Why Ad Execs Are Cozying Up to the Likes of Hov and Yeezy

The year is 2012. Advertising is no longer about signing an influencer to endorse your product. It is about aligning yourself with an influencer and winning over that person’s community, harnessing it as your own. We no longer live in a “Volkswagen: Think Small” world – we can only re-live that era through episodes of Mad Men.

Instead, we live in a “Volkswagen: The Force” world – a place where your product is no longer enough on its own. To have a successful campaign, advertisers are forced to pair their products with Star Wars, cute animals, and laugh-out-loud comedy.

Some purists frown on this approach, while others, like Nike, plan exclusive product-launch events, inviting the likes of Lance Armstrong just so he will tweet about their latest product, and so they, in turn, can retweet his post, capitalizing on his network. As an early 2000’s design student, I was brought up on Helvetica Neue, minimalism, and white space. I was taught that the Swedish design style would help me help companies create beautiful ads. What I wasn’t taught, and what I had to teach myself, was: Beautiful ads are not enough. They may get you in Communication Arts magazine, but they’re not going to deliver that almighty “earned media.”

Earned media is the opposite of paid media. It’s publicity achieved by avenues other than traditional advertising. It’s quite the buzzword these days – a fancy way of saying free media coverage. Everyone wants it. Every day, ad execs sit around boardroom tables brainstorming ways they can get it. Well, the secret’s out. Here’s how you get it: collaboration. To borrow a term defined by Fast Company magazine, to achieve guaranteed earned media as a brand, you must “co.create.”

The music industry has already taken this idea and run with it. Hip-hop, for example, is synonymous with collaboration. How did Run-DMC and their brand infiltrate the rock community back in 1986? Easy, they hopped on a little song with Aerosmith called “Walk This Way” and created an entire new genre in rap-rock. Fast forward to 2012, where Jay-Z and Kanye have similarly teamed up to make it big: The partnership of the music industry’s two biggest stars made Watch the Throne the most anticipated concert tour of 2011. We all wanted a piece of that luxury rap lifestyle they were co-creating.

Jeep and VOYR recognized this and took the Watch the Throne collaboration to the next level with the creation of their Jeep + VOYR + Jay-Z/Kanye campaign. Jeep (in conjunction with VOYR) leveraged the tour and gave Jay-Z and Kanye fans exactly what they wanted: all-access. Throughout the Watch the Throne tour, Jeep served up behind-the-scenes videos of the creative process and work that went into executing Jay-Z and Kanye’s artist-driven spectacle. The branding was subtle. The content was superb. The tour recap video illustrates how the confluence of Jeep, VOYR, Jay-Z, Kanye West, and social media allowed the campaign to garner a phenomenal amount of that much-sought-after earned media.

Whether or not you’re a fan of Jay-Z and Kanye, you can’t argue with the success of Jeep and VOYR’s Watch the Throne campaign. It’s an example of why collaborating with relevant influencers in the name of community is incredibly important in 2012. Brands and advertisers can no longer silo themselves and “Think Small.” Not only do the cubicle walls have to come down, but your office walls also need to collapse if you are to co-create a successful advertising campaign.

Don’t Be That Person Who Uses Verdana

The story of lawyer/type designer, Matthew Butterick, sending a letter to film director, Brad Bird, calling him out on his use of Verdana in Mission Impossible is a great example of how society is becoming more typographically conscience. Sure, Mr. Butterick is a typographer that knows good type from bad type, but the list of people who know the difference between Helvetica and Arial is growing daily. Film makers, lawyers, bloggers, and even rappers are upping their type game and the world is taking notice. Moral of the story, don’t be that person who uses Verdana, get emotional over fonts.

All that’s left from the tour that never happened.