The way in which advertising messages are delivered over social platforms has opened up opportunities for advertisers to engage with their audience in new and exciting ways. It’s no longer enough for brands to rely solely on bought media, with some studies suggesting that creating socially multiplied advertising could be roughly 100 times more cost efficient on a CPM basis than TV advertising.
Brand focus is increasingly moving away from advertising strategy towards video content strategy, and brands which create an integrated and addictive experience for consumers see a huge payoff when their messages are amplified across social media channels.
This post looks at some brands with a very clear and deliberate content marketing strategy, and how they’re using branded video content to build and engage with their audience:
GoPro
GoPro successfully rely on their customers to create a branded video to market itself. They have utilised a clearly well-engaged audience in their content creation strategies, users frequently tag videos they’ve created using the HD camera systems as “Me and my GoPro”. This strategy illustrates well the sort of professional footage that their systems are capable of, as demonstrated in the video below for their GoPro Hero3:
Dassault Systemes: The Iceberg Project
One of the boldest pieces of branded content of recent years for the B2B market was created by Dassault Systemes, a world leading designer of 3D design systems and PLM solutions. The company created the IceDream project, an epic piece of creative advertising looking at the efforts of one man to take an iceberg and tow it across the Atlantic to use as a source of freshwater. The team used the project to illustrate their technical prowess and social innovation capabilities to bring together a range of experts to create realistic virtual experiences and scientific simulations. The team documented their work via a blog, and it resulted in the creation of a one hour long documentary which would not look out of place on the Discovery Channel. The documentary can be viewed in exchange for your contact details here, or trailed below:
Bodyform: CEO Response
Bodyform’s response to the comments of a disgruntled man on Facebook picked up 3.3 million views for the brand on Facebook, the brand is not historically known for their branded content creation but after the success of the project it seems likely we’ll be seeing more from the brand in this space:
ASOS Urban Tour
The ASOS Urban Tour campaign picked up on the fact that men pick up their fashion cues from culture, sports and the streets, creating an interactive street dance video which attracted over 7.36 million views. A case study video can be viewed here or watch the film produced by BBH, London and Stink Digital below:
Red Bull
It would be difficult to write a piece about a branded video without giving Red Bull an honourable mention. Red Bull created a social and shared brand experience on a scale never seen before with Red Bull Stratos. The brand recently topped the list of top 100 Social Video Brands for best overall video strategy. Forbes estimates the value to the brand to be in the tens of millions of dollars worth of media exposure when Felix Baumgartner jumped 24 miles from space in a media event which dominated headlines around the world. You can relive Felix’s incredible feat below:
Over the Summer we worked on a piece of branded video with Red Bull around the See No Evil street art festival in Bristol, we were tasked with producing a film which fulfilled the tagline ‘Inspire a Generation’. The branded video we produced invited entrants to send in their artwork for a chance to paint at See No Evil 2013, the film we produced can be viewed below:
Chipotle – Back To The Start
Chipotle does a great job of supporting its brand story by creating authentic brand videos. Their website is littered with great pieces of content which enforce their brand story, one of their most well known pieces is the 3D animated film below which has now reached almost 7 million views on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMfSGt6rHos
Nike: Make it Count
You would fully expect Nike’s branded video efforts to ramp up significantly during the Olympic Games. Nike made an unlikely star of Nathan, a 12 year old boy from London, Ohio in this piece from Wieden and Kennedy Portland, shot in a single take.
TMB Panyee FC
One of Thailand’s leading football teams put together this short film to tell the story of how the team came into being. Based on a true story of the children living on a little island in the south of Thailand called “Koh Panyee” a floating village in the middle of the sea. The film follows the children’s story of creating a floating football pitch, and evolving to be one of Thailand’s leading football teams:
OREO
While OREO are not known for their branded video content they do a masterful job of managing their social media presence and telling their brand story. Their approach has cultivated a fanbase of 30 million Facebook fans with campaigns such as ‘Daily Twist’. The brand creates eminently shareable pieces of content, some examples of which can be seen below.
