Good content marketing example: Trademark video from Velcro
Velcro is a product. Just like many famous products, it is also turned into a generic word. Anything that works like Velcro, becomes velcro. People say, “It’s a velcro”.
Just like they say, “It’s as a xerox”.
Companies who have patented the names have no problem as long as people use their names to actually use their services. For example, when you “Google” something, you actually mean using Google to find something. You don’t mean “googling” and then going to Bing.com to find something. This is why, Google may not have any problem when you say to your kid when you don’t know the answer to a question she has just asked, “Google it”.
But Velcro was facing problems, but it seems it does. Many companies are manufacturing products that do the work that Velcro does and people call these products “velcro” also.
So, the lawyers of the company created this video to raise awareness about their trademark with the hashtag #DontSayVelcro.
An amusing thing about the video is that it has been sung by the lawyers of the company, explaining why other similar products shouldn’t be called Velcro. They even say that they are going to sue you if you call your product Velcro.
Predictably, they received a ton of replies and some of the replies were less than charitable, which prompted them to create another video, thanking people to leave such replies.
Before watching the video, did you know that Velcro is actually a company that made this product 40 years ago and patented it? If you didn’t, this video gives you this piece of information in a very jovial manner.
This is a very good example of content marketing and also putting your message across without sounding very “lawyery”, considering the sort of reputation lawyers enjoy all over the world.
It also shows that no matter how “uninspiring” your product or brand message is, you can reach out to millions of people by simply making an original and entertaining piece of content, in this case, YouTube videos.