Key to Scorsese

Well I said I'd review viral advertisements... and I'm choosing to start with this effort. The advert is called "The Key to Reserva" but if you do a YouTube search you might have to add "Martin Scorsese" and "Alfred Hitchcock" to the search.

Just to explain the format, I'm about to write spoilers now, so you might want to scroll to the bottom of the post to see the embedded video, follow the link above or do a search. I'll wait.

This advert must have cost a fortune to make. Not only did they hire Martin Scorsese to direct but they had to clear the rights to Alfred Hitchcock's posters and to Bernard Herrmann's score to North by Northwest. All of this to market a wine by Freixenet, which sounds like its an online network provider, or a social network (based around wine?). If this is the start of a campaign then it has to be compared to the Hugh McCloud designed Stormhoek campaign.

This advert is an odd fish. The re-created fake Hitchcock movie clearly owes a debt to North by Northwest (notice the R.O.T. monogrammed handkerchief when Robert Thornberry (I read the credits) takes the hot lightbulb. The same monogram appears on Robert O. Thornhill's handkerchief in "North by Northwest"). The look and feel of this movie feels like a Hitchcock, even the Kelly-like blonde (called Grace in the credits) seems right. The script surrounding the movie however feels like something Christopher Guest would write. With the plot of the piece, it would like to see a feature length version of the premise if Guest wrote it.

The advert, with a running time of a little shy of 10 minutes feels like an escapee rather than a viral. In fact, given the number of times the same advert shows up on YouTube, it might be. And a broadcast advert with closing credits has precedent. However if this is a viral it does make some sense. There are frequent rumours of drink advertising being banned from television, and while this format does suit age checked cinema audiences, an internet drive would get more viewers. The subject matter, namely Martin Scorsese making a movie based on a Hitchcock script is also not a subject likely to attract a very young audience. Plus, making the subject of the advert be the the MacGuffin of the re-created movie is an idea that Hitchcock might agree with.

Freixenet aiming for the same audience of most wines... those who like to wrap themselves in a little glamour (a crowded market), and maybe the film geeks. Stormhoek aims for the tech geeks. I'm sure that there is an overlap, but whichever is the more successful has yet to be seen.

As amusing as this advert is, I don't care enough about the product. However I would pass this on to any movie buff friends I have... which may be the point.



Thanks Shane for telling me about the clip.

take care,
Will

tags : viral, The Key to Reserva, YouTube, Martin Scorsese, Bernard Herrmann, North by Northwest, Freixenet, Hugh McCloud, Stormhoek, wine, advertisement, marketing, Christopher Guest, MacGuffin

You can bring an ad to YouTube, but you can't make them link

A while back Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz of For Immediate Release said that
a) You cannot design a viral advertising campaign
and
b) All adverts should be viral

This seems like a contradiction, but here goes...

b) first. All adverts should be put online in order to gain the potential of going viral. This seems like a no-brainer. If you want an advert to get maximum exposure, you need to cover all the formats (and have a web site for someone to go to).
There is however a problem.

Right.
Or rather rights.

If your advert (and I'll assume television here, but this applies to radio) has music, you can get the cheaper rights to cover a small region (say the UK and Ireland, or Australia) or get the more expensive world-wide rights. The alternative is to commission music, but the composer can still negotiate world-wide rights at a higher price.

Then come writers, copyrighters and actors rights. In the case of up-and-coming you can probably get them cheap. Given that you'll probably want to use phrases and still on your website, I'd advise you to go for the worldwide rights anyway. It's cheaper than lawyers. Since it is now possible that an advert will run for the rest of time on the internet, you'll probably need a landing site anyway.

In the case of a well know personality, well then things can get expensive. Thanks to the internet, gone are the days when an A-List actor will appear in an advert on the other side of the world where no one that hires them will see it, because everyone know that the bloody thing will eventually show up online.

Which gives rise to a class of advertising I call "the escapees". These are adverts that fans (or rather "fans") have put online by themselves completely independent of the advertisers or the product holders. Personally I suspect that they are slightly ignored for the run of the advertisement in its local market. But the advertiser is legally obliged to start pulling those advertisements eventually.

Which brings be back to a). "Escapees" are adverts that have gone viral despite the intentions on the creators. There are also a class of adverts which are designed to stay on the net.

These "potential virals" were created, at first, because they would not be approved for broadcast (I remember one series of condom adverts where the sexual nature of the adverts more or less guaranteed that they would be online only). Other times a viral is the long version of the advert, a TV spot is 30 seconds... an online advert, or a YouTube clip can go on for much longer.

However a viral advert must be linked to. Word of mouth must be created. People have to care about the bloody thing, either because it's amusing, or very topical.

You can't guarantee that an advert will be popular enough to be viral. You can try, but word of mouth cannot be faked for long on the internet. You can't fool all of the people, because if they aren't interested nor amused, they won't tell others

So why am I typing about this... Well, given the number of adverts and wannabe viral adverts that have been crossing my screen, I've decided that I'm going to start reviewing them.

Wish me luck (and send me adverts)
Will

tags : For Immediate Release, viral advertising campaign, advert, viral, advertisement, online, Rights, escapee, word of mouth, review

Evolution of the advert

I'm going to talk about adverts, well one advert and its effect. Don't worry it's not that Tracker mortgage fallout.

I'd like to blame the Hobson and Holtz For Immediate Release podcast for this embedded video. It's an advert for Dove as part of the "Campaign for Real Beauty" which shows all the hard work (hair, make-up, visual effects) needed to get a good looking model up there on the billboards...



But it's slightly scarier to see this parody which turns an OK looking man in to the a good looking female model... using exactly the same techniques..



Now these "viral videos" have a point. The first point is that Dove spent a shiftload on a 30 second spot on the Superbowl, and a few thousand on the first video... yet got a higher return on investment on the YouTube one.

Secondly, the YouTube video has A won the top prize for TV and cinema advertising in the Film category of the Grand Prix Cannes Lions advertising festival. Which means download only (or streaming only) is now considered a proper format by the industry.

And finally... this shows us that the impossible images being projected on a regular basis are indeed impossible. Which makes a certain group on which these images are projected feel so much better.

Which is a good thing.

take care,
Will

tags :
advertising, advert, Tribune, Hobson, Holtz, For Immediate Release, video, Dove, Campaign for Real Beauty, evolution, viral, YouTube, Cannes Lions advertising festival