So the silly Brits at Elave have launched a risqué online video that has, um, full frontal nudity. (Be careful. We warned you.) Elave is a real company, selling ointments to help people with eczema and dermatitis, yet went out on a limb with a spot showing actors who look like medical professionals ... who just happen to work in a really, really warm lab. What up?
Despite the hoopla, advertisers simply can't control viral marketing -- it's very hard to get an idea to spread through the public -- but there are two basic approaches. Malcolm Gladwell focuses on the channel; the hyperconnected people who make ideas spread. Seth Godin focuses on the idea itself; how content must be made so catchy that it turns from a "sneeze" into an "ideavirus," scaling like the flu everywhere.
The Elave spot is an attempt to create just such an ideavirus. This little snippet of flesh (OK, a lot of flesh) would never pass S&P at major cable networks, but that's the point. Traditional TV is irrelevant, the Elave spot was launched online and it is so crazily different it surely will get passed around.
We see three dangers with this type of aggressive attempt. (1) You may generate attention but not get response, especially if the attention is just young men looking at models. (2) Shock will fade. Eventually, this type of thing will no longer startle. (See: HBO ratings.)
And (3), beware the adverse impact. A large portion of potential customers, say women in their 30s and 40s, may not want to be exposed to this. Perhaps, eventually, online video ads will have to work the old-fashioned way -- by offering something meaningful that people want to buy.
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