Marketing Pop Culture

Wassup 2008

 

Leave it to director Charles Stone to update the iconic "Wassup" commercial for 2008. 

Hat tip to both Sharon Pendana and Howard Duffy for sending this to me.

Enjoy!

Breakfast in Bed?

Hat tip to our friends over at AgencySpy.  Apparently, this is Ogilvy's offering for the Valentine's Day timeframe.  Brings a smile to your face and, as AgencySpy notes it "reminds us a bit of Dick in a Box, but you know - less cock."

Enjoy!

"Yes, We Can"--The video for Barack Obama

Since it was added on February 2, this video has been viewed over a half a million times as of this morning.  This is a great example of how inspiration sparks creativity in order to push positive change.  Thanks to Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas, as well as all of the other artists who came together to make this happen, including, Herbie Hancock, Esthero, John Legend, Ed Kowalczyk,  and Tracee Ellis Ross, to name a few.

NOTE: Moveon.org is urging people to get out and vote by using the video virally.  They're asking as many people as possible to pass it along, and spread the word that tomorrow's primary is critical.  Check out the Endorse-A-Thon here.

More info, including background on the project's inception and a list of all the musicians and actors who participated, is available here.

Barack Obama's web site.

Targeting Influencers? Why?

Seth Godin points us to a recently released Jupiter report that suggests that

marketers are failing at viral campaigns because it only works 15% of the time, and that the most popular technique was "targeting influentials."

I've always been skeptical of courting influencers and so-called "tastemakers" because they're so fickle.  Particularly when it comes to media and entertainment, they themselves don't buy anything.  In the case of celebrities, they expect to be given things for free because of their celebrity.  I don't know, but just because I see a Lindsay Lohan or George Clooney with a certain product, I'm not sure I'm moved to want it.

As Seth points out, it's important to create something that's worthy of being discussed.  That's more likely the reason for the 85% failure rate of viral campaigns.  But, hey, it's hard to create something truly unique when you're being rewarded and incented on quarterly P&L management.

Internet Porn

GOOD Magazine: Internet Porn Transparency

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An entertaining video on Internet porn--go ahead and watch it, 'cause you know you want to--produced by Good Magazine.  This is a good example of cleverly using the conventions of a genre to attract attention and, at the same time, to convey information.

Speaking of statistics, as of this morning, the video--which was posted on May 8--has been viewed nearly 500,000 times on MySpace.

Friday chuckle

A parody of the PC/Mac spots, this time with Marvel (natch!) in the driver's seat.  Enjoy!

Analog to Digital to Connected

Reaching, originally uploaded by Uh … Bob.

 

Technology will have a huge impact. . .There is really a transition that is not only analog to digital, but digital to connected.

--J Allard, Microsoft

No matter what you think about Microsoft’s entry into the portable digital music player arena you have to admit that they’re onto something. The most exciting feature of the new Zune player is its WiFi capability, which has lots of potential for viral exploitation—both the good (really effective viral campaigns) and bad (real viruses ) kind.

Marketers should begin to give some serious thought to what it will mean when we’re “always on” and connected in a way that enables file sharing. When it’s as simple as pressing a few buttons on a portable digital device, when you will be able to share files with complete strangers as Microsoft suggests, where will the bar be in terms of creative that prompts consumers to take that action? Perhaps an even higher premium will be put on having “the big idea.” That’s okay, since I believe viral done well will fulfill this need.

Other questions:

• Will music take on greater importance as a brand platform, since it's a reasonable assumption that consumers may be more likely to share music than other forms of content? 
• Could it be that music sharing trains/conditions consumers to the ease of sharing content, something that didn't really happen via mobile phones?

See the New York Times article from which this was drawn via this link.