I have been doing some research on how companies successfully and unsuccessfully use Web 2.0. Here’s how it should be done:
In 2005, Carlton Draught launched their new beer ad on the internet. View it on You Tube:
The ad was so successful because it coincided with the release of the final movie in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It certainly was, although computer-generated, a big ad!
It features scores of men in kaftans running towards each other on a battlefield. The scenery is reminiscent of Lord of the Rings. As the camera retreats for a bird’s eye perspective, the viewer sees that the battlefield is in fact a man drinking a schooner of Carlton Draught.
It really is a great beer ad. It has product placement, a catchy song, and appeal to men and women of all ages whether they drink beer or not because of its novelty.
However what is really different about this ad is that it was launched on the internet. Foster’s Australia emailed it to 4000 employees one Friday afternoon, who evidently forwarded it on. In about a month, around two million people worldwide had seen it, including 10,000 people in Hungary on one day!
The momentum was so great that the brewer had to scale back the ad’s television air time so not to over-expose the product.
Earlier this year, its follow up ad launched in cinemas and has recently broadcast on television. To me, it doesn’t have the same appeal. It’s blokey and doesn’t capture the zeitgeist like the 2005 ad. It is also not really uplifting or funny. It has great graphics, but that’s about it.
Check it out on You Tube: Carlton Draught Sky Troop
To me the appeal of ‘It’s a big ad’, was that it was appreciated by people who weren’t even the target audience.
Clearly, it was always going to be an extremely hard act to follow!
