Marketers or visual thinkers? Think twice. Marketers should not only fulfil the typical role, to make sense of the marketing strategy, but also perform as ‘visual thinkers’, to help communicate with their audience. With the right voice, the right content and the right distribution, you can start using videos as a solid way to grow your business.
The main purpose of the experimental marketing campaigns is to educate people about a particular brand through encouraging interactions and a creative, more personal process. This is how people will not be annoyed of typical boring sales or spam emails but they will learn more about the actual meaning of your brand and your company mission. Here are 6 inspiring examples of how you can build emotional interaction for your audience and engage and attract more people to hear your voice.
#WeighThis by Lean Cuisine
As part of a event, Lean Cuisine created a gallery of scales in New York’s Grand Central Station, and invited women to “weigh in.” However, instead of really trying to weigh themselves, the women had to write on the small scales in what respect they really wanted to be “weighed” - this was not in terms of body measurements, but instead by “measuring” their contributions to their family, or society and life in general. For example by being the sole provider to their family. The wall with so many hanging scales was enough to make people stop, observe, and then voluntarily interact with the exhibition.
The DNA Journey by Momondo
Believe it or not connections can be possible and people can be defined not only by their social habits or national belonging. When your ideas of your own identity are clearly established in your head it is difficult to accept that “others” are not that different. In this video, several participants take DNA tests to find out where they’re from. The results in many cases are both shocking and eye-opening. The best part was that the audience doesn’t realize that Momondo is behind this brilliant concept until the end of the video. Momondo is a travel fare aggregator and travel fare metasearch engine. Their message is simple: “An Open World Begins with an Open Mind”. Their outside-the-box approach made them stand out not as a typical travel agency but one that inspires people to follow their own unique journeys.
World's Toughest Job by American Greetings
The first thing that attracts the audience to this video is the topic. You can immediately connect with the interviewees and try to guess what this brand stands for. Then the twist at the end is very unexpected and makes you reconsider many things. The lesson to learn from this video is that your audience is more likely to stay engaged with your content when they cannot predict the outcome.
Insect ice cream by The Economist
The Economist decided to engage in a few experimental marketing campaigns, one of which was serving insect ice cream to help bring its content to life for readers and drive interest in the publication. “Through using our content and turning it into an activation we can speak to our readers in a much more interesting way, interest them in the product, surprise them and then hopefully convert them to subscription,” retail marketing expert with the magazine Marina Haydn was quoted. The goal to position the Economist as a brand that is an advocate for change seems to be accomplished. Provoking your audience might be risky but this is what makes more of them become more curious and interested to educate themselves more.
#LikeAGirl by Always
For over 30 years, Always has been empowering girls globally, providing puberty education to millions of adolescent girls. Most of their campaigns are empathetic, endorsing the opinion that neither boys nor girls should be confined by outdated gender stereotypes. This video focuses on keeping girls’ confidence high during puberty and beyond. Using #LikeAGirl as an insult is a hard knock against any adolescent girl. And since the rest of puberty is really no picnic either, it’s easy to see what a huge impact such a saying can have on a girl’s self-esteem. We can start changing this by showing them that doing things #LikeAGirl is an amazing thing!
You’re more beautiful than you think by Dove
This is one of the most famous Dove films, which explores the gap between how others perceive us and how we perceive ourselves. Each woman is the subject of two portraits drawn by FBI-trained forensic artist Gil Zamora: one based on her own description, and the other using a stranger’s observations. The results are surprising…
There are many examples that illustrate how beneficial experimental marketing can be when done correctly. If you create an experience that provides value to the people who come across it, they are more likely to participate. That is what you can try with your own mission. First, figure out the message you really want your brand to send - that may or may not be directly tied to an actual product, and it might be something that your brand hasn’t said before. Then, build an experience around it. Use some videos to bring some more noise in social and your goals will be achieved. If you think this is too much creative work for you and you don’t have time, then let Tree Bench Films drive this transformational experience for you.
