The Future of Marketing? Look to the Skies

Last week Australian based textbook rental business Zookal announced it would be delivering text books to renters via Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV).  This announcement sparked a national argument debating on whether UAV's should be allowed for commercial use.  Currently countries like Australia and China allow the use of UAV's for commercial business but, the US currently has them outlawed under such circumstances.  While the debate certainly holds a variety of political and social issues regarding the use of UAV's but I being the marketing junkie I am, would like to take a different perspective at the subject.  

While the long term viability of this business structure can certainly be argued one thing that cannot is the impact this stunt is having.  This marketing stunt of sorts is a primary example of a business doing something outrageous in order to make the headlines. This growing trend has been the standard for most creative businesses trying to make an impact globally. 

This trend can most recently traced back to Red Bull Stratos the global science experiment that Red Bull conducted to send a man to the edge of space.  While the event may not directly correlate with an energy drink Red Bull may have consciously (or unconsciously) started a new marketing trend.  The event activated over 61,340,000 impressions worldwide and set Red Bull out as the premiere energy beverage.

And granted Zookal may not be dropping textbooks from space the marketing stunt is a prime example of a local company making a global impact utilizing digital outlets and a clever idea.  If Red Bull Stratos shows us anything its that you don’t have to be a relevant subject to make a big impact on the Internet.  It will be interesting to see how Zookal is able to turn this marketing stunt into a multi-media activation and turns into profit.  

When the Absurd wins Users

The internet is a scary place. It's kind of like an inner city playground. It's awesome to play with all the swings and toys during the day with your friends but, you really don't want to be there after dark or wonder too far off.

That being said the current generation that's rising up is being exposed more and more to ridiculous stuff and is becoming increasingly difficult to impress and impact consumers.  However, some companies are embracing the digital age and using its lower overhead and open creation format to really help build their brand.  One company who is really embracing this and growing is Old Spice.

While most people know Old Spice from their witty television commercials they actually did an entire digital marketing campaign in which they aired the campaign from start to finish entirely on youtube, tumblr, twitter, o and released an album on bandcamp.com.

The campaign centered entirely around the Old Spice Wolfdog who took over Old Spice as their Director of Marketing.  The wolf explains to its wolfings that it will be instituting things like "computers" and "tennis balls" in the office to help promote productivity.  The campaign was an instant hit and immediately developed an online cult following.

Ok, so this campaign was cutesy, tongue and cheek and had all the makings of a solid internet campaign but how did it really do? Well according to Mediabistro.com the 7 day campaign garnered over 4,000,000 impressions for Old Spice's new line of products. Not too shabby by internet standards.

Also you have to remember that aside from simple banner ads and production costs the campaign was incredibly low budget to execute compared too say a 7 day television spot.  The campaign was also timely and allowed Old Spice to respond directly to comments and questions almost instantaneously.  While the campaign was solid and its execution nearly flawless there's a lot of room for improvement and I'm curious to see what the "Love my smelf" brand comes up with next.