5 Fantastic Digital First Campaigns

Muchos besos for running this first, iMediaConnection!

Broadcast vs. digital-first
What is the role of TV in the new media environment? Most brands continue to see TV as a one-way broadcast medium -- a platform by which we can deliver marketing messages that consumers should simply absorb and remember. In this world view, digital is an add-on -- a means of overlaying an interactive element onto what is primarily an old-school sledgehammer-to-consumer-skull effort. Little more than checking a box. You know the drill. Or perhaps I should say mallet. The brand blasts away a nice "strategic ad" over the airwaves, but spends 7 percent of the budget pushing some "viral" or "social" effort that essentially asks consumers to spit back the broadcast message.

Fortunately, a few brands are leading a transition. They understand that TV is no longer a broadcast medium so much as it is a mass distribution channel -- one that establishes awareness for a larger campaign effort that gives consumers a real role in shaping and communicating the brand essence. These are "digital-first" brands. That doesn't mean they necessarily spend a larger proportion of dollars on digital. Not at all. Rather, they use all media -- traditional and digital -- to seek out consumer participation. Participation that is channeled through digital platforms.

It might sound like a nuanced difference, but it really isn't. A good digital-first campaign has participatory experiences that consumers seek out; TV simply grows the awareness for such efforts and uses its unique experiential qualities to make the larger campaign more vivid and impactful.

We all know a little prime-time can blow the doors off awareness and seed an idea to a broad audience. With such a foundation, literally millions of people seek out interactive experiences that make the campaign and brand a vivid part of their lives.

Here are five brands and their efforts that showcase the power of the digital-first model, along with one brand that really needs to embrace this approach.

Axe

Those who read what I write regularly (Hi Mom!) know that I talk about Axe a lot, and it's because the brand is a leader in so many digital areas. And digital-first marketing is no exception. While TV certainly communicates the "get Axed 'n get laid" message, the best bits of Axe marketing always take place online. In part, no doubt, because broadcast standards wouldn't let them do this stuff during the family hour.

Need an example? Oh good Lord. Everything Axe does is digital-first. Check out the Axe Undie Run, proof positive that even dirty birdies can care about their fellow woman:



In short, the people at Axe are geniuses, and part of their wisdom is in always being digital-first.

Pepsi

While charity is a small overlay for Axe, it's a big deal for the new Pepsi.

We knew to expect significant changes in Pepsi's marketing approach when it broke with BBDO after something like 2,000 years of partnership. The old Pepsi sought to create TV epics that associated the brand with the hottest celebs of the moment. It was a subtle-as-a-nail-gun effort to link the brand to the next generation. And it worked like a dream until people became the new brand marketing engine.

Here's the "before" vid:



The new Pepsi connects with youth by relating to one of their deepest held values -- community and social responsibility. Pepsi fronts a portion of the marketing budget to help charities, and asks Pepsi drinkers to choose the recipients of blue largesse.

Extended across all traditional and digital media, the effort puts the brand in service of user desires instead of treating their brains as sponges for "we're young and hip and cool like Britney" messaging.

Kia

Auto advertising is perhaps the biggest creative ghetto on the planet, but the Kia hamster campaign for the entry-level Soul stands out as a shining example of how being different and digital-first can drive big dividends.

Let's face it: Most Kia advertising is pretty much invisible. It's the usual shiny car doing the usual things in the usual places making the usual claims, with a bit of value thrown in for differentiation. Not so with the Soul ads.



There's message in all that fun. About juxtaposing the attractive Kia with its toaster-like competitors. That the brand went digital-first for a car targeted primarily to younger and more venturesome buyers is a natural. What isn't is how well the brand delivered this idea across popular forms of digital and traditional media -- and did it in so many ways that consciously invite consumer participation.

It starts with the 60-second viral bait commercial, but there's also a lot more. From "making of" videos to Facebook apps to dedicated social sites in support of the hamsters, this brand clearly understands that attracting attention through TV advertising is only part of the opportunity for this campaign. Rather, TV was simply the catalyst for getting people to seek out and take ownership of other brand experiences featuring the furry spokesrodents.

The side scroller Go Hamster Go app is an example. The user fires up his or her webcam to enter the hamster world and drop hamsters into the Kia as it rolls by.



Kleenex

I think it was two years ago that Kleenex began its Let It Out campaign with TV ads and interactivities inviting consumers to share their feelings.



Of course, feeling has both physical and metaphorical meaning, so it's a nice way to tie up tangible and emotional benefits.

But this is by no means Kleenex's first digital-first effort. From promotions like Choose Your Mom to an interactive application that lets you upload photos and design your own Kleenex box, this brand is way ahead in interactive and marketing evolution in general.

Bing and Yahoo

One of the most interesting things to watch is how digital companies approach traditional media campaigns. Portals can be fascinating on this score because their offerings are, by their very nature, participatory.

Let's start with Yahoo. Forgive me, my fair purple sweet, I have used these pages to confess my love for you before. And I am well aware you have replaced this effort recently with something far better. But your old effort was a good example of what not to do.

Here goes.

You and Yahoo was a classic broadcast-style effort. It had some other layers. But ultimately, it was about delivering a message for us to remember and regurgitate. Me: individual. Yahoo: for individuals. Ergo. Me likey Yahoo. C'mon. I don't even know where to begin. Oh, yes I do. How about with what Yahoo called its anthem spot?



The campaign seems to have evolved into something a little less ether-y with new efforts titled "It feels good to feel." A combination of TV, print, and online is seeding the idea, but the centerpiece appears to be a host a ways that consumers can share their own feelings and memories.

Not "new" ways. "You" ways. Get it?

Yahoo -- Je t'adore. Let me say that again. Je t'adore. But good grief! It strikes me that this was an ideal time to let people experience how Yahoo can be the center of their online lives. Or to let people like me tell the world how Yahoo is the center of our lives. Je t'adore, Yahoo, but those jeans did make your butt look big.

Meanwhile, in Redmond...

Now, obviously Bing's challenge was different. The company needed to make people try a new search engine, not communicate the site as the center of an online life. But Bing could have done the broadcast thing and promised us the most unbelievably unbelievable search experience. Ever!

And oh my god, can you imagine the 60-second spots packed with vignettes of Sydney Opera House and Tuvan yurts and tea parties in the Sahara and people on Melrose just being in-di-vi-du-als that Bing could have served up? And a sort of whitewashed anthem, "If search is your thing, now try Bing (brand search engine)."

Instead, Bing's campaign really hinged on a variety of placements that made it easy to try Bing and see how the results are different.

I can look up words in in-text ads. I see Bing's stab at search results as a supplement to site search. I get to start the process of using Farecast in an ad unit.

Oh, and there was broadcast as well. But these TV ads made you ache to try Bing and see if it was really different. Cuz you've been there. We all have. Wanna see what it's like to be somewhere else?



Conclusion: Is digital-first best?

It's tough to imagine a brand that wouldn't be well served by inviting its users in -- as a central part of its marketing efforts. But perhaps even more than choosing such a campaign idea is inviting the consumer into all aspects of a brand.

Digital companies have unique opportunities to do this. That they sometimes don't makes me wonder if they understand that so much of their brand power comes from the minds and hearts and mouths and typing fingers of consumers -- not 1-inch tape or however TV ads get distributed these days.

Now, there's nothing like TV and those tapes to get the word out. Nothing. But brands that decide to use their TV to invite consumer to participate are going to fare better. It's time that we drop our sledgehammers and start sending out engraved invitations to join us in our brands.