I'm a sucker for The Celebrity Apprentice on Sunday nights - just love to see Joan Rivers duking it out with someone. She's one of those people who always comes up with the perfect comeback every time! There are a couple of people on this season that I think are crush=worthy. Joan Rivers? Think of her what you will, but she's brash, ballsy and always has the perfect comeback (you know the one that you wish you'd though of). Jesse James? Just a perfect, down-to-earth guy who's unassuming and a lot smarter than people probably give him credit for. Anyway, this week, the teams were supposed to create a viral marketing video for All Laundry detergent. Jesse's team created a funny (albeit slightly weird) video that featured Jesse getting the 'scrub-down' by three little people dressed up to look like All Laundry detergent bottles. Cute, but the ended it up taking a little too far when the little people stormed off the 'stage'. Joan's team created a video that featured Clint Black and a racy bikini model and sort of suggested that Clint didn't need his sexy super model - he had his little bottle of All to help him 'do the dirty laundry' himself.
Long story short - neither team 'won' the viral marketing video challenge. But, the real winner of course was All who probably got more out of the show than they ever would have dreamed possible. They've created new videos which you can see for yourself at www.All-Laundry.com featuring Joan and Melissa Rivers.
But the real point of this is that once again Donald's done something to make him just a little more crushworthy. Everyone knows that it's so damn hard to create a viral video. There's got to be a blend of surprise, humor and something that's just going to make you want to send it on to friends. And this episode depicted the marketers dilemma perfectly. My favorite example of viral marketing was posted about here.. What's your favorite viral marketing campaign?
The Donald's crushworthy... are you? If so, tell us about it!
Not? Or just not yet? Contact us, we can help.
Showing posts with label Viral marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Viral marketing. Show all posts
Monday, April 6, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Facebook Plots Major Redesign
We're huge fans of Facebook and its potential application in business. Facebook is now looking to make some significant changes to the way businesses interact with their 'fans'. So instead of a business having a static page on Facebook, they'll be required to publish status updates, post regularly, etc. It will be interesting to see how (or if) this impacts how businesses will use Twitter in the future. See article below published in BrandWeek.
Facebook Plots Major Redesign
March 4, 2009
-By Mike Shields, Mediaweek
Facebook is planning to unveil a sweeping redesign on March 11 of both its home page and its branded partner pages, changes that may require publishers and advertisers to take a more active role in communicating to users via the popular site.
In a conference call with reporters today, the company announced it has signed more than a dozen partners to test a new version of its public branded pages, including President Obama, The New York Times, the National Basketball Assn. and the band U2. Going forward, these partners' pages will be designed to better resemble the average person's Facebook profile rather than serving as static destinations where users can look up basic information. According to Chris Cox, Facebook's director of product, the idea will be for these companies and officials to become more active publishers, frequently broadcasting messages in real time like so many Facebook users do.
In addition, bloggers and small publishers can now use Facebook as a platform to publish content to an unlimited number of friends/readers. Previously, Facebook users were limited to 5,000 friends.
These changes in approach are a recognition of an overall shift in the way people use Facebook, which in the past few years has evolved into a live communication vehicle where users regularly update their statuses, rather than the Web's version of a phonebook. "From who you are to what are you doing," said Cox.
The revamped home page will reflect that reality, as the three-year-old News Feed product will now become the site's centerpiece, showcasing an ever-changing list of text, photo and video messages posted by users, publishers and advertisers.
Facebook users will now be able to group all of their various friends in several preset categories, such as close friends, co-workers and family -- and also far more easily control how often they receive status updates from whom. "You control who is in your stream," said Cox. "That's something users have been asking for a lot."
In addition, while News Feed will now focus solely on real-time status updates, a secondary feed called Highlights will report on various actions take by a user's friends on the site, such as Mike joined the group X.
Under the new format brands and publishers' messages will also be published via The Stream. Thus, advertisers that in the past have simply maintained fan pages might need to become more active to get noticed on Facebook.
With the focus on the site's much guarded and debated user experience, advertising was barely mentioned during Wednesday's call.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg commented that Facebook's new design should help increase user engagement, which should appeal to brands. "The concept of being connected to someone has a lot of value," he said.
Facebook Plots Major Redesign
March 4, 2009
-By Mike Shields, Mediaweek
Facebook is planning to unveil a sweeping redesign on March 11 of both its home page and its branded partner pages, changes that may require publishers and advertisers to take a more active role in communicating to users via the popular site.
In a conference call with reporters today, the company announced it has signed more than a dozen partners to test a new version of its public branded pages, including President Obama, The New York Times, the National Basketball Assn. and the band U2. Going forward, these partners' pages will be designed to better resemble the average person's Facebook profile rather than serving as static destinations where users can look up basic information. According to Chris Cox, Facebook's director of product, the idea will be for these companies and officials to become more active publishers, frequently broadcasting messages in real time like so many Facebook users do.
In addition, bloggers and small publishers can now use Facebook as a platform to publish content to an unlimited number of friends/readers. Previously, Facebook users were limited to 5,000 friends.
These changes in approach are a recognition of an overall shift in the way people use Facebook, which in the past few years has evolved into a live communication vehicle where users regularly update their statuses, rather than the Web's version of a phonebook. "From who you are to what are you doing," said Cox.
The revamped home page will reflect that reality, as the three-year-old News Feed product will now become the site's centerpiece, showcasing an ever-changing list of text, photo and video messages posted by users, publishers and advertisers.
Facebook users will now be able to group all of their various friends in several preset categories, such as close friends, co-workers and family -- and also far more easily control how often they receive status updates from whom. "You control who is in your stream," said Cox. "That's something users have been asking for a lot."
In addition, while News Feed will now focus solely on real-time status updates, a secondary feed called Highlights will report on various actions take by a user's friends on the site, such as Mike joined the group X.
Under the new format brands and publishers' messages will also be published via The Stream. Thus, advertisers that in the past have simply maintained fan pages might need to become more active to get noticed on Facebook.
With the focus on the site's much guarded and debated user experience, advertising was barely mentioned during Wednesday's call.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg commented that Facebook's new design should help increase user engagement, which should appeal to brands. "The concept of being connected to someone has a lot of value," he said.
Monday, March 2, 2009
When is it a good time to change your campaign?
The question of the ages, right? You spend months developing a new campaign - advertising, online, packaging... And then you spend another few months and another round of $$ testing it with your customers. You work and tweak and re-write and finally it's ready and you launch. Ta-da!
Your new campaign comes out in the magazines, shows up on the tele, the new package arrives on the shelf. It's new, it's gorgeous, it's so 'of the times', steeped in customer insights, filling an unmet need in their lives, providing a solution to a problem that they didn't even know that they had. It's gorgeous and you love it.
Until, perhaps, you don't love it anymore, or a new product manager has climbed on board, or sales have started to lag, or a new competitor has entered into the market, or customers are changing their habits. So what do you do? How do you know when to change the campaign? Is there ever a right time? A metric?
Unfortunately, the answer is never crystal clear about when the time is right and testing is only going to get you so far. There are two cases that have gotten a lot of press lately - Tropicana and their new package design and the Motrin ads that Moms shunned. For Tropicana, the last year has been a bit crazy.
According to Tropicana president, Neil Campbell, "the entire orange juice category was in decline". Over the last several years, people have been swapping out their juice in favor of Starbucks lattes, new flavored waters, even sodas (remember the Coke in the Morning campaign?). And, unlike what the California Milk Processor board did with the Got Milk campaign, not too much is being done on a National level (by say the Orange Grower's Association) to re-invigorate the category.
So, Tropicana took it into their own hands to try and re-create orange juice as a breakfast hero full of natural goodness to help you start your day with a squeeze.
The launch of the new packaging designs caused quite a stir with everyone and their brother writing in on the subject.
BrandWeek: Tropicana Squeezes Out Fresh Design with a Peel
Church of Customer: The Tropicana Effect
Food Navigator: Twitter could leave bitter taste in Pepsi's mouth
Noah Brier posts: Why Did Tropicana Redesign?
New York Times: Tropicana Discovers Some Buyers Are Passionate About Packaging
Loyal Tropicanistas were furious over the new packaging saying that it was "ugly" and "generic". Those loyal users took to writing, calling and emailing in their complaints. And, fortunately for Pepsi, Neil listened. And, not only did he listen, but for those of us quickly passing through the dairy aisle, we won't need to search for the Tropicana much longer. We can pick it out easily again, grabbing that familiar orange with the straw just piercing the thick skin.
Go ahead and give that a squeeze.
Your new campaign comes out in the magazines, shows up on the tele, the new package arrives on the shelf. It's new, it's gorgeous, it's so 'of the times', steeped in customer insights, filling an unmet need in their lives, providing a solution to a problem that they didn't even know that they had. It's gorgeous and you love it. Until, perhaps, you don't love it anymore, or a new product manager has climbed on board, or sales have started to lag, or a new competitor has entered into the market, or customers are changing their habits. So what do you do? How do you know when to change the campaign? Is there ever a right time? A metric?
Unfortunately, the answer is never crystal clear about when the time is right and testing is only going to get you so far. There are two cases that have gotten a lot of press lately - Tropicana and their new package design and the Motrin ads that Moms shunned. For Tropicana, the last year has been a bit crazy.
According to Tropicana president, Neil Campbell, "the entire orange juice category was in decline". Over the last several years, people have been swapping out their juice in favor of Starbucks lattes, new flavored waters, even sodas (remember the Coke in the Morning campaign?). And, unlike what the California Milk Processor board did with the Got Milk campaign, not too much is being done on a National level (by say the Orange Grower's Association) to re-invigorate the category.
So, Tropicana took it into their own hands to try and re-create orange juice as a breakfast hero full of natural goodness to help you start your day with a squeeze.
The launch of the new packaging designs caused quite a stir with everyone and their brother writing in on the subject.
BrandWeek: Tropicana Squeezes Out Fresh Design with a Peel
Church of Customer: The Tropicana Effect
Food Navigator: Twitter could leave bitter taste in Pepsi's mouth
Noah Brier posts: Why Did Tropicana Redesign?
New York Times: Tropicana Discovers Some Buyers Are Passionate About Packaging
Loyal Tropicanistas were furious over the new packaging saying that it was "ugly" and "generic". Those loyal users took to writing, calling and emailing in their complaints. And, fortunately for Pepsi, Neil listened. And, not only did he listen, but for those of us quickly passing through the dairy aisle, we won't need to search for the Tropicana much longer. We can pick it out easily again, grabbing that familiar orange with the straw just piercing the thick skin.Go ahead and give that a squeeze.
Perfect example of viral marketing - the TMobile Dance
Okay, so I'll admit, I actually got this emailed to me from my mother. Love mom, but she's not the most technically savvy lady and frankly, if she's forwarding something to me, it's quite likely that I've seen it before.
But, I've never seen this great TMobile ad and I had to find out more.
The ad was filmed in the Liverpool Street Tube Station in London on January 15th, 2009 at 11:00a (during rush hour). It took 8 weeks to plan. Over 10,000 dancers auditioned for the part and only 400 made it. There were 8 tracks of music including: The Twist, Shout and Don't Cha. There were 10 cameras hidden in the station to capture the dancers and the reactions from the random passerbys in the station. Within 24 hours the crew went from the Event to Broadcast - and they didn't even know if it was possible.
The video has been viewed over 5M times on YouTube.
The thing about this video and one of the reasons why the campaign has been so successful is due to the enthusiasm of the dancers and how that infectious enthusiasm transfers to the viewing audience. In a back stage moment the producers and directors commented that "most exciting thing is the number of people involved", "that energy was phenomenal", "look at these people joining in". You watch and you can't help but smile! Look at the little old ladies dancing, check out the guy with the 'fro!
The crew also interviewed those random passerbys who said that 'participating' in the event made their day. "It's going to make me laugh all day", "Made me feel a moment of love, for 5 minutes everyone was relaxed and happy", "I'm in a good mood now", "It put a smile on my face". "I wish every day was like this."
That's the feeling that makes for a good viral campaign - people sharing unexpected and fun stuff that doesn't feel like advertising at all.
But, I've never seen this great TMobile ad and I had to find out more.
The ad was filmed in the Liverpool Street Tube Station in London on January 15th, 2009 at 11:00a (during rush hour). It took 8 weeks to plan. Over 10,000 dancers auditioned for the part and only 400 made it. There were 8 tracks of music including: The Twist, Shout and Don't Cha. There were 10 cameras hidden in the station to capture the dancers and the reactions from the random passerbys in the station. Within 24 hours the crew went from the Event to Broadcast - and they didn't even know if it was possible.
The video has been viewed over 5M times on YouTube.
The thing about this video and one of the reasons why the campaign has been so successful is due to the enthusiasm of the dancers and how that infectious enthusiasm transfers to the viewing audience. In a back stage moment the producers and directors commented that "most exciting thing is the number of people involved", "that energy was phenomenal", "look at these people joining in". You watch and you can't help but smile! Look at the little old ladies dancing, check out the guy with the 'fro!
The crew also interviewed those random passerbys who said that 'participating' in the event made their day. "It's going to make me laugh all day", "Made me feel a moment of love, for 5 minutes everyone was relaxed and happy", "I'm in a good mood now", "It put a smile on my face". "I wish every day was like this."
That's the feeling that makes for a good viral campaign - people sharing unexpected and fun stuff that doesn't feel like advertising at all.
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