Coach Tom Carries Staples into Social Media Scene
Staples is running a campaign called Gift it for Free, where 10,000 people could "win" any purchase they make at the store between November 16 and December 24.
To promote an already-feeble promotional effort, the marketing team invented a fictional character called Coach Tom, who from what I can tell just wanders around dispensing advice on winning to people that aren't interested, like Tai Chi practitioners and the Kings. At some point in his didactic prattling, he'll toss in a ramble about Gift it for Free, which doesn't visibly spark any interest in his existence.
Feels forced and campy. Also, the videos are too long. But whatev, see requisite YouTube, Facebook and Twitter pages. (Remember how everyone used to build a MySpace page too, and now nobody bothers? Sign of the changing times.)
Comments
Angela:
Sounds like you don't find this campaign as funny as we do. We're totally not advocating for Staples, but you gotta give it up to Coach Tom. He's pretty darn funny. We started following him (or whomever is writing on his behalf at the assigned ad agency) on Twitter, and he started following us. Honestly, some of the things he tweets - hilarious!
In any case, you can check out our opinion of the campaign here: http://hiringtheinternet.com/2008/11/20/10001-winners-staples-scores-with-clever-viral-campaign/
Maybe it'll give you fresh perspective.
Keep up the good work over there!