Savvy social-media stars on YouTube, Instagram, and Vine have figured out how to capitalize on their huge followings by incorporating branding or ads into their creations.
But now, rather than developing traditional TV ads and pushing them out to an online audience, some brands are going the other way and thinking about social first.
Hewlett-Packard, for example, has released a 30-second TV spot made entirely out of professional Vines made specifically for the commercial — the first of its kind, according to the company.
The ad, which was produced by 180 LA, HP's creative agency, and Niche, a startup that helps brands partner with popular social-media creators, features six Viners playing around with a HP Pavilion x360 convertible laptop-tablet.
According to Niche cofounder Darren Lachtman, it's a great example of how social media is increasingly influencing traditional media.
"More and more, marketers are relying on the wisdom of the crowd to allocate their budgets. It's no longer a one-way trajectory from advertisers to consumers," Lachtman told Business Insider. "Increasingly, brands and platforms and influential creators are working in tandem and in real time to deliver consumable advertising for a savvy audience."
According to Niche, the transition from a collection of six-second videos to a national TV commercial was extremely quick.
On July 16, HP's "#BendTheRules" campaign launched with a clip from Vine star Robby Ayala.
Four days after that, Ayala, Niche staffers, and fellow Viner Brodie Smith were flown to Los Angeles to film their Vines.
Vine magicians Nelcam and Zach King produced their Vines remotely.
The commercial was released on YouTube Aug. 8, then made its global TV debut Aug. 11. Ayala's Vine now has more than 10 million loops, the most of any branded Vine in the platform's history.
"I thought people would like it, but I had no idea the video would go viral," Ayala told Business Insider. "Most of the Vines I've made where I can't hold my laughter back when filming have turned out to be successful. The second we finished filming the HP Vine, Eve (the girl in the video) and I were crying laughing. You can actually hear her start to giggle towards the very end of the Vine."
Lachtman said Niche worked with HP and Twitter to find creators who embodied the "#BendTheRules" campaign. It's a sign of how advertising is changing with the rise of digital media.
"That these Vines and tweets, conceived of and produced by native creators, could so quickly become a national television commercial really validates the power of emerging media," Lachtman said.
