Have A Coke, Play With Crayons
Coca-Cola, in association with the social media stars at crayon, recently launched an integrated Social Media campaign titled, “Virtual Thirst.” It’s a design competition that asks folks to submit ideas about a virtual vending machine – one which dispenses online “experiences” vs. carbonated sugar water. The winner gets a trip to San Francisco, to observe the SL development wizards at MillionsOfUs implement the chosen design.
Below is my unasked-for critique… But first, please note that everything below comes from a place of deep respect for crayon, for Coca-Cola (Pepsi? Yuck.), and, from a keen desire to help improve such campaigns in the future.
Please also note that where I offer critical assessments, it’s likely because I’ve screwed up on similar issues. We are all still learning.
What I like:
I like it that a big brand like Coke is trying something of this magnitude in the Social Media space. I like seeing an integrated, multi-platform 2.0 effort (SL, del.icio.us, SMNR, YouTube, Flickr, MySpace).
I like it that they tapped smart folks at crayon, instead of stumbling through this on their own.
I like it that they used a Social Media News Release. Yay! (Please report back on how this was received.)
I like that this contest is standing on its own, without air-cover from advertisements or a hardcore PR push to the mainstream media.
I like the premise … creating a vending machine that dispenses “experiences,” i.e., a truly fantastical “machine” that can fully exploit multimedia. (Not sure how they’d pull off anything truly amazing without 3D Virtual-Reality surround-sound MP3 sunglasses and a full-body force-feedback suit, but hey, we can wish ‘em luck!)
What I think could have been done better:
The prize is kinda lame. No disrespect intended to MoU but if Coke/crayon really wanted to drive entries, they’d have come up with a more scintillating award. Many entrants will probably already live in the Bay Area – and likely work in high-tech. For them the prize = fight traffic to get into the City, to watch some folks coding for a dozen hours. Anyway, forget about the Bay Area issue. My 14–year old son might have been excited by the contest concept, but I can tell you he’d yawn over the prize. Multiply that less-than-ideal response by the X millions of 13 thru 30–somethings on MySpace, SL and YouTube. This is COKE, folks: could we think bigger? (Note: Steve Coulson of crayon answers this complaint at Greg Verdino’s blog, but not satisfactorily, IMHO.)
What, no blog? Did I miss something? How about a “purpose-built” blog that allows the judges to transparently judge some of the entries? Throw some ideas out there to stir up some creative juices? Agonize over whether it’s too late to juice up the prize? Disclose some of the internal debates that went on during the development cycle? Coke wants us to give up some of our creativity – this sounds cool on the surface but also requires us to spend a lot of our personal time, and to be a li’l bit vulnerable; how about giving us a peek at some of Coke/crayon’s own feelings of vulnerability?
The del.icio.us page misses the mark. Mere bookmarks do nothing for anyone: the value comes from the bookmarker’s associated comments on each entry. WHY should I click on these links?
There are elements missing from the SMNR, even something as basic as the Coke exec’s headshot. (“Coming soon.” That comes across as kinda’ bush league.) More interestingly, this release was not posted to Coca-Cola’s main website. So, the SMNR only “exists” on the Virtual Thirst website. Why?? And, forget about “why” for a sec: wherever it lives, the SMNR can and likely should be treated as if it were a blog post, i.e., let’s see trackbacks to the SMNR, and allow for (moderated) comments, right there within the release’s dedicated webpage/post.
There are also elements to the campaign that I don’t understand: why is there a headshot of crayon’s Joseph Jaffe in the release? Why is crayonville such a big component to the program? Couldn’t a gajillion-dollar company like Coke afford its own patch of virtual real estate? Am I thinking too 1.0 to suggest that the PR/marketing guys be more behind-the-scenes? There’s no T’rati tag for “crayon” in the release, after all.
Voice has been enabled in SL. The SL launch could have included an audio production component. The YouTube video could have been more powerful and informative vs. just being a music/machinima video. (Disclosure: we do some project work for Vivox.)
At least one of the links was broken. Again, for companies of crayon & Coke’s caliber – and especially in these early days of campaign-building, where credibility is on the line – “the little things” count.
All in all? I like the concept and the approach. My critiques are mostly tactical. The big test will be passed when Coke/crayon reports back on the number & quality of submissions.
(Along those lines, I’d love to know how the two companies decided on “how to measure success.” Will the metrics be based on # of submissions, # of articles and/or blog posts, quality/tone of coverage – or some other metric??)
Good luck to all involved. My fingers are crossed and I’ve knocked all major wood surfaces in my office, hoping for your success.
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Comments
Todd - what a great post! Objective, balanced, considered and open-minded.
I think everyone at crayon - and probably Coca-Colas as well - will most likely respond :)
I'll just comment on 2 quickies:
1) The headshot of me was from the crayon launch i.e. from October 2006. I can see how you stumbled upon it by visiting crayonville.com, which is not necessarily the same as crayonville Island in Second Life.
2) Speaking of which...I think that speaks to how Coca-Cola went about its first SL initiative. Of course they could have purchased an Island, but instead of "going big", they started small...and essentially rented space (does the air count?)on our island. We are, after all, a partner.
Ultimately, when Virtual Thirst (the "competition") is done, the vending machines will find their way into homes and abodes across SL and the need to have purchased a big island which remains dormant will have been negated.
Posted by: Joseph Jaffe | April 24, 2007 02:54 PM
Thanks for the kind words, Joseph. But FYI, I got that headshot directly from the Virtual Thirst SMNR.
The rest of your comments/explanations make sense.
...Though when you say "partner" it makes me wonder about the evolving role of agencies. We don't see ads watermarked with ad-agency names, for example...? Just something that got me thinking.
Posted by: Todd Defren | April 24, 2007 03:04 PM
Thanks for taking the time to post about Virtual Thirst. As the project lead from crayon I wanted to take a second to answer some questions. Also, happy to see you liked the photo I took at the event.
We've always viewed this as an experiment. That means that not everything is going to go the way we'd like it to, but we are learning from it and posts like this help us learn more.
The prize discussion was something we talked at length about and I promise that there was plenty of back and forth about it. Sometimes compromises have to be made. Being an "experiment" means that you don't' always have the budget that you'd love to have for something like this.
I'll also say that I'm not sure why Joseph's head shot is in there. *grin*
Voice is coming to SL, but it's not there yet. Only on the BETA grid, but we are looking forward to using it if possible in the future.
Also, if you go to http://www.myspace.com/virtualthirst you will see that there is a blog in place. Yes, it's not a full blown blog as you have here, but again this is an experiment.
Posted by: C.C. Chapman | April 24, 2007 03:16 PM
You're 100% correct. Blame it on the multimedia smorgasbord that is the Social Media Press Release which links back to the original photo on crayonville.com :)
Again, thanks for your constructive feedback.
For what it's worth, I love the idea that little old crayonville Island could get to host this launch!
Posted by: Joseph Jaffe | April 24, 2007 04:14 PM
Joseph - True, it is a nice coup for crayon to be able to point to a launch from a major brand on your island! Nice validation, congratz.
CC - with all due respect, I think it is a cop-out to call this an "experiment." Such a term is never used in the release or associated materials, and that fact - in association with the mega-brand attached to this campaign - suggests that this is not an experiment so much as the joint organizations' very-best-attempt at a legitimate, buzzworthy campaign.
That doesn't mean mistakes aren't allowed or won't be made - after all, often we can't know what's a mistake until the reactions roll in. But calling it an experiment serves only to delegitimize the effort.
If crayon and Coke can't put together a kick-ass campaign, and stand proud (which you should: ya done good), then who possibly could?
Posted by: Todd Defren | April 24, 2007 05:19 PM
Todd,
Check out this: http://www.changethis.com/30.06.ManifestoExperimentation
It's a Manifesto for Experimentation which I penned for Change This.
I don't think the term "experimentation" should be associated with a half-hearted attempt; nor should it be aligned with an all-or-nothing zero sum outcome either.
The answer lies somewhere in between. The key will be in what Coca-Cola does next (and then after that and so on and so forth)
In the Manifesto, I talk about ROE = Return on Experimentation. Ultimately learnings and insights are key, but so too are victories - however small or larger - which may or may not include buzz.
If we manage ALL expectations accordingly, we will all be better off for it, IMHO :)
Posted by: Joseph Jaffe | April 24, 2007 06:16 PM
I can't argue with anything you've said (here or in your manifesto), Joseph. As a bit of a creative wingnut myself, I see where you are coming from; I am not so narrow-minded as to get caught up in the word-choice vs. evaluate the ideas for their own sake.
Having said that, though, I think we ought to keep in mind that not everyone is so hip, including those who may pay our bills. Even the best clients tend to be eager to try new things, but with some fair expectation of ROI, not just ROE. ;)
Anyhoo, I am much more interested in the discussion ya'll must have had with Coke re: metrics (ROI? ROE? what else?) ... this would be very instructive to fellow evangelists who may broach these types of campaigns, but then hit the wall when a dubious eyebrow is raised across the table because the do-gooder has no good answer re: metrics.
Posted by: Todd Defren | April 24, 2007 06:25 PM
This conversation was a good one and I just wanted to update you that Coke has been following the conversations happening in the Blogophere and just posted a video response to answer some of the top questions at http://youtube.com/watch?v=0JhJPgHDSeQ
They also specifically announce the addition of a $500,000 prize to the mix
Posted by: C.C. | May 2, 2007 10:38 AM