BMW SA: Defining Innovation - now online as well

by Rob Stokes

Many of South Africa’s “new media practitioners” have used Scott’s BMW advert, which he uploaded to YouTube, as an example of what clever online thinking can achieve (yes, I know I have blogged about Scott 2 days running now, it's pure coincidence I swear!). For those who haven’t seen the video, here it is:



I remember chatting to Scott when he put it up, so for old time's sake I went and looked through my MSN logs for the details of the chat. It’s funny to look back. We were both pretty shocked that it had received 554 views in about 12 hours. At the time I don’t think he expected it to break even the 10 000 mark.

Well I can tell you folks, that it’s just about to hit the 1 000 000 mark. In fact it is currently on 999 379. Pretty awesome: close on a million people who willingly chose to watch an advert. A million engaged individuals who were reached at a media cost of zero.

That’s powerful.

Marketing in the 21st Century is often about seizing opportunities. As Uncle Seth would say, “risky is the new safe”. Scott realised that he had an inventory of good TV ads and thought he would see how much traction they could gain online. He seized an opportunity and it worked. Not all of them will, but what do you get if you don’t try anything?

Nando’s may have a poef website, but they do have some awesome TV ads. Over the years they have had some real killers. Some of the ads are on YouTube, most aren't. And the ones which are there were put up by fans, which is cool, but why don’t Nando’s just set up a YouTube channel and offer the whole bouquet to the world? There is even a question on Yahoo! Answers where some guy asks where he can see Nando’s ads online!!

So, people are crying out for them and other than the time spent doing it (which is pretty much no time at all), it’s free, so why not go for it? My guess is that it’s either a fear of failure or worse still – they’re not even thinking about it at all. In 2008… perish the thought.

I say Carpe Diem!

Oh and P.S.… for a laugh check out the green-juice fuelled crooning from Nandog from Japan – he cracked me up.

2008/02/27 | permalink | comments (2) | trackbacks (0)

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