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Sweden’s TV licensing company Radiojanst recently released a new viral video campaign experimenting with emerging video technology that allow viewers to insert themselves or a friend into the commercial. The ad, titled ‘The Hero: A movie about you or someone you know”, builds up with a dramatic announcement about a new national hero who is making life better for the people of Sweden. This new Swedish hero ensures that viewers can trust what they see on television and radio and the voice of average Swede can be heard. Midway through the commercial the hero is revealed to be the viewer because they pay their broadcast fee. The ad shows crowds of people from around the world celebrating the viewer with their photo on billboards, signs, and TV. The idea for this video was for people to upload an image of their friend and email it to them so they can star in their very own commercial. At the end of the commercial it gives the option to make a new commercial with a different image that can be passed along to share with another new “star”. The video was very well received by international audiences with over 14 million site visits within 8 weeks.

This clever campaign was accomplished using viral video technologies like those used in Staple’s “Elf Yourself” holiday campaigns and MoveOn.org’s Glenn Beck satire that takes the viewers image and information from Facebook and inserts them into a viral video where they are appear to be publically smeared by the ridiculous, fear-mongering Glenn Beck. This new trend of in viral videos where the viewer can be a part of the commercial and shared has enormous potential for advertising. After all, one of the main goals in advertising is to get the potential customer to envision themselves using the product or service. Videos like this give the message a personalized look and feel allowing consumers to establish an emotional connection with the brand. It will be interesting to see how this technology will be used next and how it will continue to evolve the viral video.

In an attempt to draw users back in, Myspace has begun revamping their site for a comeback. As more and more users shift over to social network applications like Facebook and Twitter, the former leader Myspace has been surpassed while quickly losing market share. With their lack of growth compared to the enormous rise in Facebook users and Twitter boom, Myspace isn’t the juggernaut it used to be. For years they were the undisputed king of social networking but they got complacent and failed to innovate, this presented an opening to Facebook and now they dominate the medium with over four times as many members. While Facebook has taken over, Myspace has remained profitable bringing in about $350million a year mainly from advertising, but this too could change very soon. They have a shared advertising revenue deal with Google currently that has been keeping the company profitable but with the recently announced Google Buzz social networking platform it is unclear if they will renew their deal. Between these problems and a recent management shakeup, Myspace has a lot of work ahead to accomplish their goal, but their strategy seems solid.

Instead of looking at Facebook and Twitter as competitors, Myspace is now changing their strategy and looking towards these once rivals and potential partners for distribution and synchronization. They have already synced services with Twitter so tweets or status updates on one service are automatically posted to the other.

They are also shifting their target market and content strategies. They will now appeal to a younger crowd focusing on music, movies, and games by using the service to discover new music, view movie trailers, and play games in a social environment. Instead of being a “place for friends” their new mantra will be “Discover and be Discovered” moving further away from social and focusing more on the media aspect. This rebranding will include simple, clean pages to avoid the unappealing cluttered pages that have become expected with the original design. They are investing a lot in their gaming channel by working with social-gaming firm Playdom. They have also teamed with Microsoft to improve their mobile web services and revamp its look. Lastly, they are keeping music a main focus.

Myspace Music has been an extremely useful and popular medium for bands to increase exposure and connect with fans. While Myspace’s user base is down compared to Facebook, their music channel is still considered quite successful. If they can continue their success of this channel while improving their video and game channels, it could prove successful.

Many argue that Myspace is already done and their failure to innovate along with other social networking sites has already sealed their fate. With social networking dominated by Facebook, Google’s new social network, and Apple trying to take over distribution of digital media there may not be room Myspace. But with their new strategy to reinvigorate the brand and network, their resources backed by their parent company News Corp, and their still popular Myspace Music channel I believe there still is a chance for them to find their niche and survive, it just won’t be focused on networking with friends. It will be very interesting over the following months to see how they choose to re-brand and if their strategies will work.

In an interesting move last week, Xerox started running ads in the Hollywood trade publications like the Hollywood Reporter in an attempt to keep its trademarked name from being used. They are requesting that mainstream media stop referring to making a copy as “to Xerox” or copies as “Xeroxes”. Typically, having your brand name directly associated with and often used in place of the actual product would be considered an honor for the brand, demonstrating its impact on culture. Take Band Aid adhesive bandages, instead of making a shopping list and writing “adhesive bandages” people usually will refer to them as band aids by habit. Same goes for brands like Q-Tips, Kleenex, and Coke. Having your brand name interchangeable for the actual name of the product means that your brand is in the forefront of consumer’s minds increasing the chance that they will use your product. Now, there is the fear of brand dilution. They fear that by using their brand name as a noun in TV and movie scripts it will devalue the name of the brand as common usage continues. It will be interesting to see if this strategy hurts or helps the brand in the long run.

The newly redesigned website for Chado Advertising & Design has officially launched. This new site has been redesigned to have a new look similar to this blog, a flash slideshow showcasing recent work, and has additional content added. There are also links to all of Chado’s social media pages, more detailed case studies, team bios, and an added link to XCD, our cross cultural design social network. This new website is easier to navigate and has a new look more consistent with Chado Advertising & Design. Check it out at www.chado-design.com!