The marketing buzz phrase du jour is “web 2.0″. What web 2.0 is exactly is open to some interpretation but for certain, it’s a concept that describes the use of multimedia video and audio on the web. Harmonizing your website with next generation web-sites such as wikipedia, MySpace, YouTube, Digg, Jumpcut, blogging and so on, makes for a richer, more interactive experience for your sites’ visitors.

For advertisers, it has become a means of generating more traffic and more publicity. This means more sales opportunity and increased brand identity. As a good example, it’s worth revisiting the recent, viral advertising initiative brought to the world of web 2.0 by Frito-Lay Inc.

During October/10 and December/04 of 2006, Frito-Lay sponsored an online competition for its’ Doritos brand of tortilla chips. The competition was billed as the Doritos “Crash the Super Bowl Contest”. Entrants were invited to create their own Doritos video commercial and submit it to a website to be judged. There were over 1000 Doritos commercials submitted.

This is from the contest site’s “How It Works” information:

Five Finalists will be chosen by our judges based on the following criteria: Originality and Creativity - 40%, Adherence to Assignment and Regulations - 30%, Overall Appeal - 30%. America will choose the grand prize winner.

Prizes: Five (5) Finalist prizes: $10,000 US each and a trip to Miami for a private Super Bowl XLI viewing party. The Grand Prize winner’s submission will be aired during the Super Bowl XLI broadcast.

From concept to execution, the Doritos campaign ties in with our recent posts concerning “The Long Tail” and “What’s The Big Idea”. It’s a terrific example where the world of big brand advertising partners with the little guy empowered through the mechanisms of web 2.0.

The following video is the creation of Five Point Productions - the winning entrant. Their video is titled: “Live the Flavour” and it aired during the Super Bowl XLI television broadcast. How would that look on your resume?

This was Five Point Productions take on winning the contest:

Obviously, this is a true Cinderella story for us… WE CAN’T THANK YOU ENOUGH FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

We’re hoping to break Super Bowl Ad records in the following ways:

-Smallest Budget (Total = $12.79)
-Smallest Crew (Cast/Crew = 5 people)
-Shortest Production Time (4 days… including concept development)
-Youngest Crew (age 22 and younger)

No pun intended but here’s some more (snack) food for thought;

Go ahead and watch all five finalist productions. To experience more of this campaigns’ creative interactivity go to snack strong productions. It may take a moment to load but it’s worth a peak.

To stimulate some fresh creativity for your own original productions check out this source of concept triggers from the thought provoking folks at AdCracker. Another interactive tool for Creative Directors, Copywriters, Art Directors - and all those who create, sell or teach persuasive communications. That should include you!

Tenacious D (Jack Black and ‘that’ guy) were the masteminds behind this twisted commercial where a young girl almost talks to her mother about her period. What’s a good mother to do than give her daughter a Tenacious D CD to help her deal with her monthly ordeal. Enjoy.

Check this out, its been awarded commercial of the year. Shows evolution going in reverse. Apparently Darwn was right. We did evolve out of natural selection….. for Guiness Beer of course!

Check this out, its been awarded commercial of the year. Shows evolution going in reverse. Apparently Darwn was right. We did evolve out of natural selection….. for Guiness Beer of course!

You heard right, before Jack Black was starring in ‘King Kong’ he was speaking with a fake accent pitching the ‘Pit Fall’ game for The Atari.

There’s a new annoying new character in the car insurance world (buh-bye Geico Gecko) called the General (a poorly animated 3D character). He’ll claim to save you big money on auto insurance on his website. It’s pretty annoying that this company basically stole the whole ‘cute-image’ of Geico’s Gecko and I am supposed to trust a 3D General animation with my car insurance. As a consumer, I can tell the company didn’t pay much to have the 3D General made which means they probably won’t care much about me either as a client. This ad is just horrible and annoying on top of that.

Campbell Soup hopes to bring in some new life by revamping the V8 Vegetable Juice campaign. The brand is starting to get a little old and the cute ‘V8′ (what engine do you have?) tagline is starting to wear. BrandWeek reveals an interesting find that ‘brand equity’ is something the company and people over 40 are starting to discover a new life in the brand. Four television spots will air for the new campaign which will reinforce the health benefits of the product. The commercials will show people regretting not having had a V8 earlier.

SpotRunner is a company that allows advertisers to create an entire television campaign online. SpotRunner recently has aided Warner Independent Pictures promote their upcoming ‘The Painted Veil’ movie. The SpotRunner system has allowed them to create a mini targeted television campaign that highlights when and where the movie will be playing in the local market. Television commercial spots for the flick will air on local television stations.

The Tanzschule Carsten Weber Dancing School has an exciting new dance advertisement for their school. The text of the advertisement reads “Learn Dancing Faster” and they are displayed as footprints on the tredmill.

Skintight shorts, cowgirl hats, long legs, bronze skin, and large breasts means that the ‘Wal-Mart Girls Song’ is ready to dance the night away like strippers in a shopping cart. The new ad is paid for by a music label to promote a new Danny Griego single to be sold in Wal-Mart stores. Miramonte Records paid a cool $112,000 for the 30 second spot.

The campaign also centers around the accompanying website, WalMartGirlsSong.com where you can see more of the gals.

The Monster.com employment seach engine has just launched a massive campaign titled ‘Monster Works for me.’ The effort includes online, outdoor, television, print, and website re-design. Three television spots will feature a nurse (seductive), chef, and sales person (respectively) on cable and prime time network tv.

“As we went to create the new campaign, we wanted to evolve from our last campaign,” said Vicki Godfrey, vp-advertising and brand strategy at Monster in Maynard, Mass. “The real insight for us was that people work for a variety of reasons. If you peel the onion back, it’s motivating to find out why. Monster is really the only one that can help you by giving the tools and resources to get that done.”

real one-time smokersto share their stories for the Commit nicotine lozenges (which I’ve used) camapign. GSK gave four video cameras to four former smokers in the Los Angeles area to document their efforts to quit smoking over the course of 13 weeks in 2006. The videos will be used for TV and online video spots. There is even talks about a full-length documentary. The series of four will air in four superseeding campaigns (one after another) in which the first will feature Lisa

What’s with this flying cars and flying in general trend lately? I see a Chevy driving around on buildings, a truck being tossed by the Loch Ness Monster, a woman buying a guy’s dry cleaning, and people going to the airport.

As the creator and host of the ‘Twilight Zone’ and ‘Night Gallery, Rob Sterling also appeared in this creepy Radio Shack commercial with little boys.

Adjab: It wasn’t until about the second time that I heard the radio spot for American Express’ “One” small business card that I was able to place the music they were using. It is, as Matthew Simantov points out, the song “Gimme Some Money” from This is Spinal Tap. The campaign has been running on both TV and radio. Using a Tap song in an ad, much less one of the ones from the band’s early career, might violate several of my religious doctrines, but that’s for theologians to discuss. Here’s the video, thanks to Simantov, of the full song from the movie.