Citizen Created Commercials
When iPod came out we saw a sleuth of free advertisements. The Mac/PC dialogue has been parodied endlessly. And it wasn’t long before the new iPhone (copyright Cisco) generated a series of spoofs. 
But here’s a fave. It’s HappySlip (a hyper-popular YouTube personality who is also now on Revver) singing a parody of “You’re Beautiful.” In this cleverly written parody by James Blunt, we see her adoring her 12-inch laptop but falling for the higher end Macs. HappySlip is probably one of my top 3 creators in online video, and she’s destined for “cross over.”
Now I’m highly doubting that Mac funded this or even knew about it. But if you’re a Mac marketing person or agency, you would greatly benefit from the PR if you just bought her one. Your cost would be far, far less than the value of the advertising she’s providing. She has some 12K subscribers, and I can almost guarantee this will be seen by 50K-300K people.
Marketers aren’t usually responsible for generating “citizen created commercials” but they need to acknowledge and reward them. Is it the PR group? The ad agency? The interactive agency of record? The brand team? Who cares- just foster it. Don’t worry if others begin to pandor for free product. I don’t know HappySlip but I’m sure she wouldn’t give out your name.
She’s helping Mac do better advertising than they could ever do on their own, and it would be a great story to provide her with a new machine.
I think I can see a ‘secret’ romance coming on between you two. Lol, She’s just obsessed with you as you are with her 🙂
So, so, so, so true … And did you hear that Doritos and Alka-Seltzer are asking the public to create their ads for the Superbowl this year? It was mentioned on Current TV this morning (Time Warner Cable, ch. 103 in NYC).
All companies, it seems, spend such an unhealthy amount of time trying to protect themselves from imaginary losses that they don’t even realize – or are too bitter to acknowledge – when financial reward and true consumer feedback is literally being GIFTED to them.
I think we citizens should wait until this form of advertising becomes the standard model, with an entirely restructured media dependent on our ability to handle the ‘Creative’ (you know, since its been so long for them) … and then promptly go on strike 😉 It would be fun. I hope HappySlip gets six computers.
She looks a lot like my second wife and shares my love of Macs. If she was twenty years older, she’d be perfect for me.
HappySlip sat at the popular table in high school, and I was hanging out at RadioShack. However Marquis has a chance. Imagine the creativity in their offspring.
Good point, Mel. The problem is that they’re simply not understanding the value of consumer-generated advertising. Certainly their agencies are not incented to inform them. In a sense, consumer-generated stuff is a threat. However it’s a wonderful thing to support as a marketer. And it’s a hell of a lot more impactful than another contest or “make a commercial for us” play, which are so 15-minutes ago.
Nalts, I found the exact opposite of HappySlips ad – a company’s worst nightmare. See it at http://www.granitebaysoftware.com/blog/2007/01/yin-and-yang-of-user-viral-ads.html
Comments are rulezz 🙂
thats got to hurt