Submitted by Known

Vivint: Smart Security. Professionally installed.

Influencer Marketing

Known built Vivint's first brand marketing campaign, from white space research and model-led ambassador selection through a one-day shoot that yielded 4 spots with Snoop Dogg.

4spots produced from the shoot

Case in 60 seconds

Vivint had never run a brand marketing campaign, so Known first had to establish where the company sat against its competitors before any creative or media targeting decision could be made with confidence.

The campaign appears to turn on who carries a persuasion message rather than on what the message says, because Known built a statistical model to select the ambassadors most likely to persuade Vivint's target audiences.

Known's thesis was that both the message and the messenger should follow from research, with qualitative and quantitative work defining Vivint's white space and a statistical model defining which brand ambassadors would carry it.

Known partnered with Vivint on a one-day shoot yielding 4 spots and stills for all platforms, plus a voiceover session with Snoop Dogg for a fully animated spot used later in the campaign. Nathan Apodaca, the TikTok star known as @doggface208, made a special appearance, and the assets were delivered through a targeted media plan covering television and print.

Known reports that the targeted media plan helped Vivint realize its growth ambitions, while Doug Barnett, the client's Senior VP of Marketing, credits weekly calls that worked through creative sequencing and the types of audiences being reached.

Strategy Breakdown

The primary strategy-learning section — interpretation, not a press-release summary.

Nathan Apodaca's longboarding video to Fleetwood Mac was a moment the wider culture already owned, so his special appearance reads as an attempt to borrow an existing piece of goodwill rather than to manufacture one for a security brand.
Known describes research conducted to find differentiated white space for Vivint, which suggests a category where competitors make similar claims about protection and monitoring and where a first-time brand advertiser risks sounding like the rest of the field.
Based on the available evidence, the brand was positioned on professional installation, since the campaign line reads Smart Security, professionally installed, though the page does not state what the value proposition the research identified actually was.
Building a model for the ambassadors most likely to persuade target audiences treats persuasion as a property of the messenger, which suggests Known read the category decision as one made on trust in the person delivering the claim rather than on features.

Creative & Execution System

Partners

  • Known (lead_agency)

Creator role

  • Snoop Dogg — creator
  • Nathan Apodaca — creator

Results & Evidence

MetricValueResult type
spots produced from the shootThe one-day shoot yielded 4 spots, a VO session with Snoop for a fully animated spot to be used later in the campaign as well as stills to be used across all platforms.scope_of_work

Why Known's strategy worked

  1. 1

    Selecting talent with a statistical model turns casting into a media decision, which gives a first-time advertiser a defensible reason for placing its launch budget behind one ambassador rather than another.

  2. 2

    Pairing an established name with a creator from a recent viral moment gives one production two different kinds of familiarity, which widens the audiences a single shoot day can address.

  3. 3

    Settling the proposition through research before production lets one shoot serve television, print and stills at once, because the argument about what the brand stands for is finished before the camera is set.

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