“School teacher George Masters has the marketing world abuzz with a homemade ad for Apple Computer’s iPod that is rapidly ‘going viral.’ To some experts, Masters’ ad heralds the future of advertising. Homemade ads will play a big part in marketing, just like blogging is shaking up the news,” Leander Kahney writes for Wired News.
“Masters’ 60-second animated ad features flying iPods, pulsing hearts and swirling ’70s psychedelia. It’s set to the beat of ‘Tiny Machine’ by ’80s pop band the Darling Buds. Masters quietly posted the spot to his site a few weeks ago. It received moderate traffic until it was picked up by several blogs last week. In a matter of days, the ad has been watched more than 37,000 times, and is making the rounds on blogs and e-mail,” Kahney writes.
Kahney writes, “The ad has caught the attention of marketers, who praise its professional production values and say it’s one of the first “pure” advertisements seen on the internet. Though homemade ads are nothing new, most are parodies, protests or political commentaries,” Kahney writes. “Bruce Rubel, a vice president at New York PR agency CooperKatz and author of the Micro Persuasion web log, said evangelistic customers like Masters will increasingly play a role in marketing. ‘It’s a sign that consumers want to have a role in promoting a product they love,’ he said. ‘There’s a real trend toward consumer-generated media. People are creating news, they’re blogging. People will create marketing as well. This guy is a great example.'”
“‘It’s customer evangelism,’ he added. ‘It’s not going to happen for every company, only those with a passion. The Mac platform, and the iPod, have created a core following, a customer passion. People want to spread the love.’ He added, ‘The question is, what will the marketers do? Some will embrace it but some will shun it…. I hope (Masters) gets a job in Apple’s marketing department. He certainly deserves it. But I’m surprised Apple hasn’t shut it down. They can be very persnickety about their brand and trademarks,'” Kahney writes.
Full article here.
Links to the ad (QuickTime required) here.
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Apple should hold ‘The $1,000,000 Apple Macintosh Ad Contest’ – July 24, 2003