Quarantine restrictions may have eased in recent weeks, but memories of hard lockdowns this year remain.
Those were the times when brands explored new digital frontiers that made online engagements with their consumers more meaningful and exciting”•and these include producing videos as short as 10 seconds.
A lot of things can happen in 10 seconds in the frenetic social media universe.
US-based digital marketing firm LOCALiQ found in a study that every 10 seconds, users view 578,000 videos on YouTube, upload 40,000 photos on Facebook, share 11,000 photos and videos on Instagram and send 58,300 tweets on Twitter.
Datareportal’s October 2021 data show that among the 4.88 billion people who shaped the social media landscape were 89 million Filipino users, who logged in a daily average of four hours and 15 minutes last year.
The internet researcher also revealed that 99.4 percent of Filipinos aged 16 to 64 watched online videos.
While it takes only three seconds to grab a user’s attention, 10 seconds is enough to hook up anyone to a catchy website, a polished advertisement, or a compelling video.
Creative challenge
Among the brands who rose to this creative challenge was Potato Corner, the “world’s favorite flavored fries,” through its three primary social media platforms with over half a million combined followers.
The global Filipino brand created the country’s first-ever digital microvideo series dubbed as a quarantine anthology or “quaranthology,” which captured the interest of its followers for the series’ delightful humor.
Titled “Nakaka—!,” Potato Corner’s pioneering craft ingeniously fused the techniques of story-driven filmmaking with the visually arresting aspects of digital advertising.
Potato Corner thought not only of entertaining its market as the leading French fries franchise in the country, but was also aiming to drive in a novel way consumer enthusiasm for the food industry.
Keeping in mind the 40 million Gen Z-ers burning the net for 10 hours each day, Potato Corner featured five siblings craving for tasty flavors in each 10-second micro-story of the 10-episode quaranthology.
‘Microseries’
Fast-paced and energetic, the pioneering microseries or “shortserye” depicted funny moments that brothers and sisters go through while locked down at home.
The rollercoaster of emotions was captured in the episodes’ themes: nakaka$#@&%!, nakakagutom, nakakatuwa, nakakayamot, nakaka-excite, nakakakilig, nakakainip, nakaka-hyper, nakaka@$#&! and Yes! Nakapag-Potato Corner na!
The homegrown “better with flavor” fries and its creative partner The Jumpcat Experiment tapped five digital celebrities for these engaging shorts.
They were Kumu livestreamer, actor, model, and host CJ Reyes; music vlogger and Rouge drummer Gyan Murriel; TikToker Carol Reyes; online game streamer Cher “Cherizawa” Barnacha; and social media artist Steven Ocampo.
Observing health and safety protocols, the production team led by film director Joan Lopez-Flores worked online on the concept and preproduction and casting work.
The team wrapped up a three-day shoot in May and finished postproduction work in June.
The first of five “Nakaka—” teaser GIFs appeared on July 31 and the quaranthology’s episodes began streaming on Aug. 11 on Facebook (PotatoCorner), Instagram (potatocornerph) and YouTube (Potato Corner).
The episodes can be viewed in less than two minutes via bit.ly/PCQuaranthology.
Potato Corner is present in over 1,000 locations in the country as well as in the U.S., Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.
