Interesting twist and views on a viral marketing video
From Gawker – some pretty good points in this article today. Brings up a lot of interesting questions and makes some solid points too. Read on and view the video as well:
How Not to Fall for a Viral Marketing Scheme
“You see a cool YouTube video of people running on water. It’s called “liquid mountaineering,” and you share it on Facebook and Twitter. Then you find out it was a viral marketing campaign. And you feel like a tool.”
Given that everyone’s talking about it and many shared the video – was this a SUCCESSFUL marketing campaign?
Did the line between this video being a bit “too authentic” vs being “over the top / comical” get blurred – and was that the goal?
If you leave your customers feel cheated/duped – will that backfire?
All VERY relevant questions for anyone in advertising/marketing… what do you think???
On a technical note: you should notice that the guys fall into the water at EXACTLY the same spot each time…hmmm… and did you notice the RedRock Micro follow focus gearing on the 70~200mm… was this shot (at least in part if not entirely) with an HDDSLR perhaps? hmmm… likely!
I don’t care if it was a commercial or not. It is entertaining just watching. Realizing how much fun it would be if I could just get those shoes and run on water too. I have no idea of the brand. It reminds me of those now classic Super Bowl ads that were so much fun like theone with the cowboys herding cats. Who were they advertising? Never knew and do not care. It was fun to watch.
Its great to watch, we are so used to advertisements nowadays, at least if they are interesting to watch they might score some points in the minds of the people.
To be honest I don’t even remember what it advertises. Just they running on the water stays with me.
Funny how Daniel thought the exact same thing while I was writing my post 🙂
To me Viral videos are another “style” to presenting a commercial, they come off like legit viral videos but there is always something a little off in the end. I feel like most viral videos rise and fall as quickly as they are seen. To me its great entertainment and it never really feels like i was sold something or duped. Good stuff all around
Vincent Laforet Reply:
May 16th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
@kevie, Agree – but this one seems to live in that grey area for me. I wasn’t duped – and didn’t feel deceived – I do wonder how other people feel – as the Gawker article suggests – many are turned off by it…
like that german guy who was shot from a cannon even though it was shopped it was quite astounding
but this is real physics
You mean it’s not real? I feel so used.
I’d have to think anyone feeling “duped” about it being an ad are lying to themselves: they’re embarassed that they believed the thing was true, and are trying to shift the blame elsewhere.
I, too, thought it was fun to watch, and well done, but even after I saw your post and learned that it was supposed to be a marketing effort, I couldn’t imagine what they were trying to sell until I went and read the posts you linked to.
I say thumbs up, and may just look into getting some of those shoes (just in case, you know, the video was true 😉
I don’t really like the ‘casual’ approach to advertising in general. This feels a little bit to ‘infomercial’ to me. Did notice the ring though! 😉
In my opinion too many marketers are jumping on the viral video bandwagon and it just quickly is getting old.
Either it’s too well executed and people learn to see through it, or it comes across as real and people never really get the branding message. I like brand videos that make it clear what brand is behind it.
There are just so many more ways to be authentic and entertaining – no need to play hide-and-seek.
Very interesting point, I’ve never thought about it that way. I actually fell for one of the very first viral marketing on the internet when “The Blair Witch Project” cam out years ago, lol.
Good Points Vincent & Posters
This is undoubtedly the future of advertising. There are so many mediums competing for our attention we have become oblivious to banners, pop-ups and link through.
I am from Television and even I don’t watch ads anymore. The business model of ads & revenue gathering through traditional methods are gone.
Its interesting that you attach an emotional response to this viral ad the way you would describe a short film or documentary. Its purpose is to make you buy.. and that is a successful emotional response in my books.
Anyhow, keep up the good work!
Yves
It’s about 1000000 times better than conventional shoe advertising which is, “Ooh look, [HIGHLY-PAID-SPORTS-STAR] wears these shoes, you should too”.
Very dull video I want my 20sek back. Perhaps camera works was not bad but whole subjects is too dull for even 20sek review. The cast look little too gayesh for for the subject category too. Back too drawing board!
I agree with the other posters. Walking on water is like 2,000 years old. Show me something new already.