Beverage Companies Following the Trend

Yesterday, we talked about the tendency of seeding viral advertising into social-networking websites and the factors that determine whether or not these seedings are going to be successful. So I decided it might be helpful to look at several recent examples and evaluate them to the criteria we already set.

On August 2 this year Smirnoff released a video on YouTube.com advertising its new product – Smirnoff Raw Tea which comes in three flavors lemon, raspberry and peach. The video cost the company 200k and as of today has been viewed by more than 1.6 million people. The idea for the campaign came from Smirnoff’s agency Bartle Bogart Hegarty. The producer of the video that became an overnight success on YouTube is Julien Christian Lutz (aka Lil’ X and Mr. X) of HSI Production. After the video featuring white preppies rapping about their life and lifestyle was released it received wide mass media coverage including reports on the CNN.

The pros of the campaign: Generally, it is very hard to market a hybrid between vodka and ice-tea, however, Smirnoff does a pretty good job. Probably, the best hit is the choice of the protagonists in the spot. Ice-tea is famous for its geeky, snobby appeal and instead of trying to run away from it Smirnoff and BBH expose it upfront making fun of it. Most likely, this is the key to the video’s success. Had they chosen any other approach, the campaign would have had a little chance of success and the product would have been as appealing as a lime wine cooler. By confronting ice-tea’s established image upfront, Smirnoff gives its new product a good start because consumers are usually willing to grant honesty a chance. The popularity of rap culture among young people these days also contributes to the success of the video among the product’s target audience. The fact that it is really fun and entertaining also works to Smirnoff Raw Tea’s advantage.

The cons: Even though they made several pretty clever choices, Smirnoff and BBH did not manage to fulfill all the criteria to make the campaign an absolute success from its very beginning. One of their biggest omissions was the fact that although at the end of the video viewers are asked to visit the product’s website teapartay.com for several weeks people who took the action found nothing but a note announcing that the site is “coming soon.” You can imagine how many of the people who saw the video in these first days prior to the launching of the site were disappointed and never made a second attempt to find anything more about the Smirnoff Raw Tea. As Tom Ajello from Agency.com puts it "With viral, the thing you are building is actually never just about the video, game, blog, etc. at all--it is about the reaction and content that the seed catalyzes. Many marketers aren't prepared to act and react real-time according to what their target users generate. If you're not fast, you'll create great "seed buzz," but miss an opportunity in consumer-generated-content land. But then again, we're talking about this right now, so that's a success in itself.” Another thing that works to the product’s disadvantage is its label that has nothing to distinguish Smirnoff Raw Tea from the rest of the alcoholic beverages on it. Not even a trait from the preppies from the ad or at least something blink. And if you are selling an alcoholic ice-tea you have to have something that shouts “pick me” on it otherwise no one is going to notice it.

Some other examples: Vodka manufacturer Soyuz-Victan (SV) had the first episode of its online SV-TV show on October 2. The idea of the show is to attract members of the public to appear on TV as part of the advertising campaign in key U.S. cities. The TV series would also feature scripted and semi-scripted scenarios whose plots will be revolving around SV supreme nightlife experiences with the purpose to find the answer to the decades-old question “Which is the smoothest vodka?” The episodes of the series would appear exclusively on a dedicated site called AreYouSmooth.com which will link visitors back to the SV Vodka website. Additionally, outtakes and behind-the-scenes teasers will be leveraged as part of the viral marketing campaign to promote the series.

SV’s TV series came soon after the launch of the first online TV channel – SingleMalt.tv – devoted to a single malt scotch on the August 29 this year. The host and on camera presenter on the majority of the segments would be Charles MacLean. The channel is focusing on Scotland and the distilleries producing some memorable with all the favorite local characters. The site is launched by Visionmill Productions who say it is specifically targeted at single malt aficionados around the globe. However, since the Internet channel is subscription based it faces one big challenge – to find enough scotch lovers willing to pay more than $25 per year for downloadable programming. An important question that arises is “Is there enough news and information - that hasn't already been visited - to support continued creative and original programming?”