'Planner's Favourite' goes to....
This guest post in our ‘Planner’s Favourite' series, is written by Jonathan Fowles, Executive Director of Strategy and Insight, Manning Gottlieb OMD. We've asked Jonathan to choose a favourite between three campaigns from Footlocker, Evian and Avatar. Many thanks to Jonathan for a great post. - Ed.
FOOTLOCKER
Footlocker have adopted a user-generated-content approach to cement their relationship with people’s obsession with sneakers. It seems they are trying to say that they share our (your?) “sneaker enthusiasm beyond reason” and are prepared to help you articulate and share this. Which is nice. As ever with UGC the results are a mixed bag (as well as mixed language as the campaign is pan-European). The two winners consist of a hit and run spoof (driver knocks over a pedestrian, is shocked at what he’s done and then you realize he’s actually gasping at the victim’s trainers, which he then proceeds to try and steal, ha ha); and some guys rapping in Italian while they try and eat their shoes (the humour is presumably lost in translation). 5 of the 6 comments about the winners that have been posted use the word “shit” but fair play to Footlocker for keeping them up.
There have been over 200 entries and I think some of them are better/funnier than the winners, the breadth is quite impressive. In a similar vein Footlocker (with adidas) have also set up “confession booths” in which customers can confess the extent of their obsession with sneakers. This adds further weight to the idea and show it isn’t just a one-off, so well done to Footlocker for really cementing their understanding of enthusiasm / obsession / fanaticism…
EVIAN
This is a key component in the recent “babies” campaign. It says that the viral nature of YouTube was a huge catalyst for its success. I haven’t seen any consumer-to-consumer viral numbers but the sheer viewing figures are pretty damn impressive – the most viewed ad online no less with 62 millions views. And there’s no doubting it’s an impressive and captivating ad (albeit slightly unsettling?!), as clever editing techniques make a host of babies dance, roller skate, jump and generally groove around in “adult” (I use the term loosely) fashion, to exaggerate and therefore convince you that Evian helps you “live young”. They have set up a “babies’s channel” to build on the idea, with the obligatory “making of” and some cute multi-lingual “interviews” with the stars of the ad. It’s all very nice and well done, but I have a couple of questions - 1) there’s no doubting that the online viewing figures are impressive, but it would be even more impressive to place a value on that active exposure relative to the more passive television exposure the ad campaign received (over 330 million impacts in the uk alone). 2) there are 16,000 odd (as in approximately although some of them do look quite odd) subscribers to the channel, it doesn’t look like Evian have addressed this audience of super-advocates which looks like a missed opportunity.
Impressive ad no doubt, but the channel simply feels to me like an extension of that ad. Nothing wrong with that and it’s very well done but it feels to me that there’s an even bigger and more engaging idea lurking within the “live young” thought that transcends an advertising execution. Perhaps that’s to come next.
AVATAR
Poor Fox. What to do with this low budget, low profile release that nobody has ever heard of…? Well they did all the obvious but right things very well – launching the trailer on YouTube well in advance, homepage takeovers etc. All rock solid and hard to argue with. And of course the creative assets are impressive without getting near the cinema experience. All very good – and necessary - message distribution but a little formulaic. More impressive is the YouTube channel, which is more than a home for exclusive content – Fox gave YouTube “red carpet presence” and some exclusive access. Best of all is the opportunity for the film’s YouTube community to interview producer Jon Landau – it’s all very well offering people extra creative assets etc. but to offer access to the talent that sit behind it is a genuine money-can’t-buy experience. This is good stuff and while it’s obviously easier for a film company to do this sort of thing rather than say one that makes washing powder, the principles of open-ness and access are still appealing ones.
But what appeals to me most about this example is not the execution but the measurement. Rather than solely lean on the crutch of “we got X,000 channel views” Fox have researched the true, real-world value of that exposure and interaction. So they know that as a result YouTube channel viewers were 25% more spontaneously aware of the film, 9% more likely to discuss / share information about the film, and – crucially – had a 15% increase in intent to actually watch the movie. Brilliant vindication of what they have done.
What campaign do I like the most…? Evian is too much of an expansion of an advertisement which rather misses the broader and deeper opportunities that the web offers. With the material available to them Avatar could hardly fail to build an impressive channel but they did go that extra mile to allow viewers to talk to Jon Landau, and I love the real-world value of the research they conducted. But Footlocker gets my vote. They have identified a space where their brand overlaps with a truth about people’s fanaticism about sneakers (please can I call them trainers?) and have shown that they understand this more than any other brand. They have allowed people to freely express themselves in all sorts of multi-dimensional ways and allowed this fanaticism to be shared and celebrated. And even where people have occasionally been critical they have been transparent enough to keep it on the site. I love this as it is the ultimate evidence for or extension of people’s ‘enthusiasm beyond reason’, so they have really taken it the n’th degree. Great stuff.