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All of the great stuff from Old Spice got me whistling…
I’ve been hearing and seeing a lot of advertising lately that is attempting to be green or to connect with consumers via social media or create community. Too often, my response has been “REALLY?” The idea is somewhat sound… give consumers what they want and like to get them more involved with your brand. Create some love. I get it. The problem is the execution.
Today on my way in, I heard a radio spot for a body groomer for men. The ad highlighted two things: 1) the company will plant a tree for each unit sold and 2) you can go to their website to create an avatar, a virtual shaved you. Honestly, what’s the point? They have a series of humorous videos to both explain the product benefits and drive interest, that makes sense to me. But the social/green aspect feels out of place.
First, if your brand wants to go green, that’s great. But don’t greenwash. If you go green it needs to be related to your product. So if you plant trees but still use toxic chemicals or kill indigenous plants and birds to make your stuff, that’s no good. How could a body shaver go green? Maybe they could make the product more energy efficient or use a high percentage of recycled plastic in making it. Those would both be relevant. Otherwise, don’t bother.
Second, not every product needs or deserves a community. Using a viral video to highlight benefits, drive interest, etc. makes sense. If it’s cheap and you think it will have any impact, do it. The problem is do I really want to be in a community for a product like this? Do I need an avatar just for me? Does any guy really talk to their friends (or strangers for that matter) about grooming and how they look? The answer is not really. So while you might think it’s great for your customers to talk to each other about your product or brand, you still need to understand if they’re actually going to do it.
I’ll give some brands like this credit though. They provided a few how-to videos to let guys escape embarrassment and learn about new ways of using the product on their own.
Green and social were new and interesting and have become “expected.” However, as with anything else in life, they’re only worth doing if you do them well.”
This week’s infographic is a short, animated film produced for Hellman’s “Eat Local, Eat Real” campaign. It beautifully integrates statistics and dancing dinner items to encourage Canadians to buy local. Really well done.
This morning I revisited Malcolm Gladwell’s TED Talk on Howard Moskowitz, the man behind chunky spaghetti sauce. It’s an excellent reminder of a simple heuristic in marketing and communications thinking: challenging assumptions is the first step toward a breakthrough. In this case, it was the first step in making people happier at the grocery store and at the dinner table.
Recently I stumbled upon two interesting projects that aim to provide insight into who we are. One does this through a closed small American town sample and one relies upon happen chance encounters along a nationwide road trip. Both intriguing.
A collection of photographs and narrative that portray the people who make up a small American town, all 670 of its residents. The first series of portrait photographs were conducted in 1984, and each is paired with its corresponding photo completed two decades later. A longitudinal study of American life and a seemingly interesting portrayal of juxtapositions and uncanny similarities.
“What a marvelous way to get at ‘who we are’ as people. This powerful confessional book draws its strength from the truth that so-called ordinary people, not those with bold-faced names, are actually the heroes of our American drama.”
—Ken Burns, Walpole, New Hampshire
A David Lynch project that documents a 20,000 mile road trip over 70 days. Interviews were conducted at random with people they found along the road.
“The people told their story.” – David Lynch
“It’s a chance to meet these people.” -David Lynch
I’ve watched my share of TED Talks, and I’m always amazed by the consistent quality of the presentations. Honestly, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a dud. This may explain why…The TED Commandments.
Last week, the curators of weird, web ephemera at Urlesque counted down the 100 Most Iconic Internet Videos and did so without a hint of irony. It was my first encounter with a website expressing nostalgia for pop culture media that is only meant to be consumed online.
The first question I asked was, is this possible? Can you feel nostalgic about “Don’t Tase Me, Bro” (which came in at number 25 on the list) or any other video that was experienced for two minutes, shared with a few friends, and promptly forgotten a few weeks later?
This is the problem with much of the pop culture media content that is meant to be consumed online – the conversation evolves faster than most people’s ability to keep informed. If you don’t get the joke, you don’t risk being misinformed for more than a few days. Everyone will have moved on by then.
But let’s say I were to encounter someone playing “Counting Blue Cars” by ’90s one hit wonders Dishwalla. I didn’t particularly like that album or the band, but I still feel as though I experienced it in a way that is far more meaningful than any internet video. It makes me think of a particular time and place in my life when that song seemed vitally important to popular culture even though I had no attachment to the song and probably actively told people how much I disliked it.
This is what is perhaps lost in the clamor for realtime information. Shouldn’t the goal for anyone that works with the web – whether it is a company establishing an online presence, web designers, or everyday bloggers – be creating meaningful, memorable content rather than quick laughs?
I expect there will be a time when we are nostalgic about Internet content, and someone (perhaps Kevin Smith) will one day host Remember the Oughts, where we can collectively laugh and sigh at the good old days of “Star Wars Kid” or the “Diet Coke and Mentos Explosion,” but it seems far off.
