Evolution of Dance 2 Debuts Monday With 'Viral Bridge Marketing'
Oh no. Here it comes. Another marketing babblespeak acronym. Yes. Are you ready? OK. Viral Bridge Marketing. Yup, VBM, people. What's it all about? We're not really sure but it's described as part of an "innovative deal to monetize the sequel to 'Evolution of Dance.'"
Comparison shopping site Saveology and self-improvement site PeopleJam have teamed and developed "an approach that allows a viral video and its sponsors to meet consumers at the intersection of their tastes (Evolution of Dance 2) and needs (saving money in a tight economy)."
Eesh, if there's anything that'll kill a, hmm, potentially viral viral before it goes viral, it would be this.
The release blathers on endlessly about previewing the video, adding your own image to it, embedding it, emailing it, a sweepstakes and all sorts of other very unviral-like crap.
The best part? You can sign up to be notified when Evolution of Dance 2 is release and...wait for it..."receive specialized savings quotes from Saveology.com, a comparison shopping website that saves consumers time and money and enables one-stop purchase and scheduling of essential services from cable and internet to wireless and insurance."
Fuck.
Whatever happened to subtly branded work that "goes viral" on its own merit such as Matt Harding's Where the Hell is Matt videos sponsored by Stride?
And...what new dance steps could Judson Laipply possibly show us that he didn't already in the original video?
Comments
Dude, you're going to want to thwack me in the nodules for this one, but it has to be said. I actually heard this on NPR, so it has to be true. VBM isn't an acronym, it's an initialism. Acronyms are letters that spell a word. I hate people who nitpick stuff like that, but I found it interesting, so I'm passing it along, FWIW. Which I'm pretty sure is an initialism.
Dude, you nailed it. Yet again. It's not a big deal if companies want to do marketing that involves video. But it would be great if they'd stop calling it viral. Trying to make something viral is just about the opposite of viral as it gets. I can't imagine the untold fortunes that have been, and are being, spent by companies trying to create things that are viral. Good, clever, original ideas are viral, and those are rarely the result of meetings.
Dude, you nailed it. Yet again. It's not a big deal if companies want to do marketing that involves video. But it would be great if they'd stop calling it viral. Trying to make something viral is just about the opposite of viral as it gets. I can't imagine the untold fortunes that have been, and are being, spent by companies trying to create things that are viral. Good, clever, original ideas are viral, and those are rarely the result of meetings.
I really didn't mean to post multiple times here. I think the comment thingy is broken. Well, mine's broken. Then again, the Interwebs are limitless, so there's plenty of room for annoying, multiple posts, right?
Viral Bridge Marketing takes an already poor concept (trying to force something to become viral) and adds an extra layer of marketing speak onto it so that clients will say 'ooh, shiny' and sign on the dotted line. I can't see this doing very well, and especially once you consider the $$ that's going into all of the "unviral-like crap" that no one will use. Whatever happened to just making a quality video and letting it go viral on its own?
We've got to get rid of the word 'viral', (particularly from agencies with 'viral' in their name). I've worked on a number of projects that have really gone viral (mainly interactive games etc) and each time I think I've got it down pat, the next one flops. There is no exact science to this, so people should stop focusing on these stupid viral guarantees and put the energy into creating new and engaging content.