STIHL, a handheld power equipment manufacturing company, proved that you can take an everyday product, such as a chainsaw, and create an engaging promotional campaign that catches the interest of those beyond your target audience.
Joining other companies who’ve had success creating Choose Your Own Adventure style videos, STIHL created a series of YouTube videos in which the viewer is placed in a situation and has to decide the direction they want the story to take. In this case, STIHL has placed the viewer as someone who has to make the decision of whether or not they would like to save a chainsaw or a poor, helpless sheep named Flossie from a burning old barn that is about to collapse.
Here’s where you can go on the journey yourself:
In my opinion, this campaign is a genius example of ways you can get people to take interest in an otherwise boring brand. The presentation of this campaign was showcased in a way that was interesting and surprising.
Also, another key point is that they still managed to play to their strengths without coming off as too promotional. The STIHL products have a reputation of being durable, high-quality products. SPOLIER ALERT: if you chose to save Flossie, you’ll find out that the chainsaw actually survived the the fiery demise of this rundown barn.
One of the biggest hurdles content marketers and PR professionals face is the extra bit of creative thinking that it takes to promote a product or service that isn’t exactly “exciting.” Don’t let your mind fool you, sometimes that ordinary product or service actually provides you with the opportunity to do some out of the box thinking, and the result could be very intriguing and refreshing.
And maybe even more creative can be enlisting Air New Zealand in this campaign (who is represented in the United States by MWW PR Group).