Swiftie tour influencer dramas, our stand-out Olympic ads and saying goodbye to 'brat summer' | Vol.10

Welcome to your latest dose of Vitamin EE, from the team here at Edson Evers.

The new season may be on the horizon, but in this month's instalment of #VitaminEE, we're reminiscing on a 'brat' summer of Olympics, influencer dramas and Google's launch of AI chatbot, Gemini.

Emily Macbeth has shared her favourite ads from the Olympics - including those that missed the mark. Our digital specialist Gim Perera has shared an insight into how Google's AI chatbot Gemini will impact website views. Our designer Jessica Smith has explored how brands have made the most out of the viral 'brat summer' trend courtesy of Charli XCX, and social media lead Sarah Bradley has explored the recent influencer drama surrounding brand trips and how businesses need to carefully consider the creators they partner with.

Stay tuned for the next Vitamin EE, coming soon...

The Vitamin EE Ad Olympics

The Summer Olympic Games in Paris had it all – world records smashed, success for Team GB and an opening ceremony shrouded in controversy. We love to see it!

Of course, with any major sporting event comes a slew of related adverts from some of the biggest global brands.

So, in this month’s edition of Vitamin EE, I’m going to award gold, silver and bronze to the big hitters.

Gold: Nike – Winning isn’t for Everyone

Featuring a host of world-class athletes including pro basketballer LeBron James, track star Sha’Carri Richardson and tennis legend Serena Williams, Nike’s Olympic advert touched on the often-unspoken side of professional sport.

The hard-hitting commentary, voiced by actor Willem Dafoe, shows that there’s nothing wrong with wanting to win. As Nike’s website says about the ad, “the world’s best athletes aren't just motivated by the idea of winning — they are relentlessly fuelled by it.”

While some were critical of the advert, due to its punctuated repetition of the words “Am I a bad person?” possibly spreading the wrong message about sport, do world-class athletes really set out to come second?

The power behind Nike’s Winning isn’t for Everyone advert very much struck me, as it takes you into the mind of a professional athlete. Which is why I’m awarding it gold in the EE Ad Olympics.

Watch the ad on Nike’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwLergHG81c

Silver: BBC – Welcome to the City of Love

The BBC’s Welcome to the City of Love ad plays off Paris’s reputation, and shows the parallels of sports people’s ups and downs, much like a real-life relationship. The 2D animation depicts various sports, with a breathy narrative aiding the story of love and heartbreak.

Cleverly, the ad incorporates loved-up couples riding a moped and rolling down a hill locked in an embrace, turning them into Olympic cyclists and martial artists.

The stunning visuals are accompanied by the sound of French love song Hymne A L’Amour by Edith Piaf, and have earned the ad second place in the EE ad Olympics.

Watch on the BBC’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVc61V4xhlw

Bronze: Google – Dear Sydney

Possibly one of the most controversial ads of the Olympics, Google’s Dear Sydney received so much backlash that it was pulled entirely from American broadcaster NBC’s coverage.

The ad, released in support of Team USA, shows a little girl with ambitions to be a track star, and her Dad narrating. While the Dad thinks his daughter is following in his running footsteps, she actually has ambitions to be the next Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, an American hurdler and sprinter who set a new world record in this year’s games.

‘Dear Sydney’ then moves on to show the little girl improving her techniques, by using Google’s Gemini AI to help generate tips and tricks.

While the sweet advert could’ve ended there, it then goes on to depict the Dad asking Google Gemini to help them write a letter to Sydney to tell her how inspiring she is, and out pops a letter addressed to the athlete.

Even though the video shows the words “here’s a draft to get you started”, the AI written fan letter has been criticised as being ‘tone-deaf’, as it shows just how easy it is to suck the passion out of something so personal by using the chatbot.

I’m not sure Google’s Dear Sydney deserves anything higher than a ‘you tried hard’ sticker, but the ad is still live on their YouTube channel if you’d like to see it for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgtHJKn0Mck

Hot girl summer turns into ‘Brat’ summer

A trend coined by Gen Z and millennials; Charlie XCX’s new album Brat took on a life of its own with the summer of 2024 becoming known as a ‘brat summer'.

The trend has created a community based around authenticity where Charlie herself describes being 'brat' as messy and making mistakes. Stepping away from a culture that is perceived as polished and over-edited, Brat made its debut at the exact right time to promote messy, ironic and authentic content.

The branding, a simple neon lime green background with ‘brat’ featured in an overly kerned Arial font has played a huge part within the campaign. It is memorable and can be easily used and replicated by fans and businesses which creates a sense of co-creation.

There are many ways that you can jump on brat summer, use the ‘brat generator’ to bratify your profile picture or create memes in a similar style to the album. Or you can take it one step further, as seen by Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Campell, to promote the upcoming ‘Twister’ film and take part in the TikTok viral Apple dance!

Due to the virality of Charlie’s album and the invention of brat summer, brands wanted to jump on the bandwagon too! The US presidential election race has seen Kamala Harris turn her X cover photo neon green, along with AirBaltic becoming AirBrat, which received over 400,00 views on TikTok!

It only takes one simple step to create a viral campaign, be reactive and jump on trends, but only if it will create authentic content. Let us help you with your next campaign!

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice…

No, I won't summon him but Google has with their 'New Ways To Search' campaign starring Bob, the shrunken head. To celebrate the sequel to Beetlejuice, Bob is seen preparing for a boy's night out with skincare tips from Google's own AI chatbot, Gemini and searching for outfit inspiration using Google Lens.

An insight into the practical uses of 'AI overview' by Google showcases how easy it will be to search, with its AI chatbot summarising your query into a few simple steps using the most relevant information from across the internet.

The keyword here is summary.

Although it references the source, users can now access their queries faster without having to visit a single website.

What does this mean for you as a business? According to a risk analysis, this could mean a 25-50% decrease in website traffic and an increase in zero-click searches due to users finding the answers they need from within the AI summary.

To stand out, you need to create content that users can’t get from an AI summary.

Producing thought leadership content is going to become more important than ever.

Your content needs to be relevant, reliable and as unique as a fingerprint so no amount of AI can summarise or replicate it. That's how you leave your mark on the internet.

Ready to roll with a new 'era' of influencers?

When the news broke that Noel and Liam were teaming up once again for one of the most anticipated reunions in music history, the internet was filled with already-deflated fans who knew they were going to be crying their hearts out on ticket release day.

With such demand for tickets, others took to social media to joke about the fact that influencers who have Definitely Maybe heard Wonderwall once or twice would be in VIP seating on opening night to promote the latest fast fashion brand or makeup launch.

Taylor Swift's recent worldwide 'Eras' tour was a favourite for brands looking to make a splash with their influencer press trips this year.

There wasn't a day of the tour that went by without seeing an influencer in attendance - so much so that consumers started to take notice. Whilst Taylor played to nearly 1.2 million fans in the UK alone, there were thousands that missed out on tickets. And for those businesses that paid big bucks for the best seats in town... they were stirring up some 'bad blood' between brand and customer.

But what's wrong with brands inviting its influencer to events, you ask?

Well, when said influencers hop to their Instagram Stories to state how they've never been fans of the superstar, but want to see what all the fuss is about, this didn't go down too well with the Swifties who weren't able to see their favourite popstar in person. And as a result, this had a negative reaction to the brands that invited them in the first place.

It appeared that these brands selected the influencers they wanted to attend the show over picking out the influencers who are already fans of Taylor and her music.

That perfect correlation of influencer that is both a fan of the brand and a die-hard Swiftie would have made for some fantastic content, and also gone down much better for Taylor fans who weren't able to nab tickets of their own.

In fact, some of these influencers didn't so much as tag the brand they were invited by - which shows the lack of relationship between influencer and brand. (And don't even get me started on the lack of brand partnership labels!)

This recent Eras Tour drama is a great example of how brands shouldn't just be selecting the influencer with the highest follower count or ones with 'celebrity' status for their campaigns.

The influencers brand's choose to partner with or, in this case, take to a sold-out concert, should be very carefully considered. Users will be quick to share their disappointment or in this case, anger, on social media for the world to see and just one bad or misjudged influencer partnership can be hugely detrimental to your brand.

Need some support on your influencer partnerships? Get in touch with us ?? [email protected]