Happy Thanksgiving: State Farm®, William Shatner and Turkey Fryers

State Farm and their partner agencies make great ads. (This one about an agent named Jake always makes me chuckle.) But their latest marketing campaign truly stands out. Educational content marketing should be educational. But, let's not forget that it can also be funny. It can make light of a serious subject while still getting the message across.

Get it right and your funny educational message could go viral.

What Makes This Campaign So Great?

1. They integrated.

In this case, State Farm started with a commercial, which they placed on their YouTube channel (along with another video and slideshow) and added a dash of Twitter (#ShatnerFryersClub). They got the word out via press release and posted it on their Facebook page. In my eyes, Facebook could've been used a bit more (such as a custom tab), but they've definitely covered a lot of bases for "Eat, Fry, Love."

2. The humor captures our attention.

For starters, I'm a total geek for tongue-in-cheek humor. The way something is delivered can bring me to tears. No one does that better than Shatner. Humor is not universal though. Just because you and your team fall off your chairs laughing does not mean your audience will. And since most of us can't afford William Shatner's brilliant delivery, this area can be hard to replicate. That doesn't mean we shouldn't try. Here are a few of my favorite zingers from "Eat, Fry, Love."

• "When I laid my hands on that fryer, I didn't want to let go."
• "Blinded by my hunger, I ignored safety. Spat in the face of science."
• "Turn off the flame. Dangit Bill, that's too much oil. Where's the dingle dangle?"

Next time you have a serious subject to tackle, think of ways to make light of it (without taking away from the seriousness of said subject). For inspiration, view "Eat, Fry, Love."

 

3. Like all good content marketing - the content is the star.

In today's world of smartphones, tablets and hyperconnectivity, writing is more complex than ever. People are hungry for information, but they want information in tiny, digestible bits. The two main videos in which Mr. Shatner lends his talents ("Eat, Fry, Love" and "Turkey Fryer Fire Demonstration") couldn't embrace this trend more precisely.

To illustrate, here is the intro script from "Turkey Fryer Fire Demonstration."

"Hi. I'm William Shatner ... and this is my thing.
Fried turkey.
Tastes great.
So dangerous you can't even imagine.
I've burned myself.
Almost burned my house down.
It's a great taste, but you've got to be safe."
<Video rolls into Illinois Fire Service firefighters who staged some of the common mistakes, with explosive results.>

Check out the script in action (and prepare yourself to be amazed at the fires that were staged by the Illinois Fire Service).

 

Don't fry your turkey without the dingle dangle this year (this is your cue to watch the video if you haven't yet). Happy Thanksgiving to all!

This blog post was originally published on the Priority Blog at priorityresults.com/blog. Priority Integrated Marketing is now BlueSpire Strategic Marketing.