the product is likely having a target market of women. Why did they think it was necessary to have the model in lingerie and have the only in-color shots be close ups of her cleavage and butt, vs having her wear workout gear like the rest of the product pics show?
My guess is they just put in these two shots to act as thumbnails for the video to be link-bait to get random dudes to watch it. I think it could put off potential female buyers.
@_jacksmith@helencrozier hey hey, Team SmartMat is finally in here! Phew, better late than never, right? ;)
So first up, i'll introduce myself - I'm Leanne and have been working on SmartMat's branding since shortly before the Indiegogo launch.
I really appreciate you guys bringing this up as a potential issue - a few other people have also commented a similar thing on our Facebook page, so it's something we've definitely been hyper-aware of since our launch.
"Link-bait" or "sexiness" was definitely not our intention and it honestly never occurred to us while making the video that it might be interpreted in that way. Definitely a learning experience for us... be very careful with wardrobe choice and filming angles!
Have you seen the 'Yoga by Equinox' video that was trending a couple of years ago? It's really beautiful... check it out here if you haven't seen it: https://youtu.be/loszrEZvS_k
This was our inspiration for the SmartMat promo video. We wanted to capture the strength, power and grace of a Yogi's body.
A lot of people don't realize how much core strength is involved in Yoga - that's why we had close-up shots, zooming in on her toned muscles to show the power in her body and the sweat on her chest to show that Yoga is a powerful workout.
Speaking just as myself and not on behalf of SmartMat now, I think it's a tricky one because there's such a fine line between when the human body is perceived as beautiful and natural, and when it's perceived as something else. Everybody sees things through a different lens.
I definitely agree that it's important to tailor your marketing to your target audience, and luckily we've had far more people (mostly women!) commenting that they love the video rather having an issue with it. But since discovering that some people do feel the same way both Helen and Jack do, we're keeping that in mind during our future photo + video shoots.
Any other questions? If so, fire away! Took us a while to get commenting access but we're here now :)
Hustle X
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