An argument in favor of not letting the cool ideas in the back of the preso deck die.
When you’re tasked with “blowing out” a campaign concept, it can be frustrating to realize that some of the “smaller” tactical extensions start to feel more worthwhile than the big sexy sample spots you’ve made. Whereas the latter are already starting to get weighted down by stray comments and compromises, the former tend to be rooted in some sharp and actionable idea.
So it’s up to us to recognize when it’s time to circle one of them and justify its continued existence—then rally support to help it become a real thing.
In this case, it ended up with a win at the One Show.
A talk show on YouTube (and Facebook). It’s really hard to decide what to watch.
There’s a frustrating thing that can happen when you’re in the “blowing it out” part of presenting campaign work. All those cool extensions and activations stuffed at the back of the deck, oftentimes it’s window dressing, there to show the client how much thinking you’re doing on their behalf. And that matters, of course, for reasons ranging from building their confidence in the agency, to proving the idea has legs. But too often those little blurbs at the back of the deck are where sharp, tactical ideas go to die.
It’s our job to keep the good ones alive—maybe even to argue that the “little” ideas should be prioritized over more traditional formats.
+ OneShow / + working across departments
Mekanism had recently acquired a social agency specializing in influencer marketing. Which, to me, meant we had some new people on staff who were experts in something I didn’t (yet) understand fully how to utilize.
What they helped make clear was the power inherent in talent that brings its own audience and all those eyeballs. We were working up big 360 campaigns for the Amazon Fire products (their version of a Roku), and put our heads together thinking of what we could create that would not only make people want to watch it, but offer a utility that connected back to the product in an undeniable yet novel way.
The answer: a weekly talk show about what to watch, hosted by a top YouTuber, with new guests every episode (who brought their own audiences, for amplification).
Because…have you ever Googled “what to watch tonight” or opened one of those lists of everything new to streaming this week? It’s not super helpful. We thought it would be fun to take that intent and port it into a new format, make it conversational and actionable, even tapping into calendar milestones with special episodes for things like The Oscars.
The fun twist is that what started as a campaign extension became the main initiative, with all the juice behind it. It doesn’t always work like that, but when it does it’s never by accident.