Burt’s Bees Vines Cast Products in Classic Lit in #6SecondClassics

The brand’s Classics campaign also includes Instagram content featuring the brand’s founder, Burt Shavitz.

burts-bees-1Natural health and beauty care brand Burt’s Bees has launched #6SecondClassics, a Vine effort that casts its classic products in roles in classic literature.

It’s Burt’s Bees’ first Vine campaign and includes seven such videos on Little Women, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Gulliver’sTravels, Metamorphosis, Moby Dick, The Scarlet Letter and Julius Caesar.

Each Vine includes costumed Burt’s Bees products that are stop-motion animated on an iPhone, the brand says. Each six-second spot takes about four hours to shoot, it adds.

The Vines are available via Burt’s Bees’ Twitter feed. Little Women was the first to debut on October 7.

Digital Content and Social Media Manager Melissa Sowry says the brand wanted to experiment with the platform and says these videos were a “test and learn approach for us.”

Calling it “an interesting creative process,” Sowry says production includes casting which products to play which characters in the novels, as well as determining costume design.

“Shooting these videos was a challenge–essentially, you shoot and publish. There’s no post-production,” she adds.

burts-bees-2

#6SecondClassics promotes Burt’s Bees Classics, the company’s seven “mainstay” products, including Beeswax Lip Balm, Coconut Foot Cream, Shea Butter Hand Repair Cream, Hand Salve, Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream, Almond Milk Beeswax Hand Cream and Res-Q Ointment.

“We wanted to find an interesting way to bring to life the classic products,” Sowry says. “The idea is that Burt’s Bees Classics are time-tested originals. Thinking about classic products, this is a fun, lightweight way to bring them to life. We’re marrying classic products with classic novel characters.”

The Vine content targets both female and male consumers as Burt’s Bees caters to both sexes, Sowry says.

In addition, while some Vines like Little Women are more appealing to women, others–like Moby Dick, Julius Caesar and Gulliver’s Travels–have no gender lines, she adds.

“One thing I think is great about Instagram and Vine is it allows us to connect with consumers to find a moment of delight and put a smile on their face,” Sowry says. “It’s not ‘click here,’ it’s just enjoy six seconds of video. There’s some messaging, but it’s a very snackable piece of content and period of enjoyment to provide consumers on this platform.”

The brand is using Twitter to push the Vines. Burt’s Bees has 49,000 followers and 1.6 million Facebook fans.

#6SecondClassics is part of a larger Classics campaign, which also includes website, Instagram and Facebook content, as well as a video that tells the story of the brand, which has about 39,000 views as of October 13.

In addition to #Classic, #TimeTested and #6SecondClassics, the brand is also using its first Instagram ad campaign, Burt on Instagram, to push the Classics campaign. Burt on Instagram premiered a week before the Vines.

According to Burt’s Bees, the brand’s founder, Burt Shavitz, is a known recluse who is posting his “backwoods doings” on Instagram with the hashtags #Classic, #TimeTested and #ClassicBurt.

When the brand was planning out the Classics campaign, it considered both Vine and Instagram video and made the decision to use Vine for #6SecondClassics and Instagram to support the campaign with content featuring Shavitz.

“We have recently gone up to Maine and documented sort of what Burt does day to day,” Sowry says. “We really felt Instagram was the right platform for that and captured some beautiful imagery of Burt canoeing and making tea.”

This visually interesting content features “[moments] of delight,” she says.

“We’ve been using #classic, so it’s really classic Burt for him to be sitting out on the porch with his dog or to be surrounded by bees,” Sowry says. “There are certain things that are classic Burt and make us laugh around the office. We’re bringing it to life on Instagram and letting Burt shine, which felt very authentic.”

The brand has two additional campaigns in full planning mode that include Instagram and Vine and will feature more classic content, more product-focused content and more Burt content, she says.

The brand worked with digital agency Baldwin& on the campaign.

Subscribe to get your daily business insights

Whitepapers

US Mobile Streaming Behavior

Whitepaper | Mobile US Mobile Streaming Behavior

5y

US Mobile Streaming Behavior

Streaming has become a staple of US media-viewing habits. Streaming video, however, still comes with a variety of pesky frustrations that viewers are ...

View resource
Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics for Media Groups

Whitepaper | Analyzing Customer Data Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics for Media Groups

5y

Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics f...

Data is the lifeblood of so many companies today. You need more of it, all of which at higher quality, and all the meanwhile being compliant with data...

View resource
Learning to win the talent war: how digital marketing can develop its people

Whitepaper | Digital Marketing Learning to win the talent war: how digital marketing can develop its people

2y

Learning to win the talent war: how digital market...

This report documents the findings of a Fireside chat held by ClickZ in the first quarter of 2022. It provides expert insight on how companies can ret...

View resource
Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Experience Economy

Report | Digital Transformation Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Experience Economy

4w

Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Exp...

Customers decide fast, influenced by only 2.5 touchpoints – globally! Make sure your brand shines in those critical moments. Read More...

View resource