Jingles for Pringles – Feedback Needed
I saw a video on Sean’s blog, Craphammer that took me to a real interesting campaign P&G is doing called Jingles for Pringles. They launched a contest where users create their own custom video promoting Pringles of course and upload it to their custom site. Very much like YouTube, users can comment and rate the videos to see what the community likes the best. Along with this online video campaign, P&G has also chosen some malls where they will be having street teams videoing people right there and uploading those videos to the web site as well. The winners get some sort of prizes.
I have been real impressed with a number of campaigns that P&G have been doing lately. They really seem to be one of the few large corporations that have really embraced the internet and a number of these community and viral campaigns. I was going through the Jingles for Pringles site and was real impressed with how the technology worked as well as the user experience. What I liked most about it was that P&G did not try to stuff their product down the users throat. They setup the campaign correctly and understood that everything that the user is creating is focused already on their brand and product and nothing else was needed. This is a critical part of any kind of viral/community campaign, you as a marketer cannot push too hard with your message or product or you risk alienating your community.
What do you think? Can I ask everyone a favor and go over to the Jingles for Pringles site and take a look? You do not have to register to view the videos and surf the site. I really would love your thoughts on what you like and what could be better. Thanks!
Technorati Tags: P&G, Jingles for Pringles, YouTube, viral, community
Hey. I have to post. Dave’s getting close to surpassing me as the number one Hipster comment stalker. And I’ve been gone for two weeks. Sheesh, Dave. Get it on, man!
I questioned how many of these vids were real but love the initiative. And I’m understanding. One does have to seed these things. Been there too many times. My hands are bloody.
I hear ya Sean. So what do you think are the big factors that will really compel someone to create their own video? Is it all about the prize or something else?
I like the site, but when a site decides to create its own platform for this kind of thing, rather than exploit an existing user base, I look for angles and closely at their terms and conditions.
Reading through their ToS, I notice they are looking for rights to use the material however they like, including derivative works.
The prizes being offered are almost nothing compared to the cost in developing the site.
Even here in Poland shooting a 30 second TV ad with just 3 professional actors and a 30 man crew can cost around $100,000 per day.
Looks like they will be gaining a lot of “free” material, plus ideas for future campaigns.
Andy, I am a little confused on your comments. You say that, “The prizes being offered are almost nothing compared to the cost in developing the site.” Is that wrong? I agree with you the cost of this site is definitely not cheap even if they are using an existing third party. I think that is one of the things that I admire about what P&G are doing. Even though this campaign cannot have any ROI as it is focused on brand building and awareness, P&G is willing to spend what a half a million dollars on this site and countless more on the street teams, prizes and man power it is taking to run it?
What do you think?
Well I think they might get a lot more user generated content if they were giving out $100,000 rather than a holiday for 2, and that might be fair compensation considering they are retaining rights to the original material, including music, lyrics etc that the users are generating.
I am sure they will use the same platform for other products which will offset the cost of development, but not the manpower costs you are suggesting.
I am not sure what funny video clips programs you have in the US, but even here in Poland for a 30 second funny home video you can expect to win thousands of dollars worth of prizes weekly, and cars for the monthly finalists.
The prizes offered in this campaign?
A holiday for 2
10 video cameras
It might turn out being a success, I just feel they are being “cheap”
I got ya, makes sense. I do disagree with you on the platform. I would be willing to bet you my car that this is a third party platform and not their own. So each time they use it, it costs cash. I appreciate your feedback as always my friend, thank you.