B.Y.O.SuperbowlCommerical.

Sometimes people watch the Super Bowl to check out the crazy commercials, this year they can watch to check out THEIR OWN crazy commercials. Several companies like Chevy and Doritos are running contests where people can submit ads and the winning spot will be shown during the Super Bowl.

Hmmm... how should we feel about this? Super Bowl ads cost mad money, why let consumers use your valuable time? Maybe it's the crazy attention being paid lately to consumer generated content, maybe these companies are just sick of the ads they've been getting from their agencies, who knows... One thing's for sure - Chevy doesn't exactly trust it's customers...they are "soliciting ideas only for its spot during the game," and leaving the rest up to professionals. Kind of takes the fun outta the game, huh? I had a better idea for the Doritos commercial anyway...

Picture this: A guy doing his laundry and eating his 3D Doritos in cool ways when in walks a hot girl and she totally beats him at his own game by throwing the 3D Dorito off several surfaces in the laundromat and catching it in her mouth at the end (possibly doing a split? depends on the talent we get...) I think I got a winner.


Find out more ...

Just for fun

This has nothing to do with marketing but has been around a few blogs and is hilarious. Watch it. Now.
My only question: is it a an exceptionally talented boy, or an exceptionally small man? Either way, God Bless him.

In other (non-marketing) news, Kevin Federline's resume is up for auction on Ebay...gotta love it. It's so full of past experiences and um...other stuff, I don't know how it fits on just one page.

And finally, on on her show Tyra Banks found a 39 year old man who had never even kissed a girl and got a random audience member to change that. When asked how they both enjoyed the kiss , the man said it was "out of this world," while the audience member could only come up with "minty fresh." Guess he hasn't mastered his technique yet...

They call it responsible...

You know those ads you see on tv that suddenly make you start paying attention? Interesting music, good stuff going on, and even though it's not trying to be funny, you want to pay attention. No joke to get, just a great idea being put to work. Liberty Mutual has a commercial out right now that does just that. My friends have been talking about it and actually get excited when it comes on during a show. Check it out , maybe it will move you too.


In other insurance news, State Farm is taking a different approach...not so emotional, just a little more fun I guess. At www.nowwhat.com, the carrier shows situations where you need insurance (like if a huge air conditioning unit falls on your car, or someone steals something from your house) and tells you what to do if you find yourself in a similar situation (hence the name NOW WHAT!). The site is also encouraging the consumers to send in videos of the last time they said "Now What?" and enter a contest where they could win $20,000 in cash, or a trip to the 2007 MTV Movie Awards. Nice little site they got set up there to reach a younger crowd. Now if I could only think of my best "Now what" moment...

I'll keep you posted if I think of anything good.

Elmo Update

So they launched the new Elmo I mentioned a few posts back. It's big news!!! Seemed like it's a top pop culture story, the new doll was featured on segments of both Best Week Ever! on VH1 and The Soup on E! People everywhere are talking about Elmo's new tickle moves.

One little problem...everyone thinks the doll looks suspiciously like its doing a sexual deed when it's having it's tickle attack. Take a look at how Elmo got his groove back, brought to you by the letter R .
(Rosie O'Donnell)

So the WOM is out there, but can the doll sustain it's lovability after being seen in this manner? Only time will tell.

Bonded by Blood

Okay I'm gonna tell you a story. Stop me when you think something's a little off...

So Adidas makes a promotional poster every year for the popular All Blacks Rugby team in New Zealand. The posters are usually given to customers who buy a $70 team jersey made by Adidas. This year they mixed blood from the team's players into the ink of posters.

STOP.

Okay, that was the weird part. Blood was taken from every member of the national team and mixed in with the ink to make 8,000 posters that each come with a certificate of authenticity. Here's another weird thing: this did not weird people out! Maybe it's the American way to be squemish about blood being on a poster, but I think that if something like this was tried in the United States it would not go over well. I see mothers protesting about the campaign being a bad influence on their children or promoting violence. But for the target audience of die hard Rugby fans, the "Bonded by Blood" campaign works.

Over 95,000 hits have been generated at the campaign's site since it began in July where fans can watch the players donate blood for the ink. Way to push the envelope, Adidas. And although last year's poster showed team members wrestling lions, for some reason I think you've outdone yourself. Well done.

Check out the article

Tickle me intrigued...

The newest version of holiday favorite Tickle Me Elmo is being kept under wraps by Fisher Price. The 10th anniversary edition of the toy "TMX Tickle Me Elmo" is being kept TOP SECRET until its formal debut on Good Morning America next Tuesday. I don't know about you but I can't wait that long.

I guess it's no big secret what this doll is all about, I'm sure it will look like Elmo and it's going to laugh on command. So why such a big to do about keeping it secret? Simple. It's been ten years since the lovable red muppet started dominating the market (makes me feel real old) and Fisher Price probably wants to make people interested in the product once again. I don't know if this is such a great idea though... What if after its unveiled everyone realizes that it's the same thing it's always been? Disappointment will run rampant, Christmas/Hanukkah will be ruined for families everywhere. Bummer.

I dunno, we'll see when this new Elmo comes out if it's gonna come through big for everyone. I hope so. The happiness of people everywhere depends on it.

Thanks for the inspiration for this, Marketing Blurb

Furniture and the Chicago Bears

So my mom heard this thing on the radio about a guy who owns a furniture store near Chicago and decided to make a little wager.

He promised that if the Chicago Bears defense posted a shut out over the Green Bay Packers in their Monday Night Football season opener that everyone who bought furniture at his store over Labor Day weekend would get a FULL REFUND.

4 quarters, and no points by the Green Bay Packers later, Randy Gonigam found himself indebted to every customer who bought something at his store on Labor Day...a total of $300,000 worth of merchandise! Incredible.

I know what you're thinking...this guy has chutzpah to promise such a thing! Not so ... he actually was insured the whole time so if the Bears did come through in the clutch he would not be responsible for footing the bill.

I don't know what to think of all this. When someone loses a bet I think they should have to pay it, but this guy sure found a way to get word out about his store. Sometimes all it takes for some word of mouth is a little bet and some good insurance.

Check out the article

Wanna be a star?

All it takes is signing up to be Mooby's friend on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/moobysclerks2


The first 10,000 people who befriended Mooby's Presents Clerks II in their MySpace profile had their names listed in the credits of the movie! Pretty sweet deal. My brother went to college for drama and he hasn't got his name on any movie credits, yet by the mere click of a button you can become an instant star. Well, if people watch the credits long enough to see your name scroll down the big screen.

This idea was accepted so readily by the MySpace world that the promotion was extended... ANYONE who befriended Mooby before July 21st got their name in the credits of the film's DVD! PRETTY FREAKIN' SWEET!

To reach the evergrowing internet friend community, this is a great promotion. I don't really know why people are so excited to get their name in the credits of a movie...does anyone watch those? I guess it would be cool to feel like you were a part of it, and to tell your friends that you are in a movie and they have to see it...hey wait a minute....THIS IS WORD OF MOUTH MARKETING!!!

Pefect plan: Get people to sign up to have their name in the credit, they'll go see the movie to see their name, and probably bring friends (and Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa to see the first success of their sort-of acting career)! If they extend the offer to ANYONE for the DVD release, that's a whole lot of DVD's that will either be rented or sold to look for names during the credits.

I am impressed. And jealous. When will my name be up in bright lights?

Design an Album Cover for Janet !

Jackson family fans are taking out their art sets again, and this time it's not to draw pictures of happenings inside a courtroom... Janet Jackson is running a contest where loyal fans (or anyone else) can take a crack at designing the cover art for her new album due out September 26.

The contest is in cahoots with Yahoo Music and contestants can use up to 33 images of Jackson to put on the cover they design. I'm assuming none of them include everyone's favorite wardrobe malfunction...

Anyways, this is a great way to spread the news of an upcoming album, as well as get fans involved. For all those diehard Jacksonites, this creates a nice opportunity to show how much they care about Janet by taking the time to enter the contest.

Janet personally picks the four finalists who get to have their cover art actually produced and distributed on some selected publicly sold albums. Yahoo Music reports:

Janet does not give participants any parameters for their designs. She wants them to be uninhibited and to "go for it."

"That's what it's really about," Janet says, "for them to manipulate it and get creative, and go wherever their images takes them."

I don't know how much WOM this contest will generate, but it's caused news outlets such as Billboard to comment on it, so I guess it's doing something. While a contest like this can get some buzz going about a new cd, it's hard to judge in this case because it's not too hard for a Jackson to get press.

Bonjour Guerilla

I was reading Adverblog and came across this bit about Lee Jeans opening a flagship store in Paris with a nice guerilla campaign. Marketing firm TriBeCa ran the campaign, you can see more photos of the campaign as well as a video here.

I think this is a great idea. It's always good to put yourself out there in a new way, and I'm assuming the jeans on the street turned the heads of many people walking by. It's a good way to announce the opening of a new store rather than use a street team of people handing out flyers. People will ignore them, but they might be willing to take information out of the pocket of a stray pair of jeans covering a parking meter.


Two questions: Are we crossing legal bounds when throwing clothing and the Lee brand name around public objects? Also, how to keep people from stealing the jeans?

Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee...

BzzAgent is a Boston based company that functions based solely on Word of Mouth marketing. The way it works is simple. ANYONE (even you!) can sign up to become a BzzAgent, and pick out campaigns on their website that you would like to help spread Buzz about. Then the agent will receive a BzzGuide in a few weeks, usually toting a product sample and a guide on how to best spread their "Bzz" about the product or service. The agent is also given a list of activities that make it "easier and more fun to spread Bzz."

Agents fill out BzzReports each time they talk about the product and tell BzzAgent the who, what, when and how of the buzz created. Points are accumulated for each BzzReport filled out by agents, and rewards can be redeemed after saving up a certain amount of points.

I think this is an amazing idea - taking the popularity of WOM and using it to start an empire of consumers who want to help market products. BzzAgent uses volunteers to spread its buzz so they know the people doing the talking are going to do the best they can to help the product/service. This in a way helps to stop the spread of negative WOM. The idea of sending a guide to consumers for each campaign they buzz is also brilliant.

And the BzzReports make the Word of Mouth MEASURABLE!! Can you believe it? An easy way to measure when people talk about your brand.

BzzAgent has found an effective way to make ordinary people spokespeople for products and services, and has given them the tools to do so with the right information in hand.

In my mind, the difference between BzzAgent WOM and regular WOM looks something like this:

Regular WOM:
Guy: Hey I really like your new sneakers.
Guy2: Thanks, me too.

BzzAgent WOM:
Guy: Are those new sneakers?
Guy2: Yeah, they are the new Nike's you can use to connect to your I pod when you run and it will tell you how fast you are running, how far you've run, and how long you've been running. It's really cool and I use whenever I work out. ***
Guy: Whoa, that's awesome! I'm going to buy some!

***(Guy2 probably would say better things about the product because he would have had a guide on how to talk about it)

http://www.bzzagent.com

Anyways, check out their website, it's pretty cool. I'm out for now, gotta go decide if I wanna become a BzzAgent! Later.

It all starts here...

This blog is going to BLOW YOUR MIND looking at what's going on in the world of Guerilla Marketing, Word of Mouth, and Buzz Marketing. Hopefully each post will give you a little bit more insight into the crazy places the world of advertising can take us. No holds barred, every man for himself, buckle up 'cause here we go.