"An idea can turn to dust or magic, depending on the talent that rub against it." Bill Bernbach, the famed advertising pioneer, once said.
Neutrogena Singapore launched an online advertising campaign last month. The campaign named SunStopper was set to take advantage of the solar eclipse of the century occurred on 22 Jul 2009 to promote Neutrogena's sunblock products. I learned about the news and thought it was an once-in-a-lifetime idea and decided I must experience the promotion for myself. I visited their website and joined their facebook group, hoping I would witness a ground-breaking advertising campaign.
Well Disguised Eclipse Enthusiasts
Their facebook group appeared to be an eclipse enthusiast fans club. You find the webpage resources on any topic about a solar eclipse you can imagine: prehistoric myths, modern science explanations, how to watch it and etc. On top of these resources, they have organised a small group of eclipse chaser to bring all the necessary hardcore equipment and travel to Shanghai in China to actually view the full eclipse (Singapore did not quite lie on the viewing area, that's why they have to travel the thousands of miles). No trace of the Neutrogena brand can be found in stuff they published. The whole thing was a well disguised eclipse fan club designed to engage every curious web surfer. On the destined day of operation, 22 Jul 2009, the eclipse chasing team did their job in China, uploading photos and live streaming videos of the full eclipse to the page for their fans outside China to actually see what a full eclipse looks like. The photos and videos were awesome, I must admit. Up to this point, the first half of this campaign mentioned above was a great example of a new form of marketing. They did not say things to people but they did things for people and contributed to the network generously. Props should be given to regarding their efforts in really chasing the eclipse and sharing to everyone.
A Too-Difficult 180-degree Turn
However, they did not follow up in the latter part. Real problems arose right after the 6 minutes of darkness restored into a bright morning. It was time they had to reveal their identity and purpose, and that's a critical part of the campaign. What they did was simply changing the outlook of their website, coming up with a slogan and uploading a photo album of their products and people holding bottles of sunblock in both hands. It was as sudden and as hard-sell as it could be. Literally a 180-degree turn from its original warm-hearted non-commercial enthusiast image they portrayed all along. People dislike advertising and they dislike being betrayed. I am sure there could be better ways of telling the truth than having them uncovered bluntly all at once.
There were more to be improved with the initial promotion of the website and facebook group. They got some promotion here on an astronomy forum. But the solar eclipse was the talk of the town back then. The news was in the first few pages of major papers, if they did not hit the headlines. I believe they could go a step further to the mainstream blogs and still get much better response instead of writing on an astro forum with no meaningful traffic. I would expect much better online promotion through blogs of trendsetters and the more prominent forums. Heard that it was a regional campaign, if the online promotion was done better, the number of fans on facebook would be much more satisfying than the mere 1510 they have up-to-date.
Worse still, they did not reward their keen followers (like me) with any promotional tactics, not even e-vouchers on buying sunblock products. It's like you have attracted some body to your show and letting them in to watch your most hardcore performance and forgetting to have them paid at the end. And then the site was dead. No more updates, no more resources. I do not live in Singapore, but I have reasons to suspect the campaign had been over regionally. With little achieved, the campaign left much disappointment within observers like me who seriously hoped it could really do something building on top of an idea and an eclipse of century.
Neutrogena was actually not the only one inspired by the solar eclipse in its advertising. Michael Hill, a jeweler in New Zealand and Australia, took the opportunity too. And here's its print. Enjoy.
[picture via
http://www.vivawoman.net/2008/06/04/sunscreen-helioplex-vs-mexoryl/
http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/michael_hill_jewellers_eclipse]
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