Velcro

Velcro

Velcro Companies had a problem. More than 60 years after filing for its first patent for hook and loop technology, the VELCRO® Brand patent had expired.

Background

People often use a brand name interchangeably with a product. What they often don’t realize is that by doing so, they threaten a company’s trademark rights and brand integrity. Velcro Companies needed a public education initiative that protected the VELCRO® brand and reminded people to use “hook and loop” when referring to their product. The VELCRO® Brand trademark was in jeopardy.

 

 

 

Our Strategy

Creating an engaging legalese message that changed human behavior was our goal. Then we took it a step further. By leaning into how ridiculous this problem likely sounded to the general public, we crafted an absurd music video and supporting social media distribution strategy for an engaging, memorable, and shareable campaign.

 

 

 

What We Did

Enter Penn Holderness. As director and creative consultant, Penn crafted a 1980’s benefit-style song with Velcro Company lawyers pleading for public assistance to help save their trademark. With his music video as the center of the campaign, our team then created a robust distribution strategy of owned, paid, earned, and shared media to ensure additional campaign buzz and longevity.

 

 

 

  1. Video Production Video ProductionOriginal song writing, on-set production, creative direction, and editing for the primary #DONTSAYVELCRO campaign video. Created supporting behind-the-scenes interviews and snackable social videos written and produced in real time.
  2. Website Development Website DevelopmentCreated and developed a dedicated #DONTSAYVELCRO campaign website with additional educational resources, support videos, calls to action, and “Join the Movement” mailing list.
  3. Public Relations Public RelationsComprehensive public media support and outreach, working in partnership with Velcro Companies’ public relations team.
  4. Paid Media Paid MediaRobust paid media placements further lifted the campaign message, including a Google paid search campaign correcting users that searched for ‘velcro’ online. The paid media campaign was strategically timed with with organic social media launch to optimize engagement and reach.
  5. Social Media Social MediaInnovative supporting social media launch included a live Twitter takeover, monitoring across platforms in a dedicated Social Media War Room, and automated tweets correcting misuse in live time.
  6. Influencer Marketing Influencer MarketingStrategic video re-shares from social media influencers to optimize against social media platform algorithms and further increase the campaign’s lift.

Impact

The video quickly gained millions of organic views. When paired with our accompanying distribution strategy, the campaign measured one billion media impressions. The #DONTSAYVELCRO message achieved worldwide momentum, stretching beyond the US into China, Canada, Australia, and the UK. Its success exemplifies the power of a fully integrated campaign strategy.

  • 7.8M Video views
  • 1B Digital impressions
  • 2.5M Engagements
  • 900+ M Media impressions
  • 13 Trending on YouTube
  • 53 Original media placements

“In terms of raising awareness, this has arguably been one of the most successful campaigns of its kind.”

Tim Lince,
World Trademark Review