Hawthorn claims ‘Hawk drops Snake on BBQ’ global viral sensation as their marketing stunt
Melbourne production house The Woolshed Company, has came forward as the creators of yet another viral sensation, this time produced in collaboration with Hawthorn Football Club. ‘hawk drop snake of family bbq. lol’ has been revealed as a marketing stunt to help Hawthorn launch their 2016 finals campaign ‘Embrace The Hunt’.
With 5 million views, 90 thousand shares and 115 thousand likes, the video of a hawk snatching up a wild snake and dropping it on an unsuspecting family bbq in Melbourne, Australia, has captured the world’s imagination in two short days.
Following a global media debate over the video’s authenticity in online publications including The Age, The Daily Mail, The Huffington Post and numerous local and international TV news networks, Hawthorn and The Woolshed today came forward and claimed the video that’s entertained the world.
In a cheeky move, a sticker from rival club Geelong featured on the esky (cooler) of the unsuspecting family, a subtle pointer to next Friday’s qualifying final between Hawthorn and Geelong.
The announcement follows The Woolshed’s ‘Viral Experiment’ in July, where the young production house revealed it had created 8 of the world’s most viral videos over the previous two years. Those videos scored around 215 million views globally.
The Woolshed’s Co-Founder and MD Dave Christison says Hawthorn approached The Woolshed after learning of The Viral Experiment, briefing them to create an innovative marketing stunt for the legendary club as it heads into 2016 finals season. “It was exciting and humbling working with Hawthorn, they rolled the dice on something brave and unconventional, and it’s paid off. The project turnaround was extremely tight, taking only two weeks. Hawthorn were incredibly trusting and collaborative, giving us full creative freedom but also being hands on to help during production.”
“It was also a great opportunity for us to deploy the insights we’d gathered during our two-year Viral Experiment. We learned a lot about creating short-form, snackable narratives in that time, and having the chance to prove how powerful these can be for a brand has been hugely rewarding.”
Hawthorn came forward to claim the viral video sensation on their Facebook page late today.
9 Comments
Sadly, seeing a hawk drop a sherrin seems much more believable this year.
Cool stunt – they nailed they viral thing again, and with connection to a brand. No doubt this will get footy fans talking. Kudos to Hawthorn for doing it. But how long before the public gets sick of being duped like this? They’ve gotta mix this up or people will start turning off the brands.
I saw it, heard the publicity, it’s clearly another viral success, but I still have no idea what the link to Hawthorn is, or what it could have been possibly trying to achieve?
What problem was it solving? What was the desired outcome? IMHO Woolshed is the only mob getting anything out of this.
I had no idea Hawthorn were playing Geelong in the AFL finals. I really didn’t know they had the biggest rivalry in modern day football. I had no idea that a hawk dropping a snake onto a family having a bbq on the Yarra could tell me all of this. Now thanks to this I do!!!
It does nothing for the brand but I’m sure Hawthorn won’t miss the $5000 they paid the Woolshed to make it.
A viral video, that is an AWESOME idea. – said everyone in 2012
But there is no connection to a brand? A lot of people watched it but no one knows what it’s for. So it’s a failure.
I liked this when I thought it was genuine. Or at least not attached to a brand. Now not so much.
It’s a little abstract, and people are sick of viral videos, but overall it seems to be a job well done with the subsequent chatter and press it received. Most people think the Hawks have too much swagger already so this ‘duping stunt’ probably adds to that. Going on current form the Hawks will almost certainly lose on Friday night so this will become sillier and irrelevant and will quickly be forgotten about