I Want to Excite Customers Like This

In case you haven’t heard yet, Coke has launched a new soda dispenser that allows customers to choose from 140 different flavors (yes, that’s right, 140… I didn’t even know there were 140 flavors in existence) including Peach Sprite or Orange Coke.

First off, for everyone who used to go into a convenience store and create a suicide drink, you know how much this rocks.

Second, I could launch into a tirade about how this will improve Coke’s ability to deliver more choices to its customers, attract new customers, reduce costs, etc, but let’s face it…

Isn’t this what it’s all about (wait until 24 seconds in)?

"Will It Blend?"

Have you seen these videos yet:

http://www.willitblend.com/

This is a company who has managed to take a seemingly uninteresting kitchen appliance and turn it into a cult phenomenon. Blend-tec makes this uber-blender, but also creates videos of its president blending different items previously thought “unblendable” (i.e. a crowbar, lightbulbs, and even an iPhone). Their videos are all over the Web now and they’re managing to sell shirts to the devoted fanbase. Companies are even trying to piggyback on Blend-tec’s success. And now, according to InformationWeek via Mashable, these videos have led to an 500% increase in sales.

Still think alternative marketing can’t lead to real results?

Here’s the flip-side: Many companies have tried to create “viral videos”, with the expectation that they will take off in popularity only to discover that no one cares about their video. That’s because these videos aren’t remarkable. Social media is driven by a viral spread of information: someone sees something and genuinely is interested in its content, so he/she forwards it along. Just putting a video online doesn’t mean it will spread like a wildfire.

Bad Commericals as Effective Advertising?

Just saw this from the guys over at Pronet Advertising. This ad was probably created not to be a joke, but when you take a look at it, you’ll understand how this video currently has over 220,000 views and more than 350 comments on YouTube.

Remember what I said yesterday? Interrupting people with content that they care about or in a unique way so that they don’t realize they’re being interrupted?

This guy apparently also got on national talk shows because of this ad. Imagine how much visibility he’s getting for such a cheap ad.