We live in an attention society. Everybody wants it, few get it, and all of us give it.
Advertising legend Howard Luck Gossage said “People don’t read ads, they read what interests them and sometimes it’s an ad.”
In today’s marketplace, people watch and share the outrageous. The question is, is it outrageous in a way that extends your brand message? Is it something that helps you make your point about why brand X is better than brand Y?
Evian, a company that sells the most commoditized product in the world- water, gives us an entertaining ditty with babies roller skating to the track of “Rappers Delight”- anyone 40 and older- their core market, remembers this song, and thinks babies are cute. This ad will get a lot of positive spread.
Then, there is an ad, probably done by the bad boys of advertising, Crispin Porter + Bogusky for Internet Explorer 8 and it’s private browsing feature. You’ll watch this- go, eehhwwwwww- and then tell 10 friends. O.M.G.I.G.P. or “Oh, my god, I’m gonna puke”
If given the choice, which would you prefer represented your brand? And, if trends continue, the puking woman is outscoring the babies in views on YouTube by a landslide, so think carefully.
Why would you assume that this was done by CP+B? The ad is terrible, and that is not even a CP+B client. Get your facts straight dude.
TG- Microsoft is a CP+B client.
And the walking in spokesperson has been done many times before.
Do I have to remind you of the ads for Hanes with the dog poop?
The baby ad, beyond creepy (and you know I love me some rollerskating). The puking ad made me want to vomit and further reinforces my hatred of IE. Why?! What demographic is this possibly going to appeal to? Really?
Microsoft has a crapload of agencies working for them. CPB would never produce a vomit ad. It’s obviously a Hail Mary by an agency we haven’t heard of.
The Evian roller babies video on the official evian account has 5,950,000 views (as of July 17th). That’s just the US version. International has 6.6 million views.
The puking video was removed from the official IE8 account for some reason, and only had 255,000 views. The only versions left are on other people’s profiles and have less than a million views.
Evian commercial has been out since July 2 while the OMGIGP ad has been out since at least June 26th. Longer time, 11 times fewer views.
Of course, that doesn’t even matter. Seth Godin says in ‘Purple Cow’:
“Awareness is not the point….
…Sergio Zyman, the marketing guru who was there for most of Coca-Cola’s rebirth, points out two of the most popular tv commercials….-sold not one more bottle of Coke. They entertained and got attention, but they translated into no incremental revenue.
In Sergio’s words, ‘Kmart has plenty of awareness. So what?'”
So my question to you – Who cares which one was funnier, more shocking or more targeted – neither one is going to cause a single sale that wouldn’t have come otherwise. And that’s only if IE didn’t screw up and actually lose sales because of it (like with Melissa here).
I’m also a bit confused. You don’t say which one you would go with for your clients, given the opportunity. Would you mind answering your own question? 🙂
@TSD-The Evian ad works- the IE8 doesn’t. While the IE8 ad may illustrate a product benefit, it also makes the consumer look like a jerk, something I don’t think I want to be associated with.
I don’t find the roller babies creepy- I think the spot works well. It’s fun, it’s fresh- it’s expensive water.
🙂 Sounds good, David. I agree about the babies. I like the ad, myself. Probably not best for actually selling water, but good for making the brand look fun.
Here’s one I liked watching, not because it is outrageous, but because it’s smart:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Weq_sHxghcg
And the site that got me to click on it only had the heading ‘Two Minutes and Twenty Six Seconds’ above that bare link (it was a site that already had built lots of cred with me).
BTW, the site is more inviting with this design (where have I seen this before…). Getting more comments?
I’ve seen that video before- it’s excellent.
The design is in the works- we’re rebuilding TNW as fast as possible….
it will look much cooler soon.