The One Show
The One Show is the world's most prestigious award show in advertising and design. For over 50 years, the Gold Pencil has been regarded as one of the top prizes in the creative industry. The One Show has a rich legacy of honoring some of the most groundbreaking ideas, created by some of the most remarkable minds in creativity.
Category
Social Post / Single Platform Series
Annual ID
OS23_SM014S
About the Work
In 2022, Rosewood Creative created a TikTok campaign for Beats by Dre called This is a Beats Ad. This campaign sought to do “authenticity” a little differently, by leaning into the inherent awkwardness of sponsored content.
TikTok is typically raw, honest and relatable, so when sponsored and branded content pops up, it usually feels forced and the audience isn’t fooled. So how do we actually get people to pay attention to sponsored content with such a savvy audience?
We did it by being less subtle. Instead of trying to be “authentic,” we tried to be real. We didn’t try to hide that we were making ads. We made it obvious, and more importantly, entertaining.
After all, Beats has always been known for its use of in-your-face product placement. So instead of fake authenticity, we had our creators embrace the awkward fakeness of “sponcon” and have fun with it.
We collaborated with six creators with over 6M in reach to create concepts that fit their unique voices and spoofed what fans expect from typical advertising partnerships. We got Ben Palmer to stage an email thread between himself and Beats’ marketing team to try to perfect a promotional script. KP Parker impersonated an unenthused influencer fulfilling their millionth brand deal of the month. Connor Boyd staged a back and forth between the “marketing team” and himself to poke fun at the typical relationship between corporations and creators.
Then, our creators used the Duet feature to duet their original content and extend the joke by continuing to make fun of the advertising they created.
The success was undeniable. With our first six posts, we saw a 89% increase in engagement rate, a 298% increase in completion rate, a 240% increase in average watch time while our organic views increased by 147%.
More important than metrics, the comments and conversation around our content told us that we were doing it right. Comments like “this is amazing advertising lol” to “Bruh
TikTok is typically raw, honest and relatable, so when sponsored and branded content pops up, it usually feels forced and the audience isn’t fooled. So how do we actually get people to pay attention to sponsored content with such a savvy audience?
We did it by being less subtle. Instead of trying to be “authentic,” we tried to be real. We didn’t try to hide that we were making ads. We made it obvious, and more importantly, entertaining.
After all, Beats has always been known for its use of in-your-face product placement. So instead of fake authenticity, we had our creators embrace the awkward fakeness of “sponcon” and have fun with it.
We collaborated with six creators with over 6M in reach to create concepts that fit their unique voices and spoofed what fans expect from typical advertising partnerships. We got Ben Palmer to stage an email thread between himself and Beats’ marketing team to try to perfect a promotional script. KP Parker impersonated an unenthused influencer fulfilling their millionth brand deal of the month. Connor Boyd staged a back and forth between the “marketing team” and himself to poke fun at the typical relationship between corporations and creators.
Then, our creators used the Duet feature to duet their original content and extend the joke by continuing to make fun of the advertising they created.
The success was undeniable. With our first six posts, we saw a 89% increase in engagement rate, a 298% increase in completion rate, a 240% increase in average watch time while our organic views increased by 147%.
More important than metrics, the comments and conversation around our content told us that we were doing it right. Comments like “this is amazing advertising lol” to “Bruh
2023 Awards
Total Points: 21
Silver Pencil
Credits
Agency
Rosewood Creative / Los Angeles
Client / Brand
Beats by Dre / Culver City
Creative Director
J Smith
Executive Creative Director
Charles Gschwend
Strategist
K.o. Asante
Associate Creative Director
Tobi Hirano
Senior Copywriter
Martha Lees
Brand manager
Olivia Gomez
Corporate Communications, Social Lead
Abby McCormick
Director of Project Management
Laura Paulino
Head of Corporate Communications
Sarah Joyce
Junior Creative
Kennedy Clark
Managing Partner
Amir Mohamadzadeh
Partner, Growth
Jeremy Iovine
Senior Brand Director
Dean Castano
Senior Producer
Mycah Seals
Senior Strategy Director
Kate Myers
Social Project Manager
Christina Collins
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