10 reasons why I love the T-Mobile Royal Wedding

As a marketer, one of my occupational hazards is that I over analyze almost any ad I see.  As a result, I can “see through” a lot of the campaigns and find many of them rather unoriginal and sometimes even offensive to consumer intelligence.  But not this one.  Looking at this wearing my “marketer” hat, here are 10 reasons why I love the T-Mobile Royal Wedding:

1. It’s topical: who is the Western World doesn’t know there’s a Royal Wedding soon?  The media is certainly full of it, and this is a fantastic way to “jump on the bandwagon” but with a unique twist.
2. It’s timely: first released on Friday 14th April, two weeks before the wedding, it’s a time when the wedding has not yet happened but people and the media are hungry for news about it so likely to take more notice.
3. It’s clever: what a brilliantly simple but wonderfully effective concept. Some of those look-alikes really had me watching them very closely to make sure a real royal hadn’t slipped in there!
4. It’s emotional: weddings are already one of the most emotional triggers in our culture, and who doesn’t want to be dancing down that aisle with them or clapping along in the pews?
5. It’s catchy: if your mind doesn’t grasp onto that tune and replay it over and over after the clip is finished, please tell me how you do it!
6. You don’t realise you’re watching an ad: I think unobtrusive marketing is the way of the future – give me some entertainment and I’ll allow a payoff of a small proportion of that being about a business and brand.  With just seconds of the branding at the end and in the title of the clip, I would argue my retention of their brand is much higher than any ad where they force the company name into every second.
7. It’s memorable: this is something that will be no doubt playing in my head when I watch the REAL wedding!
8. The message is clear: What a neat tagline: One’s life is for sharing.  Not only is this highly relevant to a mobile phone company, it’s beautifully elegant and ties in well to the theme of a wedding as well as playing on the royal language of using “one” instead of the “my” us commoners may use!
9. It’s easy to watch over and over: I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve watched this now, and am still not bored, could easily go back and see it several times more.  I think it was about the 6th time I noticed the “multicultural” representation at the wedding, and each time I seem to pick up something new.
10. You just want to share it: this is viral marketing at it’s best.  Even if T-Mobile runs this as a television campaign, putting a high quality video online that is easily accessible, I expect the majority of their views are via social media.   After watching it, I immediately shared on my business pages on Facebook (over 1000 followers) and on my personal profile (over 500 friends).  Even if just a small percentage watch and share it themselves, think of the ongoing implications.  The proof?  When I watched on YouTube yesterday there were around 1.5 million views.  Today – less than 24 hours later – see the screen shot below – over 3 million.

This is not their first viral marketing campaign but each time they seem to top their previous efforts.  You can follow T-Mobile on Facebook to be alerted to any of their new campaigns, and watch some of the previous ones.  From a marketer on the other side of the world – well done T-Mobile!  When I see the real royal wedding broadcast, I’ll be watching closely to see if any of the wedding party have a skip in their step coming down the aisle…