So this topic made its media/blog run about a week ago. Aside from being funny, I think it speaks to several marketing concepts - viral marketing (consumer-driven), the conversation driven by the audience rather than the company or marketers, and the opportunities in utilizing user-generated content (as well as the user-review format providing a new platform for creativity - the comments section as participatory, and in this case, sarcastic, creative writing).
Three Wolf Moon Adult Tee on Amazon.com
Brian Govern, a 32-year-old law student Rutgers School of Law in N.J., found this t-shirt while browsing through Amazon.com's apparel section (we're in grad school - my guess is while doing homework). On November 10, 2008, he posted this review (just an excerpt edited by me, check out the link at the bottom of this post for the full review):This item has wolves on it which makes it intrinsically sweet and worth 5 stars by itself, but once I tried it on, that's when the magic happened... I arrived at Wal-mart, mounted my courtesy-scooter (walking is such a drag!) sitting side saddle so that my wolves would show. While I was browsing tube socks, I could hear aroused asthmatic breathing behind me. I turned around to see a slightly sweaty dream in sweatpants and flip-flops standing there. She told me she liked the wolves on my shirt, I told her I wanted to howl at her moon. She offered me a swig from her mountain dew, and I drove my scooter, with her shuffling along side out the door and into the rest of our lives. Thank you wolf shirt.
Pros: Fits my girthy frame, has wolves on it, attracts women
Cons: Only 3 wolves (could probably use a few more on the 'guns'), cannot see wolves when sitting with arms crossed, wolves would have been better if they glowed in the dark.
This review inspired Amazon cruisers to contribute their stories of the shirt's magical powers (1,012 reviews total as of right now), including some of the selections below:
For you left brain types out there, who are still unsure on whether or not this shirt would make a wise purchase, allow me to break it down for you. Most shirts like this only contain one wolf. This shirt has three wolves, plus a moon. You are basically getting three wolves and a moon for the price on one wolf. You won't find that deal anywhere else - from lowwwwi
Pros: It's, amazing, this only works out at $5 per wolf - with the moon thrown in free! Yep, three awesome howling wolves and a free moon - who can argue with value like that, especially on unemployment benefits in these tough economic times.
Cons: One time at a party I spilled Natural Light Beer onto my upper-left wolf, and for a while it looked more like a howling collie than a wolf. It totally spoiled my mojo - I mean what chick wants to get with two-wolves and Lassie? I was pretty worried for a while but it all ended up okay in the end - my Mum washed it for me and I picked up two prime unwed-teenagers at the next party. - from G. Smith
According to The Mountain, the New Hampshire-based company that makes Three Wolf Moon shirts, the company has gone from selling 2 to 3 of the shirts a day to 100 an hour on Amazon. As Peter Applebome wrote in the NY Times on May 24, 2009, "Like the butterfly wings creating the tornado, Mr. Govern inadvertently helped set off an almost impossible marketing bonanza and pop-culture craze: The shirt has been Amazon's top-selling item of apparel every day since May 19, and it has morphed into one of those instant icons of Internet culture."
What does this mean for marketers? Clearly people want to be part of the conversation, and are willing to contribute their time to do so. This was not a campaign, and The Mountain didn't set out to market its shirt in a viral manner. But it seems as if there's an opportunity here - finding ways to tap into the interest/desire in expressing creativity might be a good avenue for an intention viral campaign. In reading through these posts, I thought first, who has the time to do this, and then, this is some funny and creative stuff. Most jobs/daily life activities do not provide the opportunity for expressing creativity. So a bunch of people found a way to through a wolf t-shirt - that's a lot of attention from a large audience. And it worked out well for The Mountain, although maybe not for Brian, original reviewer.. “I tell my parents and friends that it’s sad, but this is probably the most impact I’ll have on the world in my life.”
If you don't have time to look at anything else, and are bored/procrastinating with homework like (I'm guessing) Brian the Reviewer was, check out this video review (that's right, people made videos too!) starring Pocahontas and a man in a mullet and Mets shirt:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R29Z83O4AK10UD/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
Peter Applebome's NY Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/25/nyregion/25towns.html
Meghan Daum's LA Times article:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-daum28-2009may28,1,4391040.column
Amazon.com (the review or if you want to be the hottest wolf t-shirt wearing thing in the Hamptons this summer):
http://www.amazon.com/THREE-WOLF-SHIRT-ADULT-TEE/product-reviews/B000NZW3IY/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_summary?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending
What does this mean for marketers? Clearly people want to be part of the conversation, and are willing to contribute their time to do so. This was not a campaign, and The Mountain didn't set out to market its shirt in a viral manner. But it seems as if there's an opportunity here - finding ways to tap into the interest/desire in expressing creativity might be a good avenue for an intention viral campaign. In reading through these posts, I thought first, who has the time to do this, and then, this is some funny and creative stuff. Most jobs/daily life activities do not provide the opportunity for expressing creativity. So a bunch of people found a way to through a wolf t-shirt - that's a lot of attention from a large audience. And it worked out well for The Mountain, although maybe not for Brian, original reviewer.. “I tell my parents and friends that it’s sad, but this is probably the most impact I’ll have on the world in my life.”
If you don't have time to look at anything else, and are bored/procrastinating with homework like (I'm guessing) Brian the Reviewer was, check out this video review (that's right, people made videos too!) starring Pocahontas and a man in a mullet and Mets shirt:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R29Z83O4AK10UD/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
Peter Applebome's NY Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/25/nyregion/25towns.html
Meghan Daum's LA Times article:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-daum28-2009may28,1,4391040.column
Amazon.com (the review or if you want to be the hottest wolf t-shirt wearing thing in the Hamptons this summer):
http://www.amazon.com/THREE-WOLF-SHIRT-ADULT-TEE/product-reviews/B000NZW3IY/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_summary?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending
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