so, i saw the ad for the the dodgedartregistry during the pats-ravens nfl playoff game. I thought interesting, then i did just a little bit of homework. hit the twitter. hit the site. saw what was happening.
chatter was positive for the most part - i'd say 60-65% postive or at least fair. During the game - I saw there were 90 registries already, 1-day later, there were over 400.
People dis integration - but this is in a way, an inverted integration program, and in a way, very traditional, and in a way pretty innovative.
the central marketing or business idea is 'crowdfunding' - this is based on understandingof current cultural/social trends - where people are using sites like kickstarter or crowdrise to fund projects, wether home brewing, documentary filmmaking or social philanthropy home builds. I think this is amazing, yet it reminds me of the old SNL skit done by #EddieMuprhy in the 1980's where he suited up as a white person to better understand white culure. The skit was brilliant. There's a scene where Eddie explains through his interactions with other whites - that 'when white people are alone, they give things to each other.' This is cultural insight behind crowdfunding. I believe it's true.
Moving forward, what dodge did was to take this a) cultural insight, b) pair it with today's tech-open crowdfunding platform opportunity and create an automobile e-commerce solution. Really fucking amazing. Not exactly 'new' - but I'd say new for this category.
Now, here's where we add kitty and 'integration' and some of the old-school mktng: The registry is essentially a storefront, right. we need to tell ppl about - so we advertise it - with a tv commercial aired during one of the most watched live events of the week/month/year - that drives awareness to site - yes that's old school - but effective. now where this site, itself wins is a) PR - yes, in auto and media/ad trades b) online chatter, the aformentioned twitter, but also c) through the registry itself - each registry calls on friends to help - so that's awareness buildings, friends.
This is an entirely modern marketing program: a sharing e-commerce site that hits on both converstion and awarness elements, incorporates current, as well as deeper, human cultural attitudes and behavioral (what & how) as the base, and also uses the communications tools available for promotion/scale - TV, Press, ppl.
One other thing - there's a business growth objective - do not forget, please. in my estimation, this program pays for itself, and will be a model for other vehicles within this price range and audience composition - because event though, say 500 registries may seem like a small number, the money raised goes to fund a car or down payment. @ $30K/car x 500 = $15MM - that certainly is enough to cover the cost of the program. During the same game the twits @mercedesbenz ran maybe 10 :15 teasers telling viewers to 'wait' for the next ad. What a fucking waste of money - go hire some people who know what they're doing please, rather than layoff people and live inside the moat. (a litttle anger, there, sure). We are in the new world. Burn the ships.
Further - there's no reason this program can't live on - a 365 idea v. a campaign idea. this is how we have to think today. 365, as opposed to 360 - but we can certainly use 360 tactics. Just brilliant. The agency:@wiedenkennedy. Kudos. This is something i want to do.