Viral - some interesting observations

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Newsletter from GoViral
Cannes Lions 2008 and Females in viral campaigns

Dear Reader,
Welcome to our July newsletter. In this edition, we take a closer look at Cannes Lions 2008 winners Microsoft's "Halo 3" and Burger King's "The Whopper Freakout". This monthly insight tunes in on the lack of viral campaigns targeted against women.
In the last newsletter we introduced you to our new book "The Social Metropolis" – it is now available for free download here . You can also enjoy our seminar in Cannes here .
Enjoy!


Cannes Lions 2008 – Microsoft's Halo 3 and Burger King's "The Whopper Freakout"
We have again reached that time of the year, where advertisers from all over the world gather and celebrate the passing year and select their favorite commercials. This year's viral contestants included Burger King's "Whopper Freak out" and four spots from Halo 3.

Microsoft's Halo 3
T.A.G. and McCann made a homerun and won the Grand Prix prize in the Film category for the Halo 3 Believe campaign, which included 'Gravesite,' 'Enemy Weapon', 'John 117/monument' and 'Combat' for Microsoft's Xbox 360. The four spots are part of larger campaign, which initiated at the end of 2006. The campaign consisted of five major phases (that you can read about in our new book ) until its release on September 25th 2007. The overall theme of the campaign is rather untraditional for a computer game. Users are guided around in the remnants of a post-world war, taking place after the two first games. Real actors play the roles of surviving veterans guiding the users through a memorial walk of the wars. The four spots were a part of phase 5 and apart from them, it consisted of a Halo 3 website, serving as a virtual museum, providing an interactive fly through of the entire John 117 monument – allowing visitors to peek right into the fight. They could also learn more about our enemies and hear first hand stories from the men, who were there. The four spots consist of interviews with surviving veterans of the battle who served with Master Chief. They talk about their experiences and speak with reverence and awe about what it was like to serve with mankind's greatest hero.
Watch Enemy Weapon
Watch John 117/Monument
Watch Combat
Watch Gravesite

Burger King's "The Whopper Freakout"
This year, "Whopper Freakout" – created by Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Miami – stood out and won gold in the cyber category. Depriving Whopper fans of their favorite burger turns out to be a surefire way to get them to buy more. To coincide with the 50th Anniversary of the Whopper, Burger King conducted a social experiment removing the Whopper from the menu. On December 2007, a variety of television, interactive, radio and print executions rolled out and whopperfreakout.com was introduced. Hidden cameras show what happens at two Burger King outlets, when a actual Burger King customer is being told that the chain no longer serves Whoppers. The campaign explores the emotional attachment that people hold towards products and in this case – the Whopper. The clips document the reactions from upset customers. One reaction was: "What are you going to put on the logo now -- home of the 'Whatever we got'?". The message was clear – people didn't like it. The campaign was a huge success and drove sales of the Whopper up by 29%. The website created for this campaign received 4 million views by mid-March, and had 250,000 unique visitors in the month of December alone. Spoofs of the TV ads were created and posted on the internet. Not only did the campaign help strengthen the sales at Burger Kings restaurants nation wide, but also, competitors showed signs of slower traffic.
Watch The Whopper Freakout here

Insight of the month: Lacking focus on females in viral marketing.
One of the seminars at Cannes Lions 2008 was held by Cheil Worldwide: A Day In The Life Of A Mobile Phone In Seoul. The seminar positioned delegates in the minds of YMCs (Young-Minded Consumer) living in the modern digital metropolis of Seoul. And through that experience, delegates saw how today's youth consumer is making the mobile device an extension of his/her existence. As Pernille Fruensgaard write on her blog , one of the interesting parts of the seminar was, that the mobile services discussed by Cheil were primarily targeted young females, and that these served as drivers of the services making them a natural part of their daily lives and social connections.
Right now, the nature of viral campaigns in Europe seems to be driven by and to masculine humor and the nature of females, linked up to networking and sharing of information/stories/gossip, is not addressed in viral campaigns. Interestingly, their nature would be a perfect catalyst for spreading a message, if it is possible to use in their social activities.
A study from Lucid Marketing concludes that women uses word of mouth more than men. Women are more likely than men to share a positive experience with a business (91% versus 83%), or a product (95% versus 89%). The same conclusion is found at Jackie Huba's blog , where she ask Michele Miller, co-author of the new book "The Soccer Mom Myth: Today's Female Consumer: How She Really Is, Why She Really Buys", to share five tips for understanding word of mouth and women. "Ask any woman how she found her hairdresser, doctor, or favorite wine, and she is likely to tell you that it was from a friend. Women are natural word of mouth spreaders. They are wired that way – with four times as many connections between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, women tap deeply into that area that is responsible for bonding and connecting with others".
So, brands for female segments should definitely not disregard word of mouth marketing, when planning future campaigns. In fact, it could prove a very profitable decision.

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