New routes for branded content

A collection of thought provoking articles from the world of content, digital and otherwise.

Branded Content

OK Go – Needing/Getting

The new music video from OK Go was made in partnership with Chevrolet and has recorded over 12m views on Youtube. The band went about a musical drive-by with 1000 instruments over two miles of LA desert, using a Chevy Sonic with retractable pneumatic arms to play the instruments. The video took 4 months of preparation but is well on it’s way to becoming an internet hit after the music video was mentioned within the Chevrolet Sonic Super Bowl ad. Our recent brief from Sony Music could be the beginning of more content partnerships with their artists – across the Sony sister companies but perhaps beyond too.

Heineken use James Bond to stir the digital conversation

Daniel Craig is set to star in Heineken ads for the first time since the brewer started sponsoring the movie franchise in 1997 – the biggest activation of 007 ever. Within Heineken’s ‘Open your world campaign’ the character of Bond will fit into the campaign message, as opposed to the brand trying to fit around the film. Activity will revolve around digital platforms, Facebook and Google. Heineken is looking to make the social network the hub of all its conversations online.

Vice teams up with YouTube to create exclusive music channel

The curated music Youtube channel – Noisey is launched in partnership with Dell and Intel and will feature original content, reviews, interview shows, live events and special programs to promote individual artists across the world.

 

Lanvin jumping on the animated gif trend

Each scene in the Lanvin look book is shot and presented as a rapid succession of stills, just like a gif.

Digital

Twitter rolls out first wave of UK brand pages

It was only rolled out 9 days ago yet 20 companies have already produced their own Twitter brand pages. The new format allows brands to showcase branded banners, a permanent tweet and even embed videos to showcase or promote desired content. This is definitely offering more creative opportunities for brands on Twitter, however, brands that do choose to go down this route have to spend £25,000 on media.

Social Media Trends for 2012

The key predictions: this is the year that social commerce will become common behaviour with people buying real products via social media on their community’s recommendations and a greater focus on loyalty schemes and personalised online experiences. Also, following the success of Moshi Monsters – social games and worlds for children will continue to grow with a greater focus on narrative. This is especially interesting for Digital Stories and the opportunity to evolve digital stories into an interactive storytelling platform.

Sponsorship

Brands and Bands make music festival experience

The summer festival line-ups were released this week and it’s clear to see how alcohol sponsors have become central to the music experience. However, music festivals are now being targeting by an increasingly diverse range of brands who recognise the rare opportunity to engage a collective and captive youth audience – all willing to be entertained. What are the branding guidelines with regards to Snowfest?

Culture, Content and Codes

Culture (Music, Books, Food)

Google opens Android music store to challenge Apple iTunes

Currently only available in the US, Google have managed to sign up all the main music labels – except Warner Music so no Prince! Access to content is becoming key for these rivals to retain customers within their systems. By linking purchases to an account on an Apple or Google device it’s difficult for users to switch – “Everyone is using music and media as a jail. Ultimately, this stuff is going to be stored in the cloud and it becomes harder and harder to switch systems”. Also both companies have launched services in the US that allow you to access songs you own on any of your Android or iOS devices. As expected the Apple version is slicker and requires less work but costs $25 a year whereas the Android version is free. In an added extra, Google aims to let artists distribute their own work on Google Music – build an artist page, set prices and sell directly to fans. This could prove a nifty way to increase the content library for users if up and coming artists take this approach. 

Telling Stories

While some people predict the “death of print” what is clear is that storytelling is alive and kicking. New digital forms of stories are taking off all over the world, with the rise of self-publishing a particularly noticeable trend, supported by legend Seth Godin’s project with Amazon.

Order a takeaway from the chef next door

This idea caught my eye a few weeks back and I love the concept. A new company called Housebites offers hungry people the chance to order a reasonably priced takeaway from a local chef in their area. You go on the website, type in your post code and choose the chefs (rated by other users) and menus on offer that day. The order then gets biked round. This offers chefs the chance to test new recipes, build a following before opening a restaurant or just enjoy cooking someone a full menu rather than one element of one. Another example of community activation.

Fashion content

Fashion brands embracing online video

This shows the top ten fashion youtube videos in 2011 across branded and non-branded channels. Some key insights into what makes fashion content views fly are unsurprisingly some form of celebrity involvement — whether in front of or behind the camera but also videos with a humorous element tended to perform the best. This is something you may not consider with luxury brands but Lanvin’s lighthearted Fall 2011 campaign video  has been viewed nearly half a million times since it debuted in August despite the lack of celebrity participation.

QR codes

Tesco to free up shelf space with augmented reality trial

With our extensive knowledge of new tech – real time apps, QR codes, augmented reality, it’s easy to forget that the general public often aren’t so clued up. However, Tesco, will be trialling augmented reality in their stores, allowing customers to have 360 views of the products, such as TVs, which take up lots of shelf space. Is this the tipping point towards mass awareness? HMV too using QR codes in a new outdoor campaign. Together with Fox they have turned bus stops into virtual shelves with each DVD containing its own QR code so consumers can scan and purchase on the spot. Given the season, it might be quite successful when you’re sitting at the bus stop and realise you’ve forgotten that one present.

Travel

Virgin Book Your Holiday by Weather

Now this idea obviously has a targeted audience, namely those who are a fan of spontaneity and adventure, and have strong ideas of what they want the weather to be like on holiday. However, the idea behind it is fantastic, it wasn’t too long ago that holidays had to be booked months before through a travel agent, and now we can pretty much take off without knowing our destination.

Social

Tumblr Numbers

For those of you who are not as Tumblr conscious, it falls somewhere between a fully fledged blog and twitter, with an emphasis on “reblogging”, and in the last year it blew up somewhat. Despite being around since 2007, the past year has seen it grow globally by 900%, putting tumblr on most peoples radar.

Behaviour change

PleaseCycle aims to ‘gamify’ commute with Bike Miles

PleaseCycle have launched another iteration of rewarding people with points for cycling. We wrote about TfL using this initiative a few weeks ago and PleaseCycle aims to make this a corporate scheme. What’s next – local councils offering you points for good behaviour – recycling, volunteering in your borough?