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Content Marketing of Burgundy, Kaufman and Thicke

Posted by mike emerton on Tue, Feb 18, 2014 @ 08:02 AM

What do Ron Burgundy, Andy Kaufman and Robin Thicke have in common? Blurred Lines!

Burgundy,Kaufman,Thicke Mash-up describe the image

Blurring the lines between marketing and reality has been a tactic deployed for quite a while. Andy Kaufman was a master in this respect--his product was himself. Elaborate ruses and pranks were major elements of his career, and his body of work still maintains a cult following. Simply put: he was a marketing genius!

Perhaps his most notable marketing tactic involved a fake feud with professional wrestler Jerry "The King" Lawler. Their ongoing dispute, which often featured Jimmy Hart, included a broken neck for Kaufman (as a result of Lawler's piledriver) and a famous on-air fight in a 1982 episode of Late Night with David Letterman. Brilliant! He branded a particular style of entertainment and marketing that is still unmatched today.

With the advent of social media, marketers have finally caught on to this blurred line theory and are rolling out campaigns that are exhibiting tremendous results.

Enter: Ron Burgundy.

Dodge deployed the fictitious 70’s anchorman in a series of real Durango commercials that played off Burgundy’s trademark puffed-up bravado, delivered in Will Ferrell’s deadpan style that has become so recognizable that Ron Burgundy seems to be his own individual person, unrelated to the actor portraying him. Dodge says sales of its 2014 Durango SUV jumped 59% in October, and a head-spinning barrage of Burgundy-focused additional marketing tactics buttressed the sales of Anchorman 2:

  • An appearance on ESPN interviewing Peyton Manning

  • An event at Emerson College in Boston, which named its School of Communications after Ron Burgundy, for one day
  • An Anchorman exhibit at the Newseum in Washington, D.C
  • Appearing on “Conan,” being interviewed by O’Brien in character (and even making some tongue-in-cheek mentions of the Durango campaign)
  • His arrival in Winnipeg to announce a curling tournament
  • And my personal favorite, a Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor called "Scotchy Scotch Scotch," featuring the anchorman’s mug on the packaging

By January the movie had made $119 million in U.S. box office, and another $40 million overseas--just shy of $160 million total. That's pretty good--especially considering that the original Anchorman did $90 million.

If marketers can add a sexy element (that's right, we’re going there) into the mix, you'll have achieved the ever-elusive content marketing trifecta (sex appeal, entertainment and informational value). Consider the social media consumption of Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” and the parodies that followed:

  • Its YouTube video had 269,425,636 views in ten months. And you can't miss the bold "#Thicke" scrolling across the screen.

  • Jimmy Fallon's “Blurred Lines” parody on Late Night: 16,231,769 in six months.

  • Bill Clinton singing “Blurred Lines”:  3,515,519 views in six months.

What is the takeaway from all this? The most successful marketing campaigns involve blurring the lines between entertainment and product pitches. Today's content marketing gurus need to understand this tactic and embrace it. Campaigns need to create a consumer experience and drive the message through a combination of audience segmentation, social media, blogs and traditional press placements.

Any organizations' target markets are fragmented across these silos; marketers need to understand this in order to effectively communicate with potential customers, not pitch to them. If the pitch becomes a part of the consumer’s life and entertainment, the desire to purchase that product will be more natural and enjoyable for them.