A colourful contest featuring Aussie band Strange Talk
Procter & Gamble’s Cheer laundry brand has targeted young, colour-loving consumers with a contest based on an online music video.
The video “Dig It. Get It,” featuring the song “Climbing Walls” by Australian band Strange Talk, launched on YouTube August 15th and serves as the gateway to a contest hosted on Cheer’s Facebook page. The band members and additional performers wear bright colours and their instruments, along with other objects in the video, are also vividly coloured.
Specific objects in the video, such as clothing and bicycles, are highlighted with a colourful outline. The video’s annotation technology redirects viewers who click on these outlined items to the Cheer Facebook page, where they are asked to submit basic information in order to redeem the items as prizes.
P&G and its agency, Leo Burnett Toronto, expect to give away 19,000 prizes during the contest, which closes August 31. The prize list changes daily and a prompt at the beginning of the video alerts viewers to what prizes will be available that day and when they appear in the video. Once the day’s prizes have been claimed, the prize items are no longer highlighted, and the prompt at the beginning of the video tells viewers when the next round of prizes will be available.
Judy John, CEO and chief creative officer at Leo Burnett Toronto, said the combination of an up-and-coming band, online video, annotation technology and social media made sense for a brand that is attempting to court young, colourfully-dressed consumers.
“Those people are into fashion, music and culture and they tend to skew younger and they’re really digitally savvy,” said John. “They love their clothes but they don’t love doing laundry.
“They’re not in any way brand-loyal to any particular detergent. So to really get those people involved in our brand we had to talk to them on their level and make them interested in that shared value of loving colour.”
John said that annotation technology is often used in YouTube videos to drive viewers to other content within YouTube.
“What’s unique about this program – and I don’t know if it’s been done – is that it drives you to Facebook, where you can get stuff,” said John. “For us, that was the exciting part. It felt like it had never been done before.”
John added that viewers had responded positively to the video since its launch, with each day’s allotment of prizes having been claimed in minutes.
