22 September 2005 ~ 0 Comments

Suprising Broca is great… but please remember to have something relevant to say!!

Did Prilosec "Purple Day" come and go, and I missed it? Did anyone grab a screenshot?

I must admit, when I first read this article on ClickZ News about Proctor & Gamble taking over Yahoo, ESPN and a few other major homepages for the day, I was intrigued. Mostly for the audaciousness of it all, but also because we happen to know a few smart cats over at P&G, and they’ve been known to make the right calls time and time again. However, without seeing the execution, I’m incredibly skeptical.

Let’s take a listen to the VP of Media for the agency producing the campaign:

"The units are going to be very visual, and will definitely break through the clutter"

He’s talking about suprising Broca, right? So far, so good. Here comes the train wreck:

"The goal is to put people in the right mindset to get them ready to buy. This event is unlike any other form of communication because we instantly capture the consumer’s attention — and as a result, the brand will receive an immediate response."

Now he’s talking about framing the context, and the participatory nature of the online medium versus all those push mediums that existed in the past. Sounds like I should be thanking him for putting several of our principles on a national stage. Not so fast. Were they ever going to consider what goal the visitor had in mind before she visited Yahoo.com and was invaded by a page popping in purple? Doesn’t the context I came to the site with have some bearing on my relevance?  Is it possible someone is just a tad stuck within their own bottle?

I do agree on that last point though- the brand will certainly receive an immediate response. I wonder though, how will they track the negative Word of Mouth campaign they’ll potentially unleash on the ‘net?

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