The only ranked product video last week was one of the new Windows PC computers. They challenge people (well, actors) to go out and buy something on a budget, pushng back at Apple with their high prices. I think this is the third in the series, in previous ones they have been challenging Macs directly, with the buyer looking at them and declaring them too expensive. Here, it’s just about the features.
Archive for the ‘US Marketing’ Category
April Fool videos top the video rankings last week – along with a lot of Lady Gaga. In comparison to all that ‘fun’, here’s a strong video starring Keira Knightly, directed by Joe Wright, for the charity Women’s Aid. It’s not a fun ad at all.
Next up, here’s a very silly Spanish(?) video for Doritos
Weirdly, the highest ranking video last week was for DHL, although considering it only has 3635 views, something tells me there’s a little wonkiness in the algorithm. I put it last in the last as it is pretty boring!
The highest rated product video this week is this one from Vanilla Ice, saying Sorry. On the surface, it’s not a product video at all..but it’s been grabbed from a Virgin Mobile campaign called Right Music Wrongs
Next up is one for Playstation, where “2008 American League MVP, and MLB 09 The Show cover athlete, Dustin Pedroia debates with PlayStaiton (sic)whether he can hit the high-and-inside fastball.” I copied and pasted that as I actually have no idea what it means. It’s nice to see even ‘professionals’ can do typos, considering the ones I have on this blog!
That’s it for the week, pretty quiet overall.
There’s a few product videos last week. Highest ranking was this from adidas, with David Beckham and Kevin Garnett playing footbasketball
TurboTax has Tay Zonday, of Chocolate Rain fame, pimping out the brand’s Super Status competition as well as his latest song
Nordstrom, a new name to me for online videos, have this one about boyfriend jeans. This video is not your usual type to be highly viewed, so I’m guessing there was an ad buy to promote it.
The Blackberry Bullet is the hero of this ad, taking on Apple, or rather an apple. This is a repost, not from the original brand
The chatter all over Twitter this morning is Skittles, not the game but the Mars sweet/candy. last night, the brand launched their new home page, copying what the agency Modernista has done previously.
In essence, the Skittles site is now (mainly) a frame that pulls in other sites on the web. In what is their most risky move, the home page is a Twitter search. As well as pulling up people’s comments about the new site, it is also being ruthlessly gamed. I’m not sure how long this will last; they’ve obviously thought about this as you go through an age check before you hit the site, I assume to ensure you are old enough to be there is there is going to be swearing etc, UPDATE: two days later, they’re now using Facebook as the homepage, with Twitter relegated back to chatter alone. I suspected they’d do something like that
Skittles on You Tube (screenshot from site)
Skittles on Flickr (screenshot from site)
The rest of the site is more controllable. It shows the Skittle profiles on YouTube and Flickr for their images and videos. They also have a Facebook page for their ‘friends’, where you can join the group. This also has a nice little mixing game, to create a song for your favourite Skittles.
They only seem to have 2 pages which are on the Skittle site – the overall product page with nutritional information (the other product pages are Wikipedia ones) and the contact us page.
What do I think?
It makes a change for an agency (in this case agency.com) to borrow from another agency site instead of from YouTube or Facebook. They’ve done a nice job of the site, as well as what I’m guessing was a very interesting internal discussion with their client, who has to be congratulated for making such a bold step for a consumer brand.
In most places, the idea works; the videos, images and Facebook links are the most useful for a brand. I’m not 100% convinced it works for the products, as the Wikipedia page does not really give much information out about the product (and will now be subject to vandelism). The home page is the most interesting choice. At the moment, with the novelty, Skittles is trending number one for mentions, the word is being gamed and all sorts of stuff is up there. I’d love to understand the normal level of Twitter mentions – is it actually regular enough to justify having the page as your home page? Or, as I think they will, once the immediate buzz has died down they’ll leave the Twitter on the Chatter page and put something else up on the home page?
I like this. As a campaign idea to raise the profile of the brand it is currently working superbly and as a long term idea it has legs. The brand can focus it’s efforts on building portable content and easily feed into the main site, something I think could be a far more effective way to use brand marketing budget. Hopefully the brand will hold tight over the first few days until it settles down and then start really working it.
A bit different from last week, which was full of Superbowl product ads, we only have the one in the list. I’m not sure i like this one from Absolut, where, in an Absolut world, goods and services are exchanged for for kisses and hugs.. Firstly, the concept is both too fantastic and not fantastic enough. Kisses for goods just does not work and they have not gone far enough with the idea – Bacardi have done it far better.
But this could be considered a product ad, or at least an anti-product ad. It’s from The Onion and is a review of Sony’s latest (swearing included)
A really detailed study from Paul van Veenendaal and Igor Beuker from viralblog.com. It examines how Obama used online media to connect with the voters in a way that has never been seen before and takes a little look at how brands can learn lessons from the campaign. Superb research here.
There a LOT this week, all from the Superbowl. In previous years, we’ve seen slightly more up-front viewing but this list definitely shows how the mass exposure of one of the biggest sporting events translates into online views. I normally only have 2-3 videos. I’ve got over 20 here.
The number 1 viewed video of the week is one of the fan-created Doritos ads. The little twist does make you laugh.
Number 2 in the list is an overview of the Superbowl ads, created before the game and having the advantage of a cute boy adding his own commentary
Then there’s the E-Trade singing baby. Not liking this one much, too much the ‘cute dubbed babies’.
The Pepsi ad Pepsuber is bad, really, really bad but it’s supposed to be. I prefer the previous spoof of MacGyver with Anderson – wonder how much they paid him for this!
We find out what happens to the Tater heads with their Bridgestone tyres (or tires). This made me smile – nicely done.
Another Doritos ad – laughed a lot more at this one
And another E*trade. still not liking them
And another Bridgestone.
Yuk. Cash4Gold. This is a very unusual ad to find in the list. It’s there as it was so out of place in the run up to the game that it got talked about – a lot
A GoDaddy commercial, one of the ones that is causing the planned for controvery, with groups boycotting the domain registration company due to it’s attitude towards women.
Here’s Bud Light, Conan O’Brien and the Swedish commercial. This video is also in again later.
Another Bud Light, my favourites from last year the Clydesdale and the Dalmatian.
And another one from Bud
Teleflora’s ad looked forward to the next big US holiday, Valentine’s day. Cruel talking flowers, that’s the thing
Ahh. Look, my favourite Clydesdale is growing up
Yet more Bud Light. This is a LOT of money they spent on this game, if you reckon $3million for each 30secs.
More Clydesdale
Something new in the list – Kelloggs Frosted Flakes with their community ad.
More GoDaddy and semi-naked women. GoDaddy are one of the few companies that are putting up codes to track success of the ads, with each version having its own discount code to register domain names
Yet another talking baby ad from E*Trade. None of them do it for me.I think it’s the voice over that puts me off.
Last in the list, not a Superbowl ad, is this one for National Carrot Week. Weird, Singing carrots, poor lyrics and no mention that they used to be purple. Strangely fascinating.
Highest rated is this public service video from Starbucks Give 5 campaign. Sign up and pledge 5 hours help to the community, as part of the new US President’s call for national service, and you’ll get a free coffee from Starbucks,or at least you would have last week. The offer is now over.
The Superbowl season has started on YouTube and from Bridgestone tyres you have this cliffhanger – will Mr and Mrs Potato Head survive a collision with the sheep on the road.
Then we have a question about what is the hottest thing on 4 wheels, seemingly set on the moon.
Lat on the list, Coca Cola Brazil have a slightly surreal ad out there, how Coke makes your world colourful and fun.
My favourite product video this week is not really a product video but it so easily could be – it’s also the only product video on the list, if I ignore the Fail Blog ones.. From the satirical site The Onion, here’s a video about the Apple Wheel