Mark Nicholas ([info]cosmicity) wrote,
@ 2008-04-30 13:25:00
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Current location:48098
Entry tags:commercials, saysme.tv

Your commercial on TV: $50
This is pretty fascinating. Want to directly affect the outcome of the next primaries? This new website called saysme.tv just launched, and for about $50 a pop, you can run a political TV commercial in any market. So, for example, if you want Obama to win in Indiana, you could buy an ad and run it on CNN for $50 to help him out. Choose from their pre-made ads, or you can make your own commercial and upload it. You can put commercials on many cable networks, from MTV to Fox News to Comedy Central.

http://www.saysme.tv

That's pretty amazing. I've never seen a direct line from ordinary people to television like that before. I'm sure it's just a matter of a few months before they either expand this site to include ANY content (not just political) or someone copies this idea and expands it to include anything.

I like this. Not only does it give regular people a voice (instead of just the rich candidates themselves), but it is potentially an excellent opportunity for the "very little guy" trying to give his business a boost.

-m


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[info]serpent_sky
2008-04-30 06:43 pm UTC (link)
If they don't expand it to include any content, they're missing a hell of an opportunity. That said, how would this affect advertising agencies? When you think about how the most viral videos are random things people do -- rather than the ones suits try to make us creative types do [my boss tends to think we can make things "go viral" on command, for example]... it could really uproot the industry.

I could half see an ad agency buying it out, just to stop it, though the suits aren't usually all that forward thinking. They'll probably try to stop it after it's huge.

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[info]cosmicity
2008-04-30 07:08 pm UTC (link)
I don't know... I think agencies still have a place in there. I mean, if you take a random sampling of You Tube, the mass majority of the content is complete garbage. Most people just can't make a good ad on their own. That's why there will always be agencies. People need the help of others who are naturally creative. Now, will you see the most successful viral video makers launch their own very profitable agencies? Hell yeah you will. And in that capacity, I'm excited about it. I'd love to be producing that kind of content as opposed to only stiff corporate stuff.

Now, as for your comment about your boss's lack of viral understanding, we have the exact same problem with our Chrysler clients (and even some of the bosses within my agency). They don't actually understand what makes a viral a viral. Just because you make a commercial and shove it on YouTube and whatnot, doesn't mean it's going to do anything. Virals work only when people love them so much that they HAVE to show their friends, which generally means edgy/gutsy/different content... the type of content large car companies are way too frightened to create. (Only a precious few large companies have ever really pulled a viral off in any kind of big way... Burger King comes to mind though.)

It's tough, 'cause you don't want to tell your client or your boss you can't do it, but to do it right, they'd pretty much have to throw caution to the wind (and fire all of their lawyers).

-m

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[info]serpent_sky
2008-04-30 07:40 pm UTC (link)
I want to work for the real renegade companies, as well. It's where I would be best suited. What I am doing now? Selling ringtones? Ugh. It's just a means to an end at this point -- a way to keep insurance and have a job when we move to California.

You're dead-on about the essence of a viral campaign. I've come up with ideas [and even the best ideas are a crapshoot at best...] that they shot down because they were "controversial" or "offensive" -- completely missing the point that you either have controversial, offensive, or funny -- and usually some manner of combination of the three -- in the viral world. And it's harder than it was in the past to even make it big this way.

Burger King is a great example, though. They take risks, and their agency is amazing. That's the kind of work I'd love to do. Anyone who would sign off on "Subservient Chicken" is my kind of company.

I read a long piece once about how, for the most part, campaigns like that have no value to most companies. The example they used was actually car companies. To paraphrase: "no matter how successful a viral campaign for a big ticket item like a car may be, how many people will convert and buy said item after watching the commercial? The value for a company like Burger King is there... they're selling meals for around $5. They will sell tons of them. But how many $40,000 cars will be sold? How does the company benefit?"

"Viral" is just a great buzzword right now.

My boss also thinks "video is the future of the Internet." Yes and no. When he thinks shooting instructional videos [for business plans, etc.] is a good idea... I cringe. You would do better to write it out. Most people don't have the attention span for speech/preachy videos, and it presumes that they have the time to watch the whole thing. While I can read at my own pace, a video tells me "you will spend 7 minutes here if you want this information." Click. Bye. If I click a link on CNN and have to load a video, watch a commercial, and wait for the news at their pace? I'll go elsewhere and read it in a few seconds.

There's room for all of this, but as usual, the people who stand to gain the most don't understand it fully, and don't trust the people in the trenches who actually understand what is going on and how these things work. It's kind of depressing.

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[info]cosmicity
2008-04-30 07:49 pm UTC (link)
Totally. I mean, the future of the internet probably IS more video and motion, but as you said, the internet is first and foremost about getting information easily and quickly. If you're going to integrate video, it needs to somehow be faster or far more helpful than just reading the content, otherwise people will ignore it. We make that mistake at Chrysler a lot, too. Their new thing is to put up these 10 minute demonstration videos for their new vehicles, but who would sit through a cheesy 10 minute infomercial when they can just read the car's crucial specs in about :30 seconds and look at a 360 photo of it? That's what people really want from a car website. (Which leads me to yet another common web problem: Most people go to company websites looking for those kinds of quick stats about a product, and the information is always completely buried in the site. Dumb.)

-m

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[info]serpent_sky
2008-05-01 02:22 pm UTC (link)
Hah, you're 100% correct. When I was trying to investigate cars in Dec., the sites were driving me insane. "STOP showing me videos! I want to know how much this car costs and what it has, damnit!" I gave up on Web researching cars, at least on the official sites, because they were so difficult to navigate and they generally overlooked what I was looking for -- simple, concise information on said car.

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[info]xpatchouli
2008-05-01 10:19 am UTC (link)
I don't understand how this can be so affordable. Are the air times from midnight to 5am? The networks have exercised the right to prohibit ads from airing for past political campaigns. There just going to let anyone air an ad?

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[info]cosmicity
2008-05-01 04:39 pm UTC (link)
I'm sure that the networks have a right to bounce the ad you make if they think the content is inappropriate, but yeah, the ads that you see on their page are pre-screened, so they can be run.

Cable network ad time in a single market (one city only, one airing only) is pretty darn cheap... particularly when you're buying the slots available to Comcast (cable companies) to sell directly (they get a certain amount). It is possible these are midnight - 5 (it doesn't say anywhere), but I'm not even certain that'd be necessary. They made a deal with these companies for these stations - I bet the price could even be for normal times.

-m

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