02 August 2008

+ Pimp My Blog

If one of today's marketers doesn't pull off a decent social media campaign soon they are going to kill, or at least hurt, this highly potential channel. This leaves tomorrow's marketers in a very bad place.

Case in point is Fantastic Noodles Pimp My Kettle. I made a conscious decision last year to ensure my blog refrained from slamming campaigns as much as possible. But this is worth an exception.

The official page comes up fourth on a Google search. Furthermore, the page is a Ning. Oh dear.

Interestingly, of their 276 "members" the majority of them are from Adelaide. As Julian Cole pointed out to me, Clemenger BBDO, the agency behind this atrocity, is from Adelaide too.

I hope these guys can sleep with themselves at night. Not only are there ethical issues here but you're really fucking up my career.
Posted by Zac Martin at 2:58 PM

14 comments:

  1. You know the bad thing about writing blog post and then having them on hold, some little brat takes your material and writes exactly what you wrote. ; )

    I second that sentiment about them wrecking it for everyone else. So lets name and shame them but I think we should also be giving constructive crit on how to do it better.
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  2. Ha, I actually think it's a pretty amusing campaign. :p
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  3. Zac, I think you drank too much google juice lately: "I hope these guys can sleep with themselves at night. Not only are there ethical issues here but you're really fucking up my career". Big accusations - Wish to explain? What ethical issues? How exactly this campaign is fucking up your career?
    There is a big difference between a uni student working on “real briefs” and someone who works in the industry with real clients, real budgets and real limitations. The entire industry is so young and no one really knows what will work. We can critic but it's probably more constructive to be specific , stick to facts and offer some sort of insight. The way I see it, this post can hurt your career much more then the Kettle campaign.
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  4. @ Tamir

    I agree with you. It is easy to bash in a negative way without being constructive. And that's exactly what I've done. Instead, I'm hoping comments like yours will appear allowing us to have this conversation and see where it takes us.

    Yes I agree there is a difference in saying what is wrong with something and actually pulling off a great social media campaign. Although I'm not quite sure what you mean by your comment regarding me as a Uni Student and "real briefs"...

    But I agree that social media is so young and people are still learning. However, already rules have been established and ignoring these and common sense gives social media a bad name. With this campaign totally and utterly failing do you think Maggi will be keen to do another "social media" campaign again?

    But I suppose it might be considered a success if you look at all the profiles, but when it's the agency creating them I see that as unethical and non transparent, everything social media shouldn't be.
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  5. Furthermore, I just realised I said the campaign was Maggi, not Fantastic Noodles. Obviously a very successful campaign.
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  6. Hi Zac, regarding the student/real brief issue. I understand you are "an 18 year old university student, currently studying his second year of a Marketing degree". What I meant was you probably worked on real briefs (I know that students are getting some of these from brands) in a lab environment. (meaning no real pressure). About all the "bad name" of social media. I disagree. A bad ad on TV does not give TV a bad name. Why is social media different? I'm sure brand managers will keep trying to nail a social media component every year when they get a new budget (I know I'll try to convince them to do so:). OK, I see what you mean about the fake profiles. Here's the real angle to this criticism - if you can say that 75% of the profiles belong to the agency and what their response was when you contacted them - that's a winner!
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  7. Well, the whole campaign and the concept is a piss take. Did you understand that?

    How would you have done it?
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  8. @ Nicolas

    I feel like the name was a piss take and perhaps the concept but still a lame one.

    As to how I would have done it... I'm not sure. I've actually somewhat addressed this in my latest post.

    But thinking on my feet, two minute noodles screams Uni students at me. And Uni students are passionate about their lifestyle. I'm fairly certain there are numerous Facebook groups based on instant noodles, and you can bet your bottom dollar the majority of those members are students.

    I believe exploring this passion and this community would be a better option than creating a fake one and then poorly executing it.
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  9. Fair enough,

    but I don't get why you think it's such a poor execution?
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  10. I think the execution is bang on. It certainly stood out as I walked past the bill posters near my house.

    As for pimp my kettle as an idea. I think it works pretty neatly. Sure you could get all "uni student" and make comparative jokes about how poor they are, and as such they only eat cheap pot noodle. But that's not very aspirational is it? And it sure would alienate anyone who doesn't go to university. Surely not a sound marketing approach.

    What's more I really like how they've got someone very close to, if not, the VO from Mythbusters.

    I like it.

    I don't love it. But it's better than 90% of the advertising out there.
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  11. @ Kieran

    You're applying traditional media approaches to new media. New media is about not interrupting your consumers, so if you target something a Uni students then others do not receive the campaign. You don't have to make jokes at then, how about starting a conversation and see where that takes you?

    But I would not limit it to just that. If you believe mothers of young children are your target market, then explore the many mothers who blog daily about their children.

    There is a lot of potential here, none of which was attempted with this campaign.
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  12. Zac,

    I wasn't so much replying to the first post but to the idea itself. And to the execution of it. Largely where you felt the concept was "lame".

    I think the agency has taken a bit of a punt by splitting their media usage between traditional that directs people online and the actual online site itself.

    The traditional stuff will probably pay off, it's street level and it's funny. As for creating a new community online, they've got just under 1000 members at present. So whether people really get involved and start a kettle movement I don't know. We'll have to see if this punt pays off.

    Having previously talked up the concept and execution I just saw a youtube video where some bloke introduces the concept of pimping a kettle, but doesn't really do anything with it. He's only had 1200 views or so in the last year. So who knows, is this an original idea? Probably.

    I wonder if tomorrow's research groups will type every facet of an idea into google to see if it's ever existed in some way, shape or form.
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  13. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
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  14. Interestin concept, but i don't really agree. Grüner Tee Extrakt
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