The power of viral campaigns in this day and age is hugely under-rated, and massively neglected. We’re busy discussing new campaigns with a few of our clients, and have included viral elements in each, which is kinda why I was inspired to write this blog…
On Friday afternoon we stumbled across this little nugget of a video clip, which was created and posted by TomTom, the GPS manufacturers. To be honest, TomTom barely registered in my conscious as a GPS manufacturer. You say GPS, I automatically think Garmin. But not after seeing this Youtube clip. Sure I’m a Star Wars fan (not to the level that Dorin is, but bare with me) so I may be slightly biased, but I enjoy creatives that play on the Star Wars theme, especially those taking Star Wars characters (Vader in particular) and transposing them into everyday life. And thanks to this video, TomTom is bleeping loudly on my radar as a GPS brand.
The clip is short, entertaining and funny, and most importantly it clearly conveys the message that TomTom is trying to communicate – TomTom’s new GPSs now come with your favourite Star Wars characters voices. That’s pretty cool, and will certainly appeal to most techno-freaks and gadget-heads, the majority of who are Star Wars freaks.
But more important than anything is the numbers, which are certainly not to be sternutated at. The video was posted on YouTube five days ago. When we stumbled upon it three days later, it had already amassed over 250,000 views. Two days later, that figure is sitting at 755,232, and climbing by the second. That’s half a million people receiving the TomTom brand message in less than two days! And I am sure that the figure will grow exponentially over the next few days, weeks and even months. Even more amazingly, this video probably cost only a few thousand Dollars to produce, and was posted on YouTube for free! That’s the power of viral.
As I said at the start of this post, we’ve got some great viral ideas for the brands we’re pitching, but don’t want to give to much away right now. But hold thumbs they’ll see the value of viral, and watch this space…
Great comments and insights. Just one correction, the message is that Star Wars voices are available for TomTom devices (as paid downloads), not that they come ‘with/pre-installed’ on the new devices we sell.
Cheers, a TomTomer
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