Clicks Win Prizes

Us creative types never turn our noses up at the chance to create a visually stimulating campaign for  a sexy brand. In fact ThePeloton's team is busy producing one as we speak. However, our usually cold hearts were warmed by the news that Xerox and its agency Young & Rubicam had won a gong for its 'A World Made Simpler' campaign. They won the Grand Prix Content Award at the Braves - the Oscars of the branded video world - at a red carpet event in central London.

http://thebraveawards.com/winners/

Business video is often where the greatest challenge lies; how to create a compelling narrative around a seemingly dry subject. And subjects don't come much drier than photocopying. Amidst the more glamorous winners such as Hyundai and Sony, the Xerox film stands out as a great example of a good visual idea combined with strong storytelling with emotional resonance.

The film uses Xerox's iconic copier paper to build a narrative about how technology is making life simpler. Its marketing message is how Xerox has transformed itself from a copier company into a leading business service provider. To date, it's had over 650, 000 views on YouTube. Not bad for a business video on a dry subject that - unlike some of the other winners - clearly didn't have an astronomical budget.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEnRQAz2Fqg

So congrats to Xerox, a worthy winner. We'll never think of you as just a photocopying company again. See, it worked on me!

www.thepeloton.tv
adrian@thepeloton.tv

The Science of Social Video.

The viral video isn’t dead it’s just grown up a bit and been renamed ‘social video’. Social videos are proper content that engages audiences. They’re shared around because they’re so compelling. And the good news for brands is that they’re being consumed, enjoyed and shared despite being for used for marketing purposes.

 http://www.unrulymedia.com/blog/2012/6/28/social-video-lab-launch-brand-prevalence-has-no-negative-eff.html

Our good friends at Unruly Media are taking it so seriously that they’ve set-up the World’s first social video laboratory. Its ambition, no less, is to turn social video into a science. They intend to find out about what kinds of content is most likely to be shared and allow brands to predict the effectiveness of videos before they’ve invested in a campaign.

http://www.unrulymedia.com/news/2012/6/27/unruly-opens-worlds-first-social-video-lab.html

Well us shiny, happy Peloton people don’t get to wear white lab coats very often (which is a shame). But if we did, we’d tell brands to make stuff that’s visually stimulating, emotionally resonant and offers interactivity (and possibly a damn good tune).

An excellent example is the new BA ad campaign; Take a Plane Down Your Street. Firstly it asks you to enter your postcode. Then, using Google Street View, you can witness a BA jumbo jet going past your front window.

http://taxi.ba.com/

 It doesn’t take rocket science to see why it’s already become one of the UK’s most shared interactive video. It’s just a shame that you can’t watch it on your iPad. Watch this space for a major announcement on HTML5 and interactive video. 

Adrian@thepeloton.tv
www.thepeloton.tv