Snoop stops smoking, Lego meets Hermes, The Co-op get Christmas wrong and Snap has a solution to the Elgin Marbles

Snoop quits smoke… Sort of

Snoop Dogg is quitting smoking weed. The most famous cannabis smoker of them all is giving it up…Except he isn’t. 

Snoop’s recent viral posts were a clever influencer marketing strategy for Solo Stove. With 82.9 million followers on Instagram and between 20-40 million on Facebook, TikTok and X, Snoop is big business on social. His Instagram post announcing he was quitting had 4.7 million likes and 174,000 comments. Some people even vowed to quit smoking with him. “If snoop not smoking no more, that’s a big ass sign for all smokers,” declared a fan in the comments. “Not smoking, it’s the new smoking,” said another. 

Days later, Snoop revealed it was all a clever marketing ploy. He was actually switching to Solo Stove’s “smokeless fire pits and grills”, which produce less smoke and more flame.

Bit naff? Probably. But it worked.

It’s not the first time a celebrity has pulled this kind of trick and it certainly won’t be the last. To hear that Snoop Dogg, who is arguably as famous for his love of smoking marijuana as his music, was quitting smoking was great clickbait. I’ll confess, I bought it. Good for him, I thought. We might have Snoop around for a few more Dogg years. It also got people talking about the product. Good advertising finds the right way to talk about product benefits, and this did that very well.

These stunts will continue to be a huge part of it over the next few years because of the eye-watering reach they achieve for brands. It will completely change the world’s awareness of Solo Stove as a brand. That level of reach, combined with their wider marketing and pricing strategies, will have led to sales.

No Christmas for Co-op

Regular readers of Need To Know will note that we recently reported on Iceland scrapping their Christmas ad to help customers with the cost of living crisis. Well, Co-op is jumping on the bandwagon, and instead of a glitzy Christmas ad, they are focusing on collecting donations showcasing the “gift of community spirit”.

Calling on their customers to donate money at tills or on the app, they are championing support for local causes and have pledged to match all donations. The money will go to community initiatives like hot meals and supplies for grassroots kids clubs

Okay. We’re not sure about this. It’s great that money is going where it’s needed but why is it that Co-op customers should foot the bill? The Co-op is a multi million pound enterprise that could donate without asking customers already hard up to donate to causes at a time of year when things are at their most painfully expensive.

This is PR at its most basic, this is about optics. Iceland focused on helping consumers with lower prices, Coop is asking theirs to donate to causes they can easily support.

Christmas PR fail of the year… So far. 

Is Snap the solution to the Elgin Marbles?

With everything else going on you could be forgiven for not noting a rather awkward diplomatic row with Greece over the Elgin Marbles  this week.

Most notably that the Greeks want them back and that Rishi doesn’t want to give them. Enter Snap, the augmented reality (AR) boffins over there think they’ve cracked it. The creators of the app most people associate with wearing silly filters have branched out into culture and the arts, offering new ways for visitors to experience history at some of the world’s most illustrious museums and galleries.

Snap’s AR has been used to reinvent exhibitions at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, Miami’s trendy Art Basel fair, London’s Design Museum, and most recently the Louvre in Paris.

The museum’s department of Egyptian antiquities now features 3D reconstructions of long-lost artwork and other historic monuments, viewable on phones via QR codes or the Snapchat camera.

If it’s good enough for the Louvre, could it be good enough for the British Museum, and allow the Elgin Marbles to return to Greece. 

You there, Rishi? 

Lego x Hermes 

The internet was abuzz this week with what was dubbed the “collaboration of the year” – a Hermès x LEGO Group Birkin Bag. But there’s the twist: it’s not real. The images of this dreamy blend of luxury and childhood nostalgia went viral, leaving everyone in awe… and a bit confused.

This playful trend isn’t just about Hermès. Iconic Chanel and DIOR bags were also reimagined with a LEGO’s twist. These AI-generated concepts show a growing trend in mixing luxury fashion with the playful charm of childhood toys, sparking excitement and conversation about the creative possibilities in high fashion.

The viral images showcased a stunning blend of everyone’s favourite luxury brand with the iconic childhood toy, LEGO. The concept was so intriguing that people everywhere were trying to figure out if it was actually real. The reactions were priceless – from exclamations of excitement to jokes about finally being able to afford a Birkin or a Kelly. 

Most interestingly, neither Hermès or LEGO spent any money on product development or market research for this. It was purely user-generated, creating an organic hype that benefitted both brands. It also gave them insights into what might excite their communities if such a collaboration were to happen for real.

It’s like a crystal ball into the future of marketing, where AI tools generate campaign ideas that not only expand audiences but also engage communities in meaningful ways. The role of community managers is becoming increasingly vital in elevating AI-generated concepts.

Creating viral content isn’t easy, but this incident proves that sometimes, the community can do it better than the brands themselves. It’s a shift towards a more participative, imaginative, and engaging form of marketing.