Wednesday, June 11, 2003
Larry's Face
A couple of months ago, Bruce Goldfarb created LarrysFace.com to practice his Photoshop and HTML skills. He needed a test project, and found a picture of his brother Larry with a peculiar look on his face. Goldfarb made a Web page for the amusement of friends and family -- adding photos now and then -- and pretty much forgot about it.
Usually, Goldfarb's Web site gets a handful of vistitors a day, maybe 1,000 hits a month -- mainly by people who stumble across a link through a search engine. But after Larry's face was the subject of a Photoshop contest at the hugely popular Fark.com, within about eight hours it had generated 36,900 page hits. It was mentioned at some other Web sites, and then exceeded 100,000 page hits per day.
People are leaving questions for Larry, sending in dozens of tricked photos. Goldfarb has heard from people in Montreal, Canada, in Australia -- in short, from all over the place. Goldfarb says he's as baffled as the next person at the response.
"I don't know why it's popular," Goldfarb writes. "Maybe people are weary from war and SARS, ready for a break. I think the fact that it's funny, rated PG and safe for work lends itself to this kind of viral replication. It's a sort of Barbie doll for geeks; you can dress Larry up and make him look silly. How often do you get the opportunity to humiliate a helpless victim?"
A couple of months ago, Bruce Goldfarb created LarrysFace.com to practice his Photoshop and HTML skills. He needed a test project, and found a picture of his brother Larry with a peculiar look on his face. Goldfarb made a Web page for the amusement of friends and family -- adding photos now and then -- and pretty much forgot about it.
Usually, Goldfarb's Web site gets a handful of vistitors a day, maybe 1,000 hits a month -- mainly by people who stumble across a link through a search engine. But after Larry's face was the subject of a Photoshop contest at the hugely popular Fark.com, within about eight hours it had generated 36,900 page hits. It was mentioned at some other Web sites, and then exceeded 100,000 page hits per day.
People are leaving questions for Larry, sending in dozens of tricked photos. Goldfarb has heard from people in Montreal, Canada, in Australia -- in short, from all over the place. Goldfarb says he's as baffled as the next person at the response.
"I don't know why it's popular," Goldfarb writes. "Maybe people are weary from war and SARS, ready for a break. I think the fact that it's funny, rated PG and safe for work lends itself to this kind of viral replication. It's a sort of Barbie doll for geeks; you can dress Larry up and make him look silly. How often do you get the opportunity to humiliate a helpless victim?"
Friday, June 06, 2003
Pansonic Goes Viral
Panasonic launched a tongue-in-cheek Web site this week that pits its products against the enemies of fun. The meant-to-be viral site, at peopleagainstfun.org, purports to be the Web presence of a non-profit advocacy organization, People Against Fun (PAF), representing "like-minded people who refuse to have fun, and wish to control the spread of fun around the United States."
Amidst anti-fun propaganda are admonitions to avoid Panasonic consumer electronics products and a proposal people instead buy a radish because, "This radish is just as portable, and it's [sic] bitter taste will remind you that we're not put on this earth to have fun."
The PAF Web site, while clearly a small part of the effort, aims to drive interest in these key products and help build a database of potential customers via a sweepstakes. Other site tools include videos designed to allow people to easily forward them to friends. One depicts a handsome young man running along the beach, and suggests that People Against Fun could help him learn to live without fun in a "barren joyless existence." Villains of the videos are shown with Panasonic electronic devices.
Panasonic launched a tongue-in-cheek Web site this week that pits its products against the enemies of fun. The meant-to-be viral site, at peopleagainstfun.org, purports to be the Web presence of a non-profit advocacy organization, People Against Fun (PAF), representing "like-minded people who refuse to have fun, and wish to control the spread of fun around the United States."
Amidst anti-fun propaganda are admonitions to avoid Panasonic consumer electronics products and a proposal people instead buy a radish because, "This radish is just as portable, and it's [sic] bitter taste will remind you that we're not put on this earth to have fun."
The PAF Web site, while clearly a small part of the effort, aims to drive interest in these key products and help build a database of potential customers via a sweepstakes. Other site tools include videos designed to allow people to easily forward them to friends. One depicts a handsome young man running along the beach, and suggests that People Against Fun could help him learn to live without fun in a "barren joyless existence." Villains of the videos are shown with Panasonic electronic devices.
Tuesday, June 03, 2003
Contests Indicate Viral-ness
Contests are one of the best available methods for measuring how "viral" an advertiser's customer base really is. By including a viral component in a contest (usually a refer-a-friend option), advertisers can determine the social makeup of their audience and ascertain whether other viral marketing techniques would prove useful in bolstering their brands. There are other advantages to contests... more
Contests are one of the best available methods for measuring how "viral" an advertiser's customer base really is. By including a viral component in a contest (usually a refer-a-friend option), advertisers can determine the social makeup of their audience and ascertain whether other viral marketing techniques would prove useful in bolstering their brands. There are other advantages to contests... more
Monday, June 02, 2003
Get the Axe
Unilever's Axe Deordorant Bodyspray is enjoying great success with it's viral-ish campaign. Sure, they spent nearly $1M on several elements including a set of home video-like commercials, each featuring an attractive young woman instantly transformed into a nymphomaniac by a whiff of Axe. After four months, they were pleased with their ROI, getting over 200K visitors to their site (theaxeefffect.com) via word of mouth -- and a total of over 700K visitors. This helped lead to a 4% deodorant market share.
The campaign was successful largely due to the approach of letting some of it's 18- to 24-year-old customers find the ads by advertising on selected sites and magazines and letting their audience tell their friends about it. Unilever didn't want their audience to feel like they were being sold too. That approach was the right one.
Unilever's Axe Deordorant Bodyspray is enjoying great success with it's viral-ish campaign. Sure, they spent nearly $1M on several elements including a set of home video-like commercials, each featuring an attractive young woman instantly transformed into a nymphomaniac by a whiff of Axe. After four months, they were pleased with their ROI, getting over 200K visitors to their site (theaxeefffect.com) via word of mouth -- and a total of over 700K visitors. This helped lead to a 4% deodorant market share.
The campaign was successful largely due to the approach of letting some of it's 18- to 24-year-old customers find the ads by advertising on selected sites and magazines and letting their audience tell their friends about it. Unilever didn't want their audience to feel like they were being sold too. That approach was the right one.
