Great Viral Ads - Is There Such a Thing ?

[Klubmasta Will]

Hyundai Suicidal Ad - YouTube

hyundai is claiming that this commercial was not supposed to be released, which is a bit of a joke as it was obviously intended to be a viral ad. nobody would have expected this commercial to ever run on mainstream television.

it certainly got my attention when i saw it mentioned on the today show, and now i have hyundai's cleaner running emission on my mind this morning.

love it or hate it?

what's the best viral ad or campaign of all time? the dark knight returns? kony 2012?

 

[acheron]

Wassup!
[YOUTUBE]UDTZCgsZGeA[/YOUTUBE]
there were many variations but this one is my favourite:
[YOUTUBE]Py2g74nOJPU[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Klubmasta Will]

wikipedia says old spice had the most successful viral ad campaign of all time, if you are measuring by number of views in a short period of time:

Old Spice | The Man Your Man Could Smell Like - YouTube

Old Spice | Questions - YouTube

i think i was using the term "viral ad" the wrong way, as the above are just great ads that could have been designed for mainstream tv.

what i meant to ask is what are some of the best "viral ads" that were never designed for mainstream consumption, either because they were "leaked" or the creators pretend to have no affiliation with any product or because they contain nudity or swearing? like this one, which took a shot at the iphone 4:

iPhone4 vs HTC Evo - YouTube

was the above made by a rival phone manufacturer or just some guys making a point?

the superfriends "wassup" video posted above likely benefited budweiser, so i wonder whether budweiser paid to have it made or some guys just thought it would be funny.

 

[stryker]

wikipedia says old spice had the most successful viral ad campaign of all time, if you are measuring by number of views in a short period of time:

Old Spice | The Man Your Man Could Smell Like - YouTube

Old Spice | Questions - YouTube

i think i was using the term "viral ad" the wrong way, as the above are just great ads that could have been designed for mainstream tv.

what i meant to ask is what are some of the best "viral ads" that were never designed for mainstream consumption, either because they were "leaked" or the creators pretend to have no affiliation with any product or because they contain nudity or swearing? like this one, which took a shot at the iphone 4:

iPhone4 vs HTC Evo - YouTube

was the above made by a rival phone manufacturer or just some guys making a point?

the superfriends "wassup" video posted above likely benefited budweiser, so i wonder whether budweiser paid to have it made or some guys just thought it would be funny.

I would say the whole Smirnoff Ice "Iced" fad that was going around ages ago. Some of you will probably remember, people would walk around with a warm Smirnoff Ice and if you got caught by surprise and were "iced" you had to chug the warm drink right then and there.

Officially Smirnoff claims that they had nothing to do with it. But the frat house that it started at was affiliated with Smirnoff. Some of more influential members of the frat were brand ambassadors. It took off like wild fire and within months people were getting "iced" everywhere. Smirnoff officially stated that they didn't want the drink to be connected with the "this is funny because you have to chug a gross warm drink" because it was a negative brand association. Unofficially, they were having huge problem with chipping away at beer market share. These "coolers' were seen mostly as girlie drinks and any self respecting guy wouldn't be caught dead with one....but Men drink 10x the volume of Women. So even if the total base of consumers was smaller, they'd still consume waaay more. "Icing" way a way to may it socially acceptable to drink this stuff without getting ridiculed for being a sissy.

Diageo swears up and down that they didn't have anything to do with it....but speaking to brand people working on Smirnoff....they pretty certain that it was seeded through this frat house and then through others.

stew

 

[Boss Hog]

Supergreg


Number 1

 

[dstarr]

It's really common that ads are "tested" in social channels before they are launched so in many ways, most of the ads you see on TV were seeded on social platforms first.

The Ship My Pants ad happening right now is a viral ad.

 

[awwnaw]

Not really. They are planned for the channel for which they are intended. Usually racier stuff is featured in Cinema and online. No advertiser spends the enormous investment to produce a full motion spot and then to 'test it' in a channel (not to mention there would have to be support to drive people to watch it regardless--more $). They use animatics and focus groups for that.

This was purposeful. And they knew full well that no broadcaster would ever run it either. Online would really have been the only place. Even Cinema wouldn't accept this.

 

[Sal De Ban]

that nutrigrain ad from like 10 years ago was hilarious. it had internet viral status before youtube and social media!

 

[sk8]

Hyundai Suicidal Ad - YouTube

hyundai is claiming that this commercial was not supposed to be released, which is a bit of a joke as it was obviously intended to be a viral ad. nobody would have expected this commercial to ever run on mainstream television.

it certainly got my attention when i saw it mentioned on the today show, and now i have hyundai's cleaner running emission on my mind this morning.

love it or hate it?

what's the best viral ad or campaign of all time? the dark knight returns? kony 2012?

An open letter to Innocean and Hyundai | Copybot

 

[Klubmasta Will]

^ so, is it a good ad for hyundai or not?

they have gotten a lot of free press from this, although granted they have angered some groups. i'm sure they knew they would alienate some groups by releasing the commercial (which is probably why they are claiming it was "leaked without permission"), but does the marketing benefit outweigh the bad press?

there are so many taboo topics - race, religion, gender, sexual orientation ... all the things covered by the human rights code.

should suicide victims and their families also be off-limits because those scenes may cause grief for some viewers? we don't complain about similar scenes in movies, television shows or comedy routines, so is it just commercials that shouldn't tread on this territory?

i think the majority of the people watching this video were shocked, possibly chuckled a bit, then shook their head knowing that the commercial is in very bad taste, and then either forwarded the link to friends and/or mentioned it to others. and, in describing the video to others, in order to explain why the suicide attempt was unsuccessful, one has to mention hyndai's new clean air emissions.

my original reaction was that it was a brilliant advertising move, but i was not sure and thus wanted to gauge reactions from others. hence my starting this thread.

does anyone else have strong feelings about this hyundai ad?

 

[alexd]

^ so, is it a good ad for hyundai or not?

The only real measure of 'goodness' from hyundai's perspective would be if the ad translated into an increase or deline in vehicle sales that could be directly attributed to the ad in question.

With brand advertising generally speaking, such relationships are hard to prove and that's the way the ad agencies like it.

 

[sk8]

I actually haven't seen the ad. I learned about it from seeing someone post that blog link on facebook. So I guess in a sense the ad is working because people are sharing it.

I haven't been directly affected by suicide - so I guess I will most likely be in the "shocked, thinks it's in bad taste" group rather than the "outraged" group.

It's not the first time ads have gone too far. There's been a couple where I've thought, really - was that necessary. I much prefer humour over shock value in my advertising. But I suppose humour is all relative as well...

I don't believe the "leaked accidentally" story one bit though. Why go through all that trouble and money to make an ad you aren't going to release?

 

[Big Harv]

the dove real beauty ad or the bride hair freakout.

 

[alexd]

Why go through all that trouble and money to make an ad you aren't going to release?

It's their firewall in case the ad is so offensive it bites them in the ass.

Also, they capitalize on news cycles without actually making a media buy, which saves them money.

A lot of politicians do this with attack ads - they pre-release or leak the most dispicable attack ads they could ever make and once the ads are picked up by mainstream media news they get their media buy for free.

 

[awwnaw]

This wasn't controversial/provocative though thought provoking. This was just in poor taste. The end. Like the blogger letter sk8 posted -- they didn't HAVE to go there. A million times creative ideation goes to an unsavory place or a place of crap ideas. And then you keep going until you have something you're proud of. This is disappointing from Innocean and really the marketing team at Hyundai. What a cheap, disgusting move. Innocean compromised their creative chops and Hyundai made it obvious they're desperate and make poor marketing decisions.

 

[kirstenmeows]

Molson makes really shitty beer but no one can deny