Harnessing the Power of Mobile Video: Page 2

Now Mentos is running a contest on YouTube, asking users to create their own Mentos & soda videos (guaranteed to bring in sales—the EepyBird video used over 500 Mentos…and that's not including practice runs). They have realized the value of encouraging consumers to develop personalized content while associating it with their product.

Let's look back at the success of the Volvo S40 campaign. Why did so many users download the trailer?

The hook had everything to do with it. Volvo wanted to capitalize on the success of its Internet campaign which featured a seemingly true documentary filmed by director Spike Jonze ("Being John Malkovich" & "Adaptation") about a tiny village in the Netherlands where 35 people mysteriously purchased an S40 all on the same day.

It resonated with users because of the strangeness of the story and the ensuing controversy—was it true? Why would so many people in such a tiny little place all decide to buy the same car?

Millions of curious consumers downloaded the video and shared it with their friends. They debated its validity in hundreds of different ways—online forums, blogs, audio and video.

To expand upon the campaign, Mobile 365 and Mindshare developed an optimized mobile trailer for the documentary that users could download. They ran the teaser on users' mobile phones and drove traffic to Volvo's Web site via an e-mail link where the full "documentary" could be viewed and more details about the new car could be accessed—perfect for a mobile device, which enables consumers to have access to that information in the palm of their hand when standing in the lot.

Few technology devices are more personal to consumers than their mobile phone. They want to control the content and view it as they see fit. They want to choose how and when they see advertising—disrupting the personal experience will increasingly be a trigger for frustration rather than sales. Until a more standardized advertising model emerges for mobile video, advertisers and marketers should focus on helping consumers interact with and proliferate personalized content, keying into their sense of curiosity, adventure, play, desire, and all those other things that make us humans unique.

This article was first published on WebVideoUniverse.com.