HBO Launches Campaign On Whisper To Turn Secrets Into Branded Content

What Happened
HBO has launched a hybrid content campaign to generate buzz for its upcoming new series Little Big Lies. Partnering with anonymous secret-sharing social network Whisper, which has since pivoted into a “digital media publisher that helps brands develop content,” HBO will images from “Big Little Lies” will pair with people creating Whisper posts about lies they told.  Whisper employs machine-learning technology to analyze the site’s data and identify the most popular posts. The popular and most interesting ones will then be curated into stories and videos to be posted on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Whisper’s homepage.

What Brands Need To Do
This campaign smartly combines organic user-generated content with branded content (in this case, images from the show) and repackage them into share-worthy content with the help of algorithms powered by machine learning. With subpar mobile ad experience drives many users to use ad-blockers, it is becoming more and more difficult for brands to reach their desired audience via traditional digital ads. In fact, a new study shows that over 40% of millennials now browse the internet on a device that has an ad blocker enabled. Therefore, brands should take a cue from this HBO campaign and be open to exploring new forms of advertising such as sponsored or branded content.

 


Source: AdAge

Rumr Brings Anonymous Chat To Mobile Phones

Anonymity and privacy are buzzwords of a new generation of chatters and messengers. Snapchat has risen to popularity in large part because the messages are never stored – it keeps the messages away from the prying eyes of anyone going through the phone. In the messaging world, Whisper and Secret have already established themselves as anonymous public forums, but Rumr is taking the concept one step further: anonymous group messaging. Funded in part by Google Ventures, users connect their phone numbers and emails to the system, and then pick a username. In order to start a chat, users agree to enter the chat with a listed number they know – the anonymous part is that users choose a color to represent themselves, not a username. Right now, the product is in testing, but it’s clear that personal privacy – and protecting one’s identity from others – is a key trend in the digital marketplace at the moment. It comes down to trust: as consumers become wary about how much data is being collected about them, they want to make sure their identities are only being revealed to the sources they want them to be. As the average consumer becomes increasingly digitally savvy, marketers will need to keep pace.