VIRAL Ads Today @viraladstoday - Tumblr Blog

Viral Ads Today

Print, digital “print”, Internet, mobile, clothing, etc… all viable options for advertising in today’s society. Advertising is a part of our society, we see it wherever we turn whether it be in magazines, on websites, our mobile devices, and even our clothes. But advertising cannot work without a good design or a memorable story. It must be a cohesive bond between the two that leads the viewer to want to either investigate the ad further or take away a thought or feeling that will eventually lead them to purchase or attend whatever the ad intends. One thing is for sure, each medium for advertising needs good design or a good story. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case for every medium.

But what is it that specifically describes advertising in today’s society? It’s not print ads or billboards, its viral advertisements. These are memorable commercials or videos with the aim of reaching the viewer and/or consumer in a very impactful way that also becomes viewed all over the Internet. Why do these videos become “viral”? Because the Internet. The many outlet of the Internet gives these videos the ability to travel all over the world even to places advertisers didn’t expect them to reach. But that is the advertising fad now; to ultimately have your video or commercial go viral and with social media sites and video sites like YouTube or Vimeo this has become possible. But for an advertisement to become viral it must be memorable. The ad must make people laugh, sympathize, be inspired, or in some cases, be offended. In the past, more specifically the 1950’s and 1960’s what were referred to as the “Golden Age of Advertising” we can see more of the relevant techniques and strategies for creating thought provoking and yes maybe even absurd over the top advertisements. The truth is people want to see new and exciting. The things that shock and awe and sometimes the ads that, metaphorically speaking, leave a dirty taste in your mouth. Lets be honest, even the frivolous will remember those ads. Even in those cases, even bad publicity is good publicity. How many times have companies gone too over the top for a super bowl ad in hopes that it will gain critical acclaim and memorability and get banned by the network? The answer is many times. Every year advertisements get banned from the super bowl and end up on the Internet with a label like “Banned Super Bowl Doritos commercial” and sure enough people will click on the video because they want to see what was so bad that the Fox Network wouldn’t air the ad. Thus, a viral video is born.

What is so fantastic about the viral success is that it doesn’t even have to be a big company to successfully create such an ad. In fact, its very much something that the average person could do. With the power that YouTube gives to a person is fantastic. Big Companies, small companies, organizations, or just a call to action on important social topics can become viral. None the less, the ability for an ad to become viral is the ultimate goal for advertisers today.

Self made Evian GIF

#the comedic

beyondthead-blog

Beyond the Ad

viraladstoday

How many ads do you experience in a day? How many ads do you remember in a day? If I were to ask you about all the advertisements you saw yesterday, my guess is that you would only remember a very small percentage of them. With all the advertising noise and companies fighting for our attention, it is hard for any one advertisement to stand out. What I am saying is nothing new or ground breaking, but if this is the case, why are companies spending so much money to be ignored?

Obviously, companies still need to do something to raise awareness and sell their product or service. Plenty of marketers go with the ‘beat the consumer over the head with it’ method. Fair I suppose. It is hard to forget the commercial with the annoying jingle that we see three times per commercial break. However, nobody enjoys that.

jonnyleigh

Viral and Guerrilla Advertising

FOUNDATION BRIEF

In times of economic difficulties, advertising budgets are being severely reduced and companies have had to find other ways to market their companies. Guerrilla marketing was invented as an unconventional system of promotions that relies on time, energy and imagination rather than a big marketing budgets. Typically, guerrilla marketing campaigns are unexpected and unconventional, potentially interactive and consumers are targeted in unexpected places.

The objective of guerrilla marketing is to create a unique, engaging and thought-provoking concept to generate buzz and consequently turn viral.

Brief

Work in pairs. Design a logo and marketing campaign for a new TV channel. You will need to define what makes your company unique and unsual compared to other channels out there (there is no point in launching a similar channel to one that already exists).

Things to consider:

there is little money for advertising – different ways to advertise, very small budget

research existing viral and guerrilla campaigns

research into existing TV companies

interactivity is something that often happens in viral advertising as the consumer will be more likely to remember if they are involved – also the campaign is more likely to spread from person to person

taste or unique selling point

Links and starting points

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_marketing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Boston_bomb_scare

http://www.creativeguerrillamarketing.com/

http://mashable.com/2010/10/06/guerrilla-marketing-videos/

http://www.bootstrappingblog.com/15-more-guerrilla-marketing-examples/

http://www.bootstrappingblog.com/10-great-guerrilla-marketing-examples/

http://weburbanist.com/2008/06/19/different-types-of-guerrilla-marketing/

http://www.funnymos.com/guerrilla-advertising.html

http://blogof.francescomugnai.com/2009/11/the-80-best-guerrilla-marketing-ideas-ive-ever-seen/

http://designtutorials4u.com/40-of-the-most-interesting-and-creative-guerilla-and-ambient-advertising-campaigns/

http://www.guerrillafreelancing.com/more-guerrilla-marketing-examples/

http://www.boredpanda.com/clever-and-creative-guerrilla-advertising-ideas/

Evidence needed:

Research into existing campaigns (with annotations)

Research into existing tv companies

Mind mapping and a diverse range of ideas (many ideas)

Finalisation of ideas

Outcomes – the idea actually produced and realised (your campaign needs to be realistic).

beyondthead-blog

Surveying Viral Success

For the purposes of this blog, I created a survey to see if the fact that these ads were viral actually translated into brand recognition. I asked a set of questions to find out the recognition of the old spice campaign, dos equis campaign, and the breast cancer awareness campaign mentioned on this blog. For the Breast Cancer Awareness campaign, I asked people if they had seen Facebook/Twitter updates with “I like it on…” posted in it. To find the recognition of Dos Equis and Old Spice commercials, I put a picture of the characters in their ads without anything that would signify the product in it and asked participants which product the character represented. The results of my survey are as follows:

77.3% of respondents had seen a Facebook or Twitter status that started with “I like it on…” 68.4% of participants who said they had seen the status updates for Breast Cancer Awareness knew what it was for when taking the survey 85% recognized Isaiah Mustafa as the actor from the Old Spice commercials 71.4% associated the man famously recognized as the Most Interesting Man in the World with Dos Equis

The data indicates to me that these three campaigns have truly had viral success. By creating something that was sticky (easily remembered) for consumers and interesting enough for them to pass on, the brand has been successfully matched to the campaign.

If you would like to see the survey click here!

beyondthead-blog

So now that I have summarized some of the well known viral campaigns, I will summarize the commonalities to close out this class project. Upon review of my previous blogs, I have narrowed it down to four key aspects of an advertising campaign that create a viral buzz. The successful ads are funny,...

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