Admirable and effective but fails to engage in several ways 6 / 10

Network Rail is embracing online as a medium to warn young men about the dangers of trespassing on rail tracks, with a video starring Olympic medal hopeful hurdler Dai Greene. It is an effective way to reach the target audience, but the execution fails to engage in several ways.

It talks at the audience, leaving little room to be part of a dialogue in young people’s social channels. The dramatic music and narration does the job, but viewers will quickly realise they can predict the ending.

While it is admirable that the safety campaign does not go down the traditional scaremongering route, it lacks that twist to make it stick with users in the race for attention, all of which is likely to curtail shares of the video. Safety campaigns can go on to be YouTube hits. Think back to Transport for London’s 2008 viral ‘Test Your Awareness: Do the Test’. It clocked up 15m views, but it is doubtful that Network Rail’s effort will come anywhere near that number.

Ones to watch: Viral hits from this week

 

Samsung: Memory Meet Battery Brutus

Samsung Memory promotes itself using three villainous characters. This video features Battery Brutus, who will ‘cut off your calls, kill your camera’.

Popchips: Ashton Kutcher Dating Video

Popchips, the US snack brand which launched in the UK this year, enlisted Ashton Kutcher for this viral video. However, it was dogged by allegations of racism and has since been altered.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Reveal Trailer

A video promoting the release of the next Call of Duty game has been watched more than 17m times. The game is not out until the end of the year.

This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk