Short Takes: A Boat and a Brand Collab
If you’ve spent any length of time on the internet in the past few weeks, it’s likely you heard about the mega-viral video series about the 29-year-old man who quit his job, liquidated his 401k, bought a sailboat, and planned to sail from Oregon to Hawaii with his rescue cat and minimal experience sailing. If you need to catch up, here’s a great recap from The New York Times.
The man, Oliver Widger, posted at least daily on his progress, updating about the fish he was catching, incoming storms, boat repairs, and more. The internet was riveted and began tracking his progress. His videos racked up millions of views, and his TikTok following amassed to 1.3 million.
One savvy marketer from E.L.F., the cosmetics company, saw a brilliant opportunity to make a splash (pun totally intended).
The company coordinated an airplane to drop a package down to Widger’s sailboat. The PR box was full of sunscreen and skincare products (and some non-fish snacks).
What can we learn?
Teams who are empowered to come up with creative ideas and execute quickly will win. The timeline for the opportunity was finite, with the impact of any collaboration diminishing the moment the sailboat reached Hawaii. The quick response paid off for E.L.F. The video of the unboxing garnered 7.3 million views and more than 750k likes.
Brand alignment to the opportunity is key. Sunscreen was a perfect entry for a skincare and cosmetics company to enter into Widger’s story and his days out on the sunny ocean. He even acknowledged in the video, “I am pretty burned.”
Remix old ideas to break through the noise. A regular ol’ PR box? Snooze. A PR box that required an E.L.F. staffer to charter a plane to the middle of the ocean to deliver? Gold.