Monday, June 1, 2009

Would you enter this contest; forward the video to a friend?

6/1/09

As we have discussed in class, traditional advertising has not performed well on social networking sites, so advertisers are experimenting with a variety of different formats to increase effectiveness.

Here’s an interesting integrated effort from the Bahamas to consider.

Phearcreative helped them to create a viral effort involving a video, contest, and pass along element. The campaign also included a live event and the video was posted on a variety of social networking sites.

The easiest way to check out the video/contest is to go to:

http://www.bahamafridays.com/

I’m interested in knowing what you think about the approach. Did you watch the entire video? Enter the contest? Pass it along to a friend? Why or why not? Any suggestions for improvement?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Viral marketing using video has emerged as a popular, successful means of advertising. YouTube is a testament to the success of this new medium.

Critical to the success of viral marketing is that the links work. The Bahamas link did not work for me and therefore I did not view nor pass the video link on.

Two organizations that are also currently using viral marketing are:
1. EPOCH USA (non-profit organization) - offering $2,000 prize for best submitted video on effective means of child discipline http://www.stophitting.com/index.php?page=video

2.www.pomegranatephone.com
An advertising campaign for Nova Scotia - using a fun, creative and innovative video to capture attention. Whilst the video has been a successful viral marketing tool - I'm not sure how much this has translated into increased tourism for Nova Scotia.

TBlair

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure about the overall success of this campaign. I did enter the contest, but did not watch the entire film or send it to a friend. Part of the problem with this type of campaign might be that people are reluctant to spam, so-to-speak, their friends and co-workers. In general, too many of us receive too many emails. In our already over-cluttered, over-worked lives, it is difficult to want to take time to watch a superfluous promotional video like this one. I, for one, certainly do not want to be responsible to filling a friend's inbox with junk email.

The contest is nice, but with so many contests out there, and the probability of winning so slim, it is hard to not just screen out the video and the promotion.

See you tomorrow,
Amy

Anonymous said...

As TBlair says, viral marketing involving video is emerging as a successful way of advertising on the Internet. The Dove campaign we watched in class is one of those perfect examples (that I hadn't seen till then I guess because I live in Spain, but have forward it to friends since).

In my opinion, the idea of the Bahamas is good ( I would pass the video along to my friends), but the execution is not adequate ( It doesn't at all make me want to visit the Bahamas).

I would forward the video for two reasons. First, to enter the contest. Second, because I find the video is quite funny in a weird way (some of the people don't seem to be enjoying their Bahama Fridays at all...). But, and here is the problem, neither video nor website make clear what is being promoted: Bahama fridays or Bahamas itself? So, in the end, even if people enter the context and pass the video along, would it be an effective campaign?

MN

Mike Castellanos said...

Again I believe this campaign is unsuccessful.

The target audience are probably men and women 25 to 35 who are browsing a social networking site while at the office. I believe that a # of people would get sucked in b/c a chance to win a vacation by watching a 3 minute video and forwarding on will pull in a lot of people.

The question then is who would actually click on the icon while on Facebook? I know it takes a dramatic picture or phrase on the side to pull my eyes away from the main reason I'm on the site. Then those who do get to the video, how many would forward on? or even watch the whole thing? I wasn't convinced because the production quality was just so low that it looked like spam. But it is an interesting approach.

Robin Bunevich said...

The campaign for the Bahamas is definitely an interesting approach. I remember there was a contest a little while back about winning a trip to Australia. I am not sure what it was advertising for, but I do know it got quite a bit of press and millions of people entered videos for the competition.

For the Bahamas campaign, I watched the video all the way through and actually called my friend over to watch it as well (she only watched a portion before walking away). I didn't sign up for the contest or stay much longer on the website. I think a smaller portion of people would actually sign up for the contest, but it definitely plants the Bahama seed in someone's mind, especially if there bored at the office and tend to check flight prices for vacations like I do. It will be interesting to see if the Bahamas sees a lift in tourism.

Jerry Oulds said...

I thought the idea was slightly nifty but didn't really connect. It was like "casual Friday" on a new level. I didn't register or forward it. For some reason it just didn't feel genuine and I'm not sure what message is being sent by some of the female staff being in bikinis. I know sex sells, but I don't think that would really fly in the office place. It felt too ployish.

Anonymous said...

I liked this video. I thought it was clever and funny. I watched it until the end and I even entered the contest and I don’t usually enter contests. But I like the Bahamas and the first prize club property is managed by the Ritz Carlton. I could use a trip to the Bahamas right about …NOW!

To be fair, I was present for the class discussion before I had the chance to see the video. So going into it I knew that the video was an advertising campaign and did not ask the question “Is this for real?” I, unfortunately, already knew that answer. I would have liked to experience the video from the perspective of not knowing.

I’m not one to pass along videos or contests. That is probably why people don’t pass them along to me. Occasionally I get something from a friend and I usually don’t open it unless I am super board. But these days, I have too much going on to be bored…hence needing a vacation to the Bahamas...NOW!

But this time, I decided that not only was I going to enter the contest, but I was going to pass it along to 10 of my friends and family. Mostly it was family, because I know they love me unconditionally. I then sent it to friends who love me the same. I don’t want to loose my credibility with e-mails or clutter any boxes.

I like the new form of integrated viral campaigns. So may people spend time on-line and e-mailing that I think it has elements of being very successful. In this case, I wonder what the live event was and how successful it was along with the video, contest, and pass along element.

Two of my friend responded pretty quickly to the pass along element:

One texted me:
“Did you send me a video or is this some virus thing again???”
Then he said:
“Please tell me you work there.”
When I asked him if he entered the contest, he said:
“What contest???
Clearly he missed that part.
He then said:
“I never do those contests. Don’t trust them for a second.”

That was the end of that conversation.

Another friend wrote:
“OMG! Is that for real? It looks like it's a spoof of the Office or something!
That is really funny and totally out of control. Thanks for sending me the link!”
When I told her it was a marketing campaign she said:
“It looked totally fake! And no, it doesn't want to make me want to go the Bahamas.
It definitely made me not want to work at an insurance company in NJ. Anyways, it was still funny!”
When I asked her if she entered the contest or passed the video along she said:
“I did not enter the contest or pass it along to anyone else.”

So I guess the campaign was not successful amongst my two friends, but I know it would irresponsible for me to derive any hard-set opinions based on two people.

And I can’t really use my own reaction because I already knew that the video was a part of a viral marketing campaign.

Oh well.

I still thought the video was funny!

Tara