Awake Chocolate is hoping to get a jolt in its fan base after partnering with a YouTube and Periscope star on a new music video.
Nicole Arbour, a popular Canadian YouTube celebrity and fan of the chocolate, approached the brand about creating a video using Periscope and posting it on her YouTube channel, which has nearly 47,000 subscribers.
Using the Twitter-owned live-streaming app, Arbour filmed several segments that were broadcast through Periscope (where she has more than 32,000 followers) but also captured so they – and the live comments they generated – could be edited together for a YouTube video. The video kicks off with Arbour eating an Awake bar, sparking the “Fun Revolution” music video.
The “Nevil the owl” mascot for Awake, along with YouTuber Matthew Santoro, also have cameos in the video, which also includes bonus content, such as a makeup tutorial. In the first 24 hours of being posted, the video got 15,000 YouTube views, according to Abour’s Twitter page.
[iframe_youtube video=”JThD9I1qZWI”]
“It would be a bit too flash-in-the-pan if she did a performance on Periscope and then you never see it again,” says Matt Schnarr, founder and managing partner at Awake, which is now sold in about 20,000 stores in Canada and the U.S. Giving the video a “permanent home” on YouTube has made it more impactful and effective, he says.
Along with helping reach its millennial target (college-age men and women, more specifically), “Fun Revolution” also helps educate consumers about what Awake chocolate actually is (a chocolate bar with as much caffeine as a regular cup of coffee).
“We believe that influencers are a huge part of how people find out about product,” he says. Apart from knowing vaguely what the music video would be like, Schnarr and the brand didn’t have much other knowledge about what Arbour would be doing. “I was trying to have this purposely be as authentic as possible as an endorsement,” Schnarr says.
This isn’t the brand’s first foray into the music world. Last summer, it launched a promotional campaign through its partnership with Universal Music, offering free song downloads and chances to meet celebrities like Katy Perry.
Other recent marketing from Awake includes two 30-second YouTube pre-roll videos called “Results May Vary,” which demonstrate the possible (and comical) effects of consuming the chocolate.
[iframe_youtube video=”88Scqncznmo”]
