Shopping Slippery Slope?

Ok so blog number 3.

What better thing to talk about in an eMarketing blog is shopping!

So this week I bought some perfume from Strawberry net (fantastic website).

However while putting my puchase through the checkout I saw a little link saying I could download the strawberry net app for my iPhone.

Now for some people an app like that sounds absolutely fantastic, they can buy as many products as they want wherever they want but for me all I could think about was the potential consequences of having such an app on my iPhone.

One of the first apps I downloaded when getting my iPhone was facebook (naturally). Now I can safely say that I am almost permanently on facebook. The only addiction that trumps facebook in my life is shopping. Within 10 minutes of being in a shoping centre I will usualy have made a purchase. Online shopping tends to be even worse because you spend days waiting for your puchase, getting more and more excited until it finally arrives.

The last app I would download for this reason is the strawberry net app. I would be broke within a week.
This got me thinking even more, is eMarketing and the ease of online shopping leading us into a trap?

Will our already credit dependent, shopping addicted society crumble when it realises that the online puchases must still be paid for?

Having access to just about every product on the planet via a computer has already I'm sure gained quite a few victims around the world. Is the ability to do it via a mobile phone going to make it worse?

What do you think? Could you handle the temptation?

Sliding up the eMarketing ladder

Ok so those who watch Foxtel would know about the new Fox8 series Slide which started on Tuesday night.

Chances are, if you liked Skins you're probably going to want to watch this (very similar but Australian).

The website for Slide is a piece of eMarketing genius. Not only are the Fox8 marketers making the website an interactive experience with 'webisodes' prior to each episode, games cenered around the storylines, graphic novels of the characters (made by one of the characters, Eva), forums, the ability to comment on everything that is posted and behind the scenes content but they have also got Facebook pages, YouTube channels, MySpace blogs (made by character Tammy) and Tumbler accounts (made by caracter Scarlett).

For a show that is targeted at teens and young adults they have found the best way to reach their audience perfectly.

It's common knowledge that teens and young adults spend hours on the internet everyday (on average). In fact, as I'm writing this I'm listening to music on YouTube and chatting on Facebook. I can just as easily have a quick look at the Slide stuff while I'm online rienforcing the desire to watch it.

This use of eMarketing allows the end users to really connect to the characters in the series making them feel like real people who do the same things as the regular modern teenager (excluding living in hotels and throwing burning couches off balconies of course).

This has the potential to create a really loyal audience as well as possibility gaining a reputation in countries outside Australia (possible expanion strategy Fox8?).

Here is the trailer if you haven't already seen it;



What do you guys think? Is the new frontier in TV promotion?

The Power of the Parody

So initially I wanted to create a blog to focus on the eMarketing tactics of various companies around the world. Those that worked, and those that really didn't.
While starting to do some research on viral marketing and the use of YouTube by corporates i started to think about the phenomenon it has created... the parody video.

Traditionally companies have hated the parody videos of various marketing campaigns as it oftens shows the company in a negative light. However, should a company be so quick to judge? Should  negative view of a campaign automatically result in a cease and desist?

According to Coles ... yes.
After the release of the mega annoying (yet somewhat successful) 'prices are down' campaign a variety of parody videos began to pop up on YouTube. The majority were of young children singing the song in stores. However, one in particular caused quite a controversey.... the 'up yours independent stores' parody became a huge hit online. It didn't take long before Wesfarmers were citing copyright breaches and the parody was yanked from YouTube, as discussed on the Gruen Transfer last week.
Naturally, a parody gone viral never stays off YouTube for long;



Is this fair? Is it really up to a company to dictate what parodies can and cannot be shown in the free media?
From a legal aspect, yes. But if a company wants to 'protect intellectual property' shouldn't they do it for all parody videos? Lets face it the two year old sitting in the trolley is breaking copyright laws too.

In my opinion, the fact that Coles had certain parodies and video responses pulled from social media has created more bad publicity for the company than the videos in the first place.

People enjoy their right to create a parody. Threatening that right can only cause a problem.

What do you think? Is stopping a parody video reducing brand damage? Or causing it?