(Image: postgraduateproblems)
From Frank Underwood to Deadpool, breaking the fourth wall is a sure way to get someone’s attention.
Every time Frank Underwood speaks to the camera, or when Abed Nadir made a comment about a TV show inside a TV show, I’m always delighted to the fact that a medium can transcend boundaries and limitation. Sure, it’s easier to ‘break’ a TV screen or comic book pages. After all, it’s what the creator would have wanted. But, what about cellphone screen? How can someone control the behavior of real people in the real world?
When someone glued to the screen to do whatever it is they are doing, how can an advertising or digital campaigns ‘hypnotize’ the audience to do something?
Breaking the fourth wall on marketing and advertising is an entirely different form when compared to TV or comic books. When a marketer creates a car advertising that involving you to drive that car (and maybe even make you to buy one), now that’s breaking the fourth wall.
Now, let me give you an example.
Burger King created a very compelling campaign called “Whopper Sacrifice”. The campaign is pretty simple and straightforward; Burger King was offering free Whopper Burger if you unfriend 10 people on Facebook. But there’s a twist, if you’re hoping that you can unfriend someone without them noticing, then you’re dead wrong. Every time you unfriend someone, Burger King will send notification to the people being unfriended, now that is a true sacrifice.
The whopper sacrifice campaign is practically breaking the fourth wall. The campaign actually made someone to unfriend somebody on Facebook. Imagine how many angry and offended people on the day that the campaign started. Of course, by doing that Burger King get a free buzz. But that’s not the point. The point is, Burger King successfully transcend their digital presence on the real world.
So the next question: how can I break the fourth wall in digital?
The answer is: chose your weapon….or digital platform. Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter is way too popular and mainstream. I’m going to give you an example from a social networking sites that every body least expected, Pinterest.
But why Pinterest?
Believe it or not, Pinterest is a great way to engage your followers and breaking the fourth wall. So, Let me give you some other ‘shining’ example on breaking the fourth wall done right.
Honda Wants You to Chase Your Dream
(Image: automarketingblog.com)
Honda #Pintermission campaign is really breaking the fourth wall. Honda successfully captures the quirkiness of Pinterest and turned it into a spiritual journey that resonate really well with Pinterest users.
Pinterest is a place where people collect pictures or images and put it inside a “board”. These digital collections usually represent the users’ interest, hobbies, or passion. So, naturally Pinterest is filled with pretty and beautiful pictures of fashion, clothing, food, home & decor, nature, and even cats. Unlike Instagram where you tell stories by making your own picture, Pinterest wants you tell a story by collecting pictures.
Honda knows that a lot of people in Pinterest collecting the pictures as a way to convey their desires. Some people want to go to Himalaya but they can’t afford it, so they pin a picture of Himalaya in Pinterest, hoping that one day the can afford or brave enough to climb the mountain. Knowing this, Honda launched #Pintermission to encourage people to go out and chase what they want, instead of just pinning some pictures on Pinterest.
The campaign was simple, low cost and had a high impact. Honda reached out to five most influential pinners, and asked them to take a 24 hour break from Pinterest to do whatever it is they had been pinning. So Honda gave each the pinners $500, hoping that they would create their own unique pictures instead of collecting it.
(Image: bryanagy.com)
Honda created a special board for all the pinners on which they could upload photos of their #Pintermission. The pinners also created #Pintermission boards on their Pinterest pages, giving Honda exposure and awareness in the process. For just a ‘measly’ $2500, 4.5 million people got exposed to #Pintermission, which produced 5000 re-pins and 2000 likes. Not to mention that more than 16 million media impression were gained from the campaign. #Pintermission hashtag showed up on Twitter with hundreds of tweets linking to Honda’s Pinterest profile.
I know that Honda Pinterest campaign is a work of a genius. Not everybody can come up with such a great campaign. But that’s not my point. My point is that Pinterest has a potential to be a great platform to market your product, engage your customers, and increase your brand image.
If you are looking for something outside the box, unpredictable, and pretty, Pinterest has all the tools to craft your campaign.
Sony wants you to make a Change
(Image: socialbistrot.com)
Sony “pin it to give it” campaign is extremely successful not only in breaking the fourth wall, but in practically everything. As always, brilliant campaigns are simple and engaging, and Sony’s campaign is not an exception.
Sony used their Pinterest page to curate and collect images and pictures of Sony Electronics products that were pinned to the Pin it to Give it board. Every time someone repinned from the board. Sony donated a dollar to The Michael Phelps Foundation. The campaign successfully raised more than $12,500.
Cleverly, Sony created a campaign that centered on people’s tendency to help others. Now, that is quite rare. The campaign is also very clever because usually, other brands use Pinterest to create Pin it to Win it campaign; a campaign where you need to pin a brand picture to win some random prize. By creating a twist to the Pin it to Win it, Sony successfully creating not only an engaging campaign but breaking the fourth wall.
The campaign breaking the fourth wall because it’s rare to see a digital campaign reach outside the digital world. Donation is the key here. When a digital campaign is successful in making a social good and positively building a community (remember ALS ice bucket challenge?) I say that’s breaking the fourth wall, and you don’t need Deadpool to do that.
Here is the excellent results from the pin it to give it campaign:
- 12,500 repins to Pin it To Give it board
- Campaign increased new follower growth by 200% over average growth per month
- 350% increase in brand impressions over average month
- 6,925 followers for the Pin it to Give it board
- More than 20 media placements
The Challenges: To Break or not To Break
(Image: comicbookmovie.com)
If you haven’t noticed, breaking the fourth wall in digital is a ‘fancy’ term for call to action. In the end, the main challenges that marketers needs to address is how to make people step outside the smartphone screen and do something.
The address the challenge, you need to create something compelling. Sony’s pin it to give it campaign taught us that we can ‘exploit’ the do-good nature in everybody. People loves to help, not only that, people loves to help when it doesn’t cost them anything. This is important because when you want people to help, but it requires them to camp in Afghanistan, it’s not really going to resonate well isn’t it?
We can also learn something from Honda. People loves to hope and dreams. That’s why people keep sharing uplifting and motivational stories and quotes. Honda knows that fulfilling someone’s desire with simple gesture can resonate really well among the netizens. The genius of Honda is not in the campaign, but in the platform. Honda knows that Pinterest is place filled joy, wonder, desire, and dreams. So Honda created a simple mechanism to fullfil that certain desire. One thing that we can learn from Honda is: choosing the right platform is essential to break to fourth wall.
So, are you ready to break the fourth wall?
References:
- http://beta21.circussocial.com/campaigns/3-best-pinterest-campaigns-from-big-brands
- http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/creatively-using-pinterest/
- http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/increase-followers-charitable-pinterest
- http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2009/01/unfriend-10-people-on-facebook-get-a-free-whopper-burger-king.html
