This ad is on the net circulating as a viral email campaign, prior to release on television. Congratulations to all involved; it undermines the idea that you’re being sold to and puts the consumer and the producer on the same side.
My brother Mark, who works in TV sales, comments that the phenomenon of these email campaigns will increase the pressure on the ad industry to improve their creative appeal in ads. Only if your ad is very cool will you be forwarded on to all the mates.
It is conceivable that some of these sorts of ads will never make it to the TV screen. Mark believes (I think correctly) that the weakness in omitting TV is that you lose the frequency. People won’t replay the ads on their computers. Carlton will want to gain maximum exposure so will use TV to get the frequency that delivers top-of-mind awareness.
In this sense the email campaign is just a teaser aimed at the technophiles who like to be senders of clever messages instead of receivers. They also tend to be relatively affluent purchasers.
For some campaigns however the frequency will not be such a big deal. Remember that it costs over a million dollars for a national ad campaign and costs of distributing over the internet are, let’s see, um, nil. This introduces a very interesting trade-off. I can repeat my ad on the TV and make everyone watch it 29 times or for the same money I can make twelve new ads and release a new one each month. Got twelve big ideas?
