With the amount of content that is on the internet these days it is a tough feat to achieve ” virality” through views and shares.
Through harnessing the power of Youtube content creator Casey Neistat – Brands like Nike and Mercedes Benz have experimented with a different style of video to get people talking.
Nike #Makeitcount:
Amassing an astonishing 9.8Million views since it was first posted, this is what I would call a viral video success. Shooting a commercial with the pretense it is not a commercial and that they took Nike’s money and went on a trip around the world until it ran out is quite a clever way to reach out to Nike’s adventurous and fitness conscious consumers. Nike definitely reached out to the right person for an excellent end product that spoke to their consumers. Great, relevant content gets shared; virality is just the cherry on top.
Mercedes recently also reached out to Casey Neistat resulting in a rather daring offbeat commercial for their CLA car.
Dubbed the Mercedes CLA project, a series of videos detailing the behind the scenes of the making of the commercial lead up to a final finished product.
Final Commercial:
Part 1 CLA Project
Part 2 CLA Project:
Part 3 CLA Project:
Verdict? I think this video series was great at crafting a story. Although the actual “commercial” definitely veers away from Mercedez Benz’s classy, elegant style, I think this is a great example of a brand trying, testing and listening and not being afraid to create interesting, thought provoking content. Difference sparks discussion.
Neistat’s style is journalistic, and at times raw–but this seems to resonate well with viewers as it gives more of an unbiased, daredevil experimental approach.
Ad spend trends are promising results too: advertisers are moving more dollars away from broadcast media to non traditional social video mediums such as Youtube. Ad spend for digital is increasing; in the case of these examples above, it definitely makes sense. Youtube is free and brands do not need to pay to put videos up. The beauty of using an influencer who creates unique videos with a story telling aspect is that these videos have an “unlimited” worldwide reach and it is up to viewers to spread the videos around if they deem them worthy.
taken from eMarketer
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