The existence of filter bubbles and echo chambers on social media platforms presents a wide variety of challenges to brands and people interested in reaching a wide audience across political allegiances and cultural divisions. The nature of the web is to reinforce what we already know and like. Algorithms are designed to show us content that aligns with our own predispositions, and people’s historical behavior online tends to prevent them from seeing or accessing material from opposing viewpoints and perspectives. This leads to customized internet experiences for everyone that rarely stray into the unexpected.
Telekom Romania wanted to turn this tendency on its head. As a brand built on sharing content, it worked with Leo Burnett Bucharest to devise an attention-getting stunt that would open up young people’s eyes to communities and perspectives far from their ordinary inclinations. The brand launched Vloggers’ Swap.
Vloggers’ Swap was built on a deep analysis of the data of different vlog channels on YouTube. LB/Bucharest identified vlog channels whose audiences did not overlap at all. These groups of young viewers had very little in common, and their viewing habits led them to inhabit very rigid filter bubbles. For one day, Telekom Romania initiated a “swap” of these vlogs with their polar opposite vlogger, helping to introduce each specific audience to a perspective and vlogger far out of their normal comfort zone. This stunt drew massive interest in Romania, and helped vlog channels to broaden their appeal to audiences they normally wouldn’t reach.
Launched to coincide with Telekom Romania’s offer of unlimited video, this work serves up a fantastic example of how brands are helping people to build wider audiences in spite of the algorithms that would limit their reach and appeal. By helping millennials to broaden their viewing diet, Telekom Romania is cultivating a younger audience of viewers who cannot be restricted by the constraints of filter bubbles or echo chambers. As Telekom Romania has championed for years, “Life is for sharing.”
