Get The Right People Talking

If you’ve always thought frustration was a bad thing, then here’s good reason to think again.

The union of a group of itchy-fingered creatives, who always knew there was more to advertising than the mind-numbing ad spots that fill the break between two halves of a soap, spawned viral marketing experts Cake Media.

Cake Digital director, Jez Jowett, is refreshingly honest: “I was a frustrated advertiser who wanted to look at more interesting channels to communicate with an audience.”

“When we consider that we stare at a computer screen for eight hours a day, it made sense that virals were a new channel for us to talk through.”

Also boasting expertise in PR, live events (think Basement Jaxx in the Arctic Circle) and design, Cake know the difference between a so-so viral campaign and one that really gets the right people talking.

From whassup…

The company made their first viral way back in 1999 when they were approached by Budweiser to help with the now-legendary Whassup campaign.

Recalls Jez: “We said to them this could go viral if you could let us have an exclusive version for online. So they kept back one of the TV executions, didn’t release that anywhere, and they gave that to us to release.”

Cake then sent out the clip that was exclusive to the web, then all the other TV ads and, to quote the man, “the buzz and the hype continued from there.”

…to wash-up!

But it was Cake’s alternative web version, Wash-up, that really got the bedroom creatives sitting up, and out from under the covers.

The ad, which features a couple back home early from their hols only to walk into the morning after wreckage of their son’s house party (complete with discarded drinks bottles and hung-over twenty-somethings sprawled all over the place), gave a decidedly British slant to the collection.

Soon enough, dozens and dozens of amateur interpretations – or “sub-virals” – were finding their way on to the net.

“Everyone started doing the craze,” says Jez, “which was putting that Whassup over Superman animations, and there was the rabbi kid, and some posh English blokes.”

When something really goes viral

The Wash-up ad gave the online audience a cue to create their own spoofs – albeit on a grassroot level.

Jez: “That campaign really enabled us to understand how you make a campaign go viral.”

“If you have an online audience actively creating content about a brand which they find amusing, then you’ve got a success and a phenomenon on your hands.”

From strength to strength

Cake have since produced some memorable viral campaigns:

For Jaguar: an urban golf game aimed at City boys: “You tee off at Saint Paul’s and drive the ball up Fleet Street.”
Reebok featuring Terry Tate and Ryan Giggs (with downloads well into the millions)
And, more recently, Axe Mansion, where you earn points by working your way round a Playboy-type mansion full of Lynx deodorant lovelies

The opinion formers

Central to Cake’s success is their ability to get the virals to their target audience - otherwise known as seeding. After all, they’re not much use to your nan…

Says Jez: “Budweiser came to us because they knew we were experts in distributing content to opinion formers.”

To sum up, before Cake came together, their various members could be found putting on music and PR events, to which were invited the movers and shakers of the day (“the head designer at Diesel, journalists, Graham Norton…”).

With the advent of email, it made sense to transfer these names to an online mailing list, with a weekly newsletter dishing out info on hot new products every Friday, inevitably creating a buzz.

Who’s Emily?

This eventually became Eatmail.TV, a viral seeding site where around 15,000 members (who’ve made it past the on-line cultural knowledge test) receive the latest virals in a weekly email from the mysterious “Emily.”

But what exactly are the advantages of sending virals out to just a select few to start with?

Jez explains: “The way we receive information about the traditional media landscape has evolved so much that we don’t take your cues from traditional sources.”

“If I want to go and see a film this weekend, I’m not necessarily going to read Empire magazine. I’m going to ask someone I know who reads Empire magazine, and I know someone who is fanatical about films.”

In short, if an opinion former likes a viral, they’ll pass it on to the people they think will also get something out of it, giving word-of-mouth cred to the product, while hitting the target audience - all courtesy of the opinion former’s address book.

Blossoming relationship

More importantly Eatmail.TV is one of the key places for budding creatives to get their virals seen. Visitors are encouraged to send in their work and, if they’re lucky, get them on the site.

Says Jez: “I think the reason why people like Eatmail is it has a personal feel to it. They receive a weekly email from Emily, and Emily is very personal to them.”

“She receives an enormous amount of marriage proposals and we get a lot of requests in the office to find out what she looks like!”

Ultimately, that’s what it’s about…

“It’s about forming a relationship with opinion formers and how you turn that relationship on to achieve the objectives and more importantly create brand awareness.”

Links:

Cake: www.cakegroup.com
Eatmail.TV: www.eatmail.tv