Wendy's Real Time Site

There are some interesting campaigns based around the voice of the consumer.  We first saw this with Skittles and now with Wendy’s.

The idea is to pull together user generated content that is popping up on Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, etc. onto the Wendy’s web site.  The display is a random cascade of user generated posts, pictures, and videos.  It seems to me that there is a potentially engaging concept here but I haven’t seen an execution that lives up to the concept.

It’s interesting to see how we could have gotten here by looking at the history of interactive marketing.  We first mimicked traditional mediums by broadcasting a unidirectional message.  Then over the last 3 years or so we all started to delve into multidirectional conversations with the consumer.  Now it appears the pendulum has swung all the way to unidirectional but the message is coming from the consumer.    I’m not sure that this is anything more than a gimmick but like I said, maybe there is something worth looking into.

Thoughts:

• The Wendy’s and Skittles execution lack a purpose.  I get it but why would I get engaged.  And what is the connection to the product?
• There is potential here.  Especially around the idea that you can reward your brand’s fan base by showcasing their posts.  Hence enticing them to post more.  But this can also quickly backfire as mischief makers start learn how to game the system.
• An execution of this nature needs a purpose.  It may work better if linked to a cause or movement.  Combining your brand with a cause ,such as Breast Cancer Awareness, than wrapping that into a platform for consumers to share with each other will build engagement much better than these stand alone concepts.

How do you think this concept can be executed in a meaningful integrated campaign?

Check out this example of Augmented Reality from a current Papa John campaign.  Augmented Reality (AR) has come up a lot in the last month.  And there has been some interesting uses — so far my favorite is Lego’s use of AR with an instore kiosk.  Hold a Lego box up to the kiosk and see what the Lego set build in 3D.

I’m not sure that AR is the novelity dejur or here to stay.  If it is here to stay it needs better execution than this example from Papa John.  There’s something interesting to the technology — it will be interesting to see it develop.  Keep an eye on this space to see if it is a potential tactic for a promotional campaign or online/offline product.

Walmart's iPhone Ap

For Valentine’s Day Walmart has launched an iPhone ap that allows users to blow the love of their life a kiss — and quickly find that perfect gift at Walmart.  With over 1MM iPhones in the US and thousand more sold each day expect to see more and more of these Promo-Aps.

Is the Promo-Ap the 30 Second spot of the future?   We’ll always have some form of the 30 second spot.  But the Promo-Ap is a strong contender for advertising dominance.  Why?  Because good aps add value that the consumer needs AND sells product. That combination can drive the entire buy cycle from awareness to direct purchase.

Here’s a freeby — want to make a kagillion dollars in 2025?  Start a development company that develops Promo-Aps for TV.

eMarketer Online Movie Ad Spend Growth

I have a lot of heart for this topic.  I’m a huge movie fan and there is a ton of innovation when it comes to leveraging the Internet to promote movies.  My love started back when Blair Witch came out in 1999.  The agency went well above and beyond to build out the entire back store on the web. To a degree that there was wide belief that the movie was a “real story” — click through on the movie poster below to see the site — still looks great after 10 years.

Blair Witch

The eMarketing data shows that the studios will continue to look towards the web to get kids into the theaters.  With Social Networking and wired Cell phones expect to see some really fun campaigns.

Some Ideas:

- Studios can create online personalities for characters well before the movie starts to be promoted.  Imagine if the Blair Witch trio had 1000 friends each on Facebook — then they disappear.

- Studios, like Disney, have been expanding their movie franchises with Virtual Worlds.  But they are all POST movie release.  How about developing the Viral World first!  Think about this for the upcoming Hobbit movie.

- Think about creating Webisodes around the main characters for the upcoming films and releasing them on YouTube.  You see the networks doing a lot of this now by providing back stories on sitcom characters.  Building out that kind of robustness and level of fan engagement drives bigger audiences by creating uber-fans that spread the word.

Virgin's Kickbacks Program

Here’s a very cool campaign from Virgin mobile.  Virgin customers can grab a unique code off of the site and post it throughout their Social Network profiles (on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc).  If a friend uses the Virgin customer’s code to sign up for the service the Virgin customer gets free minutes and the new referrer gets a discount.

This is pretty much an Affiliate marketing deal — but it is done on a simplistic level that gets Virgin customers to distribute a promotion threw their viral networks.  An interesting plus up might be to give the Virgin customer value for just posting the promo codes on and distributing them – rather than only rewarding them if a new customer signs up.

According the DM New the program has already drive 50,000 new sign ups!  (link)