The Marketing Debate - Internet Marketing and Online Advertising » Online Video

Getting Tiger Woods out of Hot Water

mattbrocklehurst — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 17:24:57 +0000

Tiger Wood’s has been in plenty of hot water recently as we all know. But that’s not the water I want to focus on. I recently came across a great story of how EA Sports took a YouTube contributor who was poking fun at their Tiger Woods game and not only embraced it but used it to inspire a fantastic piece of marketing.

It all started when YouTube user Levinator25 posted a video taken of Tiger playing golf in the EA Sports game “Tiger Woods PGA Tour” in 2007. The video highlighted a bug in the game that allowed Tiger to walk across water and hit his ball that was resting on the water. Labelling it the “Jesus” shot, Levinator25 grabbed plenty of attention focusing on the glitch. Not disastrous for Tiger or EA Sports, true, but not really the sort of publicity you want.

See the video here.

So what would you do if you’re EA Sports? You could try to get the video taken down? Well this would probably generate even more publicity. Issue an apology and say the bug was fixed? Maybe but, again, this is not really great publicity.

What they did was inspired. They filmed the real Tiger Woods “walking” across water and hitting the ball and included reference to Levinator25 and the original clip at the beginning of the video. Then they posted it to YouTube.

See it here.

It’s a great response and a great piece of advertising. And it got great take-up: over 5 million views.
If only all mistakes could be turned around into positives so creatively…

How to ensure brand presence at England winning the football World Cup final

mattbrocklehurst — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 12:14:44 +0000

There are not many brands in the UK who wouldn’t want association with an England World Cup victory. With the England football team back at home, with their collective tails firmly between their legs, such an association seems further away then ever. But I have a “cunning plan” for brands to gain association with a trumphant England in the World Cup. The best bit of all is that you don’t have to rely on the current team or its successors.

It all began when I was sitting through yet another turgid England performance and my mind started straying from the game and onto the advertising hoardings. When did they begin? A couple of Google searches later I found out all I could ever want to know about the history of hoardings.

Hoardings, or advertising boards or a-boards, first appeared in football grounds in the 70’s. The first World Cup to feature a-boards was 1970 in Mexico. A second look at some of the iconic photos and YouTube videos reveal some great brand exposure. All the Brazilian goals, including the Carlos Alberto classic, in the final is against a backdrop of the Martini Rossi a-board. Philips is all over the final as well. While the Daily Mirror, I’m assuming it is the UK Paper, also appear prominently. There’s a case for these brands revisiting this footage to re-vitalise current day promotions.

There’s potential too for brands who didn’t happen to advertise during these classic games. Technology now allows for the superimposing of images including advertising and product placement into existing footage. Companies such as miiriad show how advertising posters can appear in feature films such as Forrest Gump or products such as cereal packets can be inserted onto the Cosby breakfast table.

Now look at the 1966 World Cup final. This clip on YouTube has had nearly half a million views. And there are no a-boards in sight. These didn’t exist then but there are the blank fences just crying out for adverts to be superimposed on.

You’d need the rights obviously but there’s no previous advertiser contracts to deal with. If England of today can’t produce the success that advertisers crave then maybe brands should start looking through the archives.

Wi-Di, TV die? Look no wires! Beam video from your laptop to your TV wirelessly

mattbrocklehurst — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:39:46 +0000

Intel have just launched a technology, Wi-Di, that allows you to beam video from your laptop onto your TV with, wait for it, no wires. I’m not a gadget freak but even to me this is good stuff from a user’s perspective. A simple click of a button on your laptop is all you need to be watching anything from films and drama to a TED talk or video viral on your family friendly TV screen. All of a sudden video content from the web can be shared across the family and friends in your living room. Wi-Di is still in its infancy. It is only available in the US from BestBuy outlets on three laptop models – more details here from Mossblog of the Wall Street Journal in a short news clip (top video) – but the implications of developments such as this must warm the hearts of online video advertisers.

Indeed, they are probably already a pretty happy bunch.

Last week a video advertising survey demonstrated increasing confidence from media buyers. The Web TV Enterprise survey revealed that video advertising is now on over half of media plans and is worth 3 per cent of the UK TV ad market. As reported in a recent IAB blog:

“…over 40 per cent of media buyers now use video advertising campaigns to deliver incremental reach to TV, indicating that TV budgets are driving growth of the market.

The report also found that the number of campaigns being booked has tripled in the last six months, suggesting confidence among media buyers is growing….the developments demonstrate that the growing audience of professionally produced content on the web is beginning to have a significant impact on the market.

The research also shows that the majority of media buyers – 63 per cent – intend to allocate up to 50 per cent more budget to video advertising in 2010, with 13 per cent allocating more than 50 per cent.”

The increasing quality of video content on the web – YouTube content is now 80% professional – is already driving ad money. Developments like Wi-Di can only increase the viewing and reach of online video content and ad money will continue to flow this way. With broadcast/cable companies already struggling with DVR ad skippers and declining ad revenues the message is: adapt or die.

IKEA guerilla cinema projectionist ads have no place online

mattbrocklehurst — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 17:40:31 +0000

We’ve all done it – or at least I do it. Watching the latest movie at the cinema or program on the box you bark out: “They’ve got the same teapot as us” or whatever household item you happen to see on screen that is the same make and model as yours. We notice household goods on screen. That’s one thing. But how would you feel if someone flashed an ad against familiar objects with price and name? Well, that is exactly what those clever / intrusive people at IKEA have done.

Guerilla marketers in Austria were armed with high powered portable torch-like projectors. They then beamed names and prices of IKEA products as they actually and inadvertently (i.e. not via product placement) appeared during the movie, on the screen, next to famous actors. Be that George Clooney chopping carrots with the “Distinxt” chopping knife (19.95 euros) or a couple making love on a Karlstad (I’m not sure if it’s a sofa or bed. The gyrating flesh obscured the product. I do know that it costs 119 euros).

The agency behind this, DDB Germany, have a solid rationale: “This surprising execution fits perfectly to the IKEA principle: surprise the many people with fresh ideas for everybody’s everyday life. After the show we consequently distributed IKEA catalogues in front of the cinema.” The results seem impressive without knowing the cost: 92 screenings, 13,000 viewers and 5000 catalogues taken – 4000 more then targeted.

See the case study video for more details and a bit of a laugh. Here it is.

There are some questions here on what lessons this holds, if any, for a larger play in online video.

We are far from having all the answers on monetising online content and best use of adverts. This “beaming” of prices could scale online. Instead of a sad man with a torch, software already exists that can project text/images/ads onto video online. Marketing messages overlaid onto existing or virtual billboards or onto sports pitches and hoardings has a certain logic. Could this be extended to product names and prices on the actual objects? I guess if users signed-up to this as part and parcel of getting the content free, it may appeal to certain demographics, for certain brands, such as IKEA, and for certain light entertainment content. But even in this scenario, I really don’t see this as having any legs. It’s too disruptive and of limited value to the viewer once the gimmick wears off. If the lessons of online tell us anything it is that engagement, context and permission are fundamental to long term marketing success.

This IKEA campaign packs a punch and gets short term results but that’s it.