Nike, SportsCenter, and Chipotle work because the customer is the hero and the brand guides them. A coffee shop called Joe's Downtown gave away free coffee for dance videos to a trending song, proving small brands can build community without big budgets by staying out of the spotlight.
The brand is never the hero. It's usually the people, the consumers are the hero. The brand is kind of a mentor. I mean, take a look at the best branding of all time, which, you know, arguably I think is Nike. Nike's not the hero. The athlete is the hero, and Nike's the mentor just helping them along. So, again, integrating your brand into the story without being the centerpiece of it. So we talked SportsCenter, we talked Chipotle, those are huge brands. What if I'm a small brand? Are there things that they can do as well that don't cost a ton of money?
I just saw a video that I loved. It's by Joe's Downtown, which is like a coffee shop, and they had a video that was like telling their customers, show us your dance moves and we'll give you free coffee, right? And the video is like a great vibe, right? It's like, it's just a montage of people dancing and having a great time and cheering each other on and stuff, and it's set to like a trending song, which is also perfect.
