Goodby, Silverstein & Partners launched an in-banner video with geo-targeting integrated with Google Earth for Saturn Aura. The New York Times quotes Rich Silverstein as saying, “I feel 10 years younger.” Red Herring notes:
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, the company that did the “Got Milk?” campaign, may have added another chapter in the online advertising story—a saga that is just beginning.
Regardless of whether it is a new chapter or not, we’re just pleased at the execution, and hope it will create fantastic results through consumer engagement.
Reminiscent of Max Headroom’s blipverts, where incredibly short tv commercials caused viewer’s bodies to explode due to overstimulation, media giant Clear Channel recently introduced “Blinks,” 2-second advertisements on their radio network of 1,100 stations nationwide. Fox Networks is the first advertiser to embrace this new rapid-fire method of advertising, promoting season premieres of Prison Break and The Simpsons. Network execs are saying the purpose of Blinks are to complement the longer traditional 60-second spots that are normally played on the stations.
One striking feature of the Blink is that the spots will be embedded into content, which may lead the average radio listener annoyed that their fave Justin Timberlake song now includes a commercial within it. Or maybe, it is just another reason to move to commercial-free XM.
Linden Lab, the makers of virtual world Second Life announced to their customers that its database, which includes customer names, addresses, passwords and credit card information had been hacked.
While Linden Lab’s CTO Cory Ondrejka advised users to “change their Second Life passwords immediately,” this security breach occurs after a string of events in the last week that have brought up the issue of privacy. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg issued an apology to Facebook users after a week of protests regarding a new feature that perhaps exposed to much information to other users about a person’s decision to make changes to their profile. Jason Fortuny’s prank of posing as a woman on Craiglist, and then posting the photos and identifying information points to the fact that people are far too open in sharing their personal information with complete strangers online.
Regardless, more privacy tools are needed online — and fast. Tools like Google Checkout, eBay’s PayPal, Bill Me Later and other alternatives to credit card payments have already made people more comfortable about shopping online. People may also want think twice before sharing their profiles, photos, email addresses and other sensitive data with others who they do not already have an established, trusted relationship.
It turns out that the widely popular lonelygirl15 on YouTube is a concoction made up by Hollywood. Lonelygirl15 (a.k.a “Bree” on her video posts) began posting her videos in early June 2006, and quickly became a phenomenon, jumping to the second most subscribed channel on YouTube, and people even started to respond with their own video responses to lonelygirl15’s video posts. While the details of who really is behind the posts (and why) are yet to unfold, there are plenty of upset fans who feel duped.
The discovery was made by lonelygirl15 fans who as internet sleuths detected that the IP address from emails sent by lonelygirl15 were coming from CAA (Creative Artists Agency) fueling speculation that the video posts were a viral campaign for an upcoming horror film release. Furthermore, the creators posted a message on a fan website for lonelygirl15, where they admitted she was an actor, but failed to provide any further information, stating:
Right now the biggest mystery of Lonelygirl15 is “who is she?” We think this is an oversimplification. Lonelygirl15 is a reflection of everyone. She is no more real or fictitious than the portions of our personalities that we choose to show (or hide) when we interact with the people around us.
Regardless if CAA is behind this new approach of marketing, the real question is should marketers consider this to be an appropriate way of reaching their audience. When it comes to advertising, there has been a current debate on whether it is ok to essentially hide the true origin of a campaign in a online teaser or viral component, or whether the true intent and message should be transparent to the audience. The repercussions of keeping the true intent (i.e. marketing campaign, advertisment for a movie, etc.) from the audience could include the potential of the viewers feeling alienated or angry by being duped. And that, could cause serious brand management issues.
After the highly inspirational 360° style IKEA site that features people using their kitchens in a beautiful stop-motion style, IKEA strikes a home run with the recent launch of “Kom In I Garderoben.” With incredible usage of Flash Video, the site depicts 5 unique stories of how IKEA closets can match a given lifestyle. Designed by Agency Forsman & Bodenfors, with film production done by Camp David and flash production by Kokokaka Entertainment, the site seamlessly shows how featuring product pricing doesn’t have to be boring.
