My second video-inspired post of the week is triggered by an enthusiastic review of Vice Cream’s marketing campaign by Melissa Ward at Target Marketing, for her regular Friday “What were they thinking?’ feature.

Of course, Melissa’s review itself is delivered by video.

But wait, it’s really Vice Cream’s own video (barely 2 minutes) that I want you to watch and, be patient, and I’ll give you the link in a moment.

If you have’t heard of it, Vice Cream is a super-rich ice cream sold in the States, mostly still the Northeast.

Why am I writing for fundraisers about Vice Cream (other than the fact that I love super-rich ice cream and subscribe totally to the ethos of this company)?

My message is twofold — about branding and creativity.

‘Branding’ seems to have a bad reputation amongst fundraising bloggers, including at The Agitator. But let’s be careful here. What should be criticized is branding used as an escape or diversion from basic fundamentals of sound fundraising strategy and practice. E.g., changing the color of your logo or tweaking your tagline ain’t going to save the day if you don’t know how to treat your donors right (see my Monday post). This is the warning The Agitator delivers (see Roger’s Summer Doldrums Threat #1: Branding).

But this should not be confused with neglecting or denigrating the power and importance of strong branding. Here’s a great line from a marketing classic, Positioning, by Al Ries and Jack Trout: “The only defense a person has in our over communicated society is an oversimplified mind.”

Especially in today’s media environment — with heaps of clutter and nanosecond attention spans — strong, memorable, emotion-triggering branding is essential, including for nonprofits. If nothing else, it gives you that invaluable ‘head start’ — positive recognition — over your competitors.

As you’ll see in the Vice Cream video, this company knows exactly what its product is all about … and for whom. The video delivers the brand impeccably.

And second, the creative is brilliant. I want to make a nod today to the creatives working in fundraising. A lot of what we blog about relates to the analytical and operational side of fundraising, understanding the metrics and methods of optimising lifetime value and the mechanics of building durable donor relationships.

But before smart fundraisers get a chance to ply their relationship-building trade, they must fight for and capture that very first attention of the donor. And brilliant creative gives that initial competitive edge, opening the door.

That’s another reason I agree with Melissa Ward that Vice Cream (c’mon, doesn’t that name say it all?!) marketing is exceptional.

OK, I’ve teased you enough. Here’s the Vice Cream video …

What do you think?

Tom