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Richa Vij | agencyfaqs! | New Delhi, November 15, 2007
Viral
marketing may sound like something only Internet companies want to
associate with, but a traditional FMCG brand like Colgate-Palmolive has
proven otherwise. The toothpaste brand is collaborating with the Indian
Dental Association (IDA) to launch an online video to spread the word
about its yearly programme, the Colgate Oral Health Month, whose
mission is ‘Zero Tooth Decay’.
Viral marketing is a new media
format in which a message is communicated with the use of creative
websites, animated videos or short films that are spread ‘virally’ by
people passing them on to each other via e-mail, blog or social media.
In short, viral marketing is creating brand awareness and promoting a
brand through an out-of-the-box video that urges people to spread it
via ‘word of mouse’.
| | The world is attacked by
Germosaurus | | | Germosaurus creating havoc | | | The viral video is rewinding | | | Germosaurus is small | | | Germosaurus was born out of
tiny germs in the mouth | Colgate’s message of preventing tooth decay was sent through an animated video, called ‘Attack of the Germosaurus’.
The video shows an imagined future in 3000 AD, with the Germosaurus
species, which resembles King Kong with sharp teeth and bloodshot eyes,
creating havoc on the planet. The video then goes back in time to the
present (2007 AD) and shows the origin of the Germosaurus. It turns out
that the monstrous Germosaurus actually originated in the mouth of a
young man who was eating a sandwich in a coffee shop. The viral says in
the end, ‘Don’t Play God to a New Species, Get a Dental Checkup
Instead’.
Colgate celebrated the Oral Health Month for 2007 in
October, during which it offered free dental checkups across India in
175 cities. Colgate also created an interactive microsite,
OralHealthMonth.co.in. The website features games, online pledges, and
so on.
The creative agency for the site and viral video campaign
was Mumbai-based Interactive Avenues. Anish Varghese, creative group
head, Interactive Avenues, says, “We launched the viral in mid-October
to create awareness on the Net about OHM, but we didn’t want to do
anything funny. ‘Germosaurus’ is an exaggerated and serious viral.”
Apart
from the viral video and the microsite, the agency put up banner ads
and various verticals and horizontals about the Oral Health Month
across the Net on sites such as Rediff, Yahoo! and various cricket
sites.
Amit Thaker, senior manager, client consulting,
Interactive Avenues, says, “The average time spent was five-six minutes
on the viral and the site.” The site has a pledge meter, where more
than one lakh people have pledged their support to fight oral cancer,
adds Thaker.
The viral was uploaded on social media sites like
YouTube, Facebook and Orkut. Interactive Avenues intends to modify the
viral by changing the message a little as the campaign month is over
now. The agency says the modified version of the viral will be
circulated around the end of November.
One of the factors that
make virals so attractive is that they cost very little and are
practically self-propelling. According to agency sources, the cost of
making a viral video depends upon the number of frames being used.
Generally in India, virals have about two-three frames and cost around
Rs 1-3 lakh. Interactive Avenues did not share the cost of the Colgate
viral, but Thaker says, “The cost of the viral was a small proportion
of the total ad spend on online media done by Colgate.” The Colgate
spokesperson declined to share numbers.
© 2007 agencyfaqs! story fileby
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