Making a boring product viral

I was forwarded a video ad this week by a friend of mine. As soon as I watched it and laughed multiple times throughout I have decided to give it Ad of the Year already. Why? Because this company took a boring product and managed to make a hilarious ad that has gone viral. The quality of the ad itself is very good, so clearly they didn't film it on their iPhone. So they may have spent some money on the ad itself, but they don't need to spend a single dollar on media because the masses are doing it for them. The company is called Dollar Shave Club and they have a great offer to go along with their brilliant video. Here is the video:



Check out the rest of their website at www.dollarshaveclub.com. This is the type of brilliant company that will be a goldmine for Mike the founder. As a male I can confirm that I am always shocked by how much razors cost in a store, and I always forget to buy new razors so if I can get a razor delivered to me each month for $1, then you've got my attention already.

Love the video, love the brand, and i'm sure they are getting a tonne of traction from this. When was the last time you wanted to forward a video or a website dedicated to razors?

This whole brand and campaign give hope to the boring brands out there. It just shows that with a little creativity and not taking a stuffy corporate approach to advertising can have a big impact.

Why are Bentleys so expensive?

They have style, tradition, and exclusiveness going for them, along with top of the line parts and performance. But here is one reason that they don't advertise...




I wouldn't be surprised if this video starts getting some pretty good viral action going for itself. Who doesn't enjoy watching an incredibly committed crackhead attempting to break into a luxury car at 3 in the morning.

But that being said, this is the kind of video that brands dream about people posting to youtube. They didn't have to do anything and their customer is happy and bragging to all of his no-doubt equally rich friends about how his Bentley can't be stolen. It's interesting to think about how a brand can utilize such great social marketing material such as this video. In Bentley's case, a page on their website where their customers can upload videos/pictures/stories of their favourite Bentley moments, like Tim Horton's did with everycup.ca, would not fit their upscale, posh brand image. But wouldn't a marketing video made up of amateur videos such as this one showing off the cars' impressive unknown characteristics be a great in-house sales tool? Or a great way to go even more viral?

Oh and here is what the car looked like after that fellows repeated attempts to gain entry.

How long can you make sex sell?

I've never really liked the Go Daddy.com commercials that use sexy female celebrities to encourage people to go to their website and check out a "exposed" video of the celeb making it seem like they will be exposing themselves. Go Daddy's business is selling domain names to people so I can only assume that they feel people hoping for a naked Danica Patrick will then feel inclined to purchase a random domain name.



They have been using this tactic for quite a while and I wonder how much longer it can really work? Does it really work for their business, sure they probably get a lot of views on youtube and from viral views but I question whether all the money they spend on celebrity sponsorships and production/placement of these commercials will really result in enough $10/year domain name sales. Here is another Go Daddy commercial that I feel had better messaging.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JHGCd_9U5E

The Idiocy of Man

We live in a world where you basically have eyes on you all the time whether you like it or not. Cell phone cameras, webcams, security cams, bloggers, twitterers, facebookers and all have the power to capture and spread something throughout the world in a matter of minutes if not seconds.

So why have people not caught on? Why are there so many morons out there that can't seem to get this through their thick skulls. How come every day when I watch the news or turn on my computer it seems another person has been caught in an act of idiocy. And its not like these people tend to be the unwashed/uneducated percentage of the population. Today it was police officers in Australia making a drunk aboriginal dance for them.....ON CAMERA. Okay mates, heres the deal:

a. You are morons
b. Why would you actually film your moronicness
c. Do you really think that in this digital age you will be able to control the spread of your video???
d. You are such morons
e. You are more than likely fired, congratulations.

Maybe this is a positive to take out of the digital age, morons will expose themselves and everyone will know who they are. They will end up paying for their uncaring, idiotic, racist tendencies and thats about the best result possible.

The new 30 second spot is a 10 minute spot

According to a recent Joseph Jaffe post, Only Poor People Watch 30-second spots, the American Idol key demographic is getting older, along with also trending to lower income earners. Maybe that is why they have added a rather attractive young female judge to be the 4th on the panel this year. But more importantly in his post was this fact:

"A new survey suggests that upscale households account for a disproportionate slice of the DVR distribution pie, as more than half of all U.S. homes with incomes of $100,000+ subscribe to some form of time-shifting device"

Advertising revenues are already down across the board for the traditional mass media outlets, so it's not like this has anyone shocked. But what are the companies that pander to these high income earners going to do to get their target markets attention. What is the future for television advertising as a result of the TIVO/PVR technology. This took me back to a session I attended at the Marketing Week conference in Toronto last November. It was on the lack of attention that people pay to traditional media nowadays and one of the panelists was Ian MacLean from Etc.tv

Etc.tv is a company that does on demand advertising in Canada, which basically puts the power of advertising in the consumers hands. They are allowed to click on a commercial or product and be taken to a more in depth longer commercial or experience with the product. This could mean a reverse in thinking, instead of people be less interested in a commercial they could be fully engulfed for as long as 1o minutes by a product advertisement. The only difference is they are choosing when and how they want to view the ad which is quite an ingenius concept. Although this concept is a long way from being in the mainstream, it does seem like a movement in the right direction. Technically this is where we are already heading with people able to youtube advertisements they like, so it seems like a natural evolution. The only problem is the set up to allow consumers to view this on demand advertising. Right now it is only available in Quebec through Etc.tv so look for it to expand in the future.