July 24th, 2008
Last year, the RFU ran Play, a huge sports recruitment campaign to get more people playing rugby. It apparently worked well enough for them to try something similar this year, the Play On Campaign. I want to like this, normally O2 and the RFU put some good things out. But there are too many niggles and it’s annoying me more than letting me enjoy it.
- the URL for the site is www.playon.com. Unfortunately, someone forgot to configure the DNS correctly, so if you just type in playon.com, which is more and more common, it goes nowhere. (petty, but soooo annoying)
- I seriously don’t get the home page. What is it supposed to be? I lost patience before the end of the ‘dialogue’ which plays across the screen. If I’m going to the site, let me get to the meat of the content, don’t confuse me with what is basically a splash screen. The confusion came from the fact I came to the site from the video, so was expecting to see information about the O2 Scrum on the Beach. That’s hidden behind the ‘events’ page. If you are going to be pushing an event, make sure that it’s easy to find!
- The ‘high’ quality video, The Gods, isn’t. It’s just bigger and pixellated to hell. It opens in a separate pop-up window from the site, so does not look as silly as if you clicked that link). The video is OK but slightly overblown; it features Martin Johnson, Nick Easter, Danny Care and David Strettle, so is going to appeal to rugby followers. Also - video. So why can’t I embed it??? They’ve got images I can grab and download but I can’t share the video to help promote it.
- There’s terms and conditions for a contest that I can find no other reference to - you can win a day with the English Rugby team
- I love the O2 Pathfinder programme, combined with the club search engine. Someone at the clubs to help you find your way when you’re new in the area. That’s actually a big driver for the site, finding new clubs and this practical sponsorship is a perfect way to help people and promote the O2 brand
- The Scrum on the Beach events look fun. Around the country, they’re dragging out the England rugby players to promote the game, giving you the chance to have a bit of fun, win some prizes and grab soem goodies. O2 customers get some VIP treatment as well, an added bonus for them. You have to print out an entry form first - although it’s only available as a Word doc
- There’s another contest to win a tricked-out camper van - you pick a bit of virtual beach and if you get lucky the key’s will be buried there! Just beware of the size of the flash file…which crashed my browser when trying to load.
This is a mixed package; the events and club support is great, I just feel it’s let down by some poor digital work.
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By Rachel -- 0 comments
July 23rd, 2008
To promote the release of the film on DVD, Ralph and Co have put together a game for The Ruins (they also promoted the cinema release). I’ll be honest, I haven’t played this. I don’t like horror movies and so the attraction of ‘an unrated scene too intense for the theaters’ is doing nothing to attract me. So I’m leaving the review to you. Will some one play it and let me know what it’s like?
Screenshot from site
I like the idea of grabbing someone’s attention with a game, immersing them in the movie message and then letting them see something exclusive, which is hopefully memorable enough to trigger them to buy the DVD next time they browse the web or pass the store.
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By Rachel -- 0 comments
July 21st, 2008
One of my most commented posts is about barbiegirls.com. It’s mainly used as a message board, with a core group of girls passing comments back and forth. A few months ago, I got a few comments that were obviously of the astroturfing variety, written from same IP address but different names, using the same tone of hyperbole about how good the site was. I never posted them, emailing the writer to see if they were involved in Barbie in anyway. I also contacted Mattel to see if they had any information about it.
I never got a response from either party, which I consider poor service from Mattel. A few weeks later, I got a few more similar comments, one of which this time identified themselves as part of the Barbie Girls Team. A few searches later led me to the Dubit Insider page, calling for girls to join up and spread the word. They have to:
- build a fan site
- take photos of themselves with the dolls and MP3 players; hold a party with friends
- promote the dolls and players on other sites
In return they get a MP3 players, merchandise and a party pack. This seems like a good deal to me. But the problem is obviously that the company are not promoting ethical behaviour in the first place. In the UK at least, it’s also illegal to post such ‘fan’ comments without identifying themselves. Dubit Insider were promoting a lot of street teams, although many are currently hidden, and there are no guidelines or contact details on the site. There’s not even a Privacy Policy to let you know what they do with your personal details.
From the site, there’s nothing to indicate legitimacy and from the behaviour of the people posting on my site originally, they are not promoting good ettiquette and may actually be promoting illegal activity. That can’t be good for any brand associated with the company.
I added a response comment to the second round of comments posted from the team and they have at least since then said they are from the team.
As a brand, you can’t be associated with activity like this. Transparency and credibility are essential when you are encouraging and rewarding fans for spreading the word, otherwise it is just as likely to backfire on you.
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By Rachel -- 0 comments
July 21st, 2008
There’s nothing. Looked on all sorts of lists and can’t find any popular product-led videos. Entertainment, sport and TV yes, but no product marketing things.
Has YouTube lost it’s charm for marketers or are the videos being drowned out by everything else. What would you put here instead?
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By Rachel -- 0 comments
July 20th, 2008
There’s a stereotype about Americans’ abroad which is deserved to some extent (it wouldn’t be a stereotype without some basis in truth). Hilton, who look like they have some sponsorship deal with the US Olympic team, have put together a site to try and bridge some of the cultural gaps, enabling the Games’ visitors and the athletes to understand some of things they’ll find there. The be hospitable Traveller has:
- 30 or so cultural tips so you can avoid offending too many people
- information about how all the sports get started with the Mandarin translations (although this bit does not work for me)
- some common Mandarin phrases, plus lots of useful tourist info about the city
- Lots of video interviews with athletes about travel tips and faux pas
- a ‘get your Chinese name’ tool
What I think
The videos are quite good, especially if you are a fan of the sport, as is the practical information about Beijing and the cultural tips. The rest of the site feels like it’s been added on to make up the numbers. Why a page listing the experts involved? Unless there’s going to be a LOT more travel writing, providing interesting and relevant content, that page does nothing. The choose your Chinese name feels like the creative team were required to add something ‘fun’ to the site and this was the best they came up with (well, at least they didn’t go with a flash game, which is an obvious route). So a good core, but too much that is useless and some wasted opportunities - for a starter, all the video should be embeddable. The only thing that is sharable is the widget to get your Chinese name, which seems like the throwaway fun thing. The email did imply not all of it is live yet, so it may get a lot better.
The Pitch
Another ‘fill in the name’ email. There’s not much more to say about these; over time the language in them has become a lot for casual, moving away from the press release strangulation of the language, but you know you get the mail because I’m on a list somewhere. Yes, I like the information, but I’m honest about why I get the mail.
Tags: hilton, olympicsShare This
By Rachel -- 0 comments
July 20th, 2008
Curiosity about how this blog ranked globally (and yes, a wee bit of ego) led me to submit this blog into the Ad Age 150 for assessment. I’m glad to say I made it into the ranking, which moving forward is going to be a lot more dynamic.
It’s a very dynamic listing and new blogs are being added all the time, if you look at these 2 lists, the first from Nick Burcher on 19 July listing all the European blogs in the original list and the second from Seventy Seven Spinning Around from 1 July you can see plenty of changes. A great way to find new blogs.
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By Rachel -- 0 comments
July 20th, 2008
The Idea
VO5, in the US, have created the Ultimate Flirting Championship. Either on the site, or in the embeddable widget below, you can play the game, either as a judge or a player to practise your flirting. VO5 get brand splashes at the beginning and end of the game.
What do I think
A good little game, made more complicated by the need to have people online at the same time to play it. The first couple of times I ran it, I did not get a game as people left the room. They say the branding is subtle, but you do get 20 seconds of a splash screen full of product as you wait for your turn. Once in, the questions are funny, the answers can be even funnier. It’s worth having a shot.
Connecting flirting to VO5 is a big stretch. It’s all to do with good hair making you feel good, so more prone to flirt or be happy to be out on the pull.
Screenshot from site
The Pitch
It looks like a generic fill in the name pitch, but it’s written well. They enclude the embed code in the mail, no need to go grab it off the site, making it easy for me to review.
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By Rachel -- 0 comments
July 20th, 2008
The Sun (the UK’s best selling newspaper, for non-Uk readers it’s a daily tabloid) have brought out what is a very nice desktop widget for the sport, entertainment gossip and Page 3 girls (again for the non-UK, Page 3 normally has pictures of half-naked women) - the Desktop Keeley.
Built using Adobe Air by glue London, it’s just a well put together widget that has the added ‘advantage’ of giving you a miniture Keeley Hazell, a Page 3 stunner, who comes out and plays with lots of different costumes.
screenshot from my desktop
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By Rachel -- 0 comments
July 19th, 2008
After previous ads and promotions, Nike’s Boot Camp has kicked off.
Bootcamp is a pre-season training programme designed by pro coaches to turn you into a high performance footballer. It’s the fastest route to a dominating football body. It’s weekly video drills and measurabIe stats. It’s what the pros do
So I’ve signed up to the Basic training sessions, which then gives me lots of videos and digrams, with prompting emails to get me out there, toning my body into football fitness for the new season. It looks like all I need now is a few friends to help me along and compete with me - you can share you progress with a whole team of people. The other thing I need for the training is a football pitch apparently - that may be a bit more difficult!
Screenshot from site
As you can see, it definitely is targeted at teams who are out training, with 3 sessions a week on a pitch, so not that easy to adapt to doing it yourself. A great way to generate interest and involvement, aimed at existing teams or just groups of friends who want to get a little fitter. Now, if it’s a group of people who are training together already, why would they want to use the Nike site to record things when it’s probably easier to have all their own records. But it looks like there could be some nice comparison tools, to see where you stand amongst everyone using the plan, giving you some reason to rate yourself.
Tags: nextlevel, nike, nikefootball, nikenextlevelShare This
By Rachel -- 0 comments
July 18th, 2008
Creativty Online brings you this Swedish site for Ikea, which is absolutely gorgeous. It’s just amazingly well put together. Scroll through various ‘rooms’ on the site and get glimpses (and prices) for Ikea storage products. There’s lots of video action, but it’s all controlled by sound. You can choose the inbuilt tracks for each scene, upload your own tracks or open your microphone and do what I did, start singing at the screen.
Each room has multiple scenes and the action in the scene only rolls forward when there’s sound. When it’s quiet, then it pauses and scrolls backwards. By changing the track, you can have the video stuttering all over the place. Words don’t do it justice, just go and play.
Screenshot from site
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By Rachel -- 0 comments
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