The green limousine

Here's an unexpected development. The only - ONLY - Earth Day email I received was from the guys I occasionally pay too much money to in order to get a ride to the airport all by myself in the backseat  of Lincoln Town Car. Carey Limousine wrote to tell me about their "...discussion with many of [their] clients and colleagues [that] has turned to that of climate change and impact that ground transportation has on the global ecosystem."

They go on to point out that through offsets and reductions in emissions the Carey San Francisco operation has become a CarbonNeutral operation.

I'm not sure what's more surprising – that I got this email from Carey, of all companies – or that it's the only such email that I got this year.

The Desperation of Viral Campaigns

Scott Donaton's article on Advertising Age brings up a point that we all know: most viral campaigns suck. The fundamental reason they suck: "They are not the end result of an actual idea or strategy but are born of a desperate desire to do something, anything, in the new-media space."

Scott looks at the Folger's Tolerate Mornings: "This is Folgers' attempt to appear cool and ironic by offering slow risers such appealing goodies as a wake-up call on their mobile phone from "Lucy," billed as a "sexy way to rise and shine (for the fellas)," or a "boss tracker," in case you want to catch a few z's at your desk. The fact that it's meant to be tongue-in-cheek makes it somehow sadder, like a dad trying to act cool in front of his teenage daughter's friends."

Viral campaigns are so hard to create for brands because the viral aspect relies on the content being edgy, irreverent, graphic and funny.  Those are hard to manage for most brands. The best viral videos have, in most cases, not come from the brands themselves, but rather from the consumers, like the Diet Coke/Mentos videos. Therefore one strategy is to be watchful for consumer content and then have a plan to capitalize on that conversation.

Scott's take away: "Doing something just to do something still leads to nothing."