Sir Richard Branson is a great hero of mine. Besides coming across as a decent guy who cares, he is also a brilliant marketeer and highly successful entrepreneur. And we loveblogging about him
When he decided to have a go at the airline business people were always going to take notice and he was always going to change things. If only because the other airlines made him feel like he was on one of his life threatening ballooning trips again. Great service is a Virgin trademark. As is their witty and extraordinary marketing.
I’m sure most people have flown on a plane and are familiar with the in flight instructions. They are a drag for both the customer and flight attendant, no one really pays attention and if push came to shove most people would probably fail to recall any of the instructions in case of an actual emergency. As this was never seen as a big deal and even ignored by a lot of people it stands out when it’s been changed. That’s what makes this video so good, they changed something people didn’t expect to be changed.
It’s a typical case of slapping your forehead and saying to yourself “Why didn’t I think of that?”.
Although I do think the idea is excellent and extremely innovative, I do feel they could have executed it slightly better. What do you think?
Disclaimer: Before being labeled a Virgin fan boy I would like to set the record straight (pun unintended).Virgin and Sir Richard Branson are great, but not flawless. For example, I had an interview for a placement and they didn’t hire me. See, everyone makes mistakes. Even Sir Richard.
This video has been around for a while, but I only just saw it today after it got e-mailed to me by VeryFunnyAds.com.
It’s a television ad for South African television broadcaster DSTV, which depicts a scene which is stereotypical Indian. A young, beautiful woman is hitched up with a big geek. But thankfully DSTV provides options, so she uses her TV remote to turn the geek into the perfect husband (but only after turning him into Elvis and James Bond first!).
I think this is a great example of a company understanding ‘new marketing’. First of all, their product offer diversity and options and the commercial plays into these two crucial elements of the company’s offering. Whether or not they actually provide what they claim (SKY does the same, but also charges an extortionate amount of money for it for example) is besides the point. The viral is funny, grabs the attention and gets the message across well.
Belgian comic duo Circoripopolo launched about a one and a half year ago the silent short film ‘Circoripopolo Goes Airtistique‘. The two virtual comedians use some fascinating javascript magic to scale your browser window. I find it beautiful how they synched everything together.
Sit back and watch what the two guys from Belgium do to your browser. Don’t touch your mouse until the show is over! (Source: X-PRIME)
Okay, it might seem a bit strange a 22 year old student is being called CEO or can’t mention specific examples of succesful virals seeded by his company.
But in the CNN video interview below, The CoMotion Group’sCEO Dan Ackerman Greenberg tells how viral videos don’t grow accidentally and need help in the creational process and social media optimization.
Things that leading viral companies like GoViral and ViralTracker have discovered many years ago. And have proved their skills with viral case studies and outstanding technology.
I do agree with Ackerman that the tremendous growth of search points out that social media optimization could look at a profitable future. And seeding is more than uploading a TV commercial to YouTube. Also see the extended post of Ackerman at TechCrunch.
