Word of mouth advertising is both the most difficult and most coveted method to raise product awareness. So when a brand or company is lucky enough to get some positive word of mouth, especially published word of mouth, they run with it.
For instance, TV spots for movies love to boast film reviews and claim that the advertised film is “the one everyone is talking about.” And even if that’s not necessarily true, it still stands that people want to see, do, and buy the things that others are seeing, doing, and buying. But being told that everyone is in on something still isn’t the same as actually hearing about it from your friend or an attractive landscaper.
Enter: hauls.
There has been a growing trend among female (and some, but relatively few male) YouTube users to post a video production about recent purchases. That’s it, it’s about as mindless as it sounds.
In case you missed it, Lil’ Annie purchased her clothes with a gift card J.C. Penny sent her. In other words, Annie was paid to make that video production. Hopefully it won’t go viral.
J.C. Penny isn’t the first company to let customers do its advertising, American Eagle and Forever 21 are also implementing hauls as part of their Chicago videographer back-to-school campaign.
The good news is that these haul campaigns will probably be limited to the Internet. The bad news is, there will probably be more videos of teenage girls playing “model” on YouTube. The scary news, this approach might work wonders.
Since it’s on YouTube, the people who look for these videos are already interested in the brand, product, and someone’s opinion on it. And frankly, petite teenagers tend to offer compelling reasons to buy stuff.
Although DIY, webcam production probably isn’t the future of advertising, it could become a big part of branding campaigns. It’s so easy that an authentic haul would completely indistinguishable from one that is created by an idea-starved ad-exec.
This must be a flattering a trend for businesses. For the first time since consumer reports and reviews became an major part of consumer behavior, companies can track what shoppers are saying and doing with their products. You know you’re doing something right when kids want to make commercials for your sleeveless polos.
Perhaps more companies should encourage their customers to publish Chicago videographer content about their merchandise. People would be more than happy to record a 5 minute video when they can get a free gift card for their?narcissism.
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