So I am writing a bit of a theatrical thesis at the moment on the future of advertising, and utility marketing seems to keep rising to the top as the way forward. I'm not sure what utility marketing campaign I'm going to take a close up look at yet but I have stumbled across a couple of little entertainment-based interactive campaigns that are worth taking a look at now. So I will compare two interactive online campaigns, coming from Smirnoff and Lynx, and try and put forward an argument for why Smirnoff's one is better.
Look above. Yes it is rather big, and in the midst of an eruption that would only cause heartbreak in my house ("farrk, I lost like 5mls, that's like seven cents!), but it looks tantalising nonetheless. It is a mixed drink, entitled the 'Smirnoff Mule', that Smirnoff are trying to popularise, get it as a mixer in bars and clubs and have people making it at home (and I am completely sure it would taste nowhere near as good with another brand of Vodka, you would be an absolut ass to think otherwise). I first saw the outdoor branch of this campaign, a poster billboard at a tram stop with the above model shot of the mule and directions towards the Mule website. I googled it but I couldn't find it for a few minutes, and then I realised that it was the sponsored result at the top . The fact that I and many other people never look at the sponsored result is surely a bad sign for the efficacy of this tactic. The sponsored results should at least score a little picture to grab our eyes. Anyway I got there eventually, and went through the crap where I randomly pull numbers from the scroll downs to equate to at least 18 years ago, like I did when I was under 18 as well. I then get asked to start playing the game, and it's a little car chase with a back story, with characters named 'Ginger Beer', 'Lime' and 'Smirnoff'. Bizarre names at the best of times. Point of it though, the game was okay, a dainty little procrastinator, simple enough but actually responsive to the arrows I was hitting. I got to the second level and then my character couldn't run, only walk like the detective he was, so I became acutely aware of how much of my life I was wasting and what I was doing and closed the window.
Result: I want to try a Mule! I know what's in one, I can make it myself pretty easily thanks to the recipe tab. This brand interaction is also helped by the, albeit annoying, presence of the 'Mule Crew' (crew is a mistake, outdated and lame) at particular popular bars and clubs and hosting 40s jazz theme parties. So they are really shoving it down your throat, litter-raa-lee, from all angles. This campaign is forcing you to take notice, but it is also creating positive audience energy towards the product, if you enjoyed playing the nifty little game. The most important part of the whole thing is that it keeps a brand focus, and continually reminds you the ingredients in a Mule. It's all about that Mule, man. Mule. Mule.
Improvements
Why not make the game an iPhone App as well, with the Recipe and updates on where those Mule theme parties are and how you can get entry.
and...
Marketing Proposition #3
Continuing my creative ramblings, I had an idea for how to engage consumers in a positive brand experience for mixed drinks. It could work with anything, but we'll go with the Mule here. Instead of having a recipe tab with the cocktail ingredients and measurements typed out, why don't brands let the consumer create one digitally? I've surfed the web waves for this, because I thought it was pretty obvious but I got nothing to make it to shore, and end this metaphor. So my idea is to make the first page (after the age identification) or the Recipe tab a little game in mixing the Mule. The user is presented with a glass, a shining bowl of crisp ice, lime splices, some ginger beer, a shot glass and the almighty Smirnoff bottle laid out in front of them. The cursor then becomes a pair of mini bar tongs (whatever they are called) and they have to scoop the ice, pour the shot, put the lime in etc. all in the right order to get a...gold star, or just a tick to know they did good. The best part of this is the sound effects. We can get all those mouth watering soundbites of the ice clinking on the glass, the shot splashing on top and the ginger beer fizzing to the brim. It'll make you want to run out and make one, surely. And the result is that the audience now can, they know the recipe, and they've hopefully enjoyed their little brand experience and have got some positive energies flowing.
Lynxing up with this is a similar campaign by Lynx for their new deoderant 'Instinct'. I thought they were finished at' Chocolate Man', that surely signalled the exhaustion of all possible macho scents. This one started with an ad (screenshot seen above left) but I was alerted to it through the first effective Facebook ad (well almost) I have come across. In the sidebar, a voluptuous woman materialises out of mist in the jungle. She is dressed in a Westerner's idea of skint tribal wear for models and she purs at you with her tiger lips. Then a weird headline comes across like "save the babe because the Ice Age is coming". "Oh no" you say, and click on the "babe" because that will somehow save her from the imminent Ice Age, which world governments must have been keeping under wraps for a while. I click, but nothing happens. I don't know if that's part of Facebook's ad conditions, but if there was a link, it weren't working. The ad told me to go to Lynxeffect.com.au, so with a groan I MANUALLY (oh my gawd) type it in the address bar. It takes me through to some animation action and some roaring of beasts and annoying bongo drumming. I have this music playing in another window right now and it is so jarring and irritating I can't keep listening. Smirnoff, meanwhile, had a cool double bass run going on and I didn't close it down for about 15 minutes. Worse still, when you actually get into the game (after 15 minutes of signing up to a bullshit form that keeps denying you because usernames are taken and other excuses) this crap music keeps going. Basically, there were too many 'out' opportunities for me with the interactive arm of the campaign: The "music", the signup, the ten pages of rules to the game (it should be simple), my inability to play the game after refusal to read manual, the crappy generation -1 Gameboy graphics and game play, bizarre storyline and THE MUSIC.
Result: I feel genuine brand annoyance towards Lynx, and honestly don't want to even test their pungent cans. Is this incredibly simple and insulting boy puts Lynx on, boy gets hussy for sex cause-effect-chain going to be Lynx's gospel forever? If it ain't broke don't fix it I suppose, but I'm sick of it and their every step is reeking of Deja Voodoo. There is their next can brand, maybe.
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