Leading up to their newest release “The Last Exorcism”, a film by the brilliant Eli Roth about a young girl possessed by an evil spirit, Lions Gate Entertainment ran a great viral campaign on the webcam driven social site Chatroulette. If you are unfamiliar, Chatroulette is a site that allows users to randomly connect with others via webcam. Usually, Chatroulette would be considered one of the worst places to effectively reach and engage your audience; the visitors are typically teenage guys (and old men) who are there to try to either harass girls, expose themselves, or simply be as offensive as possible. In a brilliant move, this viral campaign perfectly engages and shocks this particularly tough demographic. It grabs the viewer’s attention by starting out as a seemingly normal Chatroulette encounter with an attractive and promiscuous girl who appears to be getting ready to undress. After a couple seconds and the audience is completely engrossed, the “conversation” takes an unexpected terrifying turn. Without ruining the surprise, I will simply say the campaign is brilliant, shocking, and fits the space exceptionally well. The video contains language NSFW.
Besides the Chatroulette campaign, they have also created a fictional site for the movie’s priest character with other viral videos to provide a rich backstory leading up to the movie.
Earlier this week Gillette posted a viral video on their YouTube channel featuring Roger Federer knocking a can off a crew member’s head during a photo shoot. Although obviously staged, the video is a good example of how brands can effectively advertise using viral video. Although the video is shot in high definition quality, certain production elements were left out or changed to give it a realistic “raw” feel making it seem more like authentic user generated content than a branded communication.
Instead of littering the video with animated titles and using background music, the video is meant to look as if it was shot on the fly, unplanned with no preparation. The video is filmed shaky, but only when it can be in between important shots, and, , although it seems forced, there is also background conversation. By trying very hard to make it seem unplanned viewers could just assume it was coincidental that the lighting for the shot was so good. Although its authenticity could be argued, the video excels solely because of its content; its an entertaining stunt. YouTube viewers would take the time to watch the clip because of the awesome trick shot no matter who it was performed by and what razor they prefer. But in only two days the video has over a million views and, although their razors are never mentioned, has still managed to increase Gillette’s brand exposure.
Earlier this week when JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater, fed up with abusive passengers, snapped and quit his job in the likely most grandiose way imaginable it could have been a massive PR nightmare for the low cost airliner. After all, after a confrontation with a rude customer, he reportedly got on the PA system and declared: “To the passenger who just called me a motherf***er, f**k you. I’ve been in this business 28 years, and I’ve had it.” Then, after cursing out the entire flight walked into the galley, grabbed some beers, activated the plane’s emergency chute, slid down, and ran to his car. His stunt later got him arrested and he now faces criminal charges including criminal mischief and reckless endangerment. When authorities showed up at his house to apprehend Slater he was “in the midst of having sexual relations.”
One would assume having your flight attendant publically curse out the entire flight, take alcohol, disregard safety procedures, and then get arrested while having sex would be terrible press and reflect poorly on the company. Luckily for JetBlue, it has received the opposite reception. Slater has become a modern day folk hero, sick of taking crap from rude, selfish, disrespectful people. Instead of damaging the JetBlue brand he seems to have invigorated it. People are talking about the event; it has received national coverage over the last few days, and Slater is currently the number one trending topic on Twitter but it is in a positive light. His facebook fan page has over 100,000 fans and there are other pages that include “Steven Slater Legal Defense Fund” and “I hate the motherf***er who called Steven Slater a motherf***er.” Slater even has his own folk songs; there are multiple versions of “The Ballad of Steven Slater” up on YouTube.
Like a modern day Howard Beal, he was “mad as hell and not going to take it anymore” and the American people love him for it. His story seems to resonate with the millions of Americans who currently or at one time had a customer service job and forced to deal with nasty, intolerable customers. Luckily for JetBlue, they have not experienced a repeat of their 2007 PR debacle following the Valentines Day snow storms, instead they have spawned a modern folk hero for the tired and powerless who isn’t afraid to say what we all have wanted to at one point or another.
It’s that time of the year again! Football season is right around the corner and the media is already buzzing. Brett Favre is announcing his retirement that will not happen and cable providers are starting to promote NFL sports packages. This year, to promote their NFL Sunday Ticket package, DirecTV is reportedly spending close to $100 million on a new ad campaign. The package allows fans to watch NFL games that are not available through their local affiliates. They have started the campaign with TV spots that focus on transplanted fans who are now able to watch their favorite team in a different city and the residents of their new city that don’t take kindly to NFL rivals and their supporters. The first ad “Cheese Heads” features die hard Green Bay Packers fans finding a clever way to welcome San Francisco fans to the neighborhood I enjoyed these ads because they are entertaining and focus on the major selling point of the package in a creative way. The ads below “Massfans” and “Dallas Dog” feature Dolphin hating New Englanders and a dog named “Troy Barkman” from a Cowboy household that doesn’t like its new neighbor who happens to be a Redskins fan.
Chado Advertising & Design has begun work on a new website for Trophy Fly Fishing Adventures, a unique saltwater fly fishing guided trip in pursuit of the elusive Roosterfish. These highly sought after trophy fish can easily sense predators and are particular about the fly and presentation making them very difficult to catch without the help of an experienced guide. Recently, with the release of the fly fishing documentary Running Down The Man, shot on location, there has been increased interest in this big game fish with anglers traveling from all corners of the world for their chance to hook the legendary species.
The fly fishing adventure is located in Cabo Pulma Mexico on the Baja Peninsula with lodging available through Cabo Pulmo Eco Palapa. Cabo Pulmo Eco Palapa offers comfortable accommodations right on the beach and “off the grid” where guests can enjoy tranquility and solitude living far away from civilization.
The new website will feature information about the guided adventure, accommodations, the unique location, the Rooster Fish, and video clips from Running Down The Man. Other features include search engine optimization, a custom content management system, updateable photo galleries, and PayPal functionality. There will also be social media integration to the GetReeled community and YouTube. Please follow the Chado blog for further updates.
Chado Advertising & Design is pleased to announce that we will be working on a new identity development campaign for Corner 90, an upscale restaurant in the trendy Kwun Tong district of Hong Kong that serves healthy, fusion and contemporary style food. Corner 90’s unique menu will include a collection of ethnic and fusion food as diverse as Hong Kong itself with European, Indian, Western, and Asian offerings. Deliverables for this campaign include a new logo and tagline, along with stationary, letterhead, envelopes, three sets of menus, placemats, sales flyers, and two multipurpose advertisements. This identity development campaign will capture the inviting atmosphere, unique culinary offerings, and unforgettable dining experience Corner 90 has to offer. Continue to follow the Chado blog for further updates!
Japan has recently introduced new digital advertising billboards for a trial run that utilizes exciting new technology that could potentially change the face of visual advertisements. Although it is still in its test phase, the new technology fits billboards with specialized cameras that can read the gender and approximate age of its viewers and tailor the message displayed. This ensures the ad space is being used to its fullest potential and the message is delivered to its intended audience. The project was launched last month with twenty-seven displays in multiple subway stations around Tokyo. Further testing and analytics can take the ads a step further adding another variable for increased accuracy in audience targeting: the time of day. Different demographic groups are more likely to use the station at certain times of day so the available ads in circulation can change for increased precision.
This type of targeting is already being used online with Facebook tailoring advertisements based on the user’s gender, age, and interests, but using cameras could be seen as too invasive. There has been some backlash at Facebook for saving user data for advertising so there are already many ethical considerations surrounding this new technology. The operators claim that the cameras do not record images, they only collate data about the groups it is targeting to improve the system. Depending on how the trial run proceeds, we could soon have these “smart” advertisements in American subway platforms displaying only relevant ads to commuters.
I find this particularly interesting because, besides a few exceptions, billboards have never really changed. For decades they have remained the same, untouched as relics of old-world media before the digitization of advertising. By incorporating new technology it may ensure the lasting survival of the medium or, based on the public’s perception of its potentially invasive nature, destroy the public’s acceptance. With security cameras already prevalent in most major cities this wouldn’t seem like a hard sell for the public’s acceptance, but it may be seen as more surveillance and the next step in an increasingly Orwellian future.
Frito Lay’s Cheetos have launched an ambitious new online campaign that is surprisingly very effective. It is entertaining, engaging, and very impressive considering it is a viral game centered around cheese flavored snack products.
In their campaign titled “Battle of the Cheetos” users pick a side; crunchy or puffy and do battle with other users online. It is a strategy war game where animated Cheetos fight with cheese-powered weapons to determine the superior type of Cheeto. As players win more battles they are rewarded with upgrades and more Cheeto warriors for your regiment.
The animated battlefields spring from partnered websites from which the viral game is accessed, including Mashable, Gawker, BoingBoing.net, Gizmodo, and many others. Statistics can be tracked via Facebook to determine which users are the most skilled generals for both the puffy and crunchy armies. The gameplay is simple yet engaging and like all great online multiplayer games, it allows users to taunt their opponents and trash talk via their computer’s microphone. This imaginative campaign may seem like a very strange way to promote and sell Cheetos but it is already doing an excellent job if you consider the content and depth of the game. Consumers spend an average of 12 minutes playing branded games, much longer than they would with any traditional form of advertising, also consider the Facebook connectivity and the fact that this branded game is actually quite fun to play; the Battle of the Cheetos is an impressive campaign that manages to entertain players centered entirely around the Cheetos brand. It is easily the best branded online game I have experienced and will hopefully set the tone for all branded game content that will follow.
This summer movie season has been riddled with flops and underperforming films. With movies like Knight and Day and Grownups making their run, the only beacon of hope for a decent summer movie is Christopher Nolan’s upcoming Inception. Nolan’s newest offering has been receiving a lot of attention and is the only upcoming movie of the summer anyone seems to care about anymore.
But why? Very few details have been released about the movie’s plot and it is already generating buzz as an award winner. The answer is Inception’s brilliant advertising. In particular, their surreal building-sized optical illusion style billboards recently spotted in New York. Similar to the movie’s trailer, they do not give much away but definitely catch people’s eyes and continue to build hype for the upcoming blockbuster. I think these billboards are great; they are different and bring something new to the table with their optical illusion, three-dimensional look. I would much rather see more creative 3D posters than hastily thrown together 3D movies that have dominated this summer movie season.
The super popular Facebook app/real-time farming simulator FarmVille has recently began a cross-promotion campaign with 7-Eleven convenience stores. The cross-promotional campaign features signage and Farmville branded snacks. The campaign also introduces limited edition Farmville items that are only available with the purchase of 7-11 FarmVille Food. The items, which are unlocked with special codes on the product packaging, include water towers, swimming pools, and sandwich carts. These two brands seem like a strange fit for a cross-promotional campaign; FarmVille is associated with organic farming and fresh produce which people usually don’t associate with 7-Eleven. 7-Eleven will also run similar campaigns with other Zynga Facebook game titles like Mafia Wars drink cups with promotional codes for in-game items.
Although this campaign seems absurd and a very odd fit for both brands it is opening the doors for increased cross promotion with products and unlock-able virtual content in video games. If proven successful, this type of campaign could become commonplace where players will purchase other products to gain an edge in their game or unlock new features. Special downloadable game content is already available with game pre-orders or for purchase via online services so this doesn’t necessarily require new technology.
