Yesterday, I shared some ideas about how cable and satellite companies could not only enhance user experience through their DVRs, but could generate significant revenue and affiliate streams by incorporating more Thinking Social into their software.
I promised another idea today.
Sonic Boom
The second idea is more specific, and revolves around the current campaign for Sonic. The premise for the ads is simple, based on meaningless front-seat conversations in the drive-through.
(Aren’t you glad I had auto-start turned off?)
The commercials work because they walk that fine line between the real and the surreal. It’s a situation we’ve all been in, and I’m pretty sure that my conversations with my wife and my brother have been no less alternate-universe.
So, here’s the opportunity for Sonic to step up with being Social.
Invite people to send in their own 20-second clips. Do it as an online audition. Let people vote. Then put as many of the ads to work as you can:
- The winning ad gets added to the television rotation nationwide
- Regional winners would be run on the air within their own hometowns
- Local spots that meet the standard would be run on the web.
Obviously, you’d vet the spots to make sure there was no hidden nudity, and no one throwing in gestures for “shock value.”
How exactly would those local spots work again?
Run them online. Run them on Facebook, targeted to specific cities. Run them inside your friend’s list on Facebook. It’s not as intrusive as those ads that associate your picture with a product without explicit permission – this is a clear case of consent. (No one goes to the trouble of putting together a :20 video, with all the editing involved, on a particular topic, and submitting it through a portal and then gets shocked when it is used.)
Put the rest on a branded YouTube channel, and let people watch themselves over and over, all the while reinforcing your delicious tater tots.
The opportunities are there. You don’t even have to be good at Food Math.
You. Are. Genius. I sit gladly at your feet and soak up your insights. So thankful you’re not a dumbass like most Social Media Gurus who don’t understand anything but stealth spamming.
That ranks among the best compliments one can receive in blogging. Thank you!
I read a few topics. I respect your work and added blog to favorites.
Nothing less than brilliant, Ike, this Occam’s Razor you’ve offered Sonic! Thinking social… simply.
Thanks Diane.
There may be a reason they’re not doing it… it certainly can get resource intensive if you’re not careful. But it’s likely they just haven’t thought of it.