This month in content marketing: Wendy’s released a free game table top RPG, Brad Pitt interviewed an astronaut, and a Hitler meme returned thanks to Taika Waititi.
Do you wish your Dungeons and Dragons game had more jokes about sacred chicken nuggets, magical powers based on baked potatoes, and rules that include the word jabroni? If so, Wendy’s has a game for you, and it’s called Feast of Legends. You can head on over to their site and download a 97-page PDF that contains custom rules, character sheets, and a simple (but silly) adventure in the land of Freshtovia, where they fight the good fight against frozen beef. The game itself is like a stripped-down version of fifth edition D&D. It’s simple in the way those beginner D&D kits are. There’s also a surprisingly detailed adventure that’ll take a party from level one to five on their way through French Fry Forest and Frosty Canyon to eventually slay the diabolical Ice Jester.
Even if Wendy’s had just released a custom character class or two, that would be great content. To great an entire game and adventure is pretty above and beyond. We can’t imagine many people actually playing the game, but there’s no doubt nerds everywhere will get a kick out of Feast of Legends. Unless they’re a bunch of jabronis.
Marketers don’t have a great track record when it comes to using memes as content. That’s part of what makes this one so refreshing. Downfall parodies (also called “Hitler Reacts”) have been online for more than a decade and are nearly as old as YouTube itself. Normally that doesn’t bode well for marketing, but director Taika Waititi happens to be marketing his new film JoJo Rabbit, which involves a young boy who has Hitler as an imaginary friend. So there is, you might say, a pretty good fit here.
Side note: Thor: Ragnarok is a good movie, but Waititi’s film Boy is both under-appreciated and an utter gem.
Brad Pitt is playing an astronaut in his new film, Ad Astra, so why not promote a space film with some serious space science content? Behold, here’s Brad Pitt interviewing astronaut Nick Hague, who is currently hanging out on the International Space Station. The interview was originally livestreamed, and what’s really notable about it is how substantial the content is. Lots of celebrity interviews are light and short, but this one weighs in at twenty minutes and gets into quite a variety of subjects. Remember: there is room for longer content marketing.
No Name is in the midst of a big ad campaign, which involves highly original TV ads, posters, billboards, and even viral cat videos, of a sort. They’re pretty self-aware, as far as ads go.
There’s always room for a little content in a campaign though, and we’re fans of this very literal mural.
finally saw a @NoNameBrands ad in the wild ✨ pic.twitter.com/1ByS0YDETy
— Erin Laidley (@eclaidley) September 15, 2019
You don’t see a tonne of street art used for marketing. Maybe marketing professionals think that billboards and murals are basically equivalent. There’s a degree of difference though, mainly in artistic intent and creative possibilities.