Illumination - The process behind the thought in branding

3rd Year Work - Online Launch Campaign / DIESEL

Diesel

Brief

Our third year Diesel brief required us to create an online campaign that would launch Diesel’s new fragrance “Only The Brave”, we were encouraged to make it a viral style campaign that would leave the target market wanting to share it and further the identity that is the Diesel brand.

CREATIVE CONCEPT

My concept for the Diesel brief as is visible through my process work was to maintain a viral feel around the campaign through the use of a character that would embody the fragrance and the brand itself, a character on a mission to find ‘The Brave’ around town mainly targeted at a student market as this was more the focus of the campaign; introducing Dangerous Dan

Rationale

When asked to create an online campaign around Diesel’s fragrance “Only The Brave” my concept was to redefine bravery as confidence, and social confidence in specific. This is after all what we derive out of a fragrance as it gives us the confidence we need out there in the social savannah where only the bravest survive.

I chose to use viral media as my main form of communication as I feel it resonated with the tone of the campaign and of the Diesel brand in general.

In order to best represent the concept of redefining bravery the social context would be the target and the everyday person would become the brave in a series of random acts of bravery. These random acts of brave and daring actions get instigated by a character exclusive to this brief – Dangerous Dan. An extrovert some what caught up between Ryan Seacrest and Wackhead Simpson, Dangerous Dan epitomises the Brave in his quest to find Only The Brave who are socially confident in doing his dares.

The Campaign rolls out in a viral sequence by the first of the themed webisodes “Campus Dares” gets uploaded via Youtube and is sponsored by Diesel ending with direct link to the Dangerous Dan microsite where fans can watch more of the weekly themed webisodes as well as interact with the campaign by rating them and ultimately joining Dangerous Dan in his challenge to find The Brave in the ordinary person. Joining the challenge entails rounding up a crew and filming their own definitions of the random acts of bravery consequently posting them on the microsite for others to view and rate and comment.

Additionally, as the weekly themes progress another form of online media will be used to entice people into engaging with the Dangerous Dan Diesel campaign as Web Banners will appear on theme relevant websites such as the banner in the video appearing on a dating site for the ‘girlfriends’ theme.

And finally, the use of popular social networks in their general contexts where fans and followers can further interact with Dangerous Dan on a more intimate level through ‘friendship’ on Facebook and ‘tweeting’ on Twitter. Lastly, Foursquare mobile will be used to record Dangerous Dan’s movements through town highlighting the hotspots in his search for Only The Brave.

Executions


			Dangerous Dan Viral Video The Dangerous Dan video is a viral short film about the character’s escapades in his first episode which takes place on campus. The video begins with a few clips of Dangerous Dan showing the viewers ‘how its done’ with his random acts of bravery around campus for example talking on his cell by the ‘No Cellphones’ sign, or riding the delivery bike by the ‘No Bikes’ sign. The video then shows his search for ‘The Brave’ on campus going up to random groups of friends and coaxing them into committing the ultimate random acts of bravery like getting a kiss from the random promo girl, or slapping the MC’s ass as he runs by the crowd. The video also includes how viewers can stay in touch with Dangerous Dan and follow his whereabouts on his search for ‘The Brave’ ultimately encouraging them to join in the fun, grab a video camera and go on a search of their own.