Brother UK gives its prospects the giggles with a new humorous video campaign. Jessica McGreal reports
The circus has come to town and joined forces with Brother UK as the electronics and manufacturing company hosts its latest campaign in the big top.
The technology brand has spent £2 million on a creative campaign showcasing a series of funny mishaps that result from unlabeled items. Working with agency Rosapark, the company took this idea to the extreme to deliver creative that would work across all channels and forge emotional connections with its broad target audience.
James Lawton-Hill, head of marketing at Brother UK, explains: “Humour is essential to this campaign. It works well and helps communicate our main brand’s ethos ‘At your side’, as well as build empathy and emotion among the target audience. The key was to get the tone right – it wasn’t about Faulty Towers-esque humour. The characters needed to be real and believable to ensure the audience would empathise with the situation they find themselves in.”
However, ‘Next time label it’ aims to do more than get prospects giggling. The multichannel activity aims to boost sales of its label printers and cement the company’s position in the market, while having the potential to go viral.
Circus creative
Rich media plays a key role in the campaign, with the creative revolving around a 30-second video directed by Bart Timmer. The film features a new lighting technician at a circus who manages to bring mayhem to the entire production. By simply pressing the wrong switch a trapeze artist falls from above, a confused pack of clowns enter the scene and tigers are released, sending the crowds running. The ad ends with a warning: ‘Next time label it’.
Despite being only 30 seconds, producing a film of this nature was a huge task. Shot in three days in a town close to Pisa, Italy, the company hired an entire working circus, including clowns and animals, and managed a film crew. Working with up to 250 people on set, plus a tight deadline was a logistical challenge. To ensure everything went smoothly a large amount of pre-planning was essential to the success.
Getting noticed
In order to have a chance of going viral a portion of the £2 million campaign budget has gone towards paid-for media. This includes TV slots across ITN, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky. This will maximise exposure among both consumer and business audiences, while the brand hopes the fun nature of the ad will get people talking and sharing on social media.
The creative concept will be promoted via digital and print channels, including radio and national titles. This will also be supported by channel partner engagement, PR and social media.
Marketing campaigns that have the power to induce a reaction from the audience, in this case happiness or laughter, allow brands to engage with prospects on an emotional level. Sometimes this is more difficult for B2B brands due to the technical or complicated nature of the product. However, this campaign shows that no matter what the product – even a label printer – with the right story marketers can make these connections.
Positive reaction
Launched at the beginning of August, the campaign is still in its very early stages with no solid results. However, the creative has had a great response from Brother employees and the marketing team hope for the same positive reaction externally.
Lawton-Hill adds: “The advert has undoubtedly helped in discussions with current and new retail and channel partners, encouraging them to buy into the labelling category and take stock of the products before launch to capitalise on the campaign.”
The company will be expanding the campaign into new markets in the future, while looking for different ways to refresh and repurpose the creative – because after all, who doesn’t enjoy clowning around once in a while?
