The USA Today ran an article in the December 31st print edition about the most memorable ad moments in 2007. To select winners, USA Today asked readers to give their picks at usatoday.com. The complete story can be found here.
The best online 'viral' video was the Evolution Web video from Unilever's (UN) Dove brand attempts to show how much cosmetic, hair and digital trickery is needed to turn a real woman into a glamorous billboard image. This video has been viewed by over 10 million people!
But the highlight of the article was the winner of the best video ad of 2007, created on a budget of $12. That's right, twelve dollars. It was created by an amateur admaker who won Frito-Lay's contest to "make your own Doritos Super Bowl ad." The promotion got more than 1,000 consumers to buy chips and videotape themselves with the chips. The videos were then viewed over 4 million times on the Doritos "Crash the Super Bowl" website. What a great example of how the Internet is changing marketing, and how Web 2.0 tactics can be integrated into more traditional marketing and PR. Granted, these are consumer examples but there are plenty of B2B opportunities to leverage Web 2.0 tactics.
Imagine, a $12 dollar amateur video beating out what would be a million dollar project for a Madison Avenue ad agency. I love it. Happy new year.