Creativity: humanising brands pays dividends
Author: CIM COM
It’s possible to work remotely, socialise virtually and buy goods online or use the self-service checkout. That’s great for efficiency, but it does remove a layer of human contact from our everyday experience. You may not miss the commute to work, the crowded bar or the dour cashier. But as regular human interactions diminish, it is creating a gap. These brands have spotted it, and are putting the spotlight on their people to recreate the warm human connections that used to be universal.
PR agency shows its listening face
Omnicom PR agency, FleishmanHillard Fishburn aims to create a strong brand positioning with its ‘Listening Face’ campaign that features its staff and is promoted in the marketing media. This corporate publicity push is taking place now that the dust has settled on the agency merger of FleishmanHillard with Fishburn two years ago. The campaign marks the agency’s ambition to be the employer of choice for London PRs and coincides with an improved employee benefits scheme.
In this campaign, people across the organisation become the heroes, exemplifying the brand with their ability to listen. The premise is involving, taps into our selfie obsession and postulates: “Smiling, sighing, squinting, even smirking. Everybody has their own individual listening face.”
The recently merged agency has around 250 employees and an annual fee income estimated in the order of £30m. The campaign features some of them in its corporate video, blog and on social media. Award winning film-maker Marc Hoyler, gets up close to reveal the many listening faces of the brand. Individuals are profiled in the company blog which asks four simple questions:
- Describe your listening face
- Recount a time you listened to somebody.
- Recount a time somebody listened to you.
- A time you didn’t listen.
The personal responses given to these questions provide potential employees (and clients) with a window on the company culture, whilst reinforcing the overall positioning of being a company that listens to colleagues and clients. It’s not a new idea and it’s not complicated. But it’s well executed. And it has substance.
Read about their grass roots approach to research employee needs and then respond. The scheme itself is a neat marketing package which includes the ability to commit to outside interests alongside regular work and bid for money for passion projects.
For more on this see the company blog.
See the buzz on twitter
Bristol City highlights goal celebrations
The new football season is underway, and for Bristol City there’s as much excitement on social media as there is in the stadium. This season marks the club’s latest marketing communications initiative which features individual player’s goal celebrations captured in a GIF and shared on the stadium screens and on Twitter.
Ahead of the league, the club captured GIFs of each player celebrating in their own special style. (GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format and describes low resolution video clips or animations.) As the play began, the instant a player scored, their own personal GIF featured on social media. Fans inside and importantly, outside the stadium viewed the GIFs with around 500,000 people viewing the players’ celebrations on twitter on a regular Saturday.
In contrast to the professional rivalry on the pitch, these personal cameo performances on screen are light-hearted fun. There’s even the odd in-joke for fans to enjoy, like midfielder Bobby Reid smiling with a fire extinguisher, since his good form has been characterised as being ‘on fire’.
BBC Radio Bristol commented on twitter:
“These things are the best things ever. Hats off to @bcfctweets.”
Whilst SkyBet bemoaned the pause in play before the next Bristol City match because of the delay in seeing the next celebration GIF:
“Worst thing about the international break?
Knowing you have to wait 11 days for another #BristolCity goal GIF.”
Manager of Bristol City, Lee Johnson believes the GIF may have made a small but important contribution to the team’s success in the Championship and EFL so far, spurring them on to score and see their GIF on screen. If defenders start scoring we’ll know the ploy has gone too far!
Alistair Durden interviews Bristol City players for BBC Points West.
Match-day goal celebrations often feature GIFs so why has this initiative caught the imaginations of the public and press? Perhaps it’s because they are so personal, joyous and silly.
The Plymouth Herald, has critiqued recent club tweets announcing that goals have been scored and come up with its own league table. Morecambe and Grimsby Town FC languish at the bottom of the league since their match-day goals are just acknowledged in a tweet without any visual imagery, fun or personality. And Bristol City? Well, they’re top of the table.
Which would you choose?