Networking and Association

No recent updates have been posted because of a busy few weeks. In addition to the usual work, there is a competition coming up that I intend to enter into. I’ve also been building a number of thing and recently picked up a new camera and I am still getting used to it.

It’s been talked about plenty already, but I’d like to talk about the Old Spice Guy. With a number of newer commercials launching during the final games of the world cup, they also went viral in a very effective way, and I’d like to explore why.

The viral aspect of this ad campaign started out small by responding to tweets from users such as 12755JDH with the usual humour and randomness, but quickly moved to the top of the food chain by responding to several celebrity tweets.

This is not simply marketing, though it does a very good job at that as well. This is networking and association. Old Spice is winning association with both internet regulars or ‘the everyday people’ and with the celebrities they fawn after.

In short, this is an excellent example of how a company can do viral marketing correctly.

Subliminal Messages

I noticed something while I was watching the coverage of the World Cup the other day. The FIFA marketing people had done a little wordsmithing to insert a subliminal command into their sponsor recognition. It is in the open, but disguised because of the keyword is a homonym. I'm going to compare a regular sponsor recognition ad with FIFA's.

Regular:
This program was sponsored by...
Lentils, "Taste the Brown"
...and...
Transmogrifiers 3: Revenge of the SuperHobbes


FIFA:
Sponsorship for FIFA was paid for...
by Budweiser, "The King of Beers"
...and...
by Adidas, "Impossible is Nothing"
...and...
by Coke "Open Happiness"

Now I'll have to watch the game again tonight, but the important part is the 'by' or 'buy' that comes right as they tell you the name of the product. Instead of being an itemized list of sponsors, the portion is now a list of commands that tells people to go out and buy the products of the sponsors.

The question is do they work any better than normal ones? Proponants of NLP would probably say yes, and I myself would guess that a scientific study would reveal that the effectiveness does increase. Now, the person equates the celebration of a good football game with not just the sponsors, but the phrase "buy Coke". Now all they have to do is detect which game you were rooting for and put the highest paying sponsors on your screen when they win.

I see what you did there FIFA. Very clever, and probably not the last we'll see of similar tactics. Of course, I'm sure their use will decline when an old man will tell them that this only influences the weakminded.