My sister sent me a link to waitelss.org, a great video portal by Sprint, with funny short videos.
The videos have a high production value, and evolve around ways to save time in day to day activities. The campaign was praised by some bloggers (for example, Alternative Buzz, Random Culture, and others).
Though funny and engaging, I believe that this campaign is a great example how to take a great idea - and ruin it.
It is not that the clips aren't great and creative. They just don't have any relation to the brand or to the message Sprint was trying to convey.
Some of my US friends were asking me - what is it all about? What are they trying to promote? For me this are signs of a campaign with a lot of creativity but no strong message.
So, when planing such campaigns, I'd consider how do the video clips convey my message, and which hooks would lead the viewer to be engaged with it, long before I invest in fancy, engaging videos.
The only salvation of this campaign will be if copycats will create their own versions of these clips. Then Sprint might get a bit more buzz. Still it would be hard to link it to a concrete marketing message.
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Technorati Tags: sprint,waitless.org,viral video,viral marketing,marketing,online video
4 Comments
Well, that’s the thing about video. You have to imagine that your video’s going to be watched out of context… whether that means someone embedded it on their own site, like you have here, or someone’s watching it on their iPod or Apple TV.
If I had just seen that video, plain, I wouldn’t have known it had anything to do with Sprint OR with saving time. The only thing that comes to mind for me, automatically, is “Stunt Driving School”. Do you want to learn how to park like this? Visit http whatever, and we’ll teach you.
Actually, another thing that comes to mind is teaching people how to composite scenes. That video’s easy enough to make if you film the parked car and the cart first, then move them and film the car swerving into the spot like that. That way, you can do several takes without risking damage to either car or the cart.
So those are my two take-aways from that video: “Stunt Driving School” and “Compositing Tutorials”.
Bill
The main problem is that even if you go the site you don’t really get the message.
sad.
Heloo Kfir,
The idea beyond the Sprint – waitelss.org website is very simple – take the every day tasks and do it more efficient, you will save a lot of time and money – just like when you are using Sprint as your cellular provider…
Ayelet Pravda
Ayelet-
True, though it is not clear from the video, especially when it is out of context….