Two Videos Starring Kids. One Cool. One Not.

Check out this ultra-cute (and ultra-effective) video for the organization and collaboration tool AirTable.

It’s effective in part because it’s cute. And feel-good. This means you will watch it, share it, talk about it. And now that they have you, they communicate what they need to. The video does a good job showing you (without boring you) the power and value of their software.  There was a time at BKW when we tried new tools like this all the time (driving the team crazy, mind you). We have settled on Asana for the last couple years and have no intention of changing at the moment. But this video did get me thinking about AirTable. BTW they have an effective website too. Check it out.

I could not help being reminded of another video that used kids to promote a not dissimilar tool (Do.com from Salesforce) a few years ago.

That video really bugged me. Sure it did a decent job showing off the product. But it ended up making me feel bad. When it so easily could have made me feel good. How so? The boy beats the girl in the end. Watch it and see if it irritates you as much as it irritated me at the time. It felt tone deaf. Clueless. In an industry (tech) with a very non-stellar rep when it comes to gender. There would have been nothing but upside in flipping the script on this video. And if maybe (who knows if they did this research?) a version with the girl winning didn’t play as well with a male-centric audience (I doubt this would have been true) then come up with a totally different concept.  Salesforce shut down the division that offered this software not too long after this video released. Maybe the company made other bad calls too.

BTW, the story of the two-letter Do.com domain name is worth a peek.