A short post to share a bit of a social media trail happened on via a tweet that caught my eye today.

Interesting article comparing the advertising strategies of old arch-rivals Coca Cola and Pepsi (found thanks to @MickSiddle on Twitter). Coke is sponsoring the 2010 World Cup, but Pepsi seems to be going for a social media based approach instead. Pepsi even opted out of advertising during the Superbowl this year (unlike, famously, Google with its Parisian love story) after doing so for 23 years, and seems set to spend up to a third of its entire advertising budget on social media. That’s a fair amount for sure, and advertising like Pepsi’s YouTube spot, featuring Henry, Messi, Lampard and Drogba, doesn’t come cheap. Whatever, first World Cup score to Pepsi, says the article. So the big boys are putting their big advertising bucks online…

Public information film NOT as they used to be. Remarkable, and a hit.

The same article also gives a top ten of current online advertising videos. There is a remarkable ultra slow motion dog food advert (I learnt from a careers fair decades ago that Pedigree pet foods is part of the Mars Corporation, so there’s money there too), and the amazing  Evian baby spot that’s been doing the rounds (am I alone in thinking that, though a cool video, there is something slightly “off” about using babies this way?).

I am however most struck – and mightily relieved – that it’s not all megabuck multinational corporations in there. There is a public safety campaign at no. 6, from the unlikely-sounding source (why do I say that?) of “Sussex Safer Roads Partnership”. I’d already been sent this by someone in the office. Over three million views; how many in Sussex, I wonder. If you haven’t seen it, watch it (whether or not you are in Sussex), it’s superb.

Anyway, there is definitely a place for the smart, highly-produced YouTube/”viral” video in the communications mix, it seems, including for the public sector. Hmm. It’s close to a year since we released our election videos, perhaps it’s time to think about the next official offering. Something based on the euro-West Wing concept perhaps?