The Work: No. 31
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With brands behaving more and more like media properties and as our viewing habits are changing dramatically, this week we explore ways of engaging an existing audience and enticing a new one. Using technology to engage and keep attention in brand communications across multiple channels is going to be a skill that brands will need to embrace, if they are going to play a relevant part in the lives of their target consumers. We look at two examples from the worlds of Broadcasting and Publishing which set the bar extremely high for both innovation and engagement.
FX UK, The Walking Dead
RED BEE Media
US drama release patterns mean large breaks in a season’s episodes (in this case, a two month break). FX needed to ensure their marketing not only created a big fanfare but also ensure a sustained level of interest in the show, to reignite excitement for its return on screen. The brief: give something back to the existing fans, and entice new viewers by giving them a reason to share their love of The Walking Dead.
With more than three-quarters of UK viewers now using other media while watching TV, it was clear that ‘dual screening’, rather than being seen as a threat (a competing force for attention), could be a strong tool in a TV channel’s weaponry. Making it work for a high-attention, narrative driven, immersive drama was the key to the conundrum: audiences are using other devices, but the main screen experience is what makes the genre so successful. So Red Bee created a ‘companion app’: an application that runs alongside the show to deepen engagement and to field all of the online conversations in one place; a place full of everything any zombie lover could ever want. They created a UK first by using audio watermarking in the app: technology that meant zombie kills could be tracked to the second with the main screen experience.
Pan MacMillan, Lord Sugar
Guided
To Launch Lord Sugar’s new book – The Way I see It: Rants, Revelations & Rules for Life and position it as a new release, not a 2nd autobiography (after the previous year’s successful What You See Is What You Get autobiography), needed a plan of action that was able to achieve considerable cut through on a small budget and build momentum towards the crucial Christmas sales period.
Lord Sugar is a Twitter addict with 1m+ followers (he’s also big on Facebook and Youtube). He was media in his own right – the most effectively targeted channel to reach the most likely people to buy his new book – his fans. He’s also a very busy guy – so a solution that revolved around him, but was easy for him, would be win-win.
The World’s first live Twitter book signing was born. It took place in his office (cunningly on the Wed before Super Thursday). The day before the signing, he invited his Twitter followers to tweet rants at him… the ones that struck a chord would receive a signed copy of the book – all broadcast live via Livestream so that the winners could see him sign their book. The book arrived in the post a day later and they received a link to a clip of it being signed to share with friends on social media.
Read more from Haystackonline.
Posted: February 21st, 2012 | Author: stuart.treasure | Filed under: haystackonline | Tags: Advertising, campaigns, FX UK, Guided, Haystack, haystackonline, Lord Sugar, Pan MacMillan, RED BEE Media, The Walking Dead, the work | Leave a Comment »
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