Need Social Video Concepts? Break Out A Thesaurus

A lot of businesses and brands know the basic things they need to do to promote or optimize an online video, but still struggle with coming up with a good concept. Mercedes has done something truly smart with their latest online video campaign that many businesses could learn from. They've found a way to describe their new hydrogen fuel-cell concept car that lends itself extremely well to creative video. How did they do that? They broke out a thesaurus.

The Invisible Mercedes

Mercedes is pretty pumped about their new F-Cell hydrogen fuel cell technology. Why? It allows them to claim something about a car that no automaker in history has been able to say: zero emissions. Like... 0.0 emissions. None whatsoever.

I can just picture the creative team sitting around a conference room table discussing how important it is that the video pound home the "zero emissions" message. Obviously they'd want to do it in a creative and fun way. So someone pulled a dusty thesaurus off the shelf and started thinking of slightly different ways to say "zero emissions."

One they came up with was "invisible to the environment." And a web video concept was born. Check it out:

Saying a car has zero emissions is a pretty big deal, but it's not as easy a concept to convey through entertainment as something like "invisibility."

By breaking out a thesaurus and batting around some interesting or fun new ways to phrase their core message, they stumbled onto a nearly perfect viral video concept. Everyone wins. The audience is entertained--how could you not be entertained by an invisible car?!--and the brand gets its message out about the zero emissions.

If you're a business struggling to come up with catchy video concepts, consider finding a thesaurus. Look for new and clever ways to describe your core message. Some of the very best video concepts come from a simple turn of phrase.