As services like YouTube, Instagram Video, and Vine are gaining popularity, advertisers are seizing the opportunity to use this to their advantage. Some of these videos are so popular they go viral, gaining hundreds of millions of views. The popularity of these videos can sometimes help to sell a product if used in an advertisement (assuming it is done in the right way). The Screaming Goat videos from YouTube are an example of this. These crazy farm animals were everywhere when they first came out around two years ago. There were a ton of parody music videos using these goats, most notably Taylor Swift's "Trouble". Though their popularity has declined slightly since then, that didn't stop advertisers from using them in two separate commercials for this year's Super Bowl XLIX.
Sprint used theirs in a humorous commercial, implying that when their prime competitors, AT&T and Verizon, find out about Sprint's new family plans, they're going to scream. Sprint has recently been kicking up their advertising efforts in what appears to be a rebranding campaign to make them seem fresh and new. Using this viral video fits with that idea, and they kept the idea continuous by using a donkey in a different apology video.
Discover also utilized this idea in their Super Bowl ad. This ad was a variation on a previous ad. Both focus on a customer calling Discover's customer service and finding out that Discover provides its customers with their FICO credit score every month, to which the customer replies, "Good, because I hate surprises." In the original ad, he opens the door to find a surprise party. The Super Bowl version has a goat waiting inside with balloons, and the man and the goat scream at each other. This was a funny way to compliment their previous commercial, and worked pretty well.
Both Sprint and Discover had good ideas for these screaming goats, and it fit with their campaigns. It was quite a shock to see two commercials with these goats during the Super Bowl, though. It made the two commercials hard to differentiate between. This is certainly a risk associated with utilizing a viral video in a commercial, but since everyone was talking about them afterwards, it seems to have been a pretty good decision overall.
I think viral marketing and advertising should go hand in hand. When you think about it, companies that are up-to-date on social trends usually have higher sales even if they are shock ads. I would be more inclined to buy from a social savvy company than one that keeps recycling old material.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think "viral," I think of "Hump Day." Every Wednesday, my one friend sends snap chats of him saying, "Happy Hump Day!" The fact that he is always reminding me of it triggers my mind to recall the Hump Day commercial for Geico. I agree with Mark. Social trends increase sales. It is better to be up-to-date with trends or even setting trends to capture the new 25-54 demographic.
ReplyDelete