Viral Marketing Gone Wrong
Posted by scottjduffy on October 15, 2007
Today I came across an attempt at a viral marketing campaign of some sort. It doesn’t seem like it has much chance of success, but maybe time will prove me wrong.
It started out with me seeing an article on Canoe, a Canadian news site. “Lion Man Discovered in Tanzania“. A man who roars, moves and behaves like a lion. After clicking on it, I discovered it was an ad because it was clearly marked as an ad. But just seeing that has made me a bit intrigued as to WHY someone would spend money advertising the Lion Man from Tanzania.
So I googled it, and guess what I found? The Toronto Star, a clear direct competitor to Canoe, also had that ad. The Star called it an Advertorial. (I have no idea what an advertorial is – a stupid name. It’s an AD. Call it that.) So the plot thickens. Two Canadian newspaper webites are annoying their visitors with fake news that doesn’t even have a payoff. “More to come later.”
And now comes the interesting part, at least to me. Someone related to this viral campaign has submitted the Toronto Star ad to both Digg and Reddit (and had to create a new account to do so), attempting to build some type of buzz for this. The user that submitted it to both sites is a new user called lm566 (lm stands for lion man, ah I get it).
Through some digging, I was able to find the agency behind this campaign. Update: I’ve removed their name from this post at their request.
This viral marketing campaign succeeds a little bit because it has got me writing about it.
But it fails in a big way because I can’t figure out what its about. It seems to have no purpose. Someone has spent money advertising on two big sites, and has attempted to promote this campaign by submitting it to digg, but there’s no payoff. No “go out and buy this”. Nothing. It’s like a wasted ad. If I was rich, and had money to waste like this, I might buy thousands of dollars in advertising and say “December 5th, 2007″. Just that. Just the date. And people might be like, oooooh, what’s happening December 5th? But that would be a practical joke. And that’s what I think this is.
A determined consumer should be able to figure out what’s being advertised. Otherwise you’ve just annoyed me, and what’s the benefit in that?
This entry was posted on October 15, 2007 at 8:21 pm and is filed under viral. Tagged: digg, failure, social bookmarking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Phil said
Lion-man also :
http://sympatico.msn.ca/defaultf.aspx (homme-lion)
http://www.canoe.com/promo/publi-reportage/index.html#top
http://www.canoe.ca/Canoe/Ad/ (your link)
Fred said
I think it’s a Saturn commercial. It played on TV not long ago (in Canada).
The lion man does not react to any of the scientists efforts to “get to him”. Near the end of the commercial, he is looking out the window and see’s a saturn…he then escapes and goes straight for the “new Saturn” and is amazed.
Kinda funny actually.
Ednonymous said
The commercial does not identify the car (God only knows I’ve tried, but its a very quick shot of the car).
As far as I can see, its advertising how an ad agency can completely lose its focus, waste a client’s dollars and begin the search for new creative staff.
Ednonymous said
p.s. why are Canadian advertisers insulting the Canadian consumer (i.e Tim Horton’s & Wendy’s ads)?
crunchy said
An advertorial is a word used in the advertising industry to describe an ad that is made to look as if it were editorial. That is to say, an ad designed to appear as if it were chosen content in the media versus being a purchased position.
I have seen the commercial on tv, however the vehicle the lion man leaps into appears more so to be a Ford Fusion than a Saturn(In my humble opinion). However the vehicle is not all that clearly defined. I paused the tv for a closer inspection, but it is still not certain. I’d say it could even pass for a Hyundai.
Jason said
It’s a 2008 Ford Focus.
Jay said
It’s the new 2008 Ford Focus. Redesigned.
http://www.ford.ca
http://www.fordvehicles.com
ABC said
This is one of the worst ads ever. I’m referring to the TV commercial. I see it nearly ever commercial break which is a bad move to air it so often considering it becomes annoying at such a high frequency and with no ending! They want us to remember it, but I for one am remembering it as a darn annoying ad. What’s the point if there’s no hint to the specific product? Sure it’s a car commercial but every time I make a different guess as to the model. If the frequency were cut down then the ad may be seen as funny, but I see it so darn much I only want to know who is behind it so I can complain! If it’s Ford then I hope they’re prepared to receive a complaint for every time I have seen that darn commercial.
Lion Man of Tazania « Not Another Marketing Weblog said
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notapplicable said
Hienious campaign. An attempt at viral marketing you say? Ford put up a Facebook page featuring the “Lionman of Tanzania” and it has exactly…zero members. Even my kid brother was dissapointed with the conclusion, and he’s kind of dumb.
scottjduffy said
@Notapplicable: Your post made me laugh.
Caracticus said
I figure that campaign is targeted at women (and possibly gay men like me). The banner ad I just saw had a picture of the car in the background, and a hot mostly-naked man as the predominant design element.
You can go the the sociallifeaccellerator.ca website and download a desktop background image with the hot mostly-naked man wayyy in the foreground.
I admit: want to see more pictures of the hot mostly-naked man… but I live downtown and don’t need a car… but I like the hot mostly-naked man.
Cadiapse said
favorited this one, bro