Social Video Review with RedPill: featuring Apple, Heavy Bubbles and Playstation

RedPill rating: 90%

Heavy Bubbles is a new sparkling water repped by Thor Björnsson, Game of Thrones’ The Mountain and strongest man alive. Made for every person that has curled shopping bags on their way home looking for an efficient work out, these bottles are dumbbell shaped and sorted by weight rather than volume, so you know exactly how much work you are doing. Released on - APRIL FOOLS! This is actually an ad for Sodastream, and very anti plastic bottles, something you wouldn’t know unless you watch the uncut version of the video.

This is a very ballsy move by Sodastream, counting on a second click to make sure people actually see what brand the video is truly represents. Especially tricky about this is the fact that neither the product advertised, nor the style of the video is anywhere near absurd enough to make people think that this is a fake product, but the bait and switch when people finally search for Heavy Bubbles does capture the spirit of April Fool’s like few other ads, and will certainly spark more conversation.

'Overwatch - Alive' animated short for PS4

RedPill rating: 80%

With over 600,000 views and 27,000 engagements in less than 24 hours, this Playstation animated short is poised to be one of the top videos this coming week. A high budget animation, the animated short introduces the viewers to some characters and the setting from Overwatch, the new Blizzard game for PS4.

The animation is truly gorgeous, with lush colours and a high stylised look. It does a very good job giving a feel for the game, a manga-feeling team shooter full of special abilities and ridiculous accents. It even manages to work in a storyline from Futurama with the robot civil rights movement for true geek cred. The video is perfectly geared for a gamer audience used to watching playthroughs online. It shows more action, stunts and characters than would fit into a normal TV commercial, but maintains the excitement leading up to the game’s launch.

Apple TV — The Kiss

RedPill rating: 75%

Apple TV’s new video, starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Alison Brie, comes in at the top spot for both views and engagements this week. The chemistry between the two stars is what makes this video work. Brie’s perfectionist type-A personality bouncing off Coster-Waldau’s world-weary annoyance creates great moments - the delivery on “Yeah… some tongue,” is spot on it.

The ad nicely showcases the new product - Apple TV with Siri, showing off some functionality in an amusing way, but Apple plays it safe, knows its fanbase is more than powerful enough to make the video go viral without any risks or innovations.

Matthew Davies is a director at REDPILL, a specialist social video agency that delivers a fully integrated approach to social video production and distribution for brands around the globe.