Viral videos range from zany commercials, to silly skits, to news footage.
Well, the viral video topping charts today is that of the "Quiznos Coyote." The coyote apparently traipsed into the propped open door of a Chicago Quiznos, and sat himself/herself in a beverage cooler. If you can imagine, the customers were frightened at first and exited the store. But, they soon became part of a large group watching the coyote from the windows, absolutely transfixed. The coyote was eventually removed, excuse me, "Adrian" was eventually removed. Yes, somehow the coyote managed to receive a name in this process.
A media frenzy ensued; a simple search of "Quiznos Coyote" returned several pages of links. The coverage spanned the major broadcast network affiliates: ABC, NBC, Fox and CBS. It also went on to reach The Star and the Chicago Sun-Times, along with the ever popular YouTube. Everyone wanted a little piece of the action, even the wildlife preserve that handled Adrian's release gave continual, almost unnecessary coverage of the coyote's status. Their site includes an action shot of Adrian jumping the crate in his return to the wilderness.
Quiznos absolutely jumped on the media coverage, putting out a media release and making jokes about broadening their customer base.
Quiznos has had some interesting campaigns in the past, the "spongemonkeys" and "baby bob" come to mind. Adweek hailed the strange hamster-esque figures as one of the best ad campaigns, although personally the spongemonkeys really did NOT make me want to buy a sandwich, or make me want to eat anything for that matter. Then, Quiznos went back to the classic and equally strange "baby bob". That was back in 2004, but what has happened to the advertising/marketing strategy of this sandwich shop?
Chris Houchens on the Shotgun Marketing BLOG likes to call this type of approach "Gump Marketing". More explicitly defined, the Forrest Gump Marketing Philosophy means that "you're not taking care of the marketing side of business, but you're still growing and opportunities are presenting themselves because of destiny and/or blind luck." It's a, "we'll get what we get" sort of mentality. Well, that is precisely what is going on with this viral footage/story of the Quiznos coyote. Fate brought Adrian to the Chicago store, spreading the name of Quiznos nationally with an endearing vibe. Quiznos realized what had fallen into their lap, and based on a Marketing Daily article, took advantage of this opportunity to push media coverage and "strike a chord with animal lovers" by donating to Chicago Animal Care and Control.
Viral marketing is a fascinating phenomenon, and what makes it so intriguing is that you never know what crazy antic will catch the eye of the public or how fast it will spread. Viral also has more of an opportunity for the Gump factor, because it is typically cheap to produce and spread.
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4 comments:
Caitlin-
In the last post you addressed how companies strive to attract media coverage on both the local and national levels. The current post discusses how a corporation turned a small news event into a national story to the benefit of their brand.
Currently, the newsroom I work in
(St. Louis/market #21) gets dozens of press releases a week from PR firms. The majority of those are tossed in the recycling bin.
As someone who works on the journalism side, should I be worried that companies and their advertising arms will start to "create" news and buzz with highly orchestrated campaigns that appear to be spontaneous events?
In short, should I be worried that coyote was planted in the store?
Being part of a news organization that is seeking to retain credibility and those viewers that "still trust and depend upon the news hour that they patronize to give them truthful, unbiased information", isn't this type of marketing extremely problematic for us?
Just some thoughts...
Bill-
Thanks so much for the comment and for reading the blog!
Definitely your concern is a real one, considering that the pseudoevent has been a part of PR since the turn of the century. Unfortunately, there is no "starting" to create news and buzz, because it has been actively created now for many years.
The thing here is that, even if the coyote had been planted, it would still have been "newsworthy" and fit the "man bites dog vs. dog bites man" requirement. The real concern would be if, for example, you wanted to cover the Quiznos incident and Subway paid money under the table so that you would not. Or, if the wine industry paid 60 Minutes to run the special on wine.
As much as we don't want to be duped or report on something pre-planned unbeknownst to us, I think the greater threat is giving into pressure for censorship and payola. That is, as a journalist, consciously manipulating the news that the citizenry has a right to hear.
Again, thanks so much for the comment! It is so wonderful to hear about a station and journalist dedicated to journalistic integrity. Thank you!
10 points for the week (i loved the spongemonkeys - and of course, the commercials are on youtube)
and 2 extra credits for the good comment
Hello. I find your blog very interesting. I see you are talking about fast food restaurants. I should say that they are great. Whenever you are on a run, you take a burger and a coke and there you are having a snack. Personally I love quiznos. I browsed www.pissedconsumer.com for the clients’ feedbacks and they turned out to be very few.
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