If you haven’t seen this video from Ryan Reynolds and his Wrexham Association Football Club business partner, spend six and and half minutes getting caught up.
Did it make you smile? Did you learn something new?
I hope so.
We do a fair amount of influencer marketing work here at Convince & Convert, albeit mostly B2B and with key opinion leaders in the marketing or customer experience space.
Like this video, we work with clients to create concepts, invite experts to join the effort, script the video delivery, edit the video with post-production refinement, and ultimately drive traffic and interest to the series we’ve partnered to create.
Having a top star like Ryan Reynolds would be amazing to work with (I chose to think his diva factor is low and his love for his daughters melts me), but even without the A-list name, there are parallels in this video that we can learn and take into B2B content marketing.
I find this to be an excellent example for applying influencer marketing for social good.
Here are three key takeaways that make this a relatable piece of content marketing and influencer program activation that can be applied, regardless if Ryan is your leading man.
#1: It’s Authentic.
My husband passed the age of routine colonoscopy screening during COVID. His reschedule, of the rescheduled, and now the RESCHEDULED appointment is in a few weeks. He’s already survived pancreatic cancer so keeping up on routine screenings and early detection procedures are very near and dear to our hearts. But, this doesn’t make it any less intimidating than a first-time colonoscopy.
The relatability of Ryan and Rob is outstanding. They fit the demographic profile and humor angle perfectly for the core audience target. It can be a somewhat embarrassing procedure but they have broken it down into a relatable and honest conversation with real-footage of them before and after the scope.
Were they exactly looking forward to having this done? No.
They are loopy after anesthesia, and moreover make jokes about things being shoved up their as$es.
These are all pieces my husband and his friends will find honest and authentic as they go into this phase of their mid-life as well.
The authenticity of the footage and dialogue mixed with humor is also a key reason this has been viewed nearly 10 million times in the first day of release.
How to Stay Authentic But On Target
As I said above, we tend to script our videos with KOL’s. We don’t do it to lock in the exact words they must say. On the contrary, we do it to ease any nerves and ensure the main messages are clear and included. We tend to think of the script as the show flow more so than “repeat every word from a teleprompter.”
Most of our videos with KOL’s are done in one or two takes, ensuring that the human factor and true authenticity is there. If we do more than one or two takes, it’s usually because the mic wasn’t picking up clearly or the lighting was off.
#2: The Message Is Clear, The Sponsor Is Not.
At the end of the six and a half minutes, did you catch who “sponsored” or produced the video?
I did not, and that’s how it should be.
Delivering the message – to get your routine colonoscopy – is the ONLY information that matters in this video. Your life could be saved by this procedure.
Yes, Lead from Behind powered by the Colorectal Cancer Alliance, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, paid for and produced this video but does that really matter?
It doesn’t matter one bit.
The message was delivered and absorbed and shared.
Does Ryan Reynolds get more accolades for the message than the Colorectal Cancer Alliance – you bet. However, the mission to “make colon cancer famous” and one step toward that is to convince more adults aged 45 and over to get their routine colonoscopy.
It’s about educating the masses, and reducing the number of families affected by this terrible disease.
Job well done, Lead from Behind!
Helpfulness Over Self Promotion
At C&C, we counsel clients on this exact marketing approach. In B2B marketing, the topics we tend to cover are certainly not of life-saving importance but even so, being helpful over promotion wins every time.
Our clients use a subtle logo placement in a lower corner of the video or a quick “brought to you by” message in the intro or outro. Sometimes our KOL will mention “In partnership with Cisco…” (or Oracle or SAP) but it’s not a sales pitch in any way. It’s a nod to the company putting resources behind delivering a useful message.
#3: The Content Is NOT Gated.
To gate, or not to gate, isn’t that always a question?
If you are asking that about your content – the answer should be “no”.
Obviously, this video had a healthy budget behind it. Due to the videography and celebrity endorsement, shouldn’t Lead from Behind need to show direct ROI for this expense?
Somewhere in a boardroom, not long from now, my bet is Lead from Behind will be able to show the increase in the target audience participating in colonoscopies and the diagnosis of colon cancer in the target audience decreasing.
Is it a direct 1:1 result of this video? Some would argue “no”.
Does it include a metric for how many email addresses they collected by forcing a form fill before the video is viewed? Definitely not.
Take the audience experience into account.
Like someone not seeing the video directly, but hearing a rumbling of it from a friend or a headline about it on a mainstream source?
What an incredible brand extension.
From all the places I have seen this video covered, every one of them has done so without gating any piece of the content. No pre-enroll form or mid-roll break. No enter your email to find out the conclusion.
A user can click through from any source and get directly to the full 6 minute and 30 second video.
The Power of Youtility
If you are going to spend the budget and resources to create an educational and entertaining video for your brand, why limit to individuals who fill out a form?
Get your message out. Be helpful. (Our own Jay Baer wrote an entire book about this concept called Youtility. The definition being “make your marketing SO useful, that your audience would pay for it.)
Let the content speak for itself. The viewer experience on this video is outstanding. ONE click from any social media post, article or other coverage delivers the video in full.
No form. No multi-click or landing page navigation. My recall and admiration of Lead from Behind is a 10/10 for delivering a useful message in a frictionless way.
Being helpful over promotion wins every time. Click To TweetGet to the Bottom of Social Good
So, if you didn’t give it a look before we started down this path, here’s your chance to watch the video.
Learn something new and laugh at the poop jokes. Schedule your own colonoscopy or at least encourage a friend to also schedule theirs. And if you feel so inclined, donate to Lead from Behind.
Take it from someone who has lived it first hand, it’s so much better to hear “all clear” than “we found something.”
Let C&C Help You With Your Strategy
I’m so glad to have this message reach our readers along with some key takeaways to make your influencer marketing (celebrity endorsements, or even key opinion leader (KOL)) efforts more effective. If you ever need some help, ask to connect with one of our strategists.
