BRAND AWARENESS
Client: B&H Photo / Google Creative Works
Agency: Sibling Rivalry
ROLE: Executive Director, Creative Strategy / Writer
Working with B&H and Google on this Customer Stories campaign for YouTube was an absolute joy — there’s also nothing like hearing Ed Burns read your script.
THE CHALLENGE: If you live in NY, take pictures, make movies, listen to music, sing songs, you know the iconic superstore B&H Photo — they’re an institution with a seriously loyal following. As B&H’s agency of record, our goal at Sibling Rivalry is to drive brand awareness and expand their consumer base, connecting with a younger and broader audience.
THE CREATIVE STRATEGY: We crafted a multi-phase campaign on YouTube to introduce B&H to our target audiences and then expanded with customer stories. Foundation, then reach. We did this by leaning into what makes B&H so uniquely B&H. They’re not another big box store, and that had to come through in every frame.
PHASE ONE: In the first phase of the campaign, we introduced YouTubers to the brand, store, and employees through two films: A Brief History of B&H and Meet the Expert Staff. Both are a celebration of the brand and the people who make it so authentic. We chose Ed Burns as the voice — a quintessential New York filmmaker and really outstanding human.
PHASE TWO: From lemons to lemonade in New York to the wilds of Alaska to pizza in Maine and adventures with NASA… next we focused on the B&H customers. With professionals and amateurs alike, we chose representative, 100% true stories to encapsulate how you too can bring your creative and business aspirations to life. I hope you enjoy watching these spots (see below) as much as we enjoyed creating them.
BONUS: When Covid shut the world down in 2020, B&H wanted everyone to know that they were still here to support all of their creative endeavors. We produced this spot to drive the point home (and that might be my voice over). There’s also a nice video our friends at Google / YouTube put together to prove that brand creative can drive action.
YOUTUBE OPTIMIZATION: We optimized YouTube best practices in our approach to storytelling: attract, brand, connect, direct. The collaboration with Google allowed us to use real time trends, data, and analytics to adjust and readjust our creative for the biggest possible impact. We set a baseline, then tested variations to see what works best to hook users and drive action.
THE RESULTS: Thus far, the multi-year brand awareness initiative has delivered above-industry benchmark lifts in brand awareness and ad recall, as well as a critical lift among key target audiences.