How Bailey Nelson boosted brand love with a wild and wacky YouTube campaign
Bailey Nelson won Best Use of Video Ads at The Drum Awards for Digital Advertising APAC 2022 for its comedic YouTube campaign. Here, we find out how the project came to life.
Bailey Nelson infused its latest video campaign with bright, comedic energy / Bailey Nelson
Eyewear retail chain Bailey Nelson needed to boost its brand visibility and recall in the Australian market. And it knew that playing it safe simply wasn’t an option.
With a bold approach to video advertising, the retailer saw results soar.
The brief
Bailey Nelson has always put video advertising at the heart of its marketing strategy. However, with a goal of bolstering brand recall and making a dent in the competitive Australian market, the retailer knew it needed a fresh approach.
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It came to longtime video advertising partner Vidico with a task: to help create a campaign that ties together both product and brand – a divergence from its traditional video efforts which focused on shots of Bailey Nelson’s eyewear products alone. The brand wanted something fresh, energetic and comedic.
The brief was built on the concept of ‘bringing joy to eye care.’ Vidico boiled the idea down into a simple takeaway: keeping prices low but quality high, turning every prescription into a celebration of sorts.
The challenge – and opportunity – was to create a powerful brand story that showed off Bailey Nelson’s unique value proposition and joyful brand personality.
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The idea
To keep things fun, the team developed the idea of creating a presenter-format video in which a host walks viewers through the hilarious and often awful experience of purchasing eyewear with which so many consumers are all too familiar.
With an eye toward the ethos of ‘bringing joy to eye care,’ the team kept humor front-and-center. The team combined its narrative-led concept with quippy dialogue, cutaway gags and zany shots to deliver a hilarious whirlwind effect.
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Of course, the team didn’t want to focus so much on personality that it lost sight of the product. It focused on nailing the product shots while couching narrative descriptions of the eyewear within a barrage of cultural references, visual metaphors and witty banter.
A complicated, four-day production involving a 12-person crew, a diverse cast, a co-directing team, a co-producing team and a number of detailed set builds culminated in a wild and wacky three-minute branded film.
The ad was deployed on YouTube in the form of a three-minute hero film, followed by short-form video ads that spotlighted unique selling propositions conditionally surfaced based on whether or not the viewer skipped the long-form ad.
The results
“This was Bailey Nelson’s first defining brand statement using video, and we simply couldn’t be more stoked with what it’s done for us,” said the brand’s content director Michael Beveridge in a statement.
The brand ran the campaign on YouTube for two staggered one-month periods in late 2021.
Data gleaned from a brand uplift survey run through YouTube were impressive. Bailey Nelson saw a 97% lift in brand awareness and a 4,114% Google Search lift. The campaign garnered 1.1m views – and a year on, the video’s comments section is still a lively and engaged forum.
This campaign was a winner at The Drum Awards for Digital Advertising APAC 2022. The Drum Awards for Marketing are currently open for entry. Find out how you can enter now.