Viral Advertising: When a Good Thing Goes Client
I love viral advertising. I really do. Too bad it's dead. So long, bye bye, see you on the other side. Remember the good ol days. BMW films. The subserviant chicken. Those were great. So fun. So original. What happened? How did viral die?
Two words. The client. The client found out about this medium. And not the forward thinking who originally approved the idea. These are the kind of MBA marketing degree people who in a meeting spit out something like, "We need to go viral with this campaign." By saying that they mean, lets take our TV spot where we show a fancy car and just put it online. What guy wouldn't want to forward that on to his friend?
Unfortunately the answer is no one. Which is why viral died. Sometimes people get caught up in the hot trend. What they forget is that the trend comes and goes, but it's the idea that's always going to stay. So rather than think of viral as a linear extention of what the ad campaign is about, think of viral as it's own deal. Would you make a TV spot into a radio spot? Unless you're sniffing glue and working for GM, then probably not. So why should a TV spot be the viral spot? It shouldn't. TV is TV, viral should be it's own animal. If TV is a Panda, then viral should be a racoon.
We're treading dangerous waters. The suggestion that viral and the campaign don't need to be related is a valid one, however, there does need to be a connection somewhere. Case in point, Miller Lite, they have these beer run TV spots. Recently they've employeed the direction of Spike Jonze and made some interesting Viral Ads involving various North American animals talking about their acting careers. Here's the link... http://www.millerauditions.com/
As you can see they really have nothing to do about anything. They're just weird. Weird is good, but make it have a point.
Weird with a point is powerful. Weird with a point is some of the best advertising. Isn't that right Subserviant Chicken?
Two words. The client. The client found out about this medium. And not the forward thinking who originally approved the idea. These are the kind of MBA marketing degree people who in a meeting spit out something like, "We need to go viral with this campaign." By saying that they mean, lets take our TV spot where we show a fancy car and just put it online. What guy wouldn't want to forward that on to his friend?
Unfortunately the answer is no one. Which is why viral died. Sometimes people get caught up in the hot trend. What they forget is that the trend comes and goes, but it's the idea that's always going to stay. So rather than think of viral as a linear extention of what the ad campaign is about, think of viral as it's own deal. Would you make a TV spot into a radio spot? Unless you're sniffing glue and working for GM, then probably not. So why should a TV spot be the viral spot? It shouldn't. TV is TV, viral should be it's own animal. If TV is a Panda, then viral should be a racoon.
We're treading dangerous waters. The suggestion that viral and the campaign don't need to be related is a valid one, however, there does need to be a connection somewhere. Case in point, Miller Lite, they have these beer run TV spots. Recently they've employeed the direction of Spike Jonze and made some interesting Viral Ads involving various North American animals talking about their acting careers. Here's the link... http://www.millerauditions.com/
As you can see they really have nothing to do about anything. They're just weird. Weird is good, but make it have a point.
Weird with a point is powerful. Weird with a point is some of the best advertising. Isn't that right Subserviant Chicken?
posted by laughjon at 1.2.06
2 Comments:
Ahh buzzwords.
I would argue that most folks, esp. on the client side have no idea what the word means, let alone why it would work (or not work) for a particular campaign. They want a blog and a podcast, why? Shit, they don't know.
I thought that Subservient Chicken was something that was developed first and then found a home with agency, then client.
I'm not sure about "wierd" as much as novel or distinctive.
It's a good thing you don't need clients for your business.
You're exactly right Agent. Clients don't know what it means. But they know the two words put together mean something they should be doing. And that's when they get lame.
Weird, oops. I don't spell check. With text messaging these days and all the words being abbreviated I don't have time to spell check. Regardless doesn't weird sometimes mean novel and distinctive?
The Subserviant Chicken is the prime example of good idea great execution. Everything worked out. I'm sure that idea of typing in commands and having something do it had already been invented, but it didn't catch on until a chicken did the stuff. How many Chicken sandwiches do you think it sold?
Also I found another great viral thing today. careerbuilder.com send someone a monkey.
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