Great Idea (I think?), poor execution
Why don't more companies try to do this? I can only imagine that developing a great, funny, interesting video that goes viral can reach as many people as buying a 30 second spot on The Jay Leno Show. (check out the search I used). Unfortunately, I don't think this particular video is good enough to truly go viral...so I am applauding the effort and the idea, not the video itself. Is this where advertising will go in the future? Advertisers not wanting to pay to broadcast their ads? Between this idea (not yet a theory) and DVR (which is a whole separate conversation about how Tivo could not quite become the Kleenex or Xerox of the DVR industry) which allows viewers to fast forward through commercials, will TV ads eventually die out? Will the commercial time become so cheap that broadcast networks will be unable to provide shows with the great production values we have come to expect? Are we going to move back to '50s style product placement?
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Without reading your post, I couldn't understand how this video could be considered "poor execution". The whole time, I kept thinking, "Great Idea!" with a smile on my face.
ReplyDeleteThen, upon reading your post, I can sort of see why you think this is poor execution. I don't necessarily agree with you (especially, now that we've linked to it - ha!) as I think this will be successfull in "viral land".
I think the other topics you mention are deserving of their own (possibly multiple) posts, but I'll give my brief thoughts here:
Yes, this will be a part of the advertising world in the future. Some rough numbers around annual ad spend shows that TV still is an $80B industry, while online and mobile (the other "2 screens" are @ $20B and $5B respectively. Now,if you're Coca Cola, you have to manage your spend across all three platforms (not to mention any print/direct marketing you do), ultimately trying to get the best bang for your buck using metrics such as reach and effectiveness.
Mobile should offer the best value moving forward as all parties involved (marketing company, wireless carrier, ad server, etc.) begin to truly understand how to use LBA, so one would expect mobile ad spend to grow the quickest over the next decade. TV providers will also develop systems to show ads to DVR-users (e.g. 3 minutes of ads prior to watching the show, which has tested well in recent studies), especially as time and place shifting technologies (such as Slingbox) become more prevalent.
So, yes - I do think this is partially where we're headed, but this is merely a part of the evolving landscape.
And yes, those were my brief thoughts...
ReplyDeleteWow...it's almost like you do this kind of analysis for a living...
ReplyDeleteHaha good line Aaron. Also your "search terms" to find the Jay Leno show were great - that was like a FIWK easter egg or something.
ReplyDeleteScott, I completely agreed with you on this: "Without reading your post, I couldn't understand how this video could be considered "poor execution". The whole time, I kept thinking, "Great Idea!" with a smile on my face."
I thought it was pretty cool and enjoyed the video. It's a no-brainer to do some cool things like this if it creates more visibility. At the very least it's different from your typical "peppy song with people drinking Coke" TV commercial, and being different alone will get some attention.
I do think product placement is gaining relevance. You can't DVR past Coke in an episode of 24 if Jack Bauer is holding a can while defusing a bomb or whatever.
Yeah, it's kind of sort of possibly a topic I'm very interested in...
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