Ad Mavericks

If you were a gum company trying to promote your new fruit-flavored gum, how would you do it?  Well, you could hire a bunch of college kids to pass out samples in the mall or outside of sporting events. You could put coupons in Val-Pak mailers or the Sunday newspaper advertising inserts.  Maybe you spend the big bucks and launch a nationwide tv campaign.

Or …

you could hire a half-dozen actors, choreograph a 4-minute musical and have them debut it in one local grocery store.  Oh, and maybe you have a few people video the spectacle so a million viewers can choose to see your marketing message on YouTube in the first week!

That’s exactly what Trident did when they hired Improv Everywhere to promote their new “Trident Layers” gum.  Very smart move.

How smart?  Well, Nielsen Company just released research that showed that internet users are watching 25% more online video than they did a year ago – and they expect that to continue increasing.  The heaviest consumers of online video?  Teenagers through age 35 – probably a perfect demographic for a new gum product launch.  To put a million viewers per week in perspective, the popular sitcom “The Office” draws an audience of about 8 million viewers every week … but just try to buy a 4-minute ad on network tv.

If I’m a food company from Iowa  like AE Dairy, Wells Blue Bunny, Cookies BBQ, National Pork Producers or Amana Steaks looking to launch a new food product, I’m taking notes and maybe calling Hy-Vee. (Ok, maybe this is a little out of the scope of Amana’s brand identity … but …)

Author: Tom Flynn III
www.lessingflynn.com
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