Toshiba and Intel are technology brands, but lately they have been moonlighting as production companies in their promotions. Once again the two have partnered on a co-marketing campaign that will see the development and rollout of a six week-long social film entitled The Beauty Inside.
But this time the experiment in social entertainment has gone global, and viewers now have the chance to grab a leading scripted role in the film, Sherry Lyons, director of marketing communications, Toshiba Canada, tells MiC. The film will be directed by Drake Doremus (Like Crazy) and also stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) and Topher Grace (Spider-Man).
While the first film (The Inside Experience) was produced last year for Canadian and US consumers only, the second chapter has been extended to reach 15 different countries. And instead of simply allowing Facebook users to contribute to how the story pans out by way of commenting on weekly videos (as was done with the first film), The Beauty Inside is asking consumers to post a video of them reciting a section of the script via a dedicated app. Towards the end of the campaign, a select few will be chosen by the director to appear in the film.
“The objective is to associate the brand with leading innovation,” notes Lyons of the film created in part by San Francisco-based agency Pereira & O’Dell, and will show “products being used to interact from a social media perspective. The goal is to have the Toshiba Ultrabook be the device of choice.”
The main character in the film suffers from a strange affliction – every day his body is exchanged with that of someone he does not know, although his mind remains the same. The Toshiba Ultrabook is used to help him document his changing appearance, and the videos will then be placed on the Facebook page in installments over six weeks starting Aug. 16. And each winner of the casting call will get to use the product to record a video diary moment in the film.
Lyons says that after seeing a successful first run last year, tracking over seven million interactions on Facebook and over 15 million videos views, the brands saw the possibility of making this larger in scope and having more social integration. The intended audience for the campaign is young adults aged 18 to 24, says Lyons, noting that it will be supported with a range of online ads on sites such as CTV.ca (also created and placed by Pereira & O’Dell). Examples of the Canadian media buy for this campaign includes Facebook, Google, entertainment and mobile focused media.
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