Victoria Turnbull

You’ve got to admire some brands for the way in which they reach their target audience or the means in which they attempt to gain completely new ones. I’d love to see the figures to see if these brand associations really do have an impact in the sales of the particular product. Are people starting to correlate events, virals, to the products behind these marketing campaigns? Does it really work?? And the bottom line you want to know is- will it work for Pepsi?!

Being a blatant internet junkie – there’s a number of things I see on my day to day wasting of time on the net- actually it’s pretty hard to surf the www- dot with out being inundated by company branded campaigns, events and ‘stunts’.

I think major companies are now taking heed (and have been or a very long time) about the benefits of internet marketing, even more so “word of mouth” marketing. Majors have been jumping on the ‘guerrilla/ DIY’ concepts for years. Stretching back (and further) to the nineties when Nike looked to dominate the then niche skateboarding market in the US through targeting well known skater names at the time and endorsements through such; to gaming consoles risking fines and community backlash by adorning New York streets with Graffitti advertising their latest gaming release.

Recently I’ve come across 'Red Bull's Bedroom Jam' - the search for the best new music and offering young bands the chance to have a gig streamed on the web live from their bedroom http://www.redbullbedroomjam.com/; last year's Hugo Urban music competition; a personalised greeting potato greeting card flash-made number from McCains; the Simpsons Movie's 'Simpsonize me' www.simpsonizeme.com(one for the MySpace/Facebook cool kids); and the best one so far: Brought to you by K-Y Touch Massage 2 in 1. Find out your true sexual nationality by taking the online test on www.areyoubritishinbed.co.uk. I'm Swedish by the way.

These brand associations don’t bother me too much. But is it a fact that I’m desensitized to these, or that I'm aware that brands and products need to sell products in this manner to sell, sell sell. I can't think actually if these campaigns actually make me want to purchase something from the companies involved. Did I want to test out the K-Y Touch Massage Gel? No, it was fun to-do but there's better things in your average kitchen cupboard to do the same job (answers on a postcard). Did i want a McCains chip after i sent my mate a singing potato email? No i like Aunt Bessies - but did my mate? who knows... Looking back into my yoof I did actually buy all the Spice Girl Chuppa Chupp lollies, only to see if they’ll be worth some money in the future. I might scrape 20p for the set now…

I have attended an event sponsored by a brand; the Hugo Boss Urban comp last year at Sankeys in Manchester. It was packed to the rafters. But could any normally funded company/ charity stage and fund same nationwide talent search, with the same celebrity endorsement - i think not. Would the guys behind reading and Leeds be able to stage a 3 day music fest without a major sponsor. Nope. Interesting to see that Carling dropped it's sponsorship of Reading and Leeds after all these years.

I enjoy non-tradition marketing campaigns, and I'm interested in what's coming next. I like the allure of the youth to big companies, after all we are 'the voice of the future' lol Brand sponsorship is the way forward, just look at how MySpace has jumped on the 'band'wagon - and Facebook is slowly catching up. One of my favourite brand  ‘association’ stories of late is Groove Armada signing a 1 year record deal with Bacardi.

A good book to read on all things DIY/ Guerrilla, youth marketing and the touchy subject of 'selling out' get your mitts on  Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing, and the Erosion of Integrity by Anne Elizabeth Moore