Cheap tactic to attract attention
January 8, 2007
I thought this was refreshing and inspiring: WillItBlend.com
Essentially, they’re a series of cheezy videos recorded and posted on various sites showing the host do things with a blender that every young man only dreams of. The host demonstrates the power of the blender to chop a garden rake, hockey pucks, an iPod, golf balls, marbles, toy cars, a soda can, light bulbs and more.
Household appliance + bad behavior = Many eyeballs/impressions for an extremely small investment
Enjoy.
-Roland
Make your own Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders commercial
October 18, 2006
I created a commercial for CMT’s “Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders: Making the Commercial” promotion.
The commercials with the most views enter the final round where one lucky winner will fly to Dallas to meet the cheerleaders, PLUS have their commercial air on the CMT. Please vote for me, and make your own commercial, too!
The user interface is fairly simple. I was impressed that the creators provided 18 video clips, 8 voice overs tracks and 5 background music tracks. But many of those video clips were edited awkwardly. Each clip has multiple scenes. It would have been more useful if those individual scenes had been split up. (See, here’s the director in me coming out.)
I can understand that the CMT creators felt limiting the video, voice over and background music clips helps them stay in control of the user generated content. Presumably they were afraid of juvenille humor and abuse of the tool. But placing barriers does limit user creativity in the end.
Check it out for yourself! And vote for me. :p
-Roland
Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional. His observations can be found at NewMediaSandbox.com and Chaos365.com.
©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.
Burger King to sell Xbox Video Games
October 13, 2006
AdRants.com reports: “Burger King Sells Subservient Chicken XBox Game”
Burger King to sell three Xbox/Xbox 360 video games that incorporate brand icons–including “Subservient Chicken,” originally the star of an online viral campaign. The games, “Pocketbike Racer,” “Big Bumpin’” and “Sneak King,” will sell for $3.99 each when consumers buy a meal.
What probably makes these work:
- For the low price, it would be hard to pass up. Although free would be more desireable.
- Although creepy, the “Burger King” is oddly aluring and I can’t quite turn away. (It’s almost like you have to stare at that car accident on the road.)
- They look fun and self mocking. (You can’t just stuff any stoggy looking corporate mascot into a bumper car.)
It’s not often that we see blatantly branded video games based on corporate mascots. (Just to be clear, I’m NOT talking about inserting corporate logos into video games, or games about movie characters, like the new Scarface game). If the Burger King Xbox games are successful, we may see the start of an interesting trend. Here are a few thought starter ideas to kick around:
- Wendy’s Wendy in her own Sims-like virtual game
- Kellog’s Tony the Tiger in his own urban jungle stalking adventure
- Brauny Man vs. Mr. Clean
- Tony the Tiger vs The Exxon Tiger combat game
- The Planter’s Peanut Dance Dance Revolution
- Chef Boyardi battles Bobby Flay
- Kool Aid brick busting adventure
What do you think? Post a comment whether you would or would not buy/play corporate branded games.
Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional. His observations can be found at NewMediaSandbox.com and Chaos365.com.
©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.
Create your own occasions and holidays
September 28, 2006
Greeting card companies have been creating nonsense holidays and occasions for years. Marketers have gotten into the action, too.
Most recently:
September 19th was “International Talk Like a Pirate Day.” — Who knew? I discovered it accidentally because Meebo enabled a secrete pirate speak function to translate instant message text into pirate gibberish.
July 15th was “World Firefox Day” - World Firefox Day gives everyone who uses and loves Firefox the chance to introduce Firefox to one other person they care about. If your friend starts using Firefox on or before September 15, 2006, both of you will be recognized on the Firefox Friends Wall, and in Firefox 2.
June was “Backup Awareness Month” (according to Seagate). Too bad, many people I’ve spoken too didn’t hear about it until July.
Point is, other marketers are taking liberties, so why shouldn’t you? Go ahead and create an occasion/event! But first:
- Make sure it has perceivable value.
- Make it shareable.
- Make it worth someone’s time to briefly engage with your brand.
Then spread it out over the Web. Make it hip! And use good old fashioned grass roots promotion all the way.
Have fun.
-Roland
Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional. His observations can be found at NewMediaSandbox.com and Chaos365.com.
©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.
My banana connected the dots
September 27, 2006
It made me curious…
Was it for the recent Curious George movie about to be released on DVD?
Was it for the new Curious George TV series on PBS?
Was it a plot by the Global Board of Banana Growers United Liberation Front to tap into my inner child and stimulate me to subconsciously buy bananas?
It probably doesn’t matter since I’ve obviously been exposed to these things unconsciously. And all it took was a cheap, little sticker placed on my banana by some clever marketer to trigger brand recall and make me connect the dots. Ding! My banana is part of an integrated brand campaign!
-Roland
Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional who does not wear a yellow hat. His observations can be found at NewMediaSandbox.com and Chaos365.com.
©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.
