Lindsey’s Daily Deal: What IS Up With That, Step Away From the Sneakers and Booth Babes

By Lindsey Campbell, Captains of Industry

Hey Captains’ readers,

Here’s your Thursday Deal:

1. That’s a good question. What IS up with that?

Now, listen. There’s no one in the ad game more pumped about web videos than I. Not only are they a great source of entertainment, but they’re also more easily digestible than a block of text, they can drive more unique visitors to your website, and most importantly, they’re a great way to tell your story to the world. That being said, I’d like to now admit one of my biggest web video pet peeves: creating videos for the sake of creating videos. Why does this get my panties in a bunch? Because you might have made one kick ass web video that tons of people view and like, but if your concept doesn’t involve your brand, no one is going to associate your moving/thrilling/hilarious/entertaining video with your product. Which is a waste of money, time and a whole lot of eyeballs.

A recent victim of the “Hurry up! Let’s make a video!” syndrome? Vitaminwater. According to Rebecca Cullers of AdFreak, Vitaminwater recently created a two-minute web video starring Gary Busey. Busey plays a fast-talking, tough-as-nails Fantasy Football lawyer named Norman Tugwater. Apparently, Tugwater’s mission in life is to get his professional athlete clients (like Adrian Peterson) the money they are supposedly “owed” from the thousands of people who play in fantasy leagues. Not only will Tugwater sue your pants off, but he’ll break into your house and steal your stuffed moose head…in cold blood.

The video is hilarious! My favorite part is when Peterson shushes an unsuspecting Fantasy player into submission—great stuff. The only problem is, I didn’t equate Vitaminwater with this concept at all. It’s only in the last fifteen seconds that Vitaminwater makes a product appearance or is even mentioned at all. Although the video already has 100,537 views (since its posting on August 4th), do you think any of those viewers now feel something for Vitaminwater? I know I didn’t.

2. Step away from the sneakers…

I’m a jeans and t-shirt kinda gal. Even though I own loads of heels, tons of dresses and accessories galore, my first fashion instinct is to wear ripped jeans, a V neck t-shirt and my Puma Speedcats that I’ve had since college. It’s not like I’m a cyborg or something. I can appreciate the finer threads in life. It’s just that I hate being uncomfortable. But alas, like any girl, I’ve been told since my inception that sometimes, we ladies must suffer to be beautiful. So when the occasion calls for it, I strap on my stilt-like heels, stuff myself into a dress, and hang my neck with the appropriate trinkets. But according to Tug McTighe from American Copywriter, there are ladies out there who actually LIKE to dress up. In fact, they do it on a daily basis! Which makes them the perfect target market for Piperlime, an online shop for women’s clothing, shoes and accessories.

McTighe writes in his latest post that Piperlime recently released an ad campaign that encourages women to step away from their sneakers and hang up their hoodies. So far, the ladies have been listening. According to Piperlime, its “likes” on Facebook have increased 934% between the weeks of Aug. 2 and Aug. 9, while there was a 479% increase to the number of comments on the page. McTighe also mentions that the campaign has caused quite the stir among girls such as myself—the t-shirt-wearing, sneaker-loving heathens. Are the ads going to change my ways? No, probably not. But when I do need a decent pair of heels, I know where I’m going to go look for them.

3. She’s a booth babe. And she’s proud.

There are a lot of tactics that we marketers use to gain an audience’s attention. Word of mouth, PR programs, online campaigns, mailings, and of course, nice ladies in bikinis.

At the Affiliate Summit East, Steve Hall at AdRants ran into some bikini-clad booth babes that were promoting the Bikini Babes Network and decided to interview them on how it feels to actually BE a living, breathing teaser campaign. When asked how it feels to be so exposed, the girls explain that this is their job—they are simply bringing attention to a website. As they smile and giggle their way through the rest of Hall’s questioning, I was questioning myself how useful these girls actually are for campaigns.

I totally get that skin is in, I’m not trying to pretend I’m the Mother Teresa of marketing or something. But wouldn’t it have been awesome if the girls started spewing marketing know-how and cool stuff about the network they we’re promoting instead of just slipping on a bathing suit?  Aside from the fact that they’re promoting the BIKINI Babe Network, why else were they wearing swimsuits in the middle of what was obviously a freezing cold business summit? In my opinion, this attempt at buzz would have been a lot more effective if the concept included more than just hot babes. Like I said, teaser campaigns and web videos are great, but if there’s no thinking behind the concept, the novelty doesn’t work for the brand.

What do you think about using booth babes? You know, besides that they’re hot.

Until tomorrow,

Captain Lindsey

PS: Special thanks to Brian Wendel for participating and WINNING the Captains’ Facebook bribery challenge from Tuesday’s Deal. If you want to be cool like Brian, you’ll head over to the Captains’ Facebook page tout suite and become a fan, too.