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Intel video rocks!… and then doesn’t

June 15, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Intel hits it out of the park with the first video. It’s cool. it’s clever, it’s funny… it rocks. Good for Intel (and their agency).

It is extremely difficult to reposition your brand. The market decides who you are, what you represent and it takes a tremendous amount of effort to change those perceptions. Whatever you may have thought of Intel before, this first video does a great job of 1) Telling the world that Intel is filled with a whack of very smart people – no surprise there, but still a good reminder and 2) Positioning Intel as a pretty cool company.

And then there’s  the second video…

Here’s the thing – if you want to be cool, you have to be cool consistently. (i.e. Apple).  You can rationalize how unrelated the two videos are but they both use the same theme – rock music – to promote the company and they coexist on the same YouTube Channel, obviously intended for a general audience.

So which one represents the real Intel?

Filed Under: General Tagged With: , ,

New GM video – a bad way to (re)start

June 2, 2009 By 1 Comment

“This is about getting down to business. Because the only chapter we’re focused on is Chapter One.”  What a load of crap! Do advertising writers really believe that cliches and slogans are the most effective way to communicate?

You missed ‘electric’, ‘efficient’, ‘quality’ and many other important ’trends’,  you’ve mismanaged one of the world’s largest and most important companies and now you are in bankruptcy protection… so what do you do?

You release a cliche riddled, generic video with predictable imagery that promises a ‘new beginning’, a’ fresh start’. The only thing missing is the waving flag and Bob Seger music. {Note, I watched the video again after posting and realized there is a waving flag, my bad.} 

This is a watershed moment for GM and its advertsing agency and yes, one day after bankruptcy filing is very early in the game, but if GM wants to signal that things have truly changed then the first signal to the market should be in it’s advertising/PR. This one minute ad could have been created five or fifty years ago, for any company. There is nothing genuine, informative or interesting in this video, nothing to signal to the world that things really are changing – it’s just more of the same.

GM will emerge from bankruptcy protection – it has to. It will be smaller and will have blown out many of the questionable lines it once supported. It will be leaner and perhaps meaner. It will also have to start communicating in a very different fashion. Informative may be a good place to start. Honest is good too. Inspiring would be ideal if that were possible.

Note: Blocking comments on YouTube is also a really bad start.

Filed Under: Corporate Video Examples, General, The Effect of Video on Your Brand, Video PR Tagged With: , , ,

Vodaphone Zoozoo ads top Indian Viral charts

May 26, 2009 By 1 Comment

 

Ogilvy and Mather developed a series of 30 ads to showcase value-added services offered by Indian’s second largest mobile carrier – Vodaphone.  The ads have become very popular in India and are already being spun into other promotional activities. The ads are also doing very well on international viral video charts.

It’s interesting to note the feedback on YouTube – unanimously positive. (I’ve never seen that before.)Facebook is also buzzing with Zoozoo fever. Either Ogilvy has their promotional machine spun into overdrive or they have genuinely struck a nerve in India.  You have to question some of the ‘buzz’ when you read a YouTube comment like “Express yourself with Vodaphone.” Regardless of whether the excitement is genuine or ‘enhanced’ you have to give Ogilvy & Mather credit. India is coocoo  for Zoozoo.

Filed Under: General, Marketing with Video, Video Marketing, YouTube Video Tagged With: , , ,

Is Starbucks ‘reaching’ or just reaching out.

May 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Starbucks is like Apple in many ways. It has a loyal – some would say fanatical – following, it sells a premium product and it differentiates itself on the experience around the product, rather than simply on the specific features/benefits of the product itself.

Apple however, seems to be flourishing (relatively speaking) during these tough economic times whereas Starbucks is searching to find it’s soul (and bottom line) and to remind everyone that there is still something very special about the Sbux experience.

Howard Shultz CEO of Starbucks is seen above in this video posted to the Starbucks YouTube channel. Although the stated audience for this video are the Starbucks ‘partners’ (employees) it is clear that the intent is to announce to the world that Starbucks is reaching out to all of its constituents – customers, prospects, influencers and employees to tell them that something ‘important’ is going on. (Hint – it’s really just a marketing campaign)

Starbucks is supporting a major marketing and advertising program (very unusual for Starbucks) through a number of social media activities such as YouTube video contests and ‘alerting’ twitter followers to watch out for the new campaign. Clearly you have to be a zealot to want to be notified of any one’s new marketing campaign.

The style of the video – honest, comfortable and personal is good – it supports the overall brand image and hints at something important going on. Just the same, after watching the video I can’t help but conclude – so what? I visit Starbucks mostly for off site meetings, the $4 coffee is just the cost of renting the furniture for a half an hour. Starbucks is not a movement or way of life for me no matter how hard they try to make it so.

I acknowledge that selling $4 coffee is tough during tough times. Interestingly one of the employee/partners ( all seemingly mandated to wear black )  mentions in the video that they do indeed offer alternatives to the $4 coffee.  Starbucks cannot and will not be able to compete on price with anyone so I’m not sure mentioning this does them a lot of good.

I think the short term attention will improve their outlook for a time but I can’t help but think this is more than reaching out – it’s almost a cry for help to all the fanboys and girls out there to keep the faith and help to keep the Starbucks experience alive.

Filed Under: Video Marketing, video production, YouTube Video Tagged With: , ,

Online video top priority for ad execs

May 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Brightroll Networks, one of the largest video advertising networks has published it’s Q1/09 report which surveyed 150 ad agencies across the US.  Tod Sacerdoti, CEO and founder of Brightroll stated “Online video advertising is increasingly being pushed to the forefront of marketing budget discussions amongst agency executives and CMOs.”

Some highlights from the report:

1. Despite media backlash, pre-roll is still the dominant and most effective ad unit.
2. In spite of the increase in popularity of online video advertising a lack of data around video advertising efficacy is stopping some from pursuing online video advertising more aggressively.
3. 87% of respondents to the survey stated the plan to spend more on online video advertising. (13% said less)
4. The report concluded that agencies need to stop re purposing TV content and use multiple, lower-cost creative assets that better target response rates for campaigns online.
5 The majority of respondents expect online CPM prices to decrease either marginally or significantly next year.

 

Filed Under: General Tagged With: ,

t-mobile creates another viral ‘event’.

May 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment

A few months a go it was a flash mob dancing in Liverpool station. This time around it’s a sing-along in Trafalgar Square.

T-Mobile continues to embrace event-based promotions to support their Life’s for Sharing  marketing campaign. It’s working well for them. T-Mobile enticed a large crowd (mob) to gather in Trafalgar square to take part in a massive ‘dance activity’ -  like the Liverpool stunt, but bigger. Instead of dancing (selected) people were handed microphones and the mob was encouraged to belt out a fourteen thousand strong version of Hey Jude. Multiple cameras throughout the audience captured the love.

The video makes you smile and I have to imagine that Sir Paul approves (legally or otherwise). While it is different in structure from the Liverpool Station video it is similar enough in approach that I don’t believe it will create quite the same buzz this time around. It’s still better than most viral videos in that it directly and obviously supports a specific market positioning – ‘Lifes for Sharing’, it is very well done and it is very engaging (very shareable). I imagine T-Mobile will  be back at it in a few months with something even ‘newer and fresher.’

The back-story around these events is almost as important as the events themselves. Pink was in the crowd to perform a few songs and to work the crowd into a performance-ready pitch. There are as many “I was this close to Pink” camera phone videos as there are “This is me taking part in the song” videos on YouTube. This participatory approach is very smart as it promotes viral and social engagement .

It’s interesting to wade through the criticism of these types of events: “It’s fake”, “It’s staged”, “It’s just a big ad for T-Mobile”. Sure it is, so what? All those people and cameras… and Pink…  didn’t show up on their own. One blogger commented that she refused payment to promote the event on her blog and was torn about even mentioning the video. I’m surprised that people still don’t realize that video seeding and PR and a million other promotional activities are an integral (essential) part of the ‘viral’ success of these videos.

Filed Under: Corporate Video Examples, Marketing with Video, The Effect of Video on Your Brand, YouTube Video Tagged With: , ,

Are viral videos just sponsored entertainment?

May 3, 2009 By Leave a Comment

 

Who would bother forwarding an infomercial on to a friend?

Millions of people as it turns out. The above video is a rap remix of the original Slap Chop video that already has 1.4 million views. This video has been seen by close to 900,000 people and other versions (they’ve ‘sliced and diced’ the original into a variety of styles and formats) have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. These numbers don’t include  the  parody videos that are now starting to surface. That’s millions of views for an infomercial.

Vince Shlomi- the presenter who helped to make the owners of the ShamWow product a lot of money is back with another over-the-top delivery that heralds the glory of this new kitchen chopping device. It’s campy, it’s silly, and it’s exhausting but it does something that most other viral videos do not: it sells. It demonstrates the features and benefits of the product very clearly. And it is memorable.

The top commercial viral video at the moment is the Samsung Extreme Sheep LED Art video. (8 million views) It’s clever and fun to watch but has little, if any connection to the Samsung LED monitors it ‘promotes’. Most viral videos are really ‘sponsored entertainment’ with a very weak direct link to the product or service they are supposed to promote. Viral video producers are very careful to point out to advertisers that being to ‘salesy’ will turn viewers off (and also lessen their chances of winning awards).

The  T-mobile Dance video by contrast is absolutely brilliant and does what many viral videos do not – it includes the product and the experience (in this case – people sharing the moment with their camera-phones) as part of the video. Certainly the connection is not overt – but at least there is an obvious connection. Going from the hearding of  light-suit adorned sheep to large screen television screen is a bit more of a stretch.

Entertainment should never be the goal – if it is then you should sell tickets. Effectiveness should be the measure of success. Did your video sell product, inform your customers and prospects or ‘support the brand’ in a meaningful way?

Will Slap Chop win any awards?  No way. It will be ridiculed by ‘serious’ marketers.

Did it entertain?  If you are a big ‘kitchen demo rap’ fan – then it delivered the goods.

Did it help to raise awareness of the product?  Absolutely!

Was it memorable?  I won’t soon forget it.

Did it help to sell product? I don’t know the numbers but I would have to say yes – if for no other reason than all of the Slap Chop parody video creators having to rush out and buy the device to use in their parody videos. (Perhaps that is a new sub-market.)

Filed Under: General, Marketing with Video, The Effect of Video on Your Brand, Video Marketing, YouTube Video Tagged With: , , ,

What do you do when parody strikes your company?

April 20, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I posted yesterday about the unfortunate circumstance that Domino’s Pizza found itself in having been the subject of a horrendously inappropriate ‘prank’ video that will likely cost them millions of dollars in lost revenue and PR fees. While Domino’s acted quickly and dealt with the issue head on it is less clear how a business should respond if they are the victim of something more subtle – the parody video. 

Microsoft found itself the victim of a very well produced parody video that took a shot at the marketing video they had created  to promote their new Surface technology. Microsoft’s video was very well produced, the subject matter was fascinating and it positioned Microsoft as leading a new generation of communication and interactive technology. The video received over 2 million views on YouTube. A success by any measure… that is until the good folks at Sarcastic Gamer created their own version of the video that closes with the delicously sarcastic line ”The future is here, and it’s a big-ass table… take that Apple!” Ouch.

To add insult to injury the parody video has received more views than Microsoft’s original video. Double ouch.

When I originally viewed the Microsoft video my first thought was ‘cool.’ Months later when I saw the parody video I have to admit I did revisit the rationale for my first impressions. The parody video did an excellent job at turning many of the purported benefits into something much less, even to the point of causing some of those benefits to now appear trivial or even counter-intuitive.

I’ll assume that Google or Apple or Dell or… whoever, didn’t pay Sarcastic Gamer to produce the video to ridicule their competition. (Would it surprise you if they had?) You can’t anticipate where or why these things will happen, but you do have to be aware of the possibility and think through how your company should respond.

So what do you do when parody strikes your company? Stick to your guns and continue to make your case clearly and positively without letting your detractors set the communications agenda? Or do face the issue head on and deal with it as a serious and competitive threat that could have an immediate and significant effect on your brand?

There was no grey zone in Domino’s response to the prank video. They had to act. That said, the line between prank and parody can be rather fuzzy. This is new territory for most companies. The ability of a single individual (or group) to affect a company’s brand has never been greater. That should be a huge wake-up call.

Filed Under: The Effect of Video on Your Brand, Video Marketing Tagged With: , ,

The Geico Gecko goes viral – and risks overexposure.

March 29, 2009 By Leave a Comment

The Geico Gecko has made his way to viral videos. Geico, the auto insurance company continues to gain market share through aggressive and persistent marketing. At the center of it’s marketing activities is the iconic Gecko – the lizard with the British accent that seems to be everywhere. Now he’s on YouTube and Metcalfe and…

The Richmond-based Martin Agency has created a series of viral video promotions that inserts the Geico Gecko in a number of  popular viral videos like the Gecko dancing in the background with Numa Numa guy (27 millions views) or the Gecko as any one of the popular laughing baby videos or the Gecko taking a picture of himself every day for two years parroting any one of the popular viral videos created by people who actually took the time to take a picture of themselves everyday.

Will these viral videos work? I doubt it – for a number of reasons. There is nothing new here. Every time something succeeds as a viral video a hundred people copy, mimic, lampoon, ‘pay hommage’ and otherwise abuse the concept until it becomes a tired cliche. The first time I saw one of the videos of the daily transformation of someone over a period of months I was mezmerised  – it was inventive, interesting and showed a lot of commitment (and free time). Now there are probably 100 versions of this video and it’s lost its appeal. The Gecko version of this video is worse because they didn’t really try that hard – I think they had five or six Gecko outfits (I suppose the wardrobe department had a limited budget) that they repeated so you were bored after the first five seconds. The audio for the laughing baby is great – but you could sync anything or anyone to that laugh and make viewers laugh. The accordion video above - I can’t imagine who would forward that to a friend. “Hey Biff, you have got to see the Gecko on the accordion… he’s eating nachos man!!!”

Viral video is an experiment for most marketers. Geico has the advantage of having a famous icon that is so well known that brand awareness occurs simply by seeing the lizard. To the extent that people actually do forward these videos to other people then they will have succeeded in exposing the Geico brand to those viewers. That said, Geico runs the risk of associating their brand with something that is less than clever and worse, over-exposing the brand icon to the point that the Gecko could start to lose it’s appeal.

Filed Under: General Tagged With: , ,

Denny’s uses in-restaurant video to increase revenues

March 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment

dennys-sign

 

  

 

Mark Chmiel, Denny’s chief marketing and concept officer gave an interview to adweek where he discussed Denny’s foray into in-restaurant video networks that will be rolling out across Denny’s global chain of restaurants.  In the interview Chmiel reveals that they are considering many non-traditional digital marketing platforms including AOL and social networks.  He also explained that the roll out of their new DOOH (digital out of home) network is intended to up-sell products and enhance the guest experience. What wasn’t mentioned in the article was the share of  advertising revenue that Denny’s would receive for agreeing to exposure it’s customers to a barrage of network ads.

Denny’s is using a DOOH network run by Indoor Direct - a company with a large and growing footprint in large restaurant chains.  Denny’s is allocated 6 minutes a day on the newtork to promote it’s own content – the rest is advertising and/or entertainment programmed by Indoor Direct. Advertisers treat in-restaurant viewers as a higher value audience as these viewers are out in the market already and more likely to act on ads they see so the CPM for these audiences would be considerably higher.

Chmiel optimistically characterises the video network as ‘enhancing the guest experience’. Hard to imagine that offering advertising to your customers enhances anything but your bottom-line but I believe this is just the beginning of a new and growing wave of video marketing and advertising. Any wall or surface that can accommodate an inexpensive video screen will represent a revenue generating opportunity for someone. It will also represent a marketing opportunity for you.

Filed Under: Content Marketing, General, Marketing with Video Tagged With: , , ,
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