Video Voyeur #8: We Can Be Heroes With Super CSR Video

Posted on Feb 4, 2012 in Video Voyeur | 2 comments

Video Voyeur is a place for a quick peek at interesting, effective, entertaining or educational (hopefully all) marketing videos that recently caught our eye. See how your peers are using video. Enjoy it and share your views.  - Larry

By Larry Thomas, Latergy

I originally read about this campaign in a post by Aman Singh on the CSRwire blog, and learned more when Susan McPherson shared the Fenton Communications post on Facebook.

Fenton points to early success “with over 100 million media impressions in outlets including Extra, USA Today, Huffington Post, the NY Daily News and tweeted by global health leaders such as Melinda Gates”.

The campaign, We Can Be Heroes, is a wonderful cause-marketing effort from DC Entertainment, Time Warner and Warner Bros. in conjunction with Save the Children, Mercy Corps and International Rescue Committee.

It’s a socially responsible initiative that delivers a clear message of hope in an effort to fight devastating hunger in the Horn of Africa. It is brilliant in concept and execution, bringing us narrative stories from everyday people, ergo heroes, against a backdrop of Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman and other superheroes of comic book fame.

The video beautifully delivers the humanitarian message that we can all be heroes, one kind act at a time. I like it because it struck an emotional and intellectual chord… and has a clear call to action – GIVE.  Note that while the combined creative genius and production resources could have created any video they wished – the focus is on simple (or so it seems :) ) storytelling. Graphics! 3D! Action! Holy highlight reel, Batman! They chose relatively straight camera shots of real people. Narrative marketing at it’s best.

The video and campaign are worth a look. The cause is worthy of support, and the corporate heroes behind the effort are matching donations $ for $ up to $1million. Join the cause.

 

Larry is president of Latergy, a video services boutique that provides multimedia content strategy, production, distribution and measurement services to professional communicators. Prior to Latergy, Thomas pioneered online video marketing and PR as co-founder and president of PR Newswire’s MultiVu and COO of Medialink Worldwide, a NASDAQ company that was sold to a VC-backed competitor. He lives in NJ with his wife, Sherry Lynn, and their plethora of pups. Contact him at lthomas@Latergy.com.