Fake Viral Videos: Is This Good Marketing?
A pretty blonde woman nervously stares at the camera and begins speaking. "I'm not a stalker, I'm not crazy," she says. She then earnestly tells a story about meeting a guy in a cafe and chatting him up before he took off - leaving his jacket behind. She then apparently decided to use YouTube to help her track down her modern-day Prince Charming. A heartwarming story? Sure. Except for one problem: it was all a hoax.
This wasn't a hoax put on by the blonde girl herself (real name Heidi Hardy). Although it would have been mildly interesting if she had turned out to be some attention-starved faker, that was not the case. Instead, Heidi was a model/actress hired for a campaign led by marketing group Naked Communications. The product being slyly sold was menswear - just like the jacket she claimed belonged to her mystery man.
Going by the numbers, the campaign was a success. Within four days, more than 60,000 people had watched the video. Today, the number of views is over 150,000. But did the hoax actually help the company market their product? Or did it just leave people with a bad taste in their mouth after being taken in by the hoax?
We're Always Wondering: Is it Fake?
When it comes to fake viral videos, an Australian retail company isn't by any means the first to pull one over on us. More recently, one of the hottest viral videos out there was "Bike Hero," a daring reinterpretation of the video game "Guitar Hero," but played out on the streets using a bike instead of a guitar. The stunt was impressive and elaborate, so the video drew a lot of views. The viewing stats at the time of writing show that this video has been watched over 1.9 million times. Yet it too, was a marketing hoax.
Designed by Droga5, an ad agency, and a production company called Smuggler, "Bike Hero" was just a part of the team's marketing efforts on behalf of their client, Guitar Hero World Tour. The video's credits apparently included a CG artist, a CG supervisor, and an animation supervisor in addition to several visual effect specialists. In other words, it wasn't real.
In fact, several of the biggest viral videos aren't real: popping popcorn using your cell phone? An ad for cell phones. The office rampage? A teaser for a new movie. The Wii Fit underwear girl? Well, that one's a maybe, but the signs don't look good: the boyfriend in the video works as director of interactive media for Tinsley Advertising in Miami, Florida.
Are Hoaxes Good Marketing?
At best, hoaxes end up leaving you disappointed, at worst, angry. Are those actually the types of feelings marketers want you to associate with the products they're selling? Although clever, fake viral videos may not be the best idea for companies.
When you find out that a video is a hoax put out by a marketing agency, are you turned off? Does your perception of the product change too? Or is half the fun trying to spot the real videos from the fakes? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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A really good hoax is clever and pointed and doesn't forget to sell. There's a huge difference between a fun, engaging hoax that makes a point and sheer gimmickry. There will always be posers who don't understand that awareness for its own sake isn't productive. As with ads: There are lots that are annoying. There are a few that are legendary. Even fewer that are recalled and recited -- years later -- because they hit the mark perfectly.
It was quite successful - people will remember the jacket and brand even if they can't remember why. They've also got a huge amount of (do-follow) links, from yourself included, Sarah ;)
Unfortunately this is the first time I've seen the video, unfortunate because I think it's quite obvious that it's fake and I'd love to know if I'd have spotted it from the off :)
Out of the 1+ million people that view a viral video, maybe 10k or 100k figure out down the line that it's a hoax. So those 'bad feelings' that you speak of really doesn't matter in the long run
"Marketing hoax" is fast becoming an oxymoron. It's an outdated idea that marketing has to "sell the product" or even mention it or its audience directly. In fact, in the clothing industry in particular, marketing and branding are incredibly slippery concepts. Why is this a "hoax", and how is it different from a car company showing its car driving on a dangerous mountain road? Is it that you expect "real-looking" videos to be actually real?
An absolutely terrific and enjoyable book on contemporary marketing is Rob Walker's "Buying In." Walker writes the NYT "Consumed" column.
Basically the strategy here is tricking people into paying attention to your brand. The bet is that if I can make the trickery enjoyable enough you won't get pissed that you got tricked. I think that's a long bet in most cases which is why most of these things fail right there. But even if you make it work and people don't get pissed off, have you really done the job of selling whatever it is you were trying to sell?
Having looked at sales data from a lot of viral campaigns, my answer is no.
To reply to Rob Frankel above: almost every assumption you're making--ads should be "productive", or "legendary", or even "memorable"--are holdovers from an era of marketing that is passing quickly. Contemporary audiences want to create meaning and value and coversation from bits and pieces of a story about a product, not have The Product Message implanted in their brain for years to come. Again, clothing marketers in particular are getting this message much more quickly than most other industries.
I think this video is incredibly smart. Who cares if it's "real" or "seems real". Conversations like this one about whether it's "fake" or not are part of the point.
All marketing and advertising is a hoax. You would have to be the most naive person on the planet to think that all the ads, print and on tv, are based on fact.
Testimonials are given by paid actors
Happy people suffering major dieses are pushing drugs while riding bikes and skipping along the beach.
Taste tests
Nerdy looking men getting the girl if they drink the right beer
The list goes on and on.
Most products would never sell based soley on the truth. They are too boring at best and not necessary at worst.
To act as if you are upset becasue something on the internet turns out to be a hoax is laughable. I'll let you in on a secret: Most of everything on the internet is a hoax.
I think people understand that YouTube & Co. are not limited to "user-generated content" in the strictest sense. As long as a video is a great piece of entertainment I don't believe that viewers will be disappointed from whatever or whoever is the source of that video. Quite the opposite, significant viral effects only come into existence because people are convinced and excited about the content, independently from the motivation of the originator. And I think part of this excitement about the content will transfer to the brand, if there is a discernible relation. Bike Hero, in my opinion, is a prime example for that.
I am a PR professor at a U.S. university, and I condemn this practice.
Even if it was successful in the short run, the practice is unethical and it harms the PR & marketing professions.
It is unethical not to disclose the source (and implicitly the purpose) of information. In fact, this is the definition of manipulation. Your public has a right to make an informed decision, and a good PR or marketing person will respect that right.
Such practices contribute to the bad reputation of PR and marketing, and damage their credibility. In the long run, if PR and marketing lose all credibility, then lots of people, the agencies behind these hoaxes included, will be out of jobs.
PR and marketing people forget that it's not all about the product and selling one more jacket. They forget that as public communicators they have a responsibility to society - what kind of world do their actions create? How will they impact society in the long run? You can argue that 1-2 YouTube videos are harmless... but let's try to think for a second about the cumulative, long-term impact of such marketing hoaxes. What do they do to society and to the profession?
Also, look at the PRSA code of ethics. The first statement is:
"We serve the ***public interest*** by acting as responsible advocates for those we represent. We provide a voice in the marketplace of ideas, facts, and viewpoints to aid ***informed*** public debate." (emphases mine)
why do we have to be disappointed? i have always viewed viral media as entertainment....faked or real its either entertaining or boring...viral media is for me about associating your product with something memorable. Unless you suggest that movies, classic commercials, etc have all lost their entertainment value and only "reality tv" type products catch the audiences attention.
From what I understand, advertisements (on TV or print) have to adhere to certain regulations (eg can't make medical claims that aren't true). Shouldn't these videos come under the same legal scrutiny as other advertisements? And if they should, shouldn't it be imperative that these videos are identified as advertisements?
In response to Mihaela:
Those are some really valid points. But as much as they support your point that such campaigns could be damaging to the PR industry I feel such a comment requires you to assume two things. First that fiction and a lie are the same. From my understanding there is nothing illegal about associating a fictional story with your product. Lying about its uses or effects is one thing, an exemplary story is another. The second assumption is that people are unable to see these "faked viral campaigns" as fictional entertainment. It is a huge issue in today's society for people to distinguish between fiction and reality. Some zealots suggest that we are "poisoning the minds of youths" with cartoons and the like. I like to believe that when you join a community like YouTube you are saying that you have the ability to make judgments for yourself and take responsibility for them.
Not to be shallow, but I find it amusing. There are too many marketers out there with really bad promos. It's bad when a fake one outdoes the rest.
I think it's a great idea, and that's what's behind trying to create viral buzz for an online video. It's such a clever ploy by the company and it clearly worked. I don't think it matters whether its real or fake, if you enjoyed viewing the video who cares? This is the same things that happened with the Lonelygrl15 video series and then it came out it was all an act. Viewers didn't care, she had record numbers and tons of press.
Who cares if it was a hoax, the bigger question for CMO's should be DID IT MOVE PRODUCT? Did the awareness created work in the way they'd hoped, and was the bottom line effected any for their investment?
I for one watched that girl talk about jackets, but never thought, "maybe I should buy one."
Believe me, I love all non-tradition advertising - hell, I design it for a living - but people are loosing the script on stuff like this. Even viral stunts should somehow be designed (as me and my team do) to drive the right metrics. Sales, not views should signal success.
The Canadian province of Nova Scotia got caught up recently in a fake viral campaign that leveraged a mythical mobile phone to promote tourism and economic development.
It was definitely tongue-in-cheek -- the Pomegranate phone features a shaver, coffee maker, harmonica, and universal translator -- but some people got bent out of shape with the concept and its execution. They had a point ... the website was so rich with humor that many people may never have found the intended info about the province. And, who knows if those who found it stuck around and/or took any of it seriously?
That said, I still applaud them for trying to add interest to a potentially dull topic. If it got results, more power to them.
Here's one of the online ads they used to drive traffic from Boston and greater New England:
http://adverlicio.us/pomegranate_where_no_phone_has_gone_before_300x250
The site itself is here:
http://pomegranatephone.com
Enjoy!
It seems to me like everything on the internet these days--"real" or not--deserves to be taken with a large grain of salt. It has always been true that responsible media consumption starts with the recipient of the media. We cannot expect marketing and advertising firms to respect our intelligence if we don't display any as consumers. That being said, perhaps the best idea is just to sit back and enjoy the entertainment. Even if the video's fake, the laughs aren't.
blog.swyzzle.com
this is very common. also check out http://www.myspace.com/thisisuglybilly which was a large viral video project for Babyliss shaving products. this was based around Myspace more than YouTube and got over 600,000 views/1000 subscribers just on Myspace, and thus more on YouTube and other platforms.
In fact i wouldn't be surprised if this jacket campaign was inspired by the Ugly Billy campaign as it was documented and had several large articles written about it, and last i heard a Channel 4 documentary wanted to feature the campaign; and the story of ugly billy is the same kind of concept as this one.
The overall idea of any marketing video, should it be on YouTube or otherwise, is to drive some desired action by consumers. The first action is the consumption of the video itself, so that internally we can digest that message and any subliminal brand associations that are intended. The second action is the determination internally by the consumer that any product/service presented in this format is either "real" or "fake", so that it can be determined if it is something that they can act upon (buy)... the third, and most important action to the advertisers/marketers that create these videos, is to make it as easy as possible for a consumer to drive this information to their influential networks.
Online video, and the way that it can be sent out over several platforms (Internet, Email, Social Networks, Blogs, etc.) makes this ADVERTISING MEDIUM something highly attractive to both marketers AND consumers. While marketers do have some responsibility to remain transparent in their creation/participation in the actual video (@ Mihela V), such information would also detract from the overall entertainment/shock value that consumers are looking for when they watch online video. People aren't stupid, they know what they are doing, and what they are watching...
The overall idea of any marketing video, should it be on YouTube or otherwise, is to drive some desired action by consumers. The first action is the consumption of the video itself, so that internally we can digest that message and any subliminal brand associations that are intended. The second action is the determination internally by the consumer that any product/service presented in this format is either "real" or "fake", so that it can be determined if it is something that they can act upon (buy)... the third, and most important action to the advertisers/marketers that create these videos, is to make it as easy as possible for a consumer to drive this information to their influential networks.
Online video, and the way that it can be sent out over several platforms (Internet, Email, Social Networks, Blogs, etc.) makes this ADVERTISING MEDIUM something highly attractive to both marketers AND consumers. While marketers do have some responsibility to remain transparent in their creation/participation in the actual video (@ Mihela V), such information would also detract from the overall entertainment/shock value that consumers are looking for when they watch online video. People aren't stupid, they know what they are doing, and what they are watching...
PS: I think this video is brilliant!
Some of these videos (like the office rampage), don't even advertise the product (a movie, in that case). How can it possibly be deemed successful if people don't even know what it's about (I remember the video vividly months later, but only now just learned that it was for a movie. It doesn't make me want to watch the movie, or even research it.)
I love the video, BUT it´s badly executed!
They should have put up a website www.areyouthemaninthejacket.com or something like this, and sell some fan stuff, and bring it on from there as the "biggest web 2.0 love story of all times"!
To me this is no different than watching tv and noticing that everyone on the TV show "Ghost Whisperer" drives a Jeep. (at least last year) Establishing your brand in the eye of the public in a subtle way is very powerful.
J. Michael Warner
Professional Blogger