Being in Austin for SXSW means getting target with a ton of ads… Usually not great ones.
However, this PizzaDrone.info ad caught my eye. What happened after the click was even better… though disappointing for someone who wants to see a marriage of two of his favorite things.
And after the click…
With Facebook’s move to auto-displaying captions on videos in the Feed, the creative has a new place to flex their muscles – good old fashioned text.
The latest creative use of subtitles comes from Dos Equis as they bid farewell to “The Most Interesting Man in the World” as he presumably is bound to become “The Most Interesting Man in the Galaxy” or something else… That isn’t the point. The point is Dos Equis is using their captions in Facebook’s caption on default land of the Feed to drive people clicking to expand or unmuting:
Now, admittedly, this isn’t the most ingenious use of captioning to drive home a point, but it’s a start.
Hotels.com used their “Captain Obvious” character and their own captions to create a fun experience with sound off a while back, but now that Facebook allows the uploading of .SRT files for on-video captions, that means a similar experience for uses across videos.
Fun story about .SRT files + Facebook – they’re finicky. We just ran a global video campaign with 50+ .SRT language caption files – hard work but the campaign was awesome and a ton of fun.
When will Twitter jump on board the no sound + caption train? Has to be soon, right?
While I’m stoked that I got served this ad from Amazon, sadly it was a bit of a wasted impression – I’m already a Prime member. Might want to get some do-not-serve list info in there.
A couple thoughts on the unit itself:
On the Amazon ad:
When you wake up on Jan. 1, Whatever year it is you can expect to see the Rose Bowl (yes, except when the 1st falls on a Sunday). I remember watching the game with my dad just about every year – except for the two times we’ve been there with WSU.
This year, as I watched the game, I saw a couple ads from lead sponsor VIZIO. They were great ads, but the thing that rubbed me wrong was the hashtag shown at the end – #VIZIORoseBowl. Yes, we know you’re the sponsor… but did you really think you’d generate a ton of conversation around a hashtag that is tied to one of the most-nostalgic games in sport?
This is a prime example of how, to no one’s fault, simply pushing a hashtag out into the wild can flop. Granted, nothing is probably hurt from this (assuming they didn’t go buy a sponsored hashtag, etc.), but they’re losing out just by trying to divert conversation.
Take a look at the search brought back and decide for yourself.
jetcitydigital.com 