Read on to find out more, and don’t forget to get your Masters of Marketing entry in before June 3rd…

Hit hard with your message

The RNLI faced the challenge of raising awareness about the unpredictable waters in the UK, and how easy it is to drown in them.

The campaign’s aim was to halve the number of people drowning in the UK by 2024. 

It commissioned a series of videos designed for cinema advertising. Shot from the first person perspective of a drowning individual, the ad asked the audience to hold their breath along with them.

With over 3m Facebook video views and more than 8,500 shares, this video clearly struck a chord with its audience. 

The application of a hard-hitting message effectively engaged users, as shown by an average view duration of 87%.

With the use of virtual reality on the rise it would be interesting to see if the new headsets coming onto the market would take this concept a step further.

Amnesty International actually already utilised this technique, using a VR headset to show devastating scenes of bombing in Syria.

Image credit: Amnesty International

Know your audience

One of the biggest myths about video production is that it has to be expensive.

When Male Cancer Awareness Campaign teamed up with world-renowned fashion photographer Rankin, the aim was to create a video to get 18-25 year old men to check themselves for testicular cancer.

On a budget of around £1,000 and with the help of model Rhian Sugden, they shot an almost NSFW video to appeal to the ‘lads mag’ demographic. 

By simply knowing their audience and having a good creative, the video gathered over 7m views. This proves that video doesn’t have to be created on a big budget to be effective.

Reacting to current events

In 2015, the NFL was facing a huge backlash over domestic violence issues.

In stepped No More, a domestic abuse charity that produced this 30-second video of a victim’s 911 call.

Whilst definitely hard-hitting, the video gained a spot in the first break after second quarter of NFL Super Bowl XLIX for free – placement of which would have cost $4.5m. 

By aligning itself with a brand in trouble, No More managed to directly reach an estimated 114.4m TV viewers. Its YouTube video now has more than 9.5m views.

Don’t forget to get your entries for our Masters of Marketing Awards in before June 3rd.