In this week’s Our Take we go mad for Mattel marketing tactics; we check out a new competitor to Twitter that is turning our heads; Stella Artois is going back in time to find the OG influencer; and a Japanese nursing company has built a stronger new image for itself.
Come on Barbie, Let’s Go PR-ty
Since the emergence of the iconic shots of Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling rollerblading on the set of the highly anticipated Barbie movie, social media has been awash with promotional activity. And when we say awash, we mean in pink. In fact, the film required so much pink it led to a global shortage.
Over the past couple of weeks the team at Mattel have really upped their pre-promotion of the movie, and it’s nothing short of a marketing masterclass. From licensing deals with Xbox, Forever21, and the infamous Impala skates, to Architectural Digest’s tour of the plastic fantastic set it really is Barbie’s world and we’re just living in it.
Not to mention the Barbie Dreamhouse AirBnB where an overnight stay to coincide with the premier date is up for grabs. Even their out of home billboards are pure perfection, just the colour pink and the date with no visible brand name. That’s what a 64-year legacy will do for you!
While it’s certainly one for the PR history books, it is worth remembering that behind the campaign are Hollywood mega-stars on a press tour, an enormous budget and an iconic brand that essentially owns the colour pink. So don’t feel too bad about it next time you’re in a boardroom brainstorm.
As Thread as a Dodo 🐦
Ready for a shift in the social-sphere? Meta has just launched Threads, a competitor to Twitter this week.
As Twitter, under Elon Musk, continues to tinker with everything that made the app great, Meta is hoping to draw millions of disgruntled users to its new conversation-based app. Threads launched as a companion to Instagram yesterday, and it looks verrrrrrry similar to the bird app. 👀
So what can you do on Threads?
- Log in with your Instagram credentials and port your Insta followers and blue tick across
- Write text posts of up to 500 characters, with the ability to add images
- Like, repost and reply to others’ updates.
The app is also designed to import data from Instagram, including behavioural and advertising information– hence why it’s not launching in the EU. We will be eagerly watching to see if it can dethrone Twitter?
Never a dull moment in the social-sphere 🌎
Monet – A Stella Artois influencer?
What’s the probability that Van Gogh, Monet or De Hooch were Stella Artois’s influencers? We don’t know for sure, but “the Artois Probability” shows that they probably were.
Stella Artois and GUT Buenos Aires launched a timeless campaign called “The Artois Probability” that earned them a couple of trophies at Cannes this year.
Taking advantage of the beer’s 600-years legacy, the campaign used a combination of historical data and art analysis to calculate the probability that various classical paintings might actually portray a Stella Artois beer.
The campaign turns masterpieces such as At the Café, by Monet, or The Drinkers by Van Gogh into the OG beer promos. Because even if the probability that these artists painted a Stella is slim, the algorithm shows that there still might be a chance they were.
NURSE!!!!
A private nursing company in Japan has made waves by recruiting a ‘bodybuilder team’ in a move that’s part PR Stunt, part progressive innovation.
The company, aptly named Visionary, runs nursing homes and provides in-home care. Many patients have severely limited mobility and need to be lifted regularly. This is often uncomfortable for the patients, and plays havoc with the backs of the staff. The organisation’s founder, former hairstylist and avid gym-goer Yusuke Niwa, believed that a bunch of strong, disciplined, dedicated athletes would be very well suited to the work.
Niwa-san also thought the industry had a terribly outdated image and that having a bunch of young athletes in the organisation could change that. “I’d like to change the image of the nursing industry by helping employees improve their appearance,” he said. Fair to say he has achieved that!
What’s in it for the bodybuilders? Members of the team are allotted two hours of their eight hour shifts for training, and the cost of protein supplements and competition fees are covered by the company. And all employees have their gym memberships covered.
Read about this uplifting story here and here (with pictures, because you know you want to see this).