DISQUS

Pema Hegan · 2 years ago

I think this could have been great, Rob - but after the video blew up there was no follow through for Sunsilk, just confusion.

Capitol C said on their blog that the idea was to "explore and harness the power of ‘wigouts’." It seems they were trying to seed the term 'wigout' ahead of their traditional TV ad campaign launching which used the term. This could have been a great strategy were their TV ads not so completely unrelated and quite frankly - crap. I watched their ad for the first time last night during Lost - here it is on YouTube...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WceQJ2RPivI

David Jones · 2 years ago

My worry is that all the buzz built around this will lead to other marketers jumping on the "let's seed youTube," bandwagon with a bunch of stealth marketing.

This is a great clip...raw, like a train wreck. I hope it would've worked just as well if Sunsilk took some credit at the end in some way. I don't think we've heard the whole story on this yet. There aren't too many consumer products companies who'd tie themselves to something like this that featured so much profanity.

You hit the nail on the head with "sneaky." That sums it up best.

Mathew · 2 years ago

Yeah, I just don't think playing tricks on your intended audience is a great way to build loyalty or warm feelings for a product.

JK · 2 years ago

I don't think anybody has any ill feelings towards the company. I think any arguments that it was bad for the are contrive.
Whether or not it was effective.... for the cost it probably was.

Pema Hegan · 2 years ago

Ha! Mathew - I've just realized I called you Rob in my comment above. Must have forgotten which blog I was reading and confused you with your Mesh buddy, Mr Hyndman. Sorry about that.

Mathew · 2 years ago

Not a problem, Pema -- happy to be confused with someone as smart and attractive as Rob :-)

And JK, I think you are sadly mistaken.

JK · 2 years ago

I think you're sadly mistaken too

David Jones · 2 years ago

I'm sadly mistaken? You're sadly mistaken! This whole damn blogosphere is sadly mistaken!

If Al Pacino had a blog, that's what he would leave in the comments.

Tony Chapman · 2 years ago

There are many stories to this campaign. We had some wonderful consumer insight to work with - that woman can have a powerful emotional reaction to having bad hair - its like taking away Austin Powers mojo.

We wanted to create a terminology for this reaction - 'wig out' and dramatize it. We couldn't think of a better scenario than this problem happening on a 'wedding day'.

We purposely pulled the You Tube Video when we launched our Sunsilk 'stop the wig out' mass media campaign - and stay tuned for some interesting twists

We will know if we are successful if Wigout becomes part of our targets vernacular, and if Sunsilk is the solution she seeks.
Stay tuned....

Tony Chapman
Capital C

P.S. Capital C uploaded the viral live on a Friday and by Monday it was getting tremendous traction. We realized that one of the storylines was whether it was 'real or not' - we had great debate at our shop whether we should pull this, and I made the executive decision not to - I felt it was too late, we weren't promoting Sunsilk in the ad, and the tension between those who thought it was real, or fake - I felt is what gave it so much on line energy.

Mathew · 2 years ago

Thanks for the comment, Tony. And there's no question that the tension between whether it was real or fake gave it a lot of energy -- and I suppose in some ways it isn't that different from any "teaser" campaign.

At the same time, however, I think that effectively disguising it as a "real" YouTube clip is a little sneaky, wouldn't you agree? And I'm not sure that tricking someone is a great way to start off a marketing relationship. Did you get lots of free publicity? Sure. But I'm not convinced that it was worth it.

To me, this is a little like the "buzz" campaigns where someone comes up to you in a bar and you think you're really hitting it off, only to discover that a company has paid them to talk to you because they're trying to sell you something.

Ian Barr · 2 years ago

Great discussion in the marketing world going on about this campaign. I posted my opinion prior to leaving for vacation and have returned to find a lot of interesting point of views. My original is here:

http://blogs.hillandknowlton.com/blogs/techknow...

Tony, to your note about whether or not Wigout will become part of the target audience's vernacular...are you polling them now or after the advertsing blitz? I'm assuming Wigout will be the main focus of the campaign but can't see it resonating with your target demo simply from the brief mention on Youtube.

Regardless of my opinion on the initial web strategy, it's nice to see a brand that's willing to take some calculated risk.