It’s perfect internet material: short, smart, witty, self-ironic, a bit oddball, loaded with wow! effects and, yes, a fair hormonal charge. Here it is:

“Look at your man, now back to me, now back to your man, now back to me. Sadly, he isn’t me.”

Actually, I’m a little worried. I showed this to my wife yesterday and I’m convinced she’s watched it 146 times since then – and she’s still laughing! She may actually have watched the other one I showed her more often. This is the previous commercial from March, featuring “the man your man could smell like”, this one approaching 12 million views on YouTube. (Maybe I’m getting Old Spice for Christmas.)

You know you want to watch it. Here it is:

Now, I’m not Tayebot, and I’m not sure I can theorise satisfactorily about how this works in advertising terms. But I can spend a harmless few minutes wondering whether we have anything to learn from this.

Well, yes. Be short, smart, witty, self-ironic, a bit oddball, loaded with wow! effects and, yes, pack a fair hormonal charge.

Be short, smart, witty, self-ironic, a bit oddball, loaded with wow! effects and pack a fair hormonal charge

Not on a horse

And then get a budget to do something like this… I can’t track down a figure for the single videos, the best I can find is a media blog reporting that Old Spice advertising to June in 2010 cost 20 million dollars, the equivalent of 2/3 of its whole 2009 advertising budget. Sigh! We can only dream.

However, there is one interesting thing we can relate to in these advertisements: they (the first at least) are NOT loaded with computer-generated effects. Take my word for it, or watch this “making of” programme. It was done in one shot, with just a little photoshop-style tidying-up afterwards. Just like our lipdub. Yeah, right…

Majority of MEP´s unfamiliar with social media

According to a survey (carried for euobserver.com), the European elections have not resulted in a boost in the MEP´s use of social media tools. Only 33 % of all MEP´s use social media networks extensively, while 29 % do not use them at all. Furthermore 62 % have never heard of Twitter and have no plans to use it, and only 25 % are blogging extensively.

These numbers are quite surprising, since average Europeans spend more than 9 hours a week on the internet and 66, 8 % are connected to social networks.  The survey concludes that the large majority of MEP´s “do not take full advantage” of social media tools as a mean to engage with voters and “drive them to their websites”.

From “digital immigrants” to “digital natives”

In our unit we have worked intensively with social media up to the European elections. We have tried to engage and inform voters and “drive them to our website”. Our social media campaign has been centred around a total of 8 online platforms: The European Parliament website, the special election website, EuroparlTV, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr and Twitter.

Like my Bulgarian colleague, I’ve never been an IT-nerd (!), at best a “digital asylum-seeker”. Ok, I have a Facebook profile, but before the election campaign started I mainly used it to check my emails. It has therefore been an educational experience to participate in the online election campaign, where we have tried to act like “digital natives” – meaning twitting, uploading videos on YouTube, moderating comments on the election website, post election updates on Facebook…

And the best thing about it all is that our campaign seems to have been very successful! In less than seven weeks we have gotten more than 50.000 friends on our Facebook page, over 105.000 visits on our MySpace page, 283.000 views on our most popular election video on our YouTube channel and hundreds of comments on our interactive election website.

All in all a very exciting experience. We are in contact with “real people” who can comment and react directly on what’s going on in the Parliament. We’re trying to make the Parliament more visible, especially for younger people. Looking forward to become a “digital native”.

Design by our friends in the EP StudioWeb.

I heard that in the modern virtual world they call people like my mother in law “digital immigrants”. This is the opposite of “digital natives” – for whom digital technologies already existed in the time they were born. In this sense I am maybe a sort of “digital non-citizen”, or better “digital asylum-seeker”. Let us take the social media. By the time our team started using them in the election campaign I was the last person among my colleagues without Facebook account and who thought that Twitter is a sort of Belgian beer.

And look at me now, two months later! I am administrating widgets on MySpace, publishing posts on Facebook and cannot imagine a day without Twittering. With the same enthusiasm my Danish colleague uploads videos on Youtube every day. It is a special flame! That flame you can also see in the eyes of my Portuguese colleague, when she is inviting friends on MySpace. But nothing can compare with the flame in the eyes of our coordinator announcing almost daily new records of visits on our web pages.

It is amazing how quick it happens – our diving in the social media, and at the same time the change in the European Parliament – from web scepticism to web enthusiasm. (Please, see also the post by Steve). Yes, our work became more, (does Steve see that also?), but I think we enjoy this very much. We’re on YouTube and thousands are our friends in Facebook and MySpace. Yes, we dared to start direct communication with the citizens of Europe and it makes us feel satisfied, it makes us feel real. (See also Tibo’s and Kristiina’s posts.)

And look at me now, two months later! I am administrating widgets on MySpace, publishing posts on Facebook and cannot imagine a day without Twittering.

The best thing is that we really got in touch with our readers. We see how many people react and comment on our articles and are interested in European issues. It is satisfactory to see hundred thousands have watched the viral videos online.

Therefore I tried to answer the question of my mother in law about the blog in a way that makes her like it. I wanted to translate it in her language. “To blog is to write in the Internet about things you have experienced, about things you are interested in. It is something like an online diary“, I said. “Oh really?” she replied. Didn’t I see that flame in her eyes?

Nice work, and the bar set suitably high for future satirists…

The emails were flying around the office this morning, with everyone selecting their favourite from Cédric’s versions of the “It’s your choice” theme.

I liked the one below, not least because it provides – a posteriori – the perfect illustration for last week’s poll on the elections website about the internet*. In the spontaneous office survey this morning, others were however preferred, but for reasons of impartiality, I shall not reveal which.

Nice work, and the bar set suitably high for future satirists…

* Our poll asked whether the internet was out of control and whether it needed more regulation (yes, it needs better regulation; yes, leave it alone; no, it’s fine as it is).  The results were evenly split three ways. We will be publishing all the archived results of our polls soon.

Since we’re on the subject, why not answer this week’s tough question about whether you want more holiday!

http://www.puisney.eu/la-campagne-de-pub-que-vous-ne-verrez-jamais

So, let’s be cool, let’s put a virus in our life. It is the trend of the moment. You just need a good and powerful one, it will spread all around and reach people you never though it would. Don’t think I am crazy. Even if the favourite season for our not-so-dear friend Influenza just started, I am talking about a very different kind of virus. A non seasonal one: a marketing virus.

Viral marketing is the advertising El Dorado: viruses are cheap, they spread easily, they normally get to you through a trusted source. There is only a problem: how to create a virus? Some examples have been surprising even to the ‘parents’ of the creature. Others are well thought products. In any case, it is clear that the favourite environment for these viruses to spread is the internet, and we know a bit about it, so why not create a virus?

Some of the most creative members of the team have already come with some ideas, some attempts that have not been able to become stronger than the institutional vaccination. But WebComm creative laboratory never sleeps; sooner or later we will manage to break the barrier. Until we do so, you can start tasting watching our Christmas greetings video “Friday I’m in love” that ended up being an unexpected Brussels virus.