Sometimes when people say they laughed out loud, they didn’t really laugh out loud, at best they probably broke into a smile. This, however, is an example of something that I actually did laugh out loud at.
I’m going to stop by the shops on the way home and pick myself up some yeast and flour and stuff and have a good old bake dance. Get it? Like bREAk dance but baking. Sorry.
Creds: Emily.
There’s a great article over at the ever-reliable Web Urbanist about guerrilla marketing. They make the point very well that big brands need to steer clear of this area but considering the attention this sort of activity generates online I think there is still a case for it.
Sega have just released Condemned 2, which is fairly gruesome bloodbath of a game, apparently. And to help ease the spillage of blood they have launched Offset the Evil. It’s like carbon offsetting but it’s evil, a bit like carbon then.
Via Adverblog
It’s probably appropriate to begin by defining our terms. The concept of viral marketing represents a very broad church, commonly used to describe any marketing initiative (predominantly but not exclusively digital) designed to encourage our innate desire to share the things we find appealing; for the benefit and enjoyment of others, and to express something about ourselves as propagators.
Successful viral marketing campaigns create community distributed or propagated content. Online this could be imagery, a video, an application, a game, a story, a simple document or virtually any other piece of digital content. Generally speaking viral initiatives can be categorised as:
Pass along
Self-contained viral pieces, often video or imagery, but sometimes just text, that can be attached and forwarded peer-to-peer, primarily by email or MMS. Often these pieces are also seeded into community sites, viral archives, or across the blogsphere.
Hosted
Self-contained experiences that are hosted on a website or specially developed microsite. This approach avoids the inherent problems with pass along material, and allows a richer, more interactive experience.
Incentivised
A broad category, primarily hosted in structure, describing viral concepts that integrate a direct incentive for users to alert their peers to the piece. Often a part of a prize draw, competition or challenge mechanism.
When talking about viral marketing, we’re generally referring to intentional virals. It’s worth noting that some of the most widely distributed viral pieces are actually non-intentional, or at least non-commercial, primarily due to the power of YouTube and social networking sites. One video that consistently finds itself at the top of the viral charts is StarWars Kid, whose star has made a career of fighting to earn royalties from the est. 900m of impacts his stolen video performance has received.
Last night was the first ever live TV ad and it ran without a hitch. Take a look for yourself.
Honda are definitely living by their strapline ‘Impossible is nothing’ when they pulled this one out of the bag. It’s a wonderful ad, it’s got passion, determination and drama. It puts the recent trend in viral towards fakery a la Kobe Bryant to shame.
I can’t quite identify the brand on this one but it’s a wonderfully simple and racy little concept that I’m sure many can identify with. Not me of course.
A phrase you often hear bandied around is “advertising online doesn’t work, people don’t click on banners”. There was a study by Jakob Nielson last summer which used eye tracking techniques to discover that users don’t click or even look at banner adverts. I am a big fan of Nielson’s studies but I’m fairly appalled by this study. My main problem with it is that lab conditions are completely unrealistic. Giving users specific tasks and then tracking their eye movement to record the user’s focus is not representative of real life. In real life people do have real needs and goals but they don’t have the constant feeling that they are being judged as they do in a lab situation.
Pepsi are launching a new drink called RAW. It’s essentially made up of all natural ingredients. It seems that it’s only currently available UK clubs at the moment. It seems strange that a brand trying to convince us of its healthy and natural ingredients would try to diffuse itself in such an unhealthy atmosphere as a club or bar.
It sounds like Pepsi have recognised the success of Whole Earth’s Cola, which is all natural (the sugar comes from apple juice). I’m not a soft drink drinker personally but I have walked 5 minutes out of my way and queued up in Holland & Barrett for one of these;
I have a couple of problems with Ziggurat interpretation of the RAW product. The typeface looks really dated but at the same time very techie. And they have attractive nude people in their adverts. I’m never one to complain about attractive nude people but I think they would speak to their healthier consumers if they used something a little more erm… subtle?
Google are attempting to launch a demographic bidding service. This means that you can target keyword advertising by age groups and gender. This sounds great, the only problem being that this isn’t on their search results. Of course, Google doesn’t know your age and gender when you do a search on Google. Unless of course you happen to be logged in to your Google mail or something and that doesn’t sound like a very Google thing to do. So, at the moment this would only be for advertising on Google’s content partner’s sites. The only site worth mentioning on that list is MySpace and at a push, Friendster. But given that only people aged 8 – 30 use MySpace, I’m not entirely convinced but it’s certainly a step in the right direction.
Incredible stunt in Tokyo Bay for a The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep. It looks like a clip is projected onto fine spray of water with water fountains causing splashes around it. Film looks like great fun.
A million thankyooos Richard. O. G. Milloy.