Zócalo Group town square blog

Casey Neistat, an internet filmmaker, has worked with Nike on a number of past commercials for the brand. For their latest product, the Nike Fuelband, the brand advanced Neistat a hefty sum to create an ad with the theme of “Make it count.” Instead of following the strategy that both parties agreed on, Neistat and his producer decided to spend the whole budget on an around-the-world trip to find out what really makes life count for them personally. The money dried up after 10 days and the end result was this stunning video full of quotes from famous historical figures about how to make life matter. Nike took a chance agreeing to upload the video and it has already received almost 2 million views on YouTube.

#BrandHit Learnings:

• Make content that consumers genuinely like The Oatmeal tells us consumers respond to what they enjoy and truly want to share (which we knew, it’s just nice to remember). It doesn’t have to be earth-shattering or even “cool,” just relateable to your audience.
• Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith Various articles about this video have described Neistat as “going rogue,” which in essence, he did. He led Nike down a path and at the last minute totally changed his mind. The biggest lesson? Sometimes skirting the rules or strategy can lead to something inspiring.

Brands choosing to advertise on Twitter quickly realize that it’s not a cheap decision. Promoted tweets or hashtags can cost upwards of $120,000. Earlier this week, Chevy promoted the hashtag #LetsDoThis, connecting it to its latest Chevy Sonic ad campaign and microsite. With “Let’s do this” as a popular colloquial phrase nowadays, the discussion that featured the hashtag had nothing to do with cars or the actual Chevy brand. Tweeters discussed upcoming events (“exactly 6 months until i get married. uh. wow. #letsdothis”) or mentioned things they were planning to do (“I am determined to read the entire Harry Potter series over break. #LetsDoThis”) – mentions of the brand were mainly RTs of Chevy’s initial post. #LetsDoThis was mentioned over 16,000 times in the past few days. Tweets connecting that hashtag and Chevy? Fifty.

#BrandMiss Learnings:

• Make sure your hashtag ties directly to your brand Choosing a hashtag can make or break your promoted tweet investment. Those that are successful spark engaging, brand-centric conversation that can be shared across social media. Those that are too vague are lost in the shuffle of the millions of daily tweets.
• Hashtags should be memorable Hashtag selection must walk the fine line between too common and too unique. It must be easy enough to remember, but not so common that it gets lost in everyday conversation. Chevy’s choice of #letsdothis simply got lost in the vast usage of that phrase.