That time I was on set with Tex Perkins
This post was originally published on LinkedIn, where I’ll be sharing some of my favourite marketing campaigns that I’ve been involved with over the past 25 years. I’d love for you to follow my page on LinkedIn or feel free to connect with me there as well.
It would be no surprise to those who know me well, that one of my all time favourite marketing campaigns would involve music.
I can’t take credit for coming up with this idea, nor was I leading the project in any way, shape or form. I was just super happy to be involved and to see how a music video comes to life. And when it involves Tex Perkins, well, that was the icing on the cake.
Back in my Getty Images days, when we were heavily promoting and educating around stock footage, we ran a great competition in collaboration with Universal Music. And the competition was to produce a music video for Tex, Don and Charlie. The brief was they had to incorporate stock footage and the band would choose the winning concept and director.
We launched this campaign in 2005, before the introduction of social media and any opportunity to “go viral”. So we relied heavily on PR and those “traditional” channels of email, print advertising (and probably direct mail). If the campaign was run today, 19 years later, I can only imagine the reach (and hype) we would have achieved and just how many more entries we would have had.
This was also at a time when a lot of directors didn’t really want to use stock footage in their films or videos. The stock footage library at Getty Images certainly didn’t have the depth and breadth of what it does today. So a big part of what we were trying to achieve was to increase awareness and drive usage of our collection.
I can’t actually remember the creative we used to announce the competition, but I do remember:
🎵 Seeing all the storyboards submitted and how incredibly creative (and talented) the directors were
🎵 Being on set when the music video was shot - I still have the call sheet and vividly remember the band not caring that the shoot was in an alcohol free venue (there was a lot of beer)
🎵 Being in the edit suite to see how they brought together the footage from the shoot and the stock footage. Side note - everything was shot on film, no digital cameras
🎵 Seeing my name in the credits of the video
You can watch the video below (minus my name in lights). It’s a great song and the album it’s from, All is Forgiven, is still one of my favourites today.
What’s relevant today about a campaign from 2004? There is a lot, including:
🎸 That partnerships are key - this campaign wouldn’t have been possible without Universal Music working with us and also our PR agency. There is huge power and mutual benefits when it comes to collaboration.
🎸 When driving adoption of a product or feature, bring it to life. Think of ways for your audience to use and become familiar with your offering. Get them excited about it.
🎸 Don’t be afraid to try something new and different, especially if you are trying to engage with a new audience. Who knows, you could end up on set with Tex Perkins as well.
If you are looking for new ways to engage with your audience or bring your product to life, i’m here to help. With over 20 years marketing experience, there’s not much that I haven’t done and I look forward to sharing that experience with you. I can work with you on everything from setting your marketing strategy and plans to providing you with ongoing marketing support. Feel free to get in touch to have a chat.
