If you can muster up 1% more creativity than your competitors, you have an 80% higher chance of achieving the upper hand (I made up that stat, but 78% of stats are made up anyway). Too many small businesses settle for little creativity in place of stability. The risk and cost of jumping outside the box can seem somewhat foreboding.
But thinking outside the box is exactly what a few interactive marketers did for some Youtube videos. In the world of content marketing, content and messaging is most important. But, what many content marketers fail to realize is that media also contributes to content. Great mentors in the advertising industry have always expressed that media always follows messaging and not the other way around.
Thinking outside the box
The 4 examples below are tremendously creative because they shake the viewers preconceived notion of what a youtube video is. The viewer is caught in a moment of confusion and wonderment as the actors break out of the typical video player box.
A Hunter Shoots a Bear: Tipp-Ex
Not only does this video extend one beyond the normal video box, but it also encourages further interaction by allowing visitors to type in a new command for the hunter. It also matches well with the messaging and product.
Ninja’s Unboxing 2: Google
Who doesn’t get into a bunch of stop-motion ninjas?
Wrecking Ball: KitKat
This video is more recent. I’ll admit I wasn’t as impressed as I was when I first saw an interactive Youtube video like this. Plus, the repetitive banging noise at the end is annoying.
And then there was Salsa: Tostitos
The art direction in this one is brilliant. Unfortunately, the video has been removed by Vimeo. Luckily someone still captured the experience in this video:
The odd thing about creativity is that once a new technique such as above has been done, regurgitating the same technique again is not creative at all. I’m interested in what video marketers will be coming up with next.
