Crowdsourcing is viewed to be a brilliant digital marketing concept, inviting the public to engage in the project and develop a personal connection to it in order to accelerate the research process. The intended result of crowdsourcing is to introduce and invite a personal connection to the target audience. It's also a good way for a brand to gain e-reputation/general earned publicity through blog and social media sharing. Such was the thinking of Britain’s Natural Environment Research Council when in March 2016 a contest to name a new 300-million polar research vessel was announced. The public was invited to vote online for the name of the future NERC ship, as well as learn about the mission to conduct critical research on global warming, melting ice and ecosystems in the arctic waters.
However, it is common for internet based naming contests for pranksters to hijack the campaign and promote comically unsuitable names. In the past few years, internet contests such as Mountain Dew’s “Dub The Dew” and Lays’ “Do Us a Flavor” campaigns have PROMOTED names such as “Diabeetus and “Kettle-cooked excessive debt”. Following the pattern, the overwhelming majority winner of NERC’s contest was “Boaty McBoatface”. And, like in the other hijacked contests, the winning name was deemed unusable. The vessel was respectfully dubbed “RRS Sir David Attenborough” and the crowdsourced opinion overlooked. So, was this contest a failure?
The original intent of the campaign was to give the public “ across the UK the opportunity to feel part of this exciting project and the untold discoveries it will unearth”, as stated by Science Minister Jo Johnson at the campaigns announcement. Although not in the most direct way, exactly this was achieved. Through virtue of the comical name, as of May “ the #BoatyMcBoatface hashtag had reached 214 million Twitter users, and that 60,000 people had viewed videos about the research vessel’s mission”. (The Atlantic, 2016). Furthermore, the viral name expanded the viewers of the campaign. It was now activly seen across social media by conosours of internet humor - primarily young people - on a global level. Not only were people now informed of the NERC project, the brand positioning became one of lighthearted, warm and humorous. According to Duncan Wingham, climate scientist and NERC’s chief executive, the campaign was an “incredible success”.
While the monumental interest in the campaign gave momentum to the projecy, the following steps brought it to a halt. Boaty McBoatface was in a unique position - for anything to go viral is a an unpredictable and rare occurance. A government organization, the NERC debated the final decision with the House of Commons’ Science and Technology Committee. Many ideas were discussed on how to “capitalize in the long term on the formidable Boaty ‘brand’”, such as “a video stream to chronicle the submarine’s “many adventures”. But ultimatly, instead of using the captured audience of “ hundreds of thousands of people who voted, and the millions more around the world who followed the Boaty McBoatface saga “, the choice was made to rename the ship after British naturalist David Attenborough. This resulted in general disappointed and further lack of interest from the global public.
To conclude, the case of NERC’s McBoatface is highly amusing and cautionary. It demonstrates the risk taken when seeking free media coverage. But it also demonstrates that granted a degree of flexibility, massive viral comical coverage can lead to significant brand awareness with a positive emotional connection. However, the response to such a campaign is also very important. Viral internet humor gains public interest incredibly fast, but only for a limited time. The digital marketing team must recognize that at this time, a response of embracing the humor is necesaary to maintain any further connection and public interest
Recently, Norwegian Airlines caught our attention with a clever advertisement for flights to Los Angeles. The ad, as you can see on the right, states ‘Brad is single. Los Angeles. From/one way, incl. taxes £169’. A nice example of newsjacking, related to the recently announced breakup of the famous Hollywood couple, Brangelina. This promotional campaign was originally put into newspapers and Norwegian's website but soon went viral due to people taking pictures of it and posting it on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. This almost convinced us to go hunting for our future husband in LA. Unfortunately, classes are mandatory and thus, we have to be satisfied with digging a bit deeper into Norwegian Airlines’ previous, and at least as inventive, marketing campaigns. That’s where the Red Cab popped up. At the end of 2014, the airline company offered an interactive way to discover New York from a shopping mall in Oslo. People were attracted by a digital screen that allowed them to communicate directly with a New York cab driver. The latter gave a guided city tour, with a 360° camera on top of the car. The passengers could decide where they wanted to go by touching and swiping on the screen, while the driver gave them interesting information about the city that never sleeps. The aim of this campaign was to inform people about the airline’s long haul destinations, such as New York. The whole video can be watched below.
We realize, as touch screens are getting more and more intertwined in our lives, they are also becoming a new, important, channel for digital marketeers. Lizz Morell of MarketingTech supports our opinion with scientific arguments, saying that interactive ad displays are better at engaging people than static equivalents. She states that emotional responses and the recognition of words are way higher for interactive ads. In the video of Norwegian Airlines' campaign, we can see this being put into practice. People are enjoying the digital car ride and will definitely remember it. Even if they won’t fly with this airline, we believe they will still associate it with a positive experience. Furthermore, we think it’s a creative way to create brand awareness and is more memorable than seeing a Norwegian Airlines advertisement of visiting New York on television. Thus, according to us, the medium can make a humongous difference in the promotion of a campaign. Currently, we’re being overwhelmed with advertisements from all kinds of sources. In order to still attract people’s attention, marketeers either have to be really funny, appeal to people’s emotional side or use an inventive way to make a connection. In our opinion, the first and the last aspect are certainly present in this Red Cab campaign.
This particular campaign can be costly for the limited number of people that actually interacts with the screen. However, the number of people reached through sharing the video on the internet, is tremendous. A clever combination of digital and viral marketing. As we have seen in their previous advertisements, Norwegian Airlines succeeds well at getting their marketing to go viral. They convinced us to like them on Facebook so we definitely don’t miss out on their next well thought marketing campaign. Especially, if we could bump into a screen that is able to drive us to Brad Pitt’s house, we would surely get in line to take a ride.
Buckle your seatbelts and enjoy Norwegian’s digital flight!
Valerie Eeckhout & Jana De Lobel Source article Red Cab: http://clearchannelinternational.com/news/norwegian-takes-norway-on-a-memorable-joyride-in-nyc Source article Lizz Morell: http://www.marketingtechnews.net/news/2015/may/27/its-clear-interactive-ad-displays-are-more-engaging-static-equivalents/ Source image:http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/norwegian-airlines-brad-pitt-ad-article-1.2803286 Source video Red Cab: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xPsfYMAdps
