The Best Content Marketing Campaigns from April Had One Theme: Culture
Diversity has been a hot topic, not only in Silicon Valley but across the entire tech industry. Ironically enough, diversity and culture have been the common theme powering some of the best marketing campaigns of recent memory.
Whether it was for April Fools or to promote a specific product, brands have been incorporating urban culture to likely attract newer, younger audiences. You’ve likely seen the emoji trends in email headers or brand trolling through meme’s to encourage social engagement. In an effort to resonate with a diverse, Millennial and Generation Z audience, here’s how Hamburger Helper and Apple use culture to influence consumers.
Hamburger Helper's 'Watch the Stove' Mixtape
Hamburger Helper should be applauded for their content marketing approach that has erupted into a viral success. The mascot, “Lefty” became a born-again hip-hop artist and the face of the five track Watch the Stove mixtape, accompanied by two original music videos. Hamburger Helper delivered the unexpected masterpiece on Friday for April Fool’s but the ROI was no joke. The company had actually been planning the project for a few months now and the feedback was nothing less than overwhelmingly positive.
By Monday morning, the Hamburger Helper campaign had allotted over 432,660,000 social impressions and 4,086,000 plays on SoundCloud. “Lefty” even seems to have a promising rap career behind the local Minnesota artists who helped the brand create the mixtape itself.
Liana Miller, marketing communications planner and creative lead for Hamburger Helper, even described their intent with the mixtape, “We wanted to embody that fun vibe in the urban millennial,” in a quote with Adweek.
It was very probable that the brand could have come off as completely comical, although they did a great job in capturing laughter and a feeling that influenced the internet to latch on, behind quality content.
Taylor Swift's Apple Music Ad
You've probably have heard about the video of Taylor Swift falling off the treadmill; Apple’s new ad spot, featuring the tune “Jumpman” from Future and Drake's collaborative album. If you have, you’ll see that it’s a combination of influencer marketing, an Instagram update, and urban culture - all in one.
The singer was a part of Instagram’s beta program, allowing a select few to test their minute-long video feature before it rolled out to the public. The video quickly went out to her Twitter and Facebook accounts, Apple Music’s pages, and then eventually became a 60-second ad running on ESPN, CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox. Talk about the power of digital. I’d argue that the video was more about the pathos aspect than the humor of the ad. It identified the feeling that the music gives you when you’re running or the other times you’re streaming playlists. Yet, the song choice was deliberate and when that's paired with Taylor Swift I can only think they're trying to appeal to a wide demographic.
Since April 1, Drake and Future’s "Jumpman," are up 431 percent globally. Apple Music's curated #gymflow playlist shown by Swift has grown 325 percent and now ranks as the #5 playlist of the week for Apple. Overall, the video has been played over 37 million times. That’s nothing to laugh at.
The marketing communications planner and creative lead for Hamburger Helper described their approach to social media content in an interesting way -
“We would definitely comment on hip hop news and it caught on because as you can probably tell there aren't a lot of brands commenting or playing in the space. We're one of the few."
I wouldn’t be surprised if more brands utilize certain cultural trends to power their branded content. But then that raises another question; shouldn’t there be more of a need for diversity in the ideation stage?
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8 年Do we even have a 'relative' culture in the US yet? We're still a mixed bag of emotions in many cases, evidenced by the current potus race. Disheartening in way and embarrassing as a regular American. We've gained a voice in the market recently with 2 Small Biz Guys and our efforts to make sense common in leadership and sustainable business practices. Thanks for the ideation... check out Douglas Rushkoff's new book. He thinks the Internet is still operating on Industrial Age mentality... I tend to agree.
Ski Utah Web Director & Interconnect Program Director
8 年Great insight, thank your sharing -- But to further along your question, isn't the diversity incorporated by the campaign easily defined by the target audiences? The campaign's target demo should be the definer of the genre, right? Or am I missing the point?
Independent expert
8 年Nice work.