Will Kerschbaum
At The Whole Brain Group, the first order of business every week is our Production Meeting. And the first order of business at our Production Meeting is to watch a video.
Fake movie trailers. Bad Lip Reading. A Weird Al video. Anything that makes us laugh. It’s our ritual for starting the week off right. Here’s last week’s video.
Video is a powerful tool that connects with you on nearly every level — emotional, intellectual and social — and it’s one of the most effective marketing tools. But many companies limit their videos to product demos or event promotions. There’s nothing wrong with that, but we’ve all seen it before.
Crank up your marketing strategy by using video in some truly unique ways. Here are a few ideas to get you started.
Abuse Your Product
Show your audience how awesome your product is by taking it to its limits. This is what Blendtec has been doing with their “Will It Blend?” video series. In each video, a Blendtec researcher enthusiastically sticks a seemingly unblendable object — everything from pool cues to Apple Watches — into a Blendtec blender and turns it on. In a shower of sparks and smoke, the object is pulverized. It’s an attention-grabbing way of showing off the power of their blenders — although they do suggest that you refrain from recreating the “experiments” at home.
Get in Your Customers’ World
Customers connect emotionally to brands, and Pizza Hut used a clever take on the traditional PSA to do just that. In a faux PSA, they caution viewers against the “dangers” of selfie sticks, imploring viewers to share the video with “self-artists.” It’s a tongue-in-cheek look at a pop culture phenomenon that keeps Pizza Hut relevant and top-of-mind with their ideal customer. Pizza Hut earns cred with their audience by proving that they “get” their customers.
Show Off Your Fans
Last year Target challenged its fans to create some brand-themed videos on Vine, in a tag game of #AllNaturalVines. Users jumped on it and posted some really amazing 6-second videos that showed their love for the company. The game lasted nine months and the videos have had a total of nearly 2 million loops (and still counting). More recently, Target promoted an Age of Ultron action figure campaign by calling customers to create #AvengersAtTarget Vine videos. When customers love you enough to make their own videos celebrating your brand, you’ve got some powerful marketing mojo.
Make ‘Em Laugh
YouTube funny men Tripp and Tyler imagine a world where people act in real life the way they do in email. It’s a hilarious way of getting viewers to think about the email practices they hate most — like lost attachments and accidental Reply Alls — while promoting project management software that replaces email for collaborative projects. Just try to watch the video without wondering if you should get rid of email!
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