I feel kind of bad for laughing at this story, but it is a pretty hilarious example of what happens when creative “viral” marketing goes wrong. A woman in Los Angeles is suing Toyota for a campaign executed by Saatchi & Saatchi, in which people were nominated to be pranked by their friends.
Amber Duick claims she had difficulty eating, sleeping and going to work during March and April of last year after she received e-mails for five days from a fictitious man called Sebastian Bowler, from England, who said he was on the run from the law, knew her and where she lived, and was coming to her home to hide from the police.
I’m not really sure what this campaign even has to do with the Toyota Matrix, which it was supposedly promoting, but it scared the poor girl so much, “she even made her longtime boyfriend sleep with a club and mace next to the bed for protection.” (It kind of makes me wonder how she would have reacted if she had received one of the Frenzied Waters packages promoting Shark Week, complete with her own obituary.) What do you think, is Amber a dingbat who can’t take a joke and wants to make some extra cash, or did the marketing folk go too far?
After viewing the above video, sent to me in a daily newsletter from The Awl writer Choire Sicha, I knew it would be really selfish if I didn’t share something so special.
Soraya Sobreidad, talent behind the video, submitted the recording as a contestant in the NY1 Music Video Star Contest, which encourages viewers to send in videos of themselves performing their own version of the NY1 theme song. The winner who submits the best rendition wins a professionally-produced music video and recording session, and an interview on NY1.
I’m rooting for Soraya; Soraya has a gift.
Whether or not it was part of NY1’s original gameplan, circulating vidoes such as Soraya’s creates incredible buzz for the station. Not only does Soraya spend two and a half minutes singing about NY1 (a performance she dedicates to “hunk” Dominic Carter, host of Inside City Hall, the program she will leave even her “hottest dates” to watch), but with attention from the New York Observer and The Awl, she’s fast becoming an internet meme, spreading news of NY1’s contest and larger sense of humor.
What would the most interesting man in the world look like? What should he wear? The ad folks behind Dos Equis’ new campaign seem to think the most interesting man in the world is in his mid-fifties, a tad overweight and sports a salt and pepper beard.
My first problem with their vision of the most interesting man in the world is that they didn’t pick me. Secondly, what’s with the beard? Interesting guys don’t have beards; beards are for the emotionally disturbed (except in the winter time, that’s open season for beards). Not only are beards for the emotionally disturbed, but they’re typically temporary and regrettable: Al Gore loses the election, goes nuts, grows a beard, wins a Nobel, comes to his senses, shaves and will forever look back on those beard-day pictures and feel worse than he did when the highest office of our land was stolen from him by really smart bonobo. I digress. I agree that the most interesting man in the world would be on the older side, but I doubt he’d wear a plain black suit. He’d put together outfits mixing articles from different cultures and generations while making it look effortless.
The frontman for the Dos Equis campaign may have been miscast, but people are responding to him anyway. The Dos Equis Most Interesting Man in the World has almost 52,000 friends on Facebook (while the real most interesting man in the world, me, has only 370). That’s pretty impressive, especially given that the campaign isn’t that old. Even more impressive is that Dos Equis has actually gotten a bunch of people to create profiles on the campaign webpage, where users take courses and tests in “The Academy.” It’s astounding to me that people have the time and motivation to do this. It seems to me that the people who would actually have enough time to take bogus courses from the Dos Equis guy would also be the same people who would be too lazy to have Internet installed in their apartments. So who’s doing this? (I only did it because I thought the site was about me. Being the most interesting man in the world does not make me immune to vanity.)
The official marketing, tourism and partnership organization for the City of New York, aka NYC and Company, is launching an integrated campaign to build buzz around NYC Restaurant Week. Among the channels being utilized for this tasty promotion is Twitter. Through July, NYC & Co will utilize its Twitter profile to tweet information on added early bookings, chef appearances, restaurant deals and insider tips.
Who knew Godiva has an all female, invite-only social network of 400 chocoholics! The members are consulted about insights on luxury chocolate and its place in this economy.
According to BusinessWeek, this group will soon be replaced by two new 300-person communities: one for Godiva customers, the other for fans of other premium chocolates.
Yes, I will buy Grape Nuts the next time I go grocery shopping. Why? Because I, like you, am a real man who needs to get things done.
The Guy’s Manual, a new Web site from Grape Nuts, inspired me to get some extra fiber and rekindle my relationship with bacon-less breakfast. The “instructional” webisodes give practical advise to men grappling with losing their hair or having to take a girlfriend’s poodle on a run. ESPN great Kenny Mayne does a great job as narrator.
While the campaign does well to target men, who are the biggest consumers of Grape Nuts, the question remains if the campaign will reach (if not directly) women, who buy the majority of Grape Nuts.
The ice cream company Edy’s is currently promoting their Slow Churned Neighborhood Salute campaign. The contest invites people to enter their local neighborhood to win a free ice cream block party by submitting a video or essay. The website also allows you to send out custom invitations to your own block party, and provides tips for planning one. My favorite part was the Winner’s Gallery, which features photos and stories from past winners. This story literally brought tears to my eyes:
“I don’t call the people who live near me my neighbors, I call them my saviors. My name is Joe Sullivan. I am a 64-year-old widower. Muscular dystrophy makes it difficult for me to walk, impossible for me to stoop, and hard for me to climb stairs. For those reasons, I moved from a house with five steps from the driveway to the kitchen to a house with two steps from the carport to the kitchen. I initially thought that was the most important part of my address change. Then I met my saviors: Scott and Paula Wakefield, Neil, Dan Aaron and the Burkes, Colin, Carol and Sean. And the Gregoire family. And the Harlan family. And others. They didn’t just welcome me, they adopted me. New Hampshire just concluded its snowiest, iciest winter in years – but my driveway looked like a Miami Beach boulevard. My saviors used shovels and snow blowers, sand and salt to keep it perfect….Each week, my saviors take out (and bring back) my garbage cans and bulging recycle bins. They do everything I can’t do…If anyone in this world deserves a salute, it’s my saviors. I don’t want this for me, I want it for them.”
Anyway, Jack in the Box, purveyors of delicious burgers made from a meat-esque product, dove into the viral video deep end with this commercial that aired during the Superbowl. (Note: The Jack in the Box campaign is not realated to this VV powerhouse).
Here is how the video works (spoiler alert): Jack Box, founder of Jack in the Box, gets hit by a bus. The video then directs consumers to visit HangInThereJack.com to see a series of videos about the state of his health. They also have a Twitter feed (sample tweet: “Jack just got the best hommade ‘glad you made it out of your coma’ card ever”), a Facebook page (sample comment: “stupidest marketing campaign ever”), and a place where consumers can post their well wishes.
They’ve engaged more than 4 million consumers, but is the campaign a success? Looks like advertising notables are split…some think that watching a brand image bite it might not equal bigger burger sales.
Though, it seems unfair that a bus would hit Jack, rather than that pretentious clown Ronald McDonald.
On one hand, I think it would be impossible to write about a company in a completely unbiased manner when they gave you hundreds of dollars worth of free swag, no matter how transparent you are about it. On the other hand, no one is ever completely objective about anything, and bloggers’ content is influenced by other forces (advertisers, hopes for more traffic, wanting to get into other bloggers’ good graces, etc.) all the time. I do think it’s important to keep the incentives fairly moderate — there’s a big difference between sending a blogger a product worth $20 versus a $500 gift card, which may seem a bit excessive.
Quizno’s has a new online campaign where they’re giving away a million free sub sandwiches to people who register online at MillionSubs.com. So far, 89,000 people have registered to receive a free sandwich — what are you waiting for?! In addition, you can nominate a “Hometown Hero” to receive a free sub a week for an entire year. As they say, “One good turn deserves another a free toasted sandwich.”
(Note: The Quizno’s commercial above doesn’t have anything to do with this particular campaign, I just think it’s the best commercial ever made.)
Break out the piñata, Ford is starting a “Fiesta Movement.” The drowning auto maker is trying to build buzz around the launch of the 2010 Fiesta model by giving 100 of the cars away to Millennials who will be sent on “missions” to chronicle their adventures over social media platforms including Facebook, Flickr and YouTube.
Ford has set up a website, FiestaMovement.com, where people can upload a two- to-five-minute video explaining why they want to become one of the 100 lucky agents.
I know I blogaboutBurger King all the time, but it is the one company that continually blows my mind with clever, innovative and somewhat subversive marketing campaigns. The newest item on its social media menu is Whopper Sacrifice, a Facebook application that will give you a coupon for a free Whopper if you delete 10 of your Facebook friends. So expect to see a lot of “[Name] sacrificed [Name] for a free Whopper” showing up in your News Feed.
Red Door Spas, one of our clients, is sponsoring the Red Door Suite Escape Contest just in time for the holidays! Red Door Spas is encouraging those stressed by the holidays to visit www.reddoorsuiteescape.com. Consumers can submit video entries as to why they are most deserving of some post-holiday TLC. These videos will be posted to the site and visitors are invited to vote for their favorite.
To solicit generosity from younger generations, the Salvation Army is moving its fundraising efforts into the digital world (but still takin’ it to the streets, don’t worry)!
