Toshiba is using college humour in a new back-to-school campaign by Capital C. The laptop maker has released three online videos to showcase the utility of its products and how they make campus life easier despite some pretty awkward situations.
One spot shows how Toshiba’s All-in-One desktop with gesture control comes to the rescue when a student gets pranked while sleeping. Another spot shows two students checking out their stained dorm room walls with a USB-powered black light, promoting the Toshiba Satellite P-series laptop’s ability to power and charge USB devices even when the laptop is closed.
College and university students “certainly have that sensibility in terms of the humour,” said Gary Watson, who is six months into his job as executive creative director at Toronto agency Capital C. “It’s a little quirky, it’s fun and we just used a lot of insights about life on campus… like how disgusting are the dorm rooms? They’ve probably been slept in by a thousand other students before you.”
“For students, [back-to-school] is a time period they’re excited about, but also anxious about,” said Sherry Lyons, vice-president of corporate and marketing communications at Toshiba of Canada. “Everyone has got so much stress in their life; it’s nice to bring humour into this time period.”
Humour aside, Watson said the strength of the videos comes from the products themselves, “which is where all good creative should come from. Some of the features really helped to tell the story about the product.”
The videos are posted on Toshiba’s YouTube channel and Facebook page.
The campaign also includes a Facebook contest where people can win the Toshiba laptops, desktops and tablets featured in the videos, as well as gag gifts inspired by the campaign, such as rubber chickens. Entrants just have to roll over an image of a dorm room, click on an item they want and enter to win it. Participants are allowed to enter once per day.
“You’d be surprised – people are actually entering to win the rubber chickens,” said Watson. “It shows that people appreciate the sense of humour we brought to the videos.”
