Unfortunately, I'm not fluent in my grandfather's native Swedish, so I can't tell you what this is promoting. But thankfully, you don't have to be to have fun with this beatboxing Bassett Hound mixer from Tele2. Customize your beat, record it, and send it to a friend. Or just play around. Either way, it's a good bit of fun.
Well, maybe not desperately. But they say they are looking for sponsors. Or so the "contact us" section says. I came across this last week or the week before. Then it was just a static page with the image, no links. Thought that a brand might be up to something interesting.
If they don't have a sponsor yet, this could be a great opportunity for any one of several brands to take advantage of. Could turn out like this did. Or maybe that's where they got their inspiration. Anyway, check it out and if you work for/on a brand that would make a good fit, get in touch with them.
Thanks to Sloggi living up to their lack of fear for pushing people's buttons, you can. Just go here and click away. And if that wasn't enough, you can watch this.
Nintendo of Canada is up to something pretty cool. Check it out.
Found this in my email inbox on Wednesday (3/14). Is this a new thing? Maybe in response to "THE MEMO?"Or have they always had this?
Here's an example of a brand jumping on the UGC bandwagon who should've caught the "Brands Who Don't Get It" short bus instead. Pizza Hut is looking for a new Honorary VP of Pizza. They're calling for videos from consumers demonstrating that you are Pizza Hut's biggest fan. If you win, you'll get $25,000 "salary" (cash prize), Pizza Hut pizza for a year (in the form of Pizza Hut gift cards) and a "Company Car" for use during a three month victory tour. There are also two lower levels of prizes.
I did a quick search on YouTube to see what came up when I searched "Pizza Hut." Before I let them have it for this turd of an idea. I wanted to be sure that for some strange reason, consumers weren't actually out there raving about how much they love the Hut. The first non-prank call, non-commercial and non-entry for this contest, was this video, aptly titled Stupidness at Pizza Hut. (Hmm. Funny. That kind of fits this promotion.) The next video fitting the same criteria was this one.
Seriously Pizza Hut. Figure it out. Nobody loves your pizza that much. You're just begging for compliments now. No, I take that back. You're not just begging. You're also buying them with $25,000, free pizza and a car for three whole months. It's not pretty. And sadly enough, it's not enough for you to have to buy compliments, you're also begging for MySpace friends. Please, get a grip on yourself.
If consumers aren't out there posting videos about how much they love your brand already, you shouldn't do a video contest asking for them to do so. Take some time to figure out what consumers are ACTUALLY doing with your brand and do something with THAT. Here, read this from the smart folks at North. Then read it again. And again. Then write "I promise I will not create chest-beating online promotions that ask consumers to tell me how much they love me ever again." 10,000 times on the chalkboard.
Hmmm. Which one of these led to this?
A) Client Briefing: "We like what Axe is doing. Give us some of that."
B) Creative Concepting: "I'm out of ideas. Why don't we just do what Axe is doing. That's the kind of stuff we need anyway. And it'll look great in our portfolios."
C) Agency Presentation: "As you know very well, Axe has leveraged the idea of shagging a beautiful woman quite successfully. So, we came up with an idea that does just that! Whatta ya think!?"
D) All of the above.
Don't feel too bad Mitchum. You at least started with your own brand idea and tried to work the Axe angle in. And it's not nearly as obvious of a rip off as what these guys are.
Thanks to Adrants for pointing out this one.
Alka-Seltzer is running a promotion now through December 22 asking bands, or those musically inclined I suppose, to remake their classic jingle and submit it for a chance to win $10,000 and possibly have the song appear in a TV commercial. According to Daily Candy, Cyndi Lauper is judging the entrants. Live tryouts are being held in Dallas, Philadelphia and Atlanta. Songs can also be uploaded at the web site. One online winner and the winner from each of the live events will win $1000 and become eligible for the grand prize.
Entrants are being encouraged to come up with their own song that incorporates the words, "plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is!" from Alka-Seltzer's famous jingle. Songs must be between 30-seconds and two minutes. So far they have 15 submissions posted. I wonder if that's all that have participated or if they think these are the best of the pack so far? And I'm even more curious if anyone has created a song or video that uses it in a negative light and they've not put it up.
I guess I understand what they're trying to do here, but why do so many brands try to force this? Remember McDonald's trying to buy their way into hip-hop lyrics? Well, I don't know if any known artists have done anything about it but there are some people are trying to get paid. My favorite of the bunch...
These guys have drawn 45,000+ views with their creation. I'll be curious to see if anyone picks this up at one of McD's agencies and tries to get them to do it in a commercial. And I wonder if they've been paid?
Anyway, back to the point... rather than try to force your brand on people and push consumer-generated content, why not work with what naturally bubbles up about your brand with consumers and encourage that behavior? Mentos did it and we all know how many of those videos have surfaced even beyond the deadlines of the contest. I guess what I'm saying is if your product doesn't inspire hip-hop lyrics on its own, then don't try to play here because your competitor's does. If your jingle has been dead for years, don't try to force it back to life.
All of the new opportunities brought to us via Web 2.0 are certainly exciting and nearly boundless. But a lot of what's going on here should be treated as a conversation between people with common interests and bonds. If there's a conversation going on around your brand that you want to leverage, then find a good way to enable that conversation further. And if you're NOT already part of a conversation, DON'T try to push your way into one. Nobody likes that guy. At least nobody that I know of.
From a November 10 post at my old blog:
All those hard-earned dollars spent every morning at Starbucks are finally going to pay off. Well, maybe. Starbucks is spreading good cheer to their customers with the hopes that they will then pay it forward to someone else that day. According to sources, Starbucks isn't just giving out free coffee, tea, muffins, scones or other in-store items. They're also giving out movie tickets, subway rides and even lift tickets in Denver, CO. In addition to the handouts, they've also brought back the red cups for the season and built a nice site to support the entire holiday effort.
But will it work? Well, as luck would have it, a personal example of this happened earlier this week when a friend told me about how she was in the drive thru at a local Starbucks getting a cup of coffee and a scone. When she pulled up to the window to pay, the barista informed her that the person in front of her had already paid for it. So it at least works in principal as she told me and now I'm writing about it.
While it's not a new idea by any means, (And let's not kid ourselves, truly new ideas are few and far between.) it is a nice execution delivering on the promise of extraordinary customer service and rewarding your loyal customers. In today's hyper-competitive world you sometimes have to go beyond the expected to bring a point like this home. Especially if you're in the business of selling your product to people who are often not really awake in their first point of contact with your brand each day.
I've always been one to believe and preach that brand loyalty and/or brand preference, is earned through repeated positive experiences with a brand. This program is a great example of how one can start a chain of positive experiences and positive emotions around their brand with consumers. The best part is, anyone can leverage this principal no matter how large or small their budget is. It only takes one small act of kindness to one customer or one stranger to start the chain.
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