Trending From G/L: Timing Is Everything

Shawn Maher
Copywriter

Trending From G/L: Timing Is Everything

It’s time for some more trends. There’s been a lot of work in 2020 that’s had us buzzing, and this week was no exception. In fact, in this week’s trend discussion, G/L found a really interesting counterpoint between two brands attempting to ride social media buzz.

The lesson we learned? When it comes to social media, timing is everything. The window of relevancy is short, so you’ve got to capitalize before it closes. 

In the first trend of the week, Evian took a big swing and missed. Remember the Fyre Festival? It may have only been about a year ago when the two documentaries about this debacle released (and a year previously when that whole mess blew up in real time online), but in social media years, that feels like decades ago. 

Beyond Ja Rule struggling to stay relevant (we were as shocked as you were to see that he’s still around) and Billy McFarland bumbling through his explanations of his decisions to go forward despite being on the event equivalent of the Titanic, one moment that stood out to many was an event producer, Andy King, who said he was ready to perform lewd acts on a customs officer to release Evian water to concert goers.

Now King is a spokesperson for Evian. In 2020.

If that feels wholly irrelevant, that’s because it is. That ship has sailed and everyone has left the island, leaving King and Evian alone on the metaphorical deserted stage.

On the other hand, another King (Burger King), whose large and somewhat creepy mascot has garnered plenty of online buzz, has proven how well a brand can capitalize on a trend if they execute it well and make it timely. 

We all are aware of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle leaving the royal family, the Megxit as it were. As they attempt to plan their new life as simple working folk with no ties to the queen, Burger King is promoting a career opportunity that would allow Harry and Meghan to remain royal. The company offered them a new crown as fast food royalty. Not only is it timely, it’s on brand and highly shareable. A social campaign fit for a king. 

When it comes to social media trends, a great campaign requires as perfect storm of being on-brand, on time and on point. Where creativity meets execution. We’d love to talk trends with you and see how your brand can become a social butterfly. Get in touch!  

Is Peloton in a No-Spin Zone?

Shawn Maher
Copywriter

Is Peloton in a No-Spin Zone?

In this holiday ad cycle, nothing ground many people’s gears like the now-infamous Peloton ad. Bike puns aside, many you have seen the controversial Peloton advertisement at this point. And probably even the Ryan Reynolds spinoff ad used to sell his gin and make light of a heated topic. Unsurprisingly, this marketing morass made its way into our Monday trends discussion and, even less surprisingly, really got us talking. 

If you haven’t seen it, a husband surprises his wife with a Peloton for Christmas in a point-of-view shot. We then watch a montage of his wife as she documents her year using the Peloton.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pShKu2icEYw

Then, in a stroke of marketing genius (especially since it launched while the topic was still viral), the same woman who played the wife in the Peloton commercial appeared in an Aviation Gin commercial, guzzling gin martinis in a bar with her friends as they consoled her as if she was going through a particularly rough breakup. Hilarious! 

Some people saw a husband giving his wife a fitness gift that she never asked for, which isn’t as bad as buying her a vacuum or set of cookware. Nonetheless, giving your significant other unsolicited exercise equipment could be taken as less-than-positive.

On the other hand, it’s a really nice gift! Pelotons are amazing products that make working out, something that many of us dread, fun and inspiring. Not to mention that the equipment costs a pretty penny. 

Is it as bad as people make it out to be? Of course not! The internet is a great place for people to overreact and ascribe evil intentions to something that likely was just a marketing misstep. 

Is the backlash totally baseless? Of course not! While the woman who received the gift is the target audience, the problem is that she didn’t make the purchase…or even ask for it. Fitness is a personal journey that makes us feel empowered because it’s something we can control and a self-improvement quest that we undertake and conquer. We learned when working with Club Fitness on the “Right Fit for Every BODY” campaign, you should be able to embrace a healthy lifestyle on your terms and not out of a place of shame, but rather a place of taking control of your life. 

Unfortunately for the marketers behind Peloton, they made their misstep at the wrong time. Luckily for Peloton, between the lighthearted gin commercial and a fun Today Show appearance, we’re laughing at the whole thing. Peloton responded to the controversy (and the ensuing dip in sales) with a new campaign that centers around a more empowering theme with a goofy vibe and a Fugees soundtrack that reinforce the idea that you can start your fitness journey on your own terms. 

Because when you fall off a bike, you get right back on and start pedaling again.

Predicted Video Trends for 2020

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

Predicted Video Trends for 2020

If it seems like video has become more and more embedded in every facet of our lives, you would be correct. And video is only going to continue trending upward in 2020. In fact, the average person will increase their daily online video consumption by 14% in 2020, increasing from an average of 84 minutes to 100 minutes each day, according to a forecast from Zenith.

With screen time like that, it’s pretty indisputable that video truly engages consumers. But even we were somewhat surprised to learn that in 2019, YouTube replaced Facebook as the #1 platform that affects consumer behavior based on a study from Animoto. They also found that video ads are the #1 way that consumers discovered a brand that they later purchased from.

After digging in further to the Animmoto study, we learned that no matter what the social media channel, 24% of consumers made more purchases via social media in 2019 than they did in 2018. Consequently, 58% of consumers visit a brand’s social media pages before the brand’s website. And when they do visit a website, Forbes found that the average user spends 88% more time on a website with a video. In a nutshell, that’s exactly why we started Geile/Leon Video Content Studios, and also why so many of our clients have found great success with online video. Are you curious to see what online video can do for your brand? Get in touch and we’ll see where video fits in with your brand strategy.

Trending from G/L: Marketing a Sensitive Subject

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

Trending from G/L: Marketing a Sensitive Subject

In our weekly status meetings, we bring in advertising and marketing trends that we want to discuss. While it’s always a great thought exercise, this week Grace brought in a video from the Marie Curie Foundation from Great Britian, a non-profit organization that deals with palliative care and encouraging families to discuss the plans for a loved one’s impending death.

If that sounds heavy… well… that’s because it is. It’s not an easy subject to talk about, which is undoubtedly why this organization exists in the first place. However, this video spot turns that uncomfortable feeling on its head. Since talking about death is so difficult, the English language on either side of the Atlantic Ocean has an innumerable amount of euphemisms for it. So the Marie Curie Foundation took those euphemisms, added a playful tone, wrote a lighthearted song and animated those expressions in a semi-morbid way. 

After watching the video, we reacted immediately. Rightfully, many thought it was a flip and overly cutesy way to talk about such a literally dire subject. Would this actually encourage people to talk about their terminal illnesses and work with their family to put together an end-of-life plan, or would this make the uncomfortable subject even more uncomfortable by making it child-like when a child-like innocence is not conducive to talking about death?

On the other hand, we began to discuss the cultural differences between Americans and the British. Just a look at British television programming shows plenty of humor that celebrates the macabre, including Snuff Box, a sketch show about two hangmen who make jokes while hanging people. 

That’s not to mention the differences in how our cultures communicate with each other. While Americans tend to be more direct and to the point, the British communication style can be complex in its indirect nature. In fact, the British have a tendency to often say the opposite of what they mean as a joke. And not even in a sarcastic, or even perceptible, way. Not to mention the sayings, sometimes colorful and often completely obfuscating the entirety of what they really mean. 

So perhaps this spot is directly taking on the British tendency to avoid speaking about difficult subjects directly. Does that mean it will be successful at it, however? Can it change a cultural tendency ingrained over generations upon generations? 

In the end, we were there discussing it, exactly the call-to-action they wanted to attain. So maybe the results are all that matters. Emotional reactions aside, how effective is this ad? Did we lose something in translation? Maybe it will effect change. Maybe the traditional, somber way of talking about serious issues isn’t working and needed to be disrupted. However, it did bring about a discussion that every marketer should keep top of mind: messaging should have a deep understanding of those who it is targeting first and foremost. 

And that’s why in everything we do at G/L, the underlying theme is to make it mean something. It shouldn’t just be clever. It should be effective. And if it means something to our target audience, as our friends across the pond would say, then Bob’s your uncle. 

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