The ad is just an ad. For it to be a success in the sense of people talking between themselves about it requires real people to have real conversations.

So what would I have done differently (obviously without knowing all the background to the meetings with the client and their specifications and without telling you how to do your job which would be ridiculous but still biting the bullet instead of sounding off like a jackass)? In conjunction with the ad shown possibly use the same base idea to promote competitions in bars/on beaches/at parties/in ski resorts/et al and encourage people to post in as many of their own videos as possible in a type of Coors/YouTube partnership (in the loose sense of the term). Competitions could be organized, championships, etc. Everything is upfront, okay Coors is behind it, okay it’s commercial and professional but maybe somewhere out there is some talented person who is capable of pulling off the type of crazy pouring feat which would motivate others to post about and watch it and comment about it and the machine is lauched.

Or maybe an amazing prize for the most amazing pour then posting up the video. The idea is authenticity and conversation then hoping the mix motivates the public to participate. The experience is intact so the brand maintains it’s position of trust with the consumer.

Like I said, the questions raised about the campaign are not ones concerning the creativity of the ad but how the ads are freight trained into the public arena. The brand is the relationship we have but it is perpetuated by creating expectations in the consumer then delivering.

I hope at least some of this made sense and I must say I have enjoyed blathering away to you about it all. Keep up the great work.

Kind regards,

Tim

“Experiential marketing is all about engaging consumers instead of pushing messages at them”.

Am I right in thinking it’s also about how the relation I have with the brand makes me feel? I babble to our clients about the idea that we are in an experience-based (as opposed to function-based) age and our sense of well-being is in part tacked along by little consumer experiences and if I am vaguely correct then the delicate relationship a company has with the consumer depends on delivering messages which will make them feel in harmony with the experience sought after in purchasing the product.

Considering beer has no function to speak of the choice of the consumer would be almost entirely made on how the buying of this beer creates an experience. If they feel like they are joining the fun gang of beer pourers like on YouTube then mission accomplished.

Anyway, we are in interesting times and the job of trying to glue handles on the sides of all of this must be quite engaging.

Kind regards,

Tim

Me too. And of course many people like us are influenced this way. The real question is – can a bunch of super clever cookies in an advertsing agency (despite giving away what might be obvious clues) pass off a professionally devised campaign as being socially generated?

This is the point of what viral, buzz, socially influenced, whatever you want to call it marketing isn’t. It isn’t designed by professional sellers. Why? Because it takes away the benevolent and therefore untainted intentions of someone recommending a product or a service to someone else. The intent is untainted (for want of a better word) because they have no vested interest in promoting the product so the trust we have in the product comes back to the trust we have in the integrity of the person, which I presume is not the case here. I presume the client paid a wad of money to launch this campaign and despite how well targeted it may be it’s traditional advertising dressed up in viral drag.

“Engaging the consumers” in an “entertainment experience” comes off in the end sounding like bollocks because it’s not the consumers who are talking about the product. It’s you. The agency.

I hope this doesn’t come off sounding too snippy and I have read your excellent blog for quite a while now and of course will continue to do so I allowed myself to be as honest as possible.

Kind regards,

Tim.