Gatorade Ball Girl Viral

Watch the Gatorade Ball Girl Video here...Unbelievable!! Isn't it?

Well, it is indeed unbelievable: The clip is a masterwork of "viral" marketing, essentially an ad aimed at touting Gatorade, but without actually mentioning the company.

This video has had 1.5 to 2 million views on YouTube!! The ball girl video was posted on June 3, and Advertising Age published a glowing review of it a few days later.

"Ball Girl" was posted on YouTube by a filmmaker affiliated with Element 79 Partners, the Chicago ad agency that created the spot.

The original Ball Girl post had a clear reference to Gatorade in the text describing the video. But the video was copied and shared several times over without mentioning the Gatorade connection.

The video gives only the slightest nod to the beverage. When the ball girl sits down after the amazing catch, there's a bottle of Gatorade near her feet.

It's subtle!! But the real payoff is the buzz generated by the video. Including this post:-)

The lesson for marketers - Anytime their brand enters into popular culture discussions, it's going to benefit.

Even though many viewers thought the outlandish catch was somehow a fake—which, indeed, was the result of special effects—they were still entertained by it.

The 'Bindaas' Search Engine!

I 'm loving it... The coming days in the digital space would be full of action and most importantly take digital innovation to a completely new level. Imagine a search engine that combines Yahoo and Google search together, displays alexa ranking and categorizes it based on Tech Cruch posts, Web screeshot views, simple text views, Timeline views, site information view, video x3 view, 3 D photo cloud view and so on. Yes.... the new search engine viewzi does it all.

Viewzi offers a very interactive, innovative way of exploring internet which takes the entire search experience to the next level. The insight behind this new offering is simple - one size can't fit all. The vast information on the internet can't be presented in a boring text format, the way google and Yahoo do.
Try this new search engine, you need to see it to believe it.

Experience Design and the 'Future of Cornflakes!!'

Was reading an article on Experience Design in the last issue of Contagious magazine.
Archiving some learnings...

1. The definition of what actually constitutes branding is increasingly broad. Branded touch-points now include everything from an online presence to a smiling customer representative and the band-aid solution of an advertising campaign is no substitute for a holistic, positive experience. If advertising is the end of the chain, Experience Design is the chain! - 'Jess Greenwood'

2. In today's world, any company that is working within products or services of any kind needs to stop this notion of expertise. the idea that they know best what the customer wants - quite a missionary stance, actually - and start creating with the very people they want to build products and services for. - Anna Kirah, a design anthropologist.

3. I have no idea whether the chemicals in Toilet duck are any good. I just like the fact that it's shaped like a duck. - Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman, Ogilvy Group,UK

4. I'm convinced that some sort of Experience Design will become the master discipline for businesses that want to be good at selling stuff. - Russell Davies, freelance planner/ blogger

5. Looking around the work-arounds and self generated solutions that consumers create to navigate certain problems is infinitely more inspiring than sitting in a room with a one way mirror and saying "What's the future of cornflakes? - Paul Bennett, Creative Director, Ideo

Suddenly this reminds me of a packaging research amongst kids( I attended some 6 years back) where a fairly persistent researcher wouldn't leave the poor kid before he replied what story he remembered on seeing the Dabur Honey label...phew!!

These last two months I have tried to dig around a little(with my planner hat) in the conversation, social media space, the next two hopefully would be in Experience Design...