Ken Block – world’s fastest snowcat experiment

Just when you thought Ken Block’s DC Shoes ‘Gymkhana’ videos might be losing velocity, they release this great little piece of content – the world’s fastest snowcat. It’s not as cool as the ‘Gymkhana’ stuff but it’s decent enough for 680,000 views in 3 days. The thing I love about all this stuff is that it’s about EXPERIMENTATION…they’re playing with culture by trying new things that obviously tap into Kens amazing driving ability but also new ways in which their brand (and Subaru’s) can be seen as innovating in action sports culture. Very cool.

Experimentation is the new Engagement

This is the short presentation I gave at AIMIA (Australian Interactive Media Industry Association) ‘Getting Inside Gen Y’ conference last week. My presentation was titled ‘Experimentation is the new Engagement’ and it was all about how brands today need to continually experiment, play with youth if you will. It’s about creating an interesting brand game, far less about your brands story. It’s about social ideas which spark a rapid mobilisation of youth, and some recent examples of brands that are experimenting with culture – from Red Bull’s Project X (Shaun White secret halfpipe) to Coke’s Expedition 206 to VW Swedens ‘Fun Theory’ social experiments. Enjoy.

DC Shoes Gymkhana infomercial with rally driver Ken Block

Another youth skate brand producing cool content, but not in the world of skate culture. They’ve extended their reach into the world of rally. On the back of the original Gymkhana practice video with DC shoe sponsored rally driver Ken Block which got 20million views, here’s the follow up. It takes the ‘infomercial’ to the extreme, but I like the fact that it’s over branded and a little over the top…it  doesn’t pretend to be anything but showboating on behalf of Ken Block and DC shoes. It’s also a great wrap for Subaru, as all their WRX fans will be loving this content. It’s a little long, but a nice piece of content for 20something year old car nuts and a great job of flogging DC apparel. The DC shoes youtube channel isn’t too bad either