What Happened
Coca-Cola and McDonald’s teamed up to take a ride on the viral side in a joint campaign. To kick things off, the two companies sponsored the latest installation in the popular “Carpool Karaoke” series, part of James Corden’s late night talk show on CBS, for some prominent product placements. In the video, which has racked up over ten million views on YouTube in the first three days after publishing, singer Selena Gomez and Corden drove to a McDonald’s drive-thru and ordered some French fries with two cups of Coke, which stayed on screen for about four minutes.
In tandem with the sponsorship, the parties involved are also launching a sweepstakes campaign in McDonald’s stores. Customers can enter it by using the Shazam app to record themselves singing to the songs featured in the video while holding custom Coca-Cola cups with lyrics printed on them. Winners will be treated to an all-expenses-paid trip to L.A. to attend a taping of Corden’s show and receive a year-long reward from StubHub.
What Brands Need To Do
This joint campaign is a great example of how brands can reach viewers who are watching less linear TV by sponsoring digital content and then amplify the impact with a corresponding campaign that encourages customer participation. With 70% of U.S. internet users now watching TV content via OTT streaming services, brands gain new opportunities to reach consumers with branded content that is as discoverable as traditional media content, thanks to advanced TV interfaces. Therefore, brands should consider working with popular content creators for product placement or creating branded video to reach those viewers.
To read more on how brands can reach viewers on OTT platforms, please check out the Appified TV section in our Outlook 2016.
Source: AdWeek
Header image courtesy of The Late Late Show with James Corden’s YouTube video