15 Minutes of fame: maybe just a tad longer these days

I know, I know, all this technology talk; but it really is shaping the marketing industry.

Andy Warhol once said, “in the future everyone will have 15 minutes of fame”. Had he known the Internet was coming, he may have given us all a couple more minutes.

Many companies over the last couple of years have been embracing their customers’ knowledge of technology and soliciting them to produce homemade viral videos or commercials to sell their products for them.

Genius!

With Tivo coming almost standard with cable service these days, who has time for commercials anymore?

Unless you can watch them on YouTube! In which case, it is a welcome break in anyone’s day.

We all need a good laugh every once and awhile, watching a kid shoot deodorant, full court shot, through a basketball hoop is just a good time.

That is a reference to Old Spice and their new Swaggerize your wallet campaign. http://www.oldspice.com/swaggerize-your-wallet/

Old Spice asked customers to participate in a contest to best show how much Swagger they have in a viral video, not sure what the winner gets, but I don’t think that’s really why people participate. Everybody has a video camera and editing software these days, just ask them to direct and produce a video for you and they can’t sign up fast enough.

They might be the next Internet sensation!

But the Old Spice Swaggerize campaign was really first inspired by the uncrowned kings of viral video marketing, the geniuses’ at Doritos. For the last 3 Superbowls, viewers have been a part of history as submitted videos of their products are aired during the actual game. The winner here gets 1 million dollars!

How cool is that?

The site is still up from last years contest at: http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/

Still not buying it?

Remember that kid that “felt funny” after the trip to the dentist?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txqiwrbYGrs

His video has been viewed over 52 million times on YouTube, and that doesn’t count the airplay it has received on morning talk shows across the country.

Even better; now they are selling “David after dentist” shirts.

www.davidafterdentist.com

It’s the new way to put a kid through college. (in all fairness, they do claim to donate a portion to operation smile)

You know you want that shirt.

These are just a few of the many examples of viral marketing on the web. Look into this, see what companies like yours are doing, maybe this is something your company should embrace as well?

Cheers,

Josh Fedie

The “Adholics”
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