Must Watch: Woo Woo?

This simple, one-minute video by Adobe Marketing Cloud aptly captures the real struggles of marketers in today's social media platform that transforms everyday (and the interval continues to shorten). In the video, this imaginary social media site "Woo Woo" initially seems like where the young and hip people congregate now, and the excited marketers go all-in on Woo Woo marketing strategies. Literally within a minute, Woo Woo turns out to be a fad where those cool guys' moms are on Woo Woo.

The message here is, do you know what your marketing is doing? I would say this is a brilliant advertisement for Adobe Marketing Cloud, and guess where I saw this commercial, too - Hulu! Advertising digital analytics tool by using digital marketing. Uniform message, consistent identity, and clear target. And a sense of humor is definitely a plus. Great job, Adobe.

Branded Captchas

Solve Media offers Type-in ads as an alternative to the captchas that have become so prevalent online. Based on the idea that one of the few times in which we give our undivided attention to any online message is when we type in a captcha, Solve Media has replaced the standard random letters and digits with a brand message. According to a report , http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/159976/, which analyzed several Type-in campaigns, these new captchas appear to be very successful at increasing brand awareness and recall, although more so for Fortune 500 companies than for new brands. What is most interesting about Type-ins is that they are a new type of advertisement and one that is specific to the online experience in that the user is forced to engage with brand message. Perhaps the success of Type-ins will encourage different forms of online advertisements that move beyond passive viewing or the quasi-interactivity of clicking on an online ad.