Viral Advertising- How It Will Really Work
Friend and thinker, David Cutler posted this on his blog about an ad.
adidas. all day i dream of stoner(4 da ladies)
The thing is, it worked. It worked perfectly. I watched the entire ad. I finished the ad thinking, “huh, that’s pretty interesting.” And then I spread the ad.
Think of how many times an ad just blurs out without us noticing, and then look at that ad. It was so powerful that someone stuck it on MySpace, then David found it somewhere, and now I’ve put it here. I’m moving the ad around the web. So is David. Are YOU going to find the embed code, or link to my site? Are you going to tell Google that this ad has value by your actions.
Quality is still at the heart of anything that succeeds. But it doesn’t hurt that the ad is out here in the wild such that we can send it around to others either, right? Do THAT with your TV.
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Comments
Fascinating ad, and interesting post about viral advertising and word-of-mouth marketing. Lessons abound. Thanks!
as a follow-up, I just showed it to my husband, who loved it until he realized it was an ad. He is now furious that he wasted his time and got duped by an adidas ad. When is it crossing the line between cool media to trojan horse marketing?
The question people will always ask is, “How can I make my video go viral?” Or a different side of the same coin, “Why did that video go viral?”
Quality is key for a product to succeed, but it’s also important for virality (is that a word?). The quality is there in this ad. If there wasn’t, why would anyone pass it on?
More importantly, I think, is the content of this video. It’s informative. In this case, it’s also got the advantage of the subject matter - graffitti - being something that sort of has a shadowy image to it so the content is interesting in that respect and is something people naturally want to hear about.
And the guy’s accent doesn’t hurt either. :)
People are always looking for some sort of hook, some magic trick, to make something go viral. Focus on the pieces you have the most control over, overall quality and informative content, and let the rest take care of itself.
Chris, I agree with this statement: “Quality is still at the heart of anything that succeeds” The video quality looks very professional but I think it’s about 30 to 60 seconds to long.
As for sharing, I won’t share this video on my site because it’s not relative to my audience and although I think is cool and I’ll like the artist work it doesn’t have that amazement wow factor to make me want to share it unless I was making a blog post about companies and viral videos like yours.
Also this is a great post for everyday video bloggers and viral marketers. Soon videos will be expected to be at a higher quality even though you want it to look or be viral. Viral doesn’t mean looking like it was home made, to me it means non-traditional, short and to the point using a creative manor.
I’m @waynesutton on twitter and I’m going to share this blog post by tweeting it.
Really nice ad. It was really engaging and tastefully promoted a brand while giving us a look into a cool micro-culture, that of graffiti artist. I’m sold.
[…] 19, 2008 Many thanks to David Cutler and Chris Brogan for spreading this nice ad by Adidas. I found my way to Chris’ post through a link he posted […]
whats interesting about it is that its giving us something as well as branding adidas. i wanted to watch because it was like a mini doc. mixing teaching and brands. who knew:)
[…] Then, i saw on this clip on @chrisbrogan twitter feed, and then on his blog (http://www.chrisbrogan.com/viral-advertising-how-it-will-really-work/): […]
Interesting, though the content itself is a little belabored. Half the video is taken up with this guy explaining the bit about the sharp lines over and over. I would have liked to see more about other techniques as well as more video of him actually painting instead of just talking about it. It also has a bit of ad agency “creamy goodness” feel to it which I see as a negative. B+ for content.
Should we call this type of video an advertisement? I’m not sure. The content doesn’t really have anything to do with Adidas except when he paints the logo. It seems more like a “sponsored video” to me. I like that. I’d watch these types of videos. I wouldn’t watch internet videos if they were just ads trying to get me to buy their product.
That was a really cool video.
Like you, I ended the spot by thinking, “interesting.” I think the media bit is an interesting crossover between ad and art. Part of me sees it as a great convergence, but another part thinks it’s a sneaky sort of sell out. Since they don’t really disclaim that it’s an ad but they also have clear placement in the media….
Just my thoughts.
worked for me… i posted it onto a friend’s Facebook page that I knew would appreciate it.
i particularly liked the way that the branding was subtly introduced… first the shoes in the character on the wall, then the blue, then the stripes, and finally the logo.
i far preferred this to Marc Ecko ‘Airforce 1′ viral video which if i’m correct was one of the most successful viral videos to date (however had a massive budget).
i give it 4 out of 5 stars.
It’s an advert if it was produced with the aim of getting a brand’s chosen message to an audience. Which it was, so ad it is.
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This ad is great in that it teaches and still manages to be cool. Your right, this is an ad I’d share with my friends. Totally great strategy: Engage, inspire, validate (graffiti as art) teach. + music and beautiful graphics, what’s not to want to pass on? Thanks for infecting yet another fan.