Spectacular…

Ground-breaking stuff from Honda here with this cool toggle technology (that’s the official technical name for it).  Well kind of ground-breaking… it was done before for this Bob Dylan video.

Capture

Nonetheless as  Apple would say, being first doesn’t necessarily mean  you’ve done the best job.  TV advertising is slowly becoming less and less effective and big brands are finding their target where they spend most of their viewing time.  Netflix Ireland boasts over 150,000 subscribers whereas 377,400 UPC users watch TV online (Eircom sentiment survey 2013) and 1 in 3 spend about the same time watching YouTube as TV every week (YouTube).

What does this mean for the future of TV or should I say AV advertising?

Well luckily for the consumer marketers will have to be more creative and make content that people chose to watch, and hopefully share.  Last year Volvo Trucks won with the Epic Split stunt.  But that’s a really enormous production,  the result of a genius ad agency and a very brave client.  It’s not going to provide anyone with a formula for success on YouTube…

I reckon the answer is that advertising is going to become more bespoke – so for YouTube you create specific advertising that targets your audience precisely and engages them in a memorable and entertaining way.  And not in an aggressive hostage manner….

If you’re obliging people to watch your ads as prerolls, let’s face it you have your work cut out for you to maintain engagement 94% of people choose to skip the ad. (Niall Communications).

skip

Burger King who have a great track record on Social created bespoke preroll ads poking fun at the annoyance that they cause and incorporating it into the creative idea.

Mashable do a great list every month of the most shared ads on YouTube – here’s September’s.

Burger King – pretty, pretty cunning

Burger King are the King of social, imho.  Well within their category anyway.  So whatever they do it’s worth keeping an eye on.  Everyone knows about their controversial Whopper Sacrifice campaign on Facebook that encouraged a spout of Friend Denunciation in return for a free Whopper.  This time the crazy Norwegians have taken the whole Genuine Friend thing a bit further with the Whopper Sellout.  

It was a brave move and must have taken some convincing to the marketing bosses, but I think it was pretty clever.  The value of a real Fan is something new in Facebook marketing, and is definitely an area that is worth exploring and brands investing in. I can’t tell you how many Facebook page competitions I’ve run where the entrants are either compies, or totally physically incapable of enjoying the prize at stake (entrants from India hoping to win a movie pass that evening in Dublin).