If you've ever been approached by a person or a family that seems to be extolling the virtues of the particular product you are considering buying, you are probably experiencing Whisper Marketing. Similar to the marketing practice of women who approach men in bars not for a date but to chat up a particular beverage, Whisper Marketing employs people to engage in real world product endorsements at the moment of purchase. It could be while you are browsing the racks in your favorite clothing store or it could be more clandestine such as a person who appears to have just received a funny message on his cell phone only to share it with you for the sole purpose of telling you about his cell phone provider.
Along with viral marketing, Whisper Marketing attempts to sidestep the clatter and clutter of traditional marketing which, for the most part, people have tuned out. A recent study by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young and reported in Ad Age "found only 17 percent of the 700 U.S. consumers it surveyed in the past six months said TV ads influenced car-buying decisions. Ads on Internet search engines influenced 26% of consumers. Nearly half, or 48%, of the consumers said a direct-mail offer from a car dealer would influence their vehicle purchases, but the most influential measure was word-of-mouth, cited by 71% of consumers." Yes, word of mouth. And word of mouth is exactly what Whisper Marketing puts to use.
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This week's crop of ads from Ad Age's TV Spots of the Week brings another sex-laced ad from Uniliver for Axe. It's a humorous play on the typical guy-outside-the-woman's-dressing-room scenario. Nice visuals. Can't really remember what the product was though. Also this week are people walking on stilts to avoid fire ants in ad from Bayer Tru-Green; Halle Berry glams for Revlon Overtime Lip Color; a bull tramples a grocery store for T-Mobile; the egg holder in your refrigerator can now be used for holding liquor days Diago in a spot for their new Bailey' Minis; Walt Disney promotes itself in the typical emotional manner; scenes of everyday life are framed in a unique way in a pot for HP's Digital cameras; and Dunkin Donuts employees beat the shit out of an unsuspecting waiter to promote the new line of Expresso/Latte/Capuccino drinks.
Absolut has released a CD called "Absolut Threetracks" to 3,500 disc jockeys around the world and it has been posted for download on the vodka maker's web site. Songs included on the CD will be from artists such as Taxi, Rollercone and Aril Brikha.
Like most passnegers on a long car ride, this one is quite bored but has found an ingenious way to pass the time away. Not that we'd suggest you actually do this.
Here's a unique ad campaign/spoof that demonstrates the really, really, really powerful love one can have for a particular product. Sometimes that love, though, can be a nit over the top as well as creepy as you will see in this spot. Of course, over the top and creepy can be humorous too.
