Schwepped off Your Feet: Selling Tonic Water with a Love Story Gone Viral

Another class assignment, this time for Integrated Marketing Communications. Basically, the class is just Seth's version of account planning without the brevity. Anyway, the title of the post says it all. Check out (under the fold) the beautiful vid and read the brilliant words that follow.



Though the piece I will be referring to for the next few paragraphs is not a US-based advertisement, it does provide for a strong example of the direction in which branded entertainment is going. And how effective it can be. When I think of branded entertainment, I think of the old sponsorship days when the announcer yelled, “‘This Game Show’ brought to you by ‘This Conglomerate’.” Now, branded entertainment seems to be, “let’s let some really creative people (you know, not us) make something that will go viral (how hard can it be?) and stamp our name on it.” Seems lame, right? Well, in this example, Schweppes (part of Coca Cola) tried its best not to seem like the big, evil company making money off of someone else’s art.

Can Usain Bolt Help Jamaica Finally Overcome Reggae?

And let me preface my answer by saying I am a huge fan of Bob, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff, and Gregory Isaacs. But I hope the answer is yes, since the list of Jamaican associations goes: Rastafarianism, marijuana, dreadlocks, reggae, and maybe poverty. What I'm getting at is that Usain Bolt could become an international sports superstar. He struck big with just murdering the 100 and 200 meter races in Beijing last summer. He's been linked commercially to Puma, Gatorade, and Digicel (you would think that Sprint would try to steal him away); he already has a signature move; and he actually is an amazing athlete. The questions are: does the building of Bolt's brand have anything to do with Jamaica and what exactly can someone as young as he is (turns 23 tomorrow) do to revamp the country's image? The possibility is definitely there; check out the new 100 and 200 meter records below.







On the real, I really hope that Bolt can get Jamaica some much needed positive pub (and maybe a shower). It's a place that could really use a hero who is not 50 Cent.