How to launch an internet based marketing campaign, badly… Part III (are you my man in the jacket?)

OK enough is enough. Australian ad agencies need to understand that just setting up a website and posting videos on YouTube isn’t going to get you a loyal following of customers. MySpace, Facebook, or Twitter aren’t going to help you either. The audience on these sites are not just going to believe whatever is put in front of them. Pretend to be something you’re not and unless you are very, very, very good you are going to get found out.

This brings me to the “are you my man in the jacket?” attempt at viral marketing. All the features of a campaign that would have worked 2 or 3 years ago are there but the audience has matured and evolved and this was quickly tagged as fake.

The suspect in this case is Witchery, a clothing company here in Australia. More discussion on this attempt can be found here, here, and here.

Wouldn’t it be nice if she finds her man in time for Valentines day.

How to launch an internet based marketing campaign, badly… Part II

Looks like I wasn’t the only one who noticed the less than perfect launch of www.islandreefjob.com. The Age had an article the same day about how the site was unable to cope with the number of hits.

This week the site is working and is now getting publicity but not for the reasons they had hoped. First comes the accusation of discrimination against vision-impaired users, the site does not cater for their needs.

It was also revealed this week that one of the videos listed as a applicant for the job is actually a fake – in 2 ways. The video showed a girl calling herself Tegan getting a tattoo of the Great Barrier Reef on her arm. YouTube users were onto the first part of the fake immediately, the tattoo had none of the redness of a real tattoo. I think that part can be excused, the video was original even if the subject wasn’t scared for life.

However the next revelation is less acceptable. It appears  that “Tegan” is not a genuine application. She works for the ad agency that created the campaign! Her video has now been removed but you can check out the other videos on YouTube.  

Joost

Wow! This actually seems to work. http://www.joost.com/
Unlike Qtrax it did what it said it would do. One downside is that some of the content seems to be only avaliable in certain regions which is a shame.