Truly Deeply/Madly

It all Starts with Brand Clar­ity
Like all of the hard­est work­ing brand com­mu­ni­ca­tion cam­paigns, this lit­tle gem for Mitchum from the US has at its core a clear brand propo­si­tion hard-wired with with cus­tomer ben­e­fit. Mitchum is an antiper­spi­rant brand with a well defined propo­si­tion — America’s Hard­est Work­ing Antiper­spi­rant. As with all brands — hav­ing absolute clar­ity around their brand strat­egy — what you stand for and your dif­fer­en­ti­ated propo­si­tion pro­vide the basis for cre­ative com­mu­ni­ca­tion cam­paigns that work harder and smarter than the rest. Mitcham took their ‘Hard­est Work­ing’ propo­si­tion and lever­aged it into an inte­grated brand mar­ket­ing cam­paign to find America’s hard­est work­ers. How­ever, not happy to sit on the strength of the idea, it is the qual­ity of the exe­cu­tion of the Mitchum cam­paign that have deliv­ered on the promise of the brand.

Build­ing Brand Com­mu­ni­ca­tion around a Cen­tral Idea
The more I looked at the Mitchum Hard­est Work­ing web site, the stronger the cam­paign became. Like an onion, the Hard­est Work­ing con­cept has lay­ers of cre­ative exe­cu­tion that fit together, build­ing the momen­tum, strength and inter­est of the campaign.

First there are the hard Work­ing films, a cre­ative col­lab­o­ra­tion between famed doc­u­men­tar­ian Albert Maysles and pro­ducer Bruce Kaplan that cel­e­brate hard work­ing Amer­i­cans. Unlike much of the on-line inte­grated cam­paign con­tent, the qual­ity and integrity of the Mitchum cam­paign stems from the engage­ment of the high­est cal­i­bre of  film mak­ers. Albert Maysles (Director/Cinemetographer) was called ‘the Dean of doc­u­men­tary film­mak­ers’ by none-less than the New York Times. Albert Maysles and his brother David were the orig­i­na­tors of the non­fic­tion fea­ture film. Albert has received a bag-load of awards for his films includ­ing best cin­e­matog­ra­phy at Sun­dance and an Acad­emy Award nom­i­na­tion. Maysles has col­lab­o­rated with Director/Producer Bruce Kaplan on a num­ber of projects. Kaplan has worked for many years in film, TV and music as well as run­ning numer­ous film com­pa­nies and busi­nesses in the enter­tain­ment and media industries.

Maysles and Kaplan have cre­ated a series of doc­u­men­taries that are beau­ti­ful pieces of film mak­ing in their own right. These doc­u­men­taries form the visual and spir­i­tual plat­form for the rest of the cam­paign that lifts the brand and its mes­sag­ing out of the quag­mire of hand-held, low-budget on-line com­mu­ni­ca­tion and up-to the hal­lowed realms of gen­uine enter­tain­ment. I could hap­pily sit and watch this series of eight short films at any cin­ema and feel my evening had been complete.

The Hard­est Work­ing films intro­duce us to the Hard­est Work­ing Cat­tle Rancher, Web Entre­pre­neur, Baker, Coach, Phys­i­cal Ther­a­pist, Cop, Florist and Green Devel­oper in Amer­ica. The cin­e­matog­ra­phy, sound and pro­duc­tion qual­ity deliver a rich taste of the colour and tex­ture of the lives of these Hard Work­ing people.

Inte­grat­ing Brand Inter­ac­tion
The magic for the brand, how­ever, starts to dial-up in the other dimen­sions of the cam­paign. Amer­i­cans are asked to, and have been putting for­ward their own Hard­est Work­ing nom­i­na­tions. These nom­i­na­tions become part of the cam­paign as par­tic­i­pants vote for the Hard­est Work­ing Amer­i­can and in so-doing become woven into Mitchum’s brand sto­ry­telling. The Grand Prize of $100,000 and title of the Hard­est work­ing Amer­i­can is selected based on the votes of the ten final­ists. There’s also a sec­ond prize of $20,000 (to the sec­ond hard­est work­ing Amer­i­can) and an Audi­ence Award with a prize of $5,000 — a crowd pleaser — cho­sen out of all the entries.

Recipe for a  Hard Work­ing Brand Cam­paign
Vir­tu­ally every line of brand com­mu­ni­ca­tion in this multi-layered cam­paign fits together won­der­fully. From the tar­get mar­ket actu­al­iza­tion, to the cel­e­bra­tion and pro­mo­tion of the Hard Work­ing theme, from brand strat­egy to brand voice, from the audi­ence engage­ment to the qual­ity of doc­u­men­tary film mak­ing, from the prod­uct rel­e­vance to the leverage-ability of this idea, every aspect of the cam­paign is actively build­ing brand mean­ing. This Mitchum inte­grated mar­ket­ing effort must surely be a can­di­date for Hard­est Work­ing Brand Campaign.

If you’d like to develop an inte­grated mar­ket­ing cam­paign for your brand, why not get in touch – we’d love to add the magic to the mix.

David Ansett, Bran­da­men­tal­ist
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Designer of Hard Work­ing Brand Communications

Tags: Advertising, Albert Maysles, Brand Agency, Brand Communication, Brand Communications, Brand Design, brand designer, brand designer Melbourne, brand designers, Brand Experience, Brand Identity, Brand Personality, Brand Strategy, Brand Voice, brand-designers-Melbourne, brand-gesture, Brand-Storytelling, brandamentalist, Bruce Kaplan, Corporate Image, Creative Ideas, Dave Ansett, David Ansett, Graphic Design Melbourne, Hardest Working, Integrated brand campaign, Integrated brand communication, integrated marketing campaign, Mitchum

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