Honeyshed

Honeyshed – Honeyshed.com is described by Creativity-Online as:

The site, created through a partnership between David Droga and his agency
Droga5 and production company Smuggler, with funding from Publicis, seeks to
engage 18-35 year old consumers with entertaining video content that the site's
creators say "celebrates the sell." While Honeyshed isn't an e-commerce site, it
seeks to promote and facilitate online shopping on behalf of multiple marketers
by offering a "sexy, irreverent and fun," curated hub of brand information and
culture.

The site was born from conversations going back two years between
Smuggler co-founder/EP Patrick Milling Smith, director Brian Beletic, CAA
creative director Jae Goodman (formerly of Publicis & Hal Riney), CAA's
Jesse Coulter and Droga (who at the time was Publicis worldwide CCO). Beletic
and Milling Smith had originally been mulling the prospect of a branded content
channel, musings that led to an idea for an online space that puts the brand
front and center and revels in the inherent entertainment of shopping.

Now, admittedly, this is pretty “out there”. And I cannot exactly recommend visiting the site, because it is a bit racy in its use of models (think slightly less than James Bond movie level of raciness). But the point is that – in introducing and talking up consumer brands and products in a kitschy, funny online show – they are making entertainment out of something folks think of as non-entertainment (perhaps work, utility or otherwise something not to be consumed for personal enjoyment). And they are doing that for a certain target market.

The Question: Is there anything we can learn from this? I think so, even if I don’t have any ideas yet. But it strikes me that “Christian worldview” is thought of as “serious”, “intellectual”, and “academic.” That works for some among our target market. But if we’re only going after the intellectuals, then we are really limiting our audience and impact in the world. Despite its flaws, Rewired did some of this for the teen audience. But, that’s just for teens, and it’s just one curriculum. I wonder if there isn’t a way that we can take something “serious” and “intellectual” and make it widely accessible and consumable to non-intellectual target markets, on a regular basis. Even “fun” in some ways.

We really need to identify our target segments and ask “How do they want to interact?” Honeyshed has figured out that over-branded 18-35 year olds just might knowingly get brands pitched to them overtly if they know it is going to be a fun experience.

What would we do?