Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

Check out this unboxing video for the Samsung WB1000. Ok, it's a spoof but a very clever one. I was fooled at first and I don't think I was the only one judging by the comments.

The interesting thing is that the video is posted in two places. On Samsung's Youtube page, as well as a regular user edanhush184, who seems to be getting more views than Samsung's page.

And what exactly is "unboxing"? One of the most celebrated geek rituals...

"It begins with a rush right from the moment of purchase, whether online or off, to the foreplay of opening the package, examining its contents, and ends with the exhilarating finish of turning on and using your tech toy... Think Lolcats riding rainbow rollercoasters; the sensation in the pit of your stomach...that unforgettable." Jank (nixiepixel.com)

Adam Turinas

Exhibit A: BooneOakley's new website.



Did you click? Press play. But try clicking from the traditional URL too: booneoakley.com. See how you were seamlessly ported off to the YouTube video. It is the agency's site. One that has embedded links to the portfolio and all other points of relevant interest. And all presented in convenient YouTube format. Shareable, embeddable, and comment-able. And , as one commenter noted: "Boone Oakley - 1, The rest of you hacks - 0."

Exhibit B: Getyourbasketballon.com.



Blast Radius hires Charlie Murphy from The Chappelle Show to star in an elaborate and ingenious mythology around the man who beat out Michael Jordan for the last spot on his 10th grade basketball team: Leroy Smith. Deliberately lo-fi, the site's brilliant integration of YouTube and social media is matched by the talent on hand. Better still, it promotes Nike subsidiary, Brand Jordan, without a single Jumpman logo to be seen. And Charlie Murphy as a ludicrous basketball motivational specialist? It's like unaired Chappelle show sketches.

Now, for the rest of us? Time to get our YouTube on.

Daniel Turman

PS. Hat tip to Sacha Reeb for finding the BooneOakley site and providing the following commentary: "Smart site placement. Direct viral path. Endless seeding possibilities." Agreed. See Exhibit A.

PPS. Not all of the Leroy story is a myth. He really did beat out Jordan for the one spot for a sophomore on their team, largely because he was taller. And as an homage, Jordan used the name "Leroy Smith" as his alias when checking into hotels throughout his career.

Three. Wolf. Moon. If you recognize the three words, then you probably know at least part of the story. If you don't, it is the digital equivalent of a butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon and six months later that action directly resulting in a category-five hurricane striking New York City. Well, in this case, tiny Marlborough, New Hampshire.

On November 10, 2008, Rutgers University law student Brian Govern posted a satirical review on Amazon.com. It was for a product that he hadn't been shopping for, but found its way to him by way of the site's proclivity to recommend somewhat random products. In this case the recommendation was for a t-shirt. A t-shirt emblazoned with an image that was destined for an irony-driven star turn in the national spotlight. One that appears torn from the side of a disco van from 1977. In Anchorage, Alaska. Three airbrushed wolves. Howling at an oversized moon.

Unable to resist, Brian wrote an impassioned endorsement that ended with the following words. About a product he had no intention of purchasing.

"Pros: Fits my girthy frame, has wolves on it, attracts women
Cons: Only 3 wolves (could probably use a few more on the 'guns'), cannot see wolves when sitting with arms crossed, wolves would have been better if they glowed in the dark."

Today, 859 other people have added reviews of their own. And a product which last year was trickling into the hands of consumers at a rate of one or two per day is now selling at a rate of more than 300 units per hour. Michael Krinsky and Jeff Grosner, owners of the company that produces the shirt, are now the unlikely manufacturers on the top-selling item of clothing on Amazon.com, a position that they secured on May 19th and have held since.

The story made it into the newspaper of record--the New York Times--last Sunday. It got to ABC News--and TV--on Wednesday. The Associated Press released their syndicated print version of the tale 23 hours ago. But what none have so far chosen to mention is the cult that spawned the phenomenon. Following the breadcrumbs to other "related" products for sale on Amazon.com quickly demonstrates the cult's power. As well as the talents that they wield.

I am speaking of the cult of the satirical reviewer.

They have written poetry about milk. Cracked wise about overpriced diamonds. Gotten snarky about exercise pants. And now they've got their first number-one hit. Three Wolf Moon. Remember the name. Because it may well symbolize a spiritual shift in the very fabric of hipster irony. Mock Three Wolf Moon if you must, but why? Instead, recognize the cultural moment that produced it. Celebrate the unlikely response by a student and the ensuing dogpile that now has 300 shirts an hour flying across the Internet. As an oft-sarcastic and sometimes public-facing consumer, personally, I'm finding the moment strangely empowering. A new twist on the American dream. With wolves. Which makes it inherently more awesome.

Daniel Turman

PS. Of course there's a YouTube parody that's racking up the views too.

A few days ago two Domino's employees took it upon themselves to document a pretty distasteful (literally) joke -- or so they're calling it now. If you haven't seen the video that many sites grabbed before YouTube pulled it down, you might want to pass.

One employee plays the old prank of putting something that doesn't belong into an order he's making while the other employee captures it on video. To make it worse, they act like this isn't the first time they've done this. Just check out their other videos. Not good for Domino's or the fast food world in general.

But the crowdsourced sleuthing came to the rescue. The Consumerist stepped in, helped locate the store and the employees, then alerted the manager and Domino's headquarters. Dominos responded quickly by firing the employees. That's what we'd expect, but that doesn't help skeptics like me who wonder if there are copycats out there messing with orders right now. (And I'm sure there are.)

So could Domino's have avoided this mess to begin with? What should they do now to make sure it doesn't happen again? A few Organic employees weighed in:

"Honestly, any attempt like that just looks like duct tape. The real source of the problem is disengaged employees. It reminds me of that great training game where you managed a Kinkos full of unsatisfied and unhappy employees.

The real solution here is training and programs that incentivise and motivate employees. If that happened at a Starbucks, the problem would have been rectified before it ever got that bad."
-Chad Stoller, Executive Director, Emerging Platforms

"...Disengaged employees, or just bad hires? It's naïve to think this kind of crap doesn't go on everywhere. I worked in a restaurant during college, and well, it's a wonder we don't all get sick more often. The best way to deal with this proactively is to hire folks with the right attitude, first and foremost. Although it's interesting, that girl who made the video was perky and happy as hell and probably interviewed well, same as the booger guy. But they were both missing a chip or two, clearly. Certainly, good training programs and involved management make a huge difference, but in certain industries, maybe what a company like that needs to do is institute some kind of prescreening psych test."
-Tracy Coté, Executive Director, Human Resources

No matter what, Domino's will definitely take a hit. I'm sure there are many people who side with these comments:

"Wow. This really gives me pause. Guess I will be eating at home tonight and far into the future."
-Jeff Bossardet, Associate Creative Director

"I just threw up in my mouth a little. You hear things like this and I think a lot of times, you brush them off. No more, I say!"
-Tara Williams, Copywriter

Do you think Domino's did all that they could? What should/could they do now to increase customer trust? And the big question, will you ever eat at Domino's again?

Thanks to Chad Stoller and Jay Bain for the links.

Sarah Jo Sautter

Editor's Note: Yes... some things are worth sharing, even two months late. Originally a post sent around by Sam Cannon, praise for this fantastic campaign reentered my inbox this week from Adam Turinas as something his "70 something aunt in Canada emailed it to me. Hhhmh! This internet thing could be big". Proving a good campaign doesn't just touch the hearts of us marketers, but 70 year old Canadian aunts.

On an otherwise average Thursday morning in January, T-Mobile UK made good on its campaign theme, "Life is for sharing," by giving some unsuspecting commuters at Liverpool Street Station something to share: a blaring music mix interrupted the drone of PA announcements as 400 "undercover" dancers stepped into a tightly choreographed routine for about two-and-a-half minutes - just enough time for people to take notice and whip out their camera phones. Relevant and entertaining, the dance and related clips have racked up millions of views already on YouTube. Goes to show, good ideas promote themselves.

The Dance
The Rehearsal
The Tease
Audience Reaction
"Share Your Best Moves" YouTube Channel

Sam Cannon

People think NASA, they think "can do" right?

Well, judging by this video shot on a borrowed camera and edited at home by a NASA engineer, the agency that put humankind on the moon faces some of the same problems the rest of the world seems to. Too long, amateurish, cloying and at times downright trite - but bang on. So bang on that upper NASA management has used its very existence to deeply question how they foster some of the best ideas in space that never get developed - the ones that are generated by the person in the next cube.

Craig Ritchie also noted some interesting things about the YouTube video itself: "the comments are much more thought out and obviously experience-based than the stereotypical YouTube flaming; the rating 5 stars with 204 ratings; and 94K+ views in less than a month."

You can read more about the story and NASA's reaction at NPR.org. But a more intimate reaction is on the blog of Wayne Hale, previously Space Shuttle Program Director at NASA, now Deputy Associate Administrator for Strategic Partnerships. He ties it back to how in BOTH space shuttle catastrophes there had been grass roots, internal flags raised and solutions offered to the problems that led to the crashes. Longer, but a really really fascinating read.

Alex Churchill

In 1969, Paul McCartney made what seemed to be a random decision to call the Beatles album "Abbey Road" and put this picture on the cover.

40 years later, Abbey Road is still a tourist destination.

Above is a recent Youtube time-lapse video of the famous zebra-crossing. (Video is a promotional piece for http://www.blameringo.com).

I'm sure the drivers in St John's Wood curse the day that McCartney made that decision. I know I did when I used to drive through this very exclusive leafy suburb in North West London.

David Feldt @davidfeldt

There is no more ignoring it. Mocking it has proven futile. There is only one thing left to do: stick out your arms and prepare yourself for a hug from God. Stop pretending you don't want it. And, surely you know what I'm talking about.

For the launch of the third of the X-Men franchise movies, "Last Stand" Organic worked with Myspace to allow users exclusive functionality if they added the X-Men profile (www.myspace.com/xmenthelaststand) as a friend. The media plan included promotion to this page and skinning myspace.com home page for the first time ever.

The results?

More than 3 million members of the myspace.com community added X-Men as friends in 1 month leading up to the movie's release on 5/1/06. This help drive a massive $107 million three-day opening, the largest ever for Memorial Day weekend and the fourth-biggest in box office history.

Campaign done, lets go home.

Post launch the profile was turned into a one stop shop for digital swag and DVD sales. Which would not be a bad exit strategy... if you were not planning additional movies in the X-Men franchise (at least 3 upcoming movies are on the books from what I can tell). It appears that there was little to no dialogue with the community by 20th Century Fox since "Last Stand" and consequently the friend base dropped to 1.7MM users.

I have never lost 1.3 MM friends, but I am sure it hurts. How much does it hurt? This is just a guesstimate but let's assume a conservative 30% conversion rate of friends to ticket holder and that Fox gets 50% of each ticket sold at an average price of $7.08 per ticket.

$1.38MM worth of friends. Ouch.

Could they have kept all of those friends in the interim? Probably not, but they definitely could have kept a lot of them by engaging this community in between launches. A few suggestions:
-For hardcore fans get stan lee on myspace to answer questions
-For Hugh Jackman fans (preparing for "Wolverine" remember?) create a profile for him and tie this into the page
-How about plot teasers for upcoming movies, sending press releases through this community, or asking the community what X-Men they would like to see the origin of*?

20th Century Fox is now preparing for the next launch in the series X-Men Origins "Wolverine" and they are starting off on the right foot. They are leveraging their existing audience to spread the word and have just posted the trailer on the new Wolverine page over 5 months in advance of the movie release. Hopefully between "Wolverine" and "Magneto" (guessing a 2012 release date) they will engage and maintain their community better.

-Russ Hopkinson

*20th Century Fox if you are listening - Colossus Origins has all the makings of a great movie - new cold war overtones, risqué relationship with Kitty Pride and just an awesome character

After watching this attempt at edgy viral marketing, I felt like I needed a shower. I can't imagine what Pizza Hut was thinking when they approved this campaign.

Step 1: Produce a low budget "edgy" video that disrespects small business owners during a recession.
Step 2: Tarnish the family-friendly brand image we've worked years to create
Step 3: Profit!

(Well, since the video player serves up competitors' advertisements during playback, at least someone will profit.)

One of our roles as good marketers is to make sure we ask all of the appropriate questions up front. The question we must ask ourselves is not "How can we make this viral?" The question is "how can we make something exceptional go viral?"

Stephen Murray