What can you do as a business person when you have a limited budget, want to change the world and affect daily human behavior? Create an educational video. Make it humorous. Poke a little fun at yourself. Two examples: The brilliant “Follow the Frog” campaign is an educational effort by the non-profit Rainforest Alliance to reduce the destruction of rain forests. In this brilliantly creative video, it hits the mark by first showing you what you won’t do as a consumer and then showing you what you can do to make a difference. It’s funny because it addresses right up front some of the stereotypes about environmental activists in a funny way and then proceeds to teach us in an unpretentious way how small, daily actions that fit into our regular lives can make a real difference for the planet. Watch it here and let me know what you think.
The second innovative video is from the “Will it blend?” campaign. It is a series of funny company videos by BlendTec, to promote its industrial strength blenders. After initiating the marketing campaign a few years ago, sales skyrocketed. See sample videos here.
Piggyback PR 