I opened an email today from BodogEurope PR and the streak of cool has to be reset back to zero. In the email subject line was the term “Viral World Cup.” As Creative Director for CalvinAyre.com and having worked in advertising for a number of years I promise you…if it was a “viral video”, we’d have already seen it.
Since it’s not going to go “viral” here it is.
Marketing suits LOVE to grab a hold of words that are popular and ride ’em till the wheels fall off. A video for the internet is really just that…an internet video. It’s a cheaper, lower quality TV spot that the company hopes will “go viral” online. That is to say, that people love it so much, they feel like they HAVE to pass it on to all of their friends. (As our social cool status nowadays has as much more to do with what content we send our friends than what brand of shoes we have on) If it reaches that type of stratosphere of success, where it spreads organically like a virus… it can truly become part of pop culture like the Star Wars Kid, Dramatic Chipmunk, and the Subservient Chicken.
Sure, there’s lots of ways you can strategically set yourself up to do well… like by paying money to concept, to execute and seed it on the right websites where people will probably see it. Instead, our friends at BodogEurope have thrown together an internet video that is trying to build awareness around their odds for the England U.S. World Cup Match. Which is a cool idea… In theory.
Unfortunately, the music is bad – but not bad enough to be funny, the concept is almost non-existent and the creative department should be taken out back, blindfolded and given a last cigarette.
Just kidding. Clearly there was no creative department involved in it. This had to have been the work of some suits sitting around talking about what a great idea it would be to make a “viral video” with some fully-clothed girls skipping about with a soccer ball…genius.
Look, fun video content written and produced specifically for the internet is a beautiful thing. I commend them for having the idea, and deciding to go out and get it done. Truthfully, I wish more of us in the iGaming industry would do it. We work online. Our products are online. Our customers are online. We should use EVERY medium available to us to market in that space. And yes, it is way cheaper to shoot a 2min ad for online then to shoot a 30sec TV spot on film. However, the saving comes in the form of media buys, editing, film processing, and a ton of other steps throughout production. Savings shouldn’t come from deciding not to pay a creative department/agency.
Because remember what you get when you make creative decisions without any creative people in the room…
