The more things change, the more we re-name…them.

Never in the history of marketing has so much change come so quickly. And generated so many clichés: Buzz, Viral Film, Branded Entertainment, Social Media, Consumer-created Content, Yadayadyada. The rapid explosion of new terms is surely a sign that we’re making it up as we go along.

Just to make it more difficult, while content and media platforms are rapidly transforming, our process of work is being totally reinvented. The spot DNA, around which our industry practice was built, is collapsing, leaving no agreed up working structure in its place.

Fires make us warm. Stories make us human.

Because Campfire’s partners have participated in the creation of some terrific stories—The Blair Witch Project, Sega’s Beta-7, Audi’s The Art of the Heist—you might think Campfire is all about storytelling.

In fact what interests us most is the upturned faces around the fire, the audience. Otherwise known as the community. And we believe that you don’t create communities, you discover and join them. So the Campfire process starts with traditional marketing disciplines of research, planning, and strategy. With Levi’s we talked to young men sick of the multiplicity of Metrosexual fashion choices. With Sharp the dialogue was with an older demographic looking to move upscale with their choice of big screen TV.

Only when we understand a brand or campaign’s core community do we begin to develop creative content. Campfire content can include mysteries, games, debates, short films, blogs, even forums. But since Campfire methodology is about instigating persistent engagement, discovering the audience and what excites them is essential.

Maybe the Campfire metaphor is really about spreading buzz from one fire to the other. But that would be another cliché.

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212.431.1403
info@campfiremedia.com

122 Hudson Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10013