Digital Hive

I Remain Confused

While watching The Simpsons marathon (in preparation for the big movie launch next weekend) I was forced to view the following Dunkin' Donuts spot more than once. I have no idea what this is about. Is it funny because KISS guitarist Ace Frehley makes an appearance in the boardroom?

Please, someone tell me what I am missing here. The spot is doing pretty well on YouTube with a crazy number of hits in only 4 days - maybe that's the point?

Bud TV is a bust so far, man

Check out this fantastic post about BudTv's woeful success from Millward Brown's Nigel Hollis, which echoes many of the comments made here by Jake Garber a few months ago. Apparently the site is achieving a mere 10% of its forecast visitors.

No surprise when you consider it's a closed community that's near impossible to register for stocked with marginally amusing content (at least according to a focus group conducted by Millward Brown).

He cites a comment from Jackson West at newteevee.com that BudTv's content is forcibly viral by committee (fantastic turn of phrase, BTW).

The damning truth: "But apart from the reaction to the content, there is a fundamental mismatch between Bud.TV’s presentation style and the interactive experience many younger people are looking for online: it doesn’t offer a sense of discovery or a means of self-expression." Great insight - which I'm guessing Bud wishes they'd thought of.

Will be interesting to see where this thing goes..........My bet is - they open it up to non-registered users and put all the stuff (the better stuff, perhaps), on YouTube, etc.

CPG brand actually cedes control

Who would have thunk it?  A consumer goods product, truly ceding control to their consumers...

Dorito's got tons of hype with their consumer-generated Super Bowl ad and actually ended up with arguably good ads.  Lo and behold, they've continued down the path of innovative marketing by inviting consumers to decide which new limited edition chip flavor will survive.  The idea of voting for a new product flavor or color isn't new (M&Ms, Crest, etc.) but actually releasing the product (and investing in R&D) is.  By doing so, they're encouraging immediate trial and consumer engagement with the brand in order to "fight for the flavor".

It will be interesting to see how engaged the Dorito's consumer becomes.  Check it out.www.snackstrongproductions.com 

Welcome to social media campaign season

It's already started - campaign 2008, social media style.

Guessing you guys all saw the YouTube video allegedly posted by the Obama camp, though the Obama-ites deny all knowledge of it.

As "negative" spots go it's not that vicious, I suppose; nobody says "Hilary Clinton is Satan" on camera (or VO) and to get the "joke" you have to be old enough to remember the Apple 1984 spot (most voters are in that group demographically but frankly I don't think the average voter will "get it").

What does this tell us (if anything) about Obama's "target audience"? The content of this particular piece aside, I will be really interested to see how the warring factions make use of social media to make their cases - or have "the people" make the case for them.

One prediction: we will see lots of citizen's own home grown marketing supporting their favorites (or undermining their enemies), which will challenge the TV set for ownership of the the tenor of the campaign's dialogue. This will be the first campaign in recent memory that's really about what the people think, and not what the politicans and broadcasters want us to think. Or at least the potential is now there for the first time.

The SF Gate has a great article on this topic.

What makes viral content "take off"?

Influx Insights led me to an interesting post from a marketer (Dan Germain) at the UK's Innocent Drinks, pondering what makes viral content "take off." He reveals an interesting story which dramatizes viral's new role in agency/client relationships (though I'm not sure that was his intention).

He got a visit from an agency wishing to work with his brand, the agency had prepared a spot that wasn't quite their cup of tea, the spurned agency then posted the spot on YouTube and as of Sunday at 3:03PM it had 4,480 views. Innocent Drinks also posted it on their blog, asked brand fans to comment, and got many pro and con posts about the spot.

A few interesting points in my mind. First, posting on the blog brand lovers frequent seems like a great way to test a creative idea. Cheap, low risk, and probably providing a pretty reliable read.

Guerrilla Marketing - Done Wrong!

Thursday, February 1, 2007 UDPATE: The young men responsible for posting the devices in question are being arraigned in Charlestown Municipal Court this morning. I overheard (actually, moved in closer to listen carefully) to a spirited discussion in my local coffee shop this morning. The overwhelming opinion is that the young men should get a slap on the wrist for being thoughtless and stupid - but Turner Broadcasting should be on the hook to compensate for the emergency response yesterday. We'll be watching (just not Aqua Teen Stupid Force.)  [Original Post Below]

Suspicious objects found throughout Boston after morning bomb scare! (From Boston.com) That was the headline explaining why traffic was snarled and commuter trains were delayed all day.  It explained why Boston's overtaxed bomb squad and transit police and Boston PD and the Fire Department and emergency rooms all through the region were on alert for impending doom.  Al Qaeda?  No.  Other terrorist group?  No. MARKETING GONE WRONG.  Doh!

The "explanation" (copyright Boston Globe):

BREAKING NEWS: Turner Broadcasting issued an apology for causing today's series of bomb scares throughout Boston. A statement emailed to the Globe from Turner Broadcasting said: "The 'packages' in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger. They are part of an outdoor marketing campaign in 10 cities in support of Adult Swim’s animated television show Aqua Teen Hunger Force. They have been in place for two to three weeks in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. Parent company Turner Broadcasting is in contact with local and federal law enforcement on the exact locations of the billboards. We regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger."

Turner Broadcasting's idiot stunt is not going to win any new viewers in the Boston area.  It reminds me of the idiot stunt Paramount Pictures pulled with the Mission Impossible release last year.

Now pardon my cynical little heart, but I hope that Turner Broadcasting was not involved in pointing out the "IED"-like devices for a little press.  I'll withhold my judgment for now - but I'm guessing the PR department is going to be coughing up a little recompense for the City of Boston to cover the emergency response costs.  I doubt they'll find a way to reach out to every angry worker (and boss) who was hours late for work because of this misguided guerrilla marketing stunt.  Can't wait to castigate the local ninnies who enabled it.  Stay tuned.

It's All About Me - That's Why I'm Supplying The Content?

Jeff Flemings' pre-Christmas post about the Time Magazine (Person of the Year) cover gave me something to chew over during the holidays. Yeah, it's all about me - there can be no question. But has it become so much about me that I'm meant to supply all the content?

Right before Christmas I received an email from Dove asking me to create my own user-generated commercial for their new Dove Cream Oil product. I bit and clicked through to the site which is quite well done, features a nice intro hosted by Sara Ramirez, most recently of Grey's Anatomy, and tutorial on how to create my own commercial. Dove supplies clips and text slides and offers you the option of uploading your own video. The videos are hosted by AOL, and I assume are being moderated/monitored as I didn't find anything objectionable in the 30 or so commercials that I watched (of the 91 on the site as of this writing.) The winning video will be shown during the Academy Awards broadcast in February.

The Chevy Tahoe "Make Your Own Commercial" project in the Spring of 2006 was highlighted in many blogs and ad watcher columns as a case study in how not to run a contest. People were driven to the contest via a sponsorship deal with the NBC show "The Apprentice" - so hundreds of thousands of people logged on and mixed and matched Chevy-supplied Tahoe footage and added their own text. A lot of brutal, raw, "brand-inappropriate" text - and no one was minding the store. Anyone with an opinion on the environment or SUVs or the true cost of oil made a commercial - and it landed on the official Chevy site. (Briefly) The videos have long since disappeared from the Chevy site, but you can still find several commercials on YouTube.

Finally, it's all about me

Men with cramps?

I recently came upon a site called Men with Cramps. The videos are pretty funny, and the site is surprisingly deep (make sure to follow the link on the bottom to the MacInnis and Porritt Institute.)

This is really a viral campaign promote P&G's ThermaCare Heatwraps, and it really is a departure from the more traditional forms on advertising on this topic.

It's a nice execution. It will be interesting to see how it spreads and what the reactions are.

Thoughts?

User generated content: some clues about why they do it

Snaps to Greg Verdino for this one - he wrote a great post about a new answer to the question: why do people blog?

This cool PDF summarizes the findings - which vary considerably by individual. For a true appreciation of just how diverse the motivations of bloggers are you've got to read the whole thing.

I was interested in how many "pull" marketing applications are mentioned - blogging isn't just about "purshing" your message out via soapbox, it's a great way to run an idea up the flagpole for initial reaction, as well as stay in touch with customers (or "fans").

Appropriate that the survey was fielded via a blog, of course