I'm assuming most of you know of the online phenomenon of lonelygirl15, of her success and inevitable demise. Lonelygirl15 was a professionally created video blog, following the hopes, dreams and daily meanderings of the irreverent, pretty, teenage, vulnerable Bree, delivered to us right from her bedroom using no more than a web-cam. Or so we thought. Featured on YouTube, her audience took her for real, but after finding out that she was really the creation of talent backed by CAA, her numbers started to drop. 'She' averaged between 300,000 - 600,000 viewings per episode at the shows height. The shows numbers still remain fairly high (100,000 viewings per episode) considering the fact that everyone now knows the truth behind this professionally produced show.
Enter Esmee Denters & Lisa Nova...
Esmee Denters, a pretty, talented, vulnerable, teenage girl from the Netherlands auditions as a singer in front of the world...and the world likes her very much indeed! Who needs American Idol? Esmee has already been featured on local radio, dutch television, and has been written about on YouTube's own blog. Check out her videos on her YouTube Channel along with her profile on MySpace.
Lisa Nova is, well, an anomaly. Lisa Nova is a self taught comedian who got her big break on YouTube with what is best described as her own, pretty raw, variety show. With over 6 million viewings, people clearly love her. Lisa writes and directs all of her own content. Lisa recently sold her show to the Daily Reel, an independent, online channel.
Considering Time Magazine chose 'You' as in 'all of us' as the man of the year, this is significant. The emergence of Esmee Denters & Lisa Nova is an evolution in a trend along with lonelygirl15, and the creation of the character Bree. An evolution of the power of the medium, and of anyone's ability to publish. This is not a trend people. It continues to re-iterate that the power is in the story, the talent, the every-man - and to hell with production values (for now at least). Rest assured more surprises are on the way in '07, and more stardom for Esmee Denters beyond Bree's wildest dreams.
Stay tuned.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Proctor and Gamble's Men with Cramps!
P&G breaks new ground. For those of you that missed the article in the New York Times yesterday...go and read it and take a look at their Men With Cramps site (www.menwithcramps.com) before reading the rest of this.
The good news is that this is a really big deal for all of us in the advertising industry. Why?The fact that P&G, a fairly conservative company, would even elect to put something online as irreverent as this, and for something that is as close to a drug as P&G gets, this is great news. Georgia Pacific did something similar with the Brawny Academy for Brawny towels and have enjoyed millions of viewings at no media cost to them as a result. The same also goes for Snickers and its InstantDef site along with a few others. But this, people, is P&G!
The P&G site goes a step farther creatively even if it does gratuitously jump on the current Borat craze with its main character. What is so successful about it is that it seeks to entertain and have fun with the subject matter more than it does to try to sell. It brings value first, and hence builds better relationships as a result, something SmashTube has been preaching about for some time.
Basically, P&G tries to draw attention to the problem of monthly female cramps and thus their product ThermaCare. A touchy subject for sure, and a fantastic effort at consumer value via irreverent entertainment. Now that P&G is on board, hopefully other brands will step up and take some 'risks' rather than continuing to bore their consumers to death.
The only criticism I have is that it is almost too good and may ultimately not get the final brand message across. After speaking to a couple of dozen people about the site I was amazed at how many men and women missed the point and thought that this was actually for a real male syndrome that may resemble monthly female cramps. Make no mistake, this is for a female issue and it tries to draw attention to it by making a comparison and creating empathy via a fictitious male syndrome. Clear now?
If that is the case, creativity may have overshadowed the product itself and it's a fine balance. But overall, a valiant effort by a big player that most creative folk shied away from working with in the old agency days.
The good news is that this is a really big deal for all of us in the advertising industry. Why?The fact that P&G, a fairly conservative company, would even elect to put something online as irreverent as this, and for something that is as close to a drug as P&G gets, this is great news. Georgia Pacific did something similar with the Brawny Academy for Brawny towels and have enjoyed millions of viewings at no media cost to them as a result. The same also goes for Snickers and its InstantDef site along with a few others. But this, people, is P&G!
The P&G site goes a step farther creatively even if it does gratuitously jump on the current Borat craze with its main character. What is so successful about it is that it seeks to entertain and have fun with the subject matter more than it does to try to sell. It brings value first, and hence builds better relationships as a result, something SmashTube has been preaching about for some time.
Basically, P&G tries to draw attention to the problem of monthly female cramps and thus their product ThermaCare. A touchy subject for sure, and a fantastic effort at consumer value via irreverent entertainment. Now that P&G is on board, hopefully other brands will step up and take some 'risks' rather than continuing to bore their consumers to death.
The only criticism I have is that it is almost too good and may ultimately not get the final brand message across. After speaking to a couple of dozen people about the site I was amazed at how many men and women missed the point and thought that this was actually for a real male syndrome that may resemble monthly female cramps. Make no mistake, this is for a female issue and it tries to draw attention to it by making a comparison and creating empathy via a fictitious male syndrome. Clear now?
If that is the case, creativity may have overshadowed the product itself and it's a fine balance. But overall, a valiant effort by a big player that most creative folk shied away from working with in the old agency days.
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Connecting through vulnerability...
...and why a 2 way dialogue is important for a relationship...and other interpersonal Brand Advice.
Brands are just now recognizing the fact that their consumers have a bigger voice than they do. One product miss-step or bad customer experience can turn into a PR nightmare, as consumers fight back via blogs or online video posts that often get more attention than the brands themselves. The ubiquitous two way dialogue.
But this can be turned around. The sooner brands start talking with us rather than at us, the better off they will be. No one likes being preached to by a friend. What we do connect to are those friends that open up to us, those that are vulnerable, that tell us their secrets, good and bad. Yes, bad. We do not appreciate perfection, we don't trust it.
Online video is the perfect forum for this. CNBC did a fabulous job with one of their producers taking a camera around introducing the audience of CNBC.com to the production staff. The basic idea showed how even big companies are staffed by individuals that work hard just like us and have to pay for their sons and daughter's college educations or daughter's pony. It was real, and connected way beyond what any traditional station identification could have done.
So why don't other do the same? Imagine if:
• Journalists admit to their mistakes rather than have us wait for the network cover up.
• Weathermen admitting to the fact that what they are doing is predictive, and that it would be impossible to always be right.
• Ford and GM admit their designs suck and realize they can no longer win the low price, 0%APR wars.
Now, this does not have to all be grounded in humor, I am just trying to make a point. If Brands want to have relationships with us, especially in todays ubiquitous two way dialogue, they need to connect as an individual does because it is now all about individual connections. One to one, doesn't just refer to the technology employed. It is more than delivering the right product to the right consumer, but in the right voice too.
The Brand can still go out with their Big Brand campaign. It's sort of like us going out for the evening in our best tux, but we still need to get real.
Brands are just now recognizing the fact that their consumers have a bigger voice than they do. One product miss-step or bad customer experience can turn into a PR nightmare, as consumers fight back via blogs or online video posts that often get more attention than the brands themselves. The ubiquitous two way dialogue.
But this can be turned around. The sooner brands start talking with us rather than at us, the better off they will be. No one likes being preached to by a friend. What we do connect to are those friends that open up to us, those that are vulnerable, that tell us their secrets, good and bad. Yes, bad. We do not appreciate perfection, we don't trust it.
Online video is the perfect forum for this. CNBC did a fabulous job with one of their producers taking a camera around introducing the audience of CNBC.com to the production staff. The basic idea showed how even big companies are staffed by individuals that work hard just like us and have to pay for their sons and daughter's college educations or daughter's pony. It was real, and connected way beyond what any traditional station identification could have done.
So why don't other do the same? Imagine if:
• Journalists admit to their mistakes rather than have us wait for the network cover up.
• Weathermen admitting to the fact that what they are doing is predictive, and that it would be impossible to always be right.
• Ford and GM admit their designs suck and realize they can no longer win the low price, 0%APR wars.
Now, this does not have to all be grounded in humor, I am just trying to make a point. If Brands want to have relationships with us, especially in todays ubiquitous two way dialogue, they need to connect as an individual does because it is now all about individual connections. One to one, doesn't just refer to the technology employed. It is more than delivering the right product to the right consumer, but in the right voice too.
The Brand can still go out with their Big Brand campaign. It's sort of like us going out for the evening in our best tux, but we still need to get real.
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