Chado-Design.com

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.

Muscle Milk, a protein drink made by CytoSport beverages, has recently launched a new campaign featuring viral videos and special edition bottles. The campaign also features Shaquille O’Neil, who recently became only the 5^th player in NBA history to score 28,000 career points, as the spokesperson and star of the viral videos. “Special Edition” bottles are featured in almost every beverage campaign and viral videos are no longer considered the pinnacle of new media, but what makes this campaign stand out is how the viral videos are delivered incorporating the actual bottle. It is part package advertising, part viral campaign, and part augmented reality campaign. The drink container will include a link on its packaging that consumers can visit to view the videos by holding the bottle with a special marker code in front of their webcam to watch O’Neil jump out of the bottle!

Unfortunately, this special-edition Muscle Milk will be released exclusively in Ohio, O’Neil’s home state, for now. The videos are not exclusive however; anyone can visit the campaign’s page, and print out the interactive marker to view the videos. Although this campaign was likely very expensive and will only reach a small market to its full potential, it is very interesting to see how marketers utilize relatively older technology (webcams) for new exciting ways to reach customers. Also, it serves as another unconventional medium utilized by Shaq to market his brand; following his incredibly popular Twitter, his business with Efuel, and the unforgettable Shaq Fu video game.