture sense” move, Radiohead and Google are partnering on data visualizationas you can see in the House of Cards video below. Data geeks can download the inputs, create their own versions and post to the Radiohead YouTube site. The partnership also includes an iGoogle homepage themeand embeddable gadget for the video. Pretty simple, but effective stuff, especially when backed by the distribution of Google. This video has already earned over 2mm views as of this posting.
How can this approach work for digital marketers in other product categories? Consider the ways innovation can create a halo effect for your brand and seek out those innovations that tie closest to your brand values. Many brands require repositioning or reappraisal, and your marketing message and approach can be as talkable as any singular message crafted. In this case, the marketing is the message.
Share your thoughts or ways you’ve used marketing innovation to earn reconsideration below.
Here’s your Friday snack. A great video mash-up with retro talent–The Delta Rythm Boys–and a soundtrack about Web 2.0 connectivity brought to life on dem iPhones. Cheers!
Baby Einstein hired Real Branding to re-position their line through the digital channel. As you can see from the ”before” shot to the left, we repositioned from a product towards a brand, from functional benefits to emotional in a few simple videos. These videos also serve to demo the product versus the static image you see on most ecommerce sites. Our challenge was to take highly functional transactional requirements and marry them with equally demanding emotional expectations. This isn’t a TV spot or a print ad, but consider for a moment how much information is conveyed within your first three clicks.
There are also great tools for selecting the right products based on age, stages, fancy or fascination through simple exploration. And we’ve invited parents to share their experiences at every touch.
Without opening up the strategy completely, we’re moving the brand to a “smarter” place which parents intuitively understand: that the most powerful learning happens within their arms and intimacy, where Baby Einstein has always advocated and delivered.
Mad props to the team that delivered business-changing engagements in a transactional website for a Real Brand.
The Fox promotions machine was brilliant wrenching every ounce of value out of a declining medium during a writer’s strike. My sources tell me the most dvr-proof content includes live events–like the Super Bowl–and news (when it’s old you don’t need to record it). Still, let’s assume many people are using dvrs for replays, bio breaks and other conveniences. Before breaks and in those premium info-graphic areas Fox was promoting their www.myspace.com/superbowlads/ directory which was largely anemic during the game–you could find a lot more of these ads on youtube and other places as a result. Lost opportunity, but the promotional thinking was great.
But some of the best ads, IMHO, were the promotional bumpers for the Terminator, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, airing tonight on Fox. Consistent with the original debut of the campaign, the spots enter through the element of surprise. Gigantic info-graphic CGI footballbots provided blingy bumpers between the game and commercials. On the way out to commercial, recaps were accompanied by a “metallic” collosus that victory danced. During a couple of the breaks a classic Terminator leapt from behind the graphics to tackle and battle the footballbot. Surprising, entertaining and a little scary. And TiVo-proof. In the world of interruptive messages, this one did its job well: if you have to demand my attention with interruption, at least add some value.
I’m guessing that these “spots” cost about as much as the cheapo Dorritos efforts but got 10x the attention. And, none of the TV spot analysis seem to track these. Why? The future of mankind, if not the medium, is at stake here people.
I haven’t been able to find these bumpers in my searching. If you do, please post in the comments area below. In the meantime, here’s a promo spot that has equally good interruption and integration. Perhaps the revolution will be televised…
Added: Neal Stewart recaps at the Denver Post And a little ad that might appear if the player works–the secret spot from www.budbowl.com –if you can’t view it here, click the link, get through the age-gate and enter “1982″ into the right hand sidebar to view a scatalogical wonder. Thanks DG for forwarding.
Playtexbacks their tagline “who knows you like we do” with a simple, insightful campaign that’s also a YouTube hit. Doesn’t hurt that they’re promoting the video everywhere the 18 Hour Comfort Lace videos appear–smart planning and execution–but more importantly the ads are honest. Women of many shapes, sizes and ethnicities take the objectifying power out of the fetish by talking openly, bras bared, about their “friends.” Meet Lacy and Casey and other favorite names, see women dance in bras and experience the celebration of marketing that knows women better than the male lurkers that are bound to flock as well. Take a peek:
If you missed the Emmy’s the other night, no problem. There’s very little “appointment” or event TV you need to watch in real-time these days. The highlights are bound to find their way to your DVR or fav video sharing site, which for the enormous majority is YouTube (50% larger than the rest of the market combined according to HitWise). My favorite segment was the “Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program” which has benefited from a comedic one-upmanship year over year. It seems to bring out the best in the writers and transforms an expected boring roll-call into a piece of pop culutre. Would that we take all our mundane content and tasks and treat them so lovingly. Our audiences would reward us with top ratings, viewership and sharing as evidenced here:
Filipino prisoners perform their version of Michael Jackson’s Thriller:
Description: “1,500 plus CPDRC inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, Cebu, Philippines at practice…” Over 1/2 a million views since posting 5 days ago. Nearly 1000 comments as of my visit with a wide range of reactions from “good on them” to “this is what taxes fund/this is rehabilitation?” to “should do more time for this.” My reaction: creepy on different levels mostly due to the context. Not just the orange suit-zombie conformance, but the suggested gang rape-event that must have been present in the Jackson video but I missed it outside of this context. Also, in a way, uplifting to see the political message expressed through a collaborative piece.
Chris Anderson points to a Bear Sterns study of “The Long Tail” of Entertainment. Head to The Long Tail blog to see his take on it. Some summary points: 1) slowing growth for incumbant content creators and shift in value from creators to aggregators/packagers; 2) UGC here to stay–see note below; 3) more choice for consumers creates confusion, noise and selection challenges; 4) Content isn’t king; great content is. (more…)
This video from http://bringtheloveback.com dramatizes the interaction between Advertiser and Consumer as a personal relationship. It should be, right? It’s funny and insightful. And, it’s a theme we’re articulating here at Real Branding through our talent, work and approach: “how do brands engage in a meaningful, mutually beneficial relationship with their consumerin an age of consumer control, expanded choices and new, customized and interactive media?” Enjoy the clip and expand on the debate.
Baby Einstein
But some of the best ads, IMHO, were the promotional bumpers for the 
