Faceless people, supermodels, and happiness machines, oh my! (Or, the fun of guerilla marketing)

Two Jedi walk into a mall and start fighting with light sabres.

Does it grab your attention? Do you whip out your cell and start sending pictures or videos to your friends? Do you search Google to see what it’s all about?

That was one of the publicity tactics that many of our groups pitched as part of an in-class activity to promote – in theory – Pablo Hidalgo (CreComm grad and artist/writer of numerous Star Wars material) coming to our college.

We seemed to agree that using guerilla marketing tactics like flash mobs – groups of people who assemble in a public place, perform an unusual action, and then quickly disperse – are effective ways for whatever you’re promoting to “go viral” through word-of-mouth and videos of the event that get posted to Youtube.

Since reading Cindy’s blog post on the T-Mobile flash mobs, I’ve been hooked on this entertaining form of viral marketing, and others like it, that seem to be quite popular in Europe.

In 2008, people in the U.K. were intrigued when a pair of “faceless” people (who, oddly enough, looked like the faceless people in that Doctor Who episode) began to appear at various events including Elton John’s party , Wimbledon, and Harrod’s Summer Sale.

Those who did a little searching on the Internet discovered it was a campaign for Lotus to create buzz about their new car, the Eagle, which used the marketing slogan “True character in a faceless world.”

In today’s world where the average person is bombarded with thousands of ads daily, it seems this form of public entertainment which sparks curiosity about what’s being promoting is the way to go .

Traditional print advertisements, like billboards, posters, and banners are now so ubiquitous in our daily routine, they’re easy to tune out. Even TV ads – although still holding a large portion of the market – are getting a little stale.

With fewer young people watching TV (turning to the Internet instead), and cable companies like Shaw and Rogers offering PVRs that allow you to skip through commercials, more and more avenues are becoming available for the consumer to avoid watching TV ads.

That’s not to say that advertisers and publicists can’t still benefit from traditional media – they can. And that’s also not to say that new social media is suitable for all advertisers – it isn’t.

But in order to get noticed and shout above the din that is today’s advertising scene, creativity and surprise where people least expect it are some of the most potent ingredients.

This flash mob ad for SKY TV used creativity, surprise (to the bystanders in the Sao Paulo airport in Brazil), a supermodel, and big money ($4 million worth to be exact), to promote high definition TV in their campaign “TV is now real”.

Personally, I prefer this type of interactive advertising that provides entertainment over the street giveaways from companies like Stride gum and Coke (and other various treats that have been shoved into my hands in various big cities).

Although if they can combine the two like Coke did for these students as part of their Happiness campaign, I’d definitely reconsider:

My new mom.

Meet Phyllis: Kleenex says we’re made for each other!

(Image credit)

They say you can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family. Well, you can scrap that old adage now – Kleenex is letting you choose... your mom.

Wish she was more like your best friend? Try Jessica. Need some of that down-home kinda lovin’? Try Magnolia. Or how about down-to-earth lovin’? Check out Amber. Want mom around only when you’ve got time for her? Swap schedules with Veronica.

Even if you’re not sure what type of mothering you need, you can take the online quiz to see which one is best for you.

Kleenex’s getmommed.com is a campaign that really puts the “viral” in viral advertising by taking advantage of the widespread concern over H1N1 and what they say are people’s increased need for tissues and TLC during this year’s cold and flu season.

Kleenex gives people the opportunity to get that extra mothering via the Internet, and as for the tissues, don’t worry – they’ve programmed every mom on their site to insist that the best way to conqer an illness is “(insert character appropriate phrase) and a big box of Kleenex tissues.” (That’s the first sign something’s amiss – since when does mom ask if you want a “Kleenex tissue”? It’s “Kleenex”!)

The website alone has enough mom stuff to keep you occupied for a couple of hours (make that multiple hours if you’ve got even a moderate internet connection – there’s a lot of graphics to load), but if that doesn’t satisfy your mommy cravings, you can sign up to get email, text messages, phone audio, and Facebook messages from the mom of your choice (you can even “friend” your mom on Facebook – each character comes equipped with their own page.)

Without a doubt, Kleenex’s campaign is entertaining (watch out: you’ll end up spending all your free time listening to the spiels of all 10 mothers vying to be chosen as yours), but it is also highly effective.

According to Ad Age, the 30-second TV commercial titled “Homecoming” has had the strongest persuasion scores and ability to break through ad clutter in more than 10 years of copy tests for Kleenex.

It also reinforces what many advertisers have said for years: empathy works. If you can do empathy, you’re on your way to a great campaign.

That being said, it doesn’t take long before you realise that not only is the campaign is targeted at Americans, but it also targets American stereotypes.

Take the quiz to see which mom suits you, and you’ll be asked which is your favourite on-screen mom: all of which are well known, but all of which are also from good old American family programs.

Go and sign up for a Kleenex account to get emails from your chosen mom, and you’ll be asked where you shop – in the States.

But more than that, getmommed.com presents stereotypes galore. BrandChannel sums it up nicely:

”Kleenex also knows that "mother" and "motherhood" can't be defined singularly. Motherhood is a rich and dynamic tapestry, made up of women from various walks of life and nurturing styles. Unless you're a minority!”

It’s true. While the Caucasian moms are a little more unique in their characteristics, the African-American mother, the Asian mother, and the Hispanic mother are pigeonholed when it comes to their traits.

I’ll quote BrandChannel again, since they phrase it so eloquently:

“Perhaps you need some tough love? For that there's Sue, the Asian mother with a purely coincidental accent. More interested in a feisty mom? Okay, try Lisa. Everything about her is sassy! A sassy African-American woman? Unheard of. Are you from a big family? Well, say "Hola" to Ana Maria. You can't miss her, she's festively attired in a vibrant outfit.”

As for all the attention Kleenex is getting, there’s still no word yet on how real moms are reacting when they find out their son or daughter is going to the computer for affection and advice from their virtual mother.

But in any case, getmommed.com is the perfect procrastinator site for us CreComms. Go on over and take the quiz and let me know “who’s your mommy?”

Volkswagon's going philosophical

Volkswagon Sweden has devised what they call “The Fun Theory”, which states that the easiest way to change people’s behaviour towards something for the better is make that something “fun”.

For Volkswagon, that particular “something” is the environment. Whether it’s getting people to recycle, not to litter, or to take the stairs rather than the escalator, Volkswagon is asking people to submit videos that act as “evidence” for the theory.

But this is really a “viral” marketing campaign to promote Volkswagon’s new environmentally friendly “BlueMotion Techonology” which is now put into their cars.

According to our handy Whipple book, viral advertising is any Internet-driven promotion, such as video clips, which get passed on from one person to another, spreading like a global infection (Kind of like the ad version of swine flu. In which case this post is the equivalent of an uncovered sneeze and now, my dear reader, you’re infected. Sorry.)

Dove’s Evolution commerical is one example of viral advertising; The Fun Theory from Volkswagon is another.

In an interview with the L.A. Times, DDB Stockholm deputy manager Lars Axelsson said that “by making driving and the world more fun, we turn the VW brand into a hero. Our experiments and our Fun Theory films make the world a better and more fun place to live.”

I’ll admit – the videos are entertaining, and the ideas that people come up with are really quite innovative. But as soon as I see the Volkswagon logo with the words “An initiative of Volkswagon” at the top of the webpage, I become a little more uninterested.

Maybe I’m just being cynical, but to me, it’s like thinking you’ve finally found someone who genuinely cares about making the world a better place without standing to gain anything from it... and then, to quote Luke Sullivan, "the salesman pops out of the closet in his plaid coat".

Does “The Fun Theory” make Volkswagon a hero? Maybe, if people’s behaviours and attitudes towards the environment are changed for the long-term. But how long will it be before the novelty of piano key staircases and acade game recycling bins wears off?

Although I just might change my mind if Volkswagon can meet my challenge: how can we make streeters fun to do?

Censor... anything but the creative muse

Last week, my advertising class was given our “Good Ad/Bad Ad” assignment (self-explanatory), and in the midst of my ad searching, I came across three ads that stood out from the rest. In fact, I had remembered seeing this one particular campaign floating around on the internet a while ago, and I deliberately went googling to try and find it, only to discover it didn’t fit the assignment criteria (had to be from a magazine... but more on that aspect later).

Our text Hey Whipple, Squeeze This addresses an advertising paradigm called “positioning” where the idea is that there’s only a certain amount of room in a consumer’s head for products. If your product isn’t in their head already, the only way you’ll get access is if you de-position one of your competitors, or try to plan an ad campaign that will fill any available head space.

This is a definition that seems to summarize the typical Western (read: North American/European) market: highly saturated, and with numerous brands touting similar products. But what about more difficult markets, such as the Middle East, where the competitors aren’t other products in the market place, but the market place itself? So far our text and classroom discussions have been focused on how Western advertising companies selling Western products are fighting for the top spot in Western markets. But what happens when a Western company wants to market in a country that has strong censorship against the very products they want to sell? Advertisers have to get a little creative, and things get a lot more interesting.

Enter the international brand Change and their campaign to promote lingerie and swim wear in Saudi Arabia. The country’s censorship laws which aim to uphold the morality of its people inevitably result in products showing Western models with exposed skin being scribbled over with marker before hitting the shelves (see this edited package or this amusing doctoring of Katy Perry’s CD).

But Change wasn’t about to back down to the challenge; instead, they did probably the smartest thing they could have ever done, which was to turn the idea of censorship into an advertising tactic (“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade”). I'll let the ads speak for themselves:

Images courtesy of AdBlogArabia.

This is a great campaign in that Change understood the type of market they were trying to access and altered their campaign accordingly. This did this not only visually, but also by way of distribution: instead of trying to get ad space in magazines, Change decided to keep their campaign under the wire and get at their female market by submitting their ads to local and international blogs, which proved highly successful.

The Change campaign is a prime example of the changing face of advertising. Whereas advertisers in North America go to great lengths to attract customers by making their ads stand out from the rest, those aiming for a more conservative market must figure out how to get past the marker-wielding middle man first before reaching their actual customers.