This is a follow-up post, to share my thoughts about three similar online campaigns. If you didn’t see the previous posts you can read about the campaigns here:
Campaign I – Lakai Fully Flared Intro
Campaign II – Adi Dassler Video
Campaign III – GAP Sound of Color
Campaign I – Lakai Fully Flared Intro
The Good
This video is absolutely spectacular and makes you want to watch and share with friends. This intro video appears on ever major video hosting website, lifelounge, youtube, neatorama, milk and cookies. The most popular posting of this video on youtube has over 60,000 views. Not only does it build great hype for the skate video of Lakai’s team within the skate community:
Best skate vid intro EVER. EPIC! Definitely going to buy this.
fueledbyrock
dudE I seriously when i first saw this cried in amazement
PalEntertainment
this is so f-ing amazing. i can’t stop watching it. i want to implant this in my brain and loop it forever.
bluemobb
Its appeal also extends beyond the world of skating:
I’m not into skateboarding, but i saw this on the Jackass Takeover and it’s AWESOME!
LuchaBoyYT
The video solidifies Lakai’s and even director Spike Jonze’s place in this subculture, but also intros a little known band and helps them get some more exposure
whats the music thats playing called? This video is awsome. I saw on the takeover too, and i havnt been able to stop watching since. The stunts are amazing.
iluvShaneKippel
The music is, m83 – lower your eyelids to die with the sun
KidBuuRulez
Amazing trailer.And M83 are my new band I’am listening too.
DJSouthernTech
The Bad
The video doesn’t appear on the official Lakai website, so there isn’t an opportunity to embed it into a website or blog. You can only use user uploaded videos from sites like youtube. Also, the video was really created as the intro to the longer form of the skate video and because of this has no information about release date or where to purchase.
The Ugly
Several of the youtube links display this warning:
This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Lakai, Ltd.
The Southern Planner
First, this video is amazing from an artistic perspective. Spike Jonze does a great job of making it really interesting to watch and provides great pass along value. However, by not putting this clip on their website Lakai is really missing out on a lot of the traffic it could be generating. Perhaps unintentionally, this video does serve as a great promo for the full DVD, regardless of location, so I would say Lakai is actually hurting themselves by pulling the videos. In the end. M83 may be the biggest winner, with the video serving as a great music video and exposing their song to loads of potential new listeners.
Campaign II – Adi Dassler Video
The Good
The video is well produced and the stop motion technique makes it feel fresh and crafty (which is pretty trendy). Adidas’ brand story is well told through the video and the additional information on the microsite. Just the fact that it is hosted on their official corporate website, where if you wanted to, you could click away and buy a pair of shoes, would seem to ramp up the effectiveness.
The Bad
There are some additional points of information on the website, but what is there is scant at best. Only one athlete has video to accompany their highlighted section. There is no option to embed the video or share with friends, forcing bloggers like me to go the youtube route.
The Ugly
Even if you were able to embed or pass the video along would you really want to? While it has been posted several times none has more than 40,000 views. Compare that with over 250,000 views of this video of two girls talking about their new Power Rangers tshirt.
The Southern Planner
While the video is well produced and does a good job of telling the literal story of the Adidas history, it lacks a lot of the pizzazz from the other videos. Kudos to Adidas for putting this on their website, which should allow them to stir up the hornets nest of people who are already crazy about their brand, but provides no opportunity to spread. In the end I don’t see that this will be bringing in anyone new to the brand, or selling any more tennis shoes, at least not the same way Run DMC’s My Adidas did.
Campaign III – GAP Sound of Color
The Good
I really like this idea. To me it is great to see a company select and promote up and coming artists (not that Swizz Beats is really up and coming). I also like that the artists retain the rights to the songs they write, too often large record companies can lock new artists, without bargaining power, into strict contracts limiting their rights. This seems much more like GAP is financing creative freedom.
“The corporations are asking you to be creative, but this could be what we are looking at for the future of music, ya know?”
The Blakes
It also feels like GAP has fully delivered on this idea. On the sound of color website they have included:
- credits for everyone
- making of videos
- interviews about each color’s video
- free downloads of the songs
- facts about each color
This campaign really provides a quick hook to get you interested, but also provides a wealth of other stuff that you can immerse yourself in if you are so inclined. You can also share by embedding the videos (although I was never able to get it to work, the option did exist).
The Bad
Even though GAP is mentioned several times there is not a link from the sound of color website to the GAP website. I visited the GAP site several times during the campaign and never once saw a link to the sound of color website either.
The Ugly
Was it really worth all the effort for just 30 days? If you visit the sound of color website now you will see a message telling you that “Sound of Color has gone silent.” Along with the perky “Thanks for visiting.” I assume that had you embedded a link to one of the videos in your site it would now be inactive, too.
The Southern Planner
As I mentioned I really like the concept. I gather that this campaign is aimed at aligning the brand with avant garde artists and generating interest among customers who have never or no longer shop at the GAP. I use the fact that there is no link between the corporate site and the sound of color microsite and all links leading you to the site appeared on online music websites, as evidence of this. However, even if you were able to stimulate enough interest and good feelings to get someone to reconsider shopping the GAP, the products haven’t changed. I don’t see any products on the GAP website that would serve as an entrée into the brand. It would seem to be an obvious extension of the project to have up and coming fashion designers develop clothing concepts based on the song and video that could then be sold in the stores. Ultimately, I really appreciate GAP taking the risk on this project, especially since I have always felt that corporations now have the responsibility to support the arts, much like the way the Medici Family did during the renaissance in the 15th century.
What I have questions about from this and the other two campaigns is whether it will sell any more product or bring anyone new into the brand? I sure hope it does, because the more this works the more companies will support the arts and continue to try new and interesting things.
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