Over the last few years, we’ve explored the trend where new media publications have been working directly with brands to produce advertisements for their products. In 2007 at our first conference we ran a panel with the founders of Flavorpill and Engadget discussing the topic “Media As The New Creative Agencies” (video here) – and since then we’ve highlighted the occasional example.
A new ad for Cheetos by the gang at Boing Boing reminded us of this trend. The blogging team have been working directly with the brand to create video content for the snack and the bloggers were so proud of their post that they explained in detail the process they used:
Together with the Boing Boing Video crew (Wes, Derek, Jolon) and the BB bloggers (Pesco, Cory, Joel, Mark, et al), we thought up a bunch of stuff we might do in the ads. We came up with lots of cool ideas, and shared them with Federated Media, who sell our sponsorships. But when all of those notions were laid out and storyboarded for video, none of them were sufficiently awesome, subversive, Boingy, or weird. So, I did what I usually do when I’m in that dilemma. I pick up my internet and I call Johannes Grenzfurthner of monochrom.
Fast forward to the end of a long, coffee-fueled phone call, me in LA, him in Vienna. monochrom agreed to produce the 6 ad spots for Boing Boing Video, but with one requirement — they do so in the Alternate Reality of Soviet Unterzoegersdorf, which is currently the subject of a game they are developing. Also, they will probably work Cheetos into the game, not because they or we are getting any money for that part, but because it’s ridiculous and meta and whatever — it’s very Johannes.
So, here we have a ’subversive’ media title enjoying its role as ad agency. Go to the post to read more. Here’s the first in a series of 6 clips they made for the snack:
Whether you like the ad or not, it’s inspiring to find people in media who really are interested in creating a win-win-win – a win for the publication, a win for the brand and a win for the reader.
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Piers – Great post. Thanks for the shout-out. I love that you note this as a “win-win-win” for the publisher, brand and reader. That’s a crucial notion regarding media and advertising in this day and age. If marketing doesn’t bring some sort of value to the table, it will be ignored at best and reviled at worst.
Another thing I’d like to point out about this particular example is that Xeni hit the ball out of the park when it comes to transparency. She respects her audience and the brand enough to help them navigate each others’ worlds. She gives the brand a way into her community, and introduces the brand in a way that her community appreciates. Great stuff.
Matthew DiPietro, Federated Media
February 9th, 2009 at 11:42 am
Great post! The wonderful bit of this is that the creative agency (Goodby, where I work) developed this idea with Federated Media in close partnership. So I would say its not “media AS the creative agency”, its creativity period. Its too easy to say there is a media agency doing creative agency’s work or a creative agency doing media’s work. These lines are blurred. Creative ideas matter and the way we get to them is just a lot different, mixed, blurred, and then remixed again. I love examples like this with FM because it offers meaningful, measurable and creatively exciting marketing executed in new forms.
February 13th, 2009 at 7:37 pm