Where do you focus your limited online film content budget?

Do you spend it on profile heavy talent or on time researching and crafting your narrative to draw in your audience?

We often encourage clients not to get too caught up in marketing trends and tactics, but instead focus on what they are passionate about, what they really believe in and lead with that.

I wanted to unpick two brand campaigns from the last few years that essentially had the same goal - to show their brand discovering new musical talent, but with two very different approaches.

The Bacardi Beginnings content campaign, in my opinion, is a good example of a marketing mechanic that offers little in the way of discovery or conversation and is arguably entertaining in exactly the way the brand don’t want.

Bacardi Beginnings features famous music artists working with an emerging talent over 24 hours to create a new track. The concept feels forced and highlights how creating music in a panic is not the way to go. You can’t timetable creativity.

Nokia’s campaign New American Noise had the same goal, but took a very different approach. Instead of spending vital budget on talent, they spent time finding emerging musical scenes and crafted some truly insightful films. What it lacks in recognisable names, it gains in originality. The feeling I’m left with is Nokia's depth of knowledge, consideration and respect for new music.

It’s pretty obvious the approach I favour and it’s fair to argue that the Bacardi campaign was targeting a broader more mainstream market. I’d love to know what you think.