DUMB WAYS TO DIE

This is one of the cutest digital executions I’ve ever seen.
Cleverly weaved into this adorable little video and song, is a brand message from Metro Trains Melbourne, raising awareness for train safety.

The video features bean shaped creatures dying in dumb, obscure ways such as electrocuting yourself trying to fish out toast from a toaster and attempting to feed a hotdog to a snake only to find that the snake was more interested in eating your face instead. It is only in the last 30 seconds of the video that the last three characters died in scenarios associated with train transportation. I would’ve never guessed this was a train company’s doing. It is a perfect example of engaging branded content that is both effectively entertaining the viewer and communicating the message at the same time.

Eventually this video became so popular, they even made a mobile game app based on it! I actually play this game on a daily basis simply because of how cutely designed the characters and visuals are and the hilarious scenarios they are placed in to die. You earn points to unlock characters from the music video. The player has three lives while playing a wide variety of simple minigames, each one relating to each character’s unique death scenario shown in the video.

If all brands created games or content as fun and engaging as this, I would immediately become brand loyal by association.