Fundraising and solidarity initiatives
Campaigns that try to limit the risk of only formal commitment, activating fundraising and solidarity initiatives. It is the case of Lego, who chose Kate Perry as testimonial for the new holiday commercial: together with a group of children, between real and fantastic worlds, the singer invites us to build a better version of the world. A collective challenge: with Lego build to give, by sharing one of its creations on social networks accompanied by the hashtag #BuildToGive, the Danish company undertakes to donate up to two million sets of bricks to children who find themselves in conditions of suffering and difficulties in hospitals or care institutions.
«If it is true that every branded content is also a product created to best express the culture of a brand, inserted in a symbolic universe and in a particular historical context, in recent years we have seen that emotions have dominated the construction of videos, shorts, web-series or even fashion films, developed for increasingly smaller screens especially during the Christmas holidays», says Janet De Nardis, artistic director of the Digital Media Festa Roman event now in its tenth edition dedicated to the evolution of the audiovisual sector and finished a few days ago.
short memory
Even in these cinematic products built for the end of the year celebrations, while maintaining a strong link with the contemporary, the risk is the low sedimentation in the memory of connected consumers. «The truth is that companies are constantly looking for innovative products that can attract attention, but so often they engulf budding artistic realities, in a quick disposable that it does not allow to cultivate a solid target audience. We are witnessing an oversizing of branded content that leaves no trace in the memory of the public. Social networks have practically replaced that product that in the past was celebrated by television», explains De Nardis. An evolution of storytelling that struggles to take root in individual and collective memory, also following the multiplication of digital channels.
The bet of continuity
To overcome this constant change of narrative sets, often difficult to grasp, there are those who bet on continuity. It is the case of Disney, which launched the final chapter in the One Family, Endless Emotions trilogy. The video is called The gift and represents a story of union with the beloved family protagonist of the previous shorts, now grappling with the preparations for Christmas and the arrival of a new baby.
The Italian version of the soundtrack is interpreted by Diana Del Bufalo, voice of Isabela Madrigal in Encanto, an Oscar-winning film in 2021. Once again the protagonist of the short is a stuffed Mickey Mouse, in which there are numerous easter eggs, some of which created by girls and boys supported by Make-A-Wish, a charity that accompanies the American entertainment giant by making the wishes of children suffering from serious illnesses come true.