In Sweden, Branded Entertainment and Content is an approach that has become increasingly popular amongst brands that questions the effectiveness of traditional media and see the possibilies in original content developed to engage consumers in more relevant platforms. Today, many major media outlets in Sweden have developed web tv shows and external sites dedicated to share, comment and recommend new, interesting, entertaining and viral content. Many of the videos are branded. Just like in the rest of the world, branded content have become a trending approach in Sweden to market a product or brand, rather than spending budgets on 30 seconds ads on TV.
But there is some skepticism and criticism that exists in Sweden as a result of campaigns that have used a pr driven dramaturgy where the client or brand haven't been transparent in the beginning, only to be revealed when enough buzz have been created. In Sweden there are also regulations in the marketing legislation concerning the obligation for advertisers to be clear about who or what that is delivering the message of the ad or campaign.
Results
On a market that is dominated by national telecom giants, ume.net, a local fiber broadband provider in Umeå, Sweden wanted to increase their awareness and market shares. But due to its modest size and budget they needed to do something that would generate widespread attention. In a world where many have accepted delays, never-ending buffering and other symptoms of slow connection online (also called lag), we chose to focus on ume.net’s product benefit - one of the world’s fastest internet connections.
While the Goliat’s of the market are buying 30 seconds on primetime TV, we turned to the world of ones and zeros and talked about what ume.net knew the best in a place were they do the most - the internet. And we targeted our campaign towards an audience that suffers the most from disturbances on the internet; the early adopters of tech and gaming - an authoritative and active group on the internet, that are always the first to share new and relevant content. That's why we needed to create something unique.
So to highlight ume.net's product benefit, we built something that has never been done before and turned internet's biggest disturbance to ume.net's advantage while providing a distinct solution. Four volunteers were equipped with a custom-built lag machine that could adjust video resolution and simulate real-time buffering and delay. The experiment demonstrated how everyday tasks became extraordinary hard with real-time lag.
Given the sparse budget, we hade to choose our media channels efficiently and wisely. The Living with Lag Experiment was documented and premiered on YouTube. But to get closer to our audience, we also targeted selected tech and gaming sites and forums where they comment and share information regarding the topic of online lag. Just hours later, Living with Lag was trending all over the world.
Our target audience are active internet users that can be found on various gaming and tech sites. To get their attention we had to create something unique yet relatable. So we combined a recurrent problem in their online life with state-of-the-art technology to illustrate what reality would look like with slow internet connection. But with virtually no media budget, we had to find a way into their social feeds. So when the experiment was launched, we gave it a push by posting it on carefully selected sites where they spend a lot of time, and lag is a recurrent topic.
Living with Lag exceeded all set goals. The goal to increase awareness by 5 percentage was exceeded by 40%, the goal to increase preference by 5 percentage was exceeded by 100% and the sales have already increased with 54%, exceeding the goal of 15% within six months.
Just 24 hours after launch, Living with Lag had over 1 million views, was featured on all major technology, gaming and video sites around the world and soon became the most viewed video on Youtube in both Sweden and the US. A viral spread that generated both national and international recognition in all major news outlets.
As of today, the Living with Lag Experiment have generated over 5.6 millions views in 230 countries (including North Korea!), 78 million impressions, 333,000+ social actions. It’s been featured on major tech, gaming and news sites resulting in an earned media value of €3.3 million, exceeding the digital media investment by 21000%. Living with Lag is now one of the most viral ads in Sweden of all time.