Branding Corporate Videos – How Low Can You Go?

Unless you’ve taken a total break from social media for the past week or so, it’s highly likely you’ve stumbled across a beautifully shot/sickeningly staged (delete as appropriate) film which shows 20 strangers kissing for the first time.

Published on 10th March 2014, First Kiss has since racked up a staggering view count of 62 million at time of writing, as viewers are drawn into this emotionally engaging, edgy/cheesy video.

But how many of those viewers are aware that they’re actually watching a fashion ad for Wren Studio’s fall collection? With branding so subtle it’s almost non-existent, has Wren Studio missed a huge opportunity, or does it have its marketing tactics spot-on?

First Kiss

First Kiss was the brainchild of Melissa Coker, founder of Wren Studio, and director Tatia Pilieva. Filmed in less than a day on a budget of $1,300, the short film was made for Video Fashion Week, aimed at brands who can’t afford the expense of a runway show.

Before the shoot, the LA-based designer called around her many friends and contacts asking if they’d be prepared to kiss a stranger. Consequently, those taking part are typically actors, models, musicians, and even a Wren employee, but importantly the makers took great care to ensure that each couple had never met prior to the shoot.

The resulting film is a beautifully executed black-and-white video that captures the excitement, anticipation and awkwardness of the situation. It feels real and sincere, and captures more emotion in three-and-a-half minutes than any of its contemporaries.

The film gained a huge amount of traction in the first 48 hours of its release, and is a shining example of emotion driving social sharing. Then, it was revealed as an ad.

Subtle Branding

The clues are there – the film opens with the words ‘Wren presents’ in small letters that quickly fade away, and ‘Styling by Wren’ appears in the credits, hidden amongst the list of kissers, directors, makeup artists and stylists. Each woman in the film is wearing Wren clothing, though there is no branding on any of the clothes.

But that’s it. It’s very easy to miss these tiny details and just be swept up in the emotion. On the one hand, the film was a resounding success, achieving super-viral status and reaching over 62 million people within days – a far greater number than the brand could ever have achieved with a runway show. On the other hand, most of those people are far more interested in the content than in the brand, and there was a strong negative reaction when viewers realised the video was actually a corporate video clothing ad filmed with actors.

Naïve Marketing or a Stroke of Genius?

There are many arguments that despite the success of the video, Wren has missed a huge opportunity to promote its brand more. For example, instead of simply called the video ‘First Kiss’, it could have been called ‘First Kiss… by Wren’.

And while the initial tweet by Melissa Coker and her YouTube upload were published with the words, ‘We asked 20 strangers to kiss for the first time for our Fall ’14 collection,’ the YouTube upload with the most views contains only a passing reference to Wren, and the initial tweet has only been retweeted just over 500 times.

So while the corporate video has gone viral, it seems to have had little measurable benefit to Wren, and while it’s an amazing marketing campaign for an amateur filmmaker to be involved with, it does little to sell clothes, or to leave a lasting impression of the brand. Other than to make people feel cheated out of a beautiful art-house video of human behaviour.

Coker disputes this view. She states that she had no intention of hiding the brand name, and believes that if you’re making great content, then you can be subtle with the branding as people will find the message simply because they’re engaged. As a tiny label in a noisy, busy world, she wanted to do something different and creative to make them stand out from the crowd, and insists that those who are familiar with the fashion world and with the brand label will understand the film. In other words, she knows her target audience and aimed her video directly at them, and just got lucky when the deep emotions captured hearts and imaginations across the globe.

This stance may work for a fashion video, but with the odds against a video going viral, it’s important to strike a balance between subtle branding and rendering a brand unrecognisable. When you’re planning your brand video think carefully about how you can promote your brand and leave a lasting impression on your audience, without overloading consumers with blatant promotion that will cause them to switch off.

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