Brand Hijacking

 

If you watched the 2015 Super Bowl (or any number of popular television programs, for that matter), then you’ve probably seen one of Snickers’ famous, “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” commercials.  Building on a clever utilizations of public figures and that feeling we all get of not being ourselves when we haven’t eaten in a while, Snickers has cornered the market on creative candy bar advertisements (sorry, Twix).  Now, however, it’s taken that campaign a step further with what we like to call brand hijacking.

 

The candy bar company has rolled out a new voice recognition tool (think of something similar to Siri) that, when asked a question, responds in a sarcastic and aloof voice—even, on occasion, getting angry at the asker, depending on the nature of the question (as Ad Age points out…the tool comes with a warning not to ask it about Rockhopper penguins).  While undoubtedly clever, the effort is part of a larger trend in Snickers’ marketing department to use popular culture for its own benefit—hence, brand hijacking (not too long ago, Snickers launched another online tool that turned monuments into hungry versions of themselves).

 

So, why is brand hijacking so popular?  Well, the obvious reason is that it works.  The less obvious reason: why it works.  In the fast-paced digital age, brands developing campaigns from scratch typically require that audiences undergo a type of buy-in in order to get involved.  In other words, campaigns that aren’t based around something that already exists necessitate that a viewer consume (and believe) everything he/she is being presented with.  Brands that hijack popular culture, however, play on things that already exist in our everyday lives—not to mention the fact that parody is one of the more popular tropes in American culture…there’s a reason it’s an exception to copyright law. 

 

How can your business take advantage of brand hijacking?  For B2C industries like Snickers, the answer is pretty easy.  But what about B2B?  Perhaps an example works best.  At Axiom we often help companies produce internal training videos or corporate video packages.  For materials like these, the substance is often dry to the average employee, but astronomically important (think: safety videos).  We often ground our campaign ideas around a parody of popular culture.  Why?  Two reasons.  One, we conduct focus groups to target demographics, and those ideas usually play best.  Two, these types of videos easily capture and hold an audience’s attention, because they are so relatable. 

 

So, next time your brand is thinking about making a splash, consider brand hijacking.  It’s effective, relatively easy, and fraught with ROI possibility.