The Hunter and the Bear, heroes of two of the most successful digital campaigns of the decade (here and here), are returning this time with a third friend, singer Pharrel Williams. Tipp-Ex, BIC Europe Group’s brand and leader in the European market of correcting products, teams up with Pharrell Williams to produce the first interactive book instantly translated into five languages. This is a really creative idea developed by the Buzzman Agency which went live today after being trailed by Pharrell Williams on Twitter a few days ago.
The concept:
Tipp-Ex and Buzzman asked Pharrell Williams to write a book about his life and his sources of inspiration. A few hours before the book’s release, the Bear panics after seeing that an incredible amount of Pharrell William’s fans try to enter the shed to seize the book from him. He therefore decides to discretely put some Tipp-Ex on every page in order to save the content of the book.
Then starts the new Tipp-Ex adventure: in order to participate, fans will need to enter the Hunter and the Bear’s shed and help them restore the erased words. The Hunter, the Bear and even Pharrell will provide some clues to help complete the book. The more words the user finds, the more chances he or she will have to appear in the book’s credit page as an author, next to Pharell William’s name.
The experience is available in five different languages: English, French, German, Spanish and Italian. Once the ‘Social Book’ completed, it will be printed and published. The revenues will go to “learning programs for under-privileged kids, to hopefully help rewrite many of their lives.”
The use of Gamification:
Gamification is a new word recently added to the Oxford Dictionaries and defined as “the application of typical elements of game playing (e.g. point scoring, competition with others, rules of play) to other areas of activity, typically as an online marketing technique to encourage engagement with a product or service”.
Game specialists believe that the use of game-techniques in online communities answers to the needs of fundamental human desires such as altruism, competition, self-expression, achievement, status and reward. Games have become an important part of brand strategies because they attract users and retain them for a more important amount of time. (Davis Kho, 2012).
The campaign might not be as funny and creative as the original ‘Hunter and the Bear’ Youtube videos, but the use of gamification techniques such as guessing the words, the interactivity, and the chance to be credited in the book should attract a very important audience to the site and significantly impact the book sales.
The use of Co-Branding:
I believe that Tipp-Ex made a very smart choice by choosing Pharrell Williams for this campaign. Following the release of his infectiously upbeat song ‘Happy’, Pharrell represents happiness and positivity, making him and his attitude a great source of inspiration for the readers of the book and the kids of the NGO.
In addition, Pharrell released ‘Happy’ as the first 24-hour music video, which was also an interactive video clip, and achieved great success on social media channels. Tipp-Ex is also known for promoting its products with fun interactive campaigns, so it would seem that both Tipp-Ex and Pharrell share the same values and enjoy working in the same innovative ways. I am pretty confident this co-branded campaign will be a great communication success!
Now let’s try to write this social book together! Discover the Tipp-Ex Social Book here: www.tippex-socialbook.com
Online References: Oxford Dictionaries, Prexamples, Buzzman, MeltyBuzz, Tippex Social Book
Academic Reference: Davis Kho, N., 2012. Getting gamified, publishers score big with online games. EContent, March, pp. 20-24.
Pictures are screenshots from the video.
