July 13, 2006
Coke + Mentos Viral Piece
Posted by richard ting at July 13, 2006, 08:19 PM
June 22, 2006
Droga5 Nabs Top Cyber Honors
Newcomer Droga5 took home the top Cyber Grand Prix at this year's Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. Droga5, the Publicis-backed creative boutique led by creative chairman David Droga, who is also chair of this year's film and press juries, was honored for Marc Ecko's "Still Free" viral film.
The short promotes the hip-hop clothier's graffiti-based video game, which features a mysterious tagger who spray paints Air Force One. The game triggered a wave of media coverage, causing the Pentagon to deny that any such defacing actually occurred.
Posted by richard ting at June 22, 2006, 11:47 AM
May 04, 2006
Truth In Advertising
A great story about how a marketing campaign is made. Speakers say what they think and not what they should say. Mad funny.
Posted by richard ting at May 04, 2006, 05:45 PM
December 10, 2005
Entertainment Anytime
Here's the Sprint Entertainment Anytime viral campaign done by Organic. It's a nice simple idea that's well executed, although it smells like a subservient chicken rip-off. Seems like the Crispin Porter work is still inspiring many throughout the industry.
Posted by richard ting at December 10, 2005, 04:36 PM
October 22, 2005
Bluetooth Marketing for Nike
|
In Barcelona, in Plaza Cataluña, Nike has installed a huge outdoor ad featuring tennis player Rafael Nadal, and powered with Bluetooth technology. By turning their Bluetooth connection on, users can download the new Nike Pro Tv spot and an exclusive Nadal screensaver. The campaign was planned by Media Planning Barcelona. |
Posted by richard ting at October 22, 2005, 02:03 PM
February 25, 2005
MSN Search Finds Viral Campaign
[from mediapost]
by Shankar Gupta
NOT CONTENT WITH its massive television, Internet, and radio advertising blitz to promote its newly released proprietary search engine MSN Search, MSN apparently has released a viral campaign, “MSN Found,” to promote the search site.
An MSN spokesperson declined to comment on the viral campaign, other than to say: “There is a lot of great content to be found out on the Web. ‘Found’ complements MSN Search by finding more of the unique content on the Web.”
When the MSN Search marketing blitz was being announced, an MSN executive told OnlineMediaDaily that an agency called 42 Entertainment would be creating virals to promote the search engine.
42 Entertainment declined to comment on the campaign, and referred any questions to MSN’s public relations firm. An MSN spokesperson confirmed that 42 Entertainment worked on the viral campaign, saying: “MSN works with a number of third-party companies, and 42 Entertainment has worked on this and a number of other Microsoft projects.”
Read more.
Check out the msnfound.com site.
Posted by richard ting at February 25, 2005, 10:52 AM
February 23, 2005
counterfeitmini.org
Those Crispin & Porter guys are back with another faux-site for the Counter Counterfeit Commission. Here's the mission statement of the CCC taken directly from their website. "At the CCC, we're dedicated to putting an end to the victimization associated with purchasing a counterfeit MINI Cooper. We cooperate with MINI and international law enforcement to pursue criminals. But there's one other crucial partner we need to recruit: YOU. We can't do this without YOU. Educate yourself about the problem. Learn how to detect a fake. Know when you're being hoodwinked. Together, we can put an end to this appalling injustice. Together, we can make our streets genuine once again."
Posted by richard ting at February 23, 2005, 03:15 PM
February 18, 2005
Interactive Viral Campaigns Ask Consumers to Spread the Word
[from nytimes.com]
By NAT IVES
During the early days of Internet advertising, skeptics often argued that Web ads would never sell prosaic packaged goods effectively.
As more Americans become comfortable with the Web, though, major marketers are increasingly asking agencies to produce elaborate, interactive online campaigns - even for grocery store goods that hardly anyone researches or buys online.
One of the shiniest lures online is the developing field of viral advertising, in which companies try to create messages so compelling, funny or suggestive that consumers spontaneously share them with friends, often through e-mail or cellphone text messages. The goal is the exponential spread of ads that are endorsed by consumers' own friends.
The best-known viral success may be the offbeat "Subservient Chicken" site, created to promote a Burger King chicken sandwich. The site, which shows a person in a chicken suit who seems to follow typed commands from Web surfers, has drawn 13.9 million unique visitors since it went live in April 2004, according to the agency that created it, Crispin Porter & Bogusky in Miami.
Posted by richard ting at February 18, 2005, 04:28 PM
January 26, 2005
Like Crispin Porter
So there seems to be another one of those viral faux sites floating around on the web. Now it's a site poking fun at all the agencies striving to replicate the amazing success of Crispin's Mini Cooper and Subservient Chicken campaigns from last year. I guess the "I want it to be Like Crispin Porter" mentality reached its crescendo with Advertising Age's recent crowning of Crispin Porter as the Agency of the Year. Given Crispin's recent history of viral faux sites, one would be stupid not to think that Crispin didn't actually seed this latest prank.
Here's a quote from the homepage, "At Like Crispin Porter we create work that is like Crispin Porter's work. Of course Like Crispin Porter is not exactly the same as Crispin Porter. We don't have clients. Or an office. Or a staff. In that sense I guess we could have called ourselves Like Grey Worldwide Canada. But we didn't. Because we're Like Crispin Porter."
Posted by richard ting at January 26, 2005, 10:33 AM
January 19, 2005
VW suicide-bomber viral spot a hoax
So here's the disturbing viral VW ad that's been circulating on MediaPost and advertising blogs. It's a short video of a suicide bomber driving up to a cafe in a VW Polo and trying to blow up the spot. Instead, he only manages to blow up himself while the VW Polo stays intact. The video ends with the tagline, "VW Polo, small but tough". VW and DDB have denied any involvement with this video.
Posted by richard ting at January 19, 2005, 11:20 PM
October 13, 2004
Viral Marketing Manifesto Launched
Adrants reports the International Viral + Buzz Marketing Association has presented a viral marketing manifesto, which also summarizes the association's mission.
THE VIRAL MARKETING MANIFESTO
All members of the VBMA share the conviction that Viral Marketing, Buzz Marketing and Word-of-Mouth Marketing (and other related marketing approaches that harness network-enhanced word of mouth) are based on the principles outlined below, and that we work constantly on improving these marketing techniques:
1) We strive to
a) identify only those people who will be interested in a particular marketing message,
b) deliver the message to them in a way that makes it an enjoyable or valuable experience,
c) provide it in a manner that encourages them to share it with others.
We will therefore be providing a benefit to our audiences and their acquaintances and in so doing, to the brands for which we work.
Posted by richard ting at October 13, 2004, 02:12 AM
August 20, 2004
Consumer-Generated Marketing
By Dawn Anfuso, Editor
Word-of-mouth isn't new, but Web enables marketers to tap into it (first of two parts). The conversations that consumers have with one another online -- in message boards, blogs, email listservs and product review sites -- represent the largest collection of word-of-mouth data that has ever existed. BuzzMetrics, a research and intelligence company, was created to mine these conversations and uncover market insight. We talked with Jonathan Carson, president and CEO of BuzzMetrics, to learn more about how marketers can leverage the word-of-mouth channel.
iMediaConnection: You're calling it word-of-mouth. We've been using the term consumer-generated publishing or marketing. Are we talking about the same thing -- blogs, discussion lists, and so on? What else is included in this category?
Carson: When we are talking about word-of-mouth, we are talking about the conversations and commentary that consumers create. It is the person-to-person spreading of ideas. Specifically, BuzzMetrics focuses on all of the online dialogue consumers engage in, including message boards, blogs, email lists, product review sites, chats, corporate gripe sites and personal home pages among other things. These are the traditional forms of content, but there are other very exciting types on the horizon. Huge numbers of individuals are posting photographs online, which is kind of an extension of the old Web cams. Social networking sites have added a whole new element of communication, and they introduce personal reputation systems and rankings on a global scale. These could have huge ramifications for marketers.
iMediaConnection: How is consumer-generated publishing affecting marketing efforts?
Carson: Already, this content is having a huge impact on certain vertical sectors, whether marketers are engaged in it or not. It has been well documented that the entertainment industry is largely driven by this chatter, and so online buzz campaigns have become a standard part of its marketing mix. Nobody doubts the power of this channel in the political world, either.
But we also see tremendous levels of shopping research occurring through these channels. Users read the recommendations that other users post to help them research their purchase decisions. Perhaps more exciting is the direct engagement that takes place as part of the shopping process, which we see all the time. For example, someone goes into a forum and asks for recommendations for a product purchase, and existing owners come out of the woodwork to endorse or slam the product. If you are trying to decide which $3,000 plasma TV to buy, who are you going to trust -- the 20-year-old sales clerk at Circuit City or an online super consumer whose passion in life is to track the high-end home-theatre market? These influencers are closing big deals every day.
Posted by richard ting at August 20, 2004, 09:44 PM
August 03, 2004
Spot On: The Halo 2 hype hoax
The "ilovebees.com" URL at the end of the Halo 2 trailer sparks August 24 release rumors; in fact, it's a complex combination of alternate-reality game, story spoiler, and sales pitch.
Last week, the Halo 2 trailer unspooled in movie theaters across the country. Besides eliciting loud cheers from gamers, the trailer also launched one of the more baffling viral marketing campaigns in years.
The head-scratching began when observant gamers noticed that when the Xbox logo appeared at the end of the trailer, the xbox.com URL at the bottom of the screen was briefly replaced with "www.ilovebees.com." After double-checking that someone hadn't laced their popcorn with mescaline, those who noticed the switch went home and looked up the URL.
What they found appeared to be a laughably amateur site for a Napa, California, bee farm called "Margaret's Honey." But besides offering some unappetizing recipes and a nauseating copy about how honeybees "make life sweet," the site appears to have been the victim of a bizarre hacker attack. After a few seconds, a black screen appears with the following copy: "HALT - MODULE CORE HEMORRHAGE. Control has been yielded to the SYSTEM PERIL DISTRIBUTED REFLEX. This medium is classified, and has a STRONG INTRUSIVE INCLINATION."
Below that is a countdown, which initially said "in [variable] days, network throttling will erode" and changed to "PHASE 1 COMPLETE: Network throttling has eroded" on July 27. After that is a countdown that ends on August 10, which reads, "In [variable] days this medium will metastasize." This is followed by the words "COUNTDOWN TO WIDE AWAKE AND PHYSICAL," beneath which is nestled a countdown clock that ends August 24. The section ends with the ominous words, "Make your decisions accordingly."
Posted by richard ting at August 03, 2004, 01:44 PM
April 14, 2004
Demon Tiger
Asic Tiger's fictional character, Demon Tiger, hosts his own blog about everything which is Asics. It serves as a nice underground advertising tool within the sneaker head communities.