That's not a music video. That's a commercial.
Posted on the Fiat YouTube channel, this video is part of a broader campaign involving a partnership with TMZ, an online celebrity news site, which involves arranging for paparazzi to take photos/videos of celebrites driving the new Fiat 500. The celebrities are set up to drive around in the car while paparazzi provide the footage to upload onto the TMZ website and other social media platforms.
The Jlo video forms the first phase of the campaign and we see that theme present, however in a more stylized/music video manner. The idea is to increase awareness of the new model and ultimately sell cars, through the appeal of celebrities.
Through this tie-in with the upcoming new Lopez video, Fiat is attempting to target a specifc younger market, but is it working..?
...perhaps not. I struggled to find one mention of the brand in comments.
It's an interesting campaign and it will be interesting to see how it pans out. I suspect that once viewers detect the marketing behind the strategically placed cars and logos in the photos and videos, any effectiveness will drop off quickly.
But what do you think? Is blatant brand endorsement of music videos as well as this form of celebrity stealth marketing the future of SM marketing?
Comment below!
I like it. Even though people aren't discussing the brand, they are still aware of it. It's not particularly "stealthy", it's quite blatant. I feel that we are becoming used to this form of branded entertainment. Fiat is there, we notice it, we know we are being "sold to", but that doesn't matter, because it's worth it because we love J.Lo.
ReplyDeleteWill it sell more Fiat's? You bet!
Great post, Craig!
I agree Wags, I think this really is a great campaign where both parties benefit greatly. While fans wouldn't be happy sitting through an entire video that's practically an ad, they would be fine with watching a short promo, repeatedly, in anticipation of the final thing. Fiat can sit back while viewers watch their ad over and over again.
ReplyDeleteCeleb endorsements have been known to be quite successful. Off course you have the endorsements that didn't go quite as well, but they proven quite successful. Will it sell more, I'm not quite sure yet, firstly, if they purely uploaded the vid to YouTube, they need to drive traffic to the vid and other SM sites first, and then I assume there is a likely chance that sales leads may increase.
ReplyDeleteRoss
Great post Craig!
ReplyDeleteSomething that I would probably be mindful of (regarding celeb endorsements) is whether the celeb is overshadowing the brand and the core message becomes a tug-of-war... I wonder which party stands to benefit more from this campaign? After viewing the ad once I'm putting my money on the performer - I have the tune in my head and sure it will be with me all day...
But one of my pet hates re celeb endorsements is when the celeb leverages themselves to a number of branded campaigns over the same period of time... much like Jennifer Lopez is currently endorsing Venus (or is it Schick? Even as the target market and constantly being exposed to the message, I struggle with brand recall...). I suppose when the number of branded campaigns go to around 3 or more, then it starts to get annoying - not sure if JLo has anything else going at the mo....