It’s YouTube Tuesday again (wow that came fast!). Here are three product or service videos. And three mini marketing/communications/branding critiques. Enjoy.
1. ThinkGeek’s Schrödinger’s Cat Executive Decision Maker
OK. I admit this video wouldn’t be nearly as much fun if the product itself weren’t as much fun. From the website: “When decisions need to be made, sometimes there isn’t a right choice. Drink coffee or tea? Hire Bob or Bob? Order pizza or Chinese? In the long run, these things don’t matter. Give up your free will to the Schrödinger’s Cat Executive Decision Maker.”
The product is a reference to a 1935 thought experiment by Austrian Nobel laureate Erwin Schrödinger. I also admit that I absolutely do not understand the experiment. This somehow makes the product funnier to me.
I bet this viceo was super inexpensive to make — just some people around the office it looks like. I like that. It’s also part of a trend of online catalog (e-commerce) companies making short, sweet videos for their products– thought most are not as goofy as this one. This means many are creating studios in house so they can crank these out fast and furious. I like that too. Even though the video is really simple and doesn’t say much it does get the spirit (and features) of the product across really well.
2. Barbasket
Rassak used to share offices with the creator of the Barbasket, Thing Tank (awesome name, BTW), founded by a former IDEO industrial designer Chris Luomanen . I really like this video mostly because it’s so simple. And it’s kind of mellow and un-hypey. It’s just Chris talking about the need for bike baskets, the problem with bike baskets, and how his (actually his new company NRML’s) Barbasket is just a better bike basket. The casual shots of a person riding a bike around the city as Chris talks are really nice too. I’m pretty amazed how many great videos are on sites like Kickstarter as this one is… the idea being that if people raise enough money they’ll move into production. NRML’s been getting some nice blog-press — based on a cool product idea and, I would wager, a smart, simple video. See some of it on their Facebook page.
3. Som Sabadell by BancSabadell
I don’t quite know what to make of this video. Spain is having some very tough economic times right now. And there’s nothing even slightly hinting at that in this 130th anniversary video by a major Spanish bank — except maybe the lonely coin being tossed into the empty hat at the feet of the austere looking sole musician at the start of the video. It’s a love poem to the town (near Barcelona) where the bank got their start. From the YouTube description:
“On the 130th anniversary of the founding of Banco Sabadell we wanted to pay homage to our city by means of the campaign “Som Sabadell” (We are Sabadell) . This is the flashmob that we arranged as a final culmination with the participation of 100 people from the Vallès Symphony Orchestra, the Lieder, Amics de l’Òpera and Coral Belles Arts choirs.”
It’s beautiful. It’s popular (more than 5 million views) .. but does it have a wee bit of a tin ear?
Thank you to Gonzalo Rodés in Barcelona who shared this video with me — via Jose Maria who sends out a Friday email called El Regalito de Viernes (a friday gift).
