Brand Republic
 
Edition:
UK |
Asia
 
Digital jobs

Jobs

Find over 3000 jobs
 

Directory

 

Rubbertopia

Taking viral further 

Comments:3   Add your comment
This week's viral of the week in Media Week is BP Ultimate's latest campaign "Takes you further".  Some might question why a viral video campaign for a big brand like BP is worthy of such an accolade and I'd argue it's based on the appreciation of the matching of well thought out planning with strong creative.

BP's creative team (Ogilvy) recognised that they (apologies for the pun) needed to take their viral further than most, and rather than simply produce a one off viral hit, create some kind of online narrative around the campaign over a lengthier period.

The strategy behind this was based around rolling out a range of unbranded teaser clips, to generate an initial buzz and general feeling of "what's going on" (or in YouTube land WTF!), followed by a main "reveal" viral clip - to help make sense of the campaign, and hit home the key messages of the campaign.

The campaign so far seems to be bubbling away nicely.  The initial teaser clips have had 50,000+ views, and the main viral clip is starting to pick up nicely too - with some nice comments too.  Importantly if you look at the comments and conversations they seem to be largely positive, which is largely linked (I'd argue) to the seeding strategy - as existing communities had been warmed to the campaign by the teasers, with the reveal then helping make sense of what had gone before.


Published May 22 2009, 09:11 AM by Chris Quigley
Filed under: , , , ,

Comments

by jerome courtial
May 23, 2009 7:32 PM
 

How is that a viral? It's another TV ad put on the Internet. Come on people, it's 2009. I don't mind using the Internet to distribute a commercial, but let's stop calling them virals just because they are on Youtube. There is absolutely nothing viral about that spot. If it spreads, it's probably thanks to the money they are putting behind to push it.

 
 
by raj samuel
May 26, 2009 11:43 AM
 

I agree.  Putting an ad online (especially one like this) doesn't make it viral.  Especially when it's another one of those sad 'nicely shot footage set to music' pieces of advertising that honestly no one really cares about.  And really doesn't take the next step in real participation...or providing some form of utility.

particularly interesting is the long list of overly 'positive' commentary from real 'users' on the actual YouTube page: http://bit.ly/RV0cg  People DO NOT get this excited about a petrol company ad.  please.

 
 
by Chris Quigley
May 27, 2009 5:33 PM
 

I think you've kinda missed the point of this re: the overall strategy.  My point was about how the BP campaign strategy was a viral strategy - re: the teaser campaign + reveal.  I agree that it's more of a challenge for big brands like BP to do viral, however the strategy of using an unbranded teaser + branded clip is aimed at addressing this . . .

 
To comment on this post you have to be logged in

 

About this blog

Rubbertopia

Chris Quigley's (partner at Rubber Republic) thoughts on the good, the bad and the darn right ugly in the world of viral and buzz marketing.
 

About the author

Chris Quigley

Blogging for:

Rubbertopia

Member since: 09 Jun 2008

Last login: 20 Nov 2009

Total Posts: 82

 
 
 
 

Tags

 

Syndication