Introducing the Sniper Twins, two hiphop pals creating their own brand of viral videos for the corporate world. Barry Flanagan and Dax Martinez-Vargas, former high School buddies, attended the same film school and eventually found their way to MTV, making on air promos. But their claim to fame, such as it is, has come from doing the corporate video thing, only, doing it their way.
Their first big effort, "Computer Friends" (over 700,000 plays on Youtube) was a spec project they eventually "sold" to Seagate Technology. According to one article, "payment" was in the form of hard drives. Okay, but they clearly had a good time making the video and it's fun to watch them do a send up of office geekdom as they revel in the bits and bytes of their computer rap.
Their next effort, "Chocolate Shoppe," shows them rapping and prancing through a Hershey Chocolate Factory, plopping on their chairs doing the "chocolate drop." Sweet. And I suppose they got a lot of lettuce for their video praising the virtue of salads. And so it goes.
While I applaud their efforts, using the trappings of rap to brand a corporate image or market a product is, let's face it, a bit of a stretch. Although, given their enthusiasm, they almost pull it off. But the corporate thing gets lost in the funky egoism of their rap. It's hard to wag your finger around a coherent message and they wrap each video with the Sniper Twins logo. So dudes, what are you really branding?
I checked the Seagate Website to see how the video was being used and failed to find it. Oh well.
But kudos to them for taking the leap. And given the in-your-face flavor of new media, I'm sure we'll be hearing more from the Sniper Twins.
As a PS, check out the video they did for Reese's, Flippo's BIG Stunt. Perfect.
