Slapping an intriguing url up all over the place is a pretty sure way to get some attention. But it’s a waste if you don’t pay it off quick or pull people into a bigger mystery.
The latest attempt are the hideous patterns that say WhatIsTheNewBlack.tv popping up on bus ads and wild postings around the city.
I’ll spare you the suspense, it leads to a site where you can dress up a model and have your fashion choices rated.
It has a send to a friend button, which generates this:
No branding anywhere. No next step.
Who is throwing their money away on this?
that's quite disappointing.
ReplyDeleteI've been seeing the posters for this at the various station stops along the "A/C/E". I just went to check it out online this afternoon and played with the site and then I googled it for back story and came up with you, and also Erica Swallow's blog.
ReplyDeleteThe online fashion choices, #1, should have had NO "real black color" as choices in the them at all (I mean, come on!), and #2, there is no next step "to convert the sale" and #3, as AACW pointed out (paraphrasing), the mystery is not intriguing enough. For me, some of the online fashion choices presented are too "conservative"... which is OK in and of itself -- because probably the retailer behind this sells conservative looks as well... so, IMO, there should be no phase #2 for this teaser campaign... "enough, just give me the discrete tiny link to H&M or Target."
I am sure that the people behind this campaign are reading all of this public feedback that we are publishing. I hope that they will make phase-2 of this "teaser" campaign better. There has to now be a phase-2 to convert some people to the sale, otherwise, what is the point?
Thinking outloud, it may have hit the mark as a successful two phase teaser campaign if, on this first phase online, the fashion choices were simply all out "harashuku crazy," but then, the retailer who put up the money for this campaign is probably not selling "harashuku crazy" clothing (I guess you have to go to harashuku for that).
The phrase "whatisthenewblack.tv" is such a valuable "resource" to me -- because i am big into fashion, subway/street advertising, the street artist Poster Boy, color naming, and NYC city life.
I was very excited when I saw the "whatisthenewblack.tv" posters and I still very much am. I think the posters themselves really, really hit the mark -- and they work very well scattered about the subway stations as singles -- instead of grouping the posters into clusters of "station dominations." And, certain friends of mine (with similar interests) and I were txt-ing each other about it, with great glee, without even having gone online yet. (Some other poster campaigns that resonate with me are Dentyne face time, Continental Airlines, and Jameson Whiskey)
In one sense, the phase-1 online portion of this campaign squanders, somewhat, MY resource -- the resource in MY psyche. I was / am their prime demographic. I still want this retailer and this ad agency (or, whoever takes on this phrase in the future) to very much succeed with this campaign because the phrase "whatisthenewblack.tv" resonates so strongly with me. Even if they never branch out to mens fashion, I would still spread the word far and wide to my hip fashionista girl friends and to my hip Advertising watchers.
The current retailer behind this campaign just might not be able to deliver on the crystalizing and big possibilities that "whatisthenewblack.tv", as a phrase on a colorful poster/billboard, inspires.
Hey! I'm Erica Swallow, the blogger than Tom (above) mentioned. My post on WhatIsTheNewBlack.tv is:
ReplyDeletehttp://ericaswallow.blogspot.com/2009/04/erica-is-new-black.html