FANTASTIC NOODLES CONNECTS WITH GEN Y
Fantastic Noodles has changed their marketing strategy and launched a bold new ‘Pimp my Kettle’ campaign via Clemenger BBDO, Adelaide targeting Gen Y product users rather than housewives.
Says Greg Knagge, Creative Director, Clemenger BBDO Adelaide: “Rather than going after the mums like some of our competitors, our strategy was to target the user themselves.”
The Pimp My Kettle campaign parodies the popular MTV show, Pimp My Ride, where a run-down viewer’s car is customised by a team of experts.
When complete, the customised kettles (works of art in themselves) will be displayed on www.pimpmykettle.com where TV episodes can be seen and visitors can create their own ‘virtual pimped kettle’.
The website has already had over 20,000 hits and attracted 700 members including well known artists Ben Frost, Cupco and Jeremyville.
Anouska Thomson, Category Brand Manager, Fantastic Snacks said the campaign was meant to be a bit of fun and something those who eat noodles, mainly young guys, would appreciate: “We’ve also pimped-up a van, The Pimpmobile, which is touring Australia handing out free noodles so people can find out first hand how fantastic our noodles taste”, Ms Thomson said.
The pimped-up kettles are currently being auctioned on ebay and on September 16th at a VIP, invitation-only party at the MTV Gallery. A limited number of tickets are available via a competition on the website. Proceeds from the sale of the kettles will go to charity.
42 Comments
I reckon this is a great idea. Nice execution too – the website is awesome and bloody funny. I reckon it’ll get gen ys involved for sure.
Connects with Gen-Y? Interesting. Not so sure if it does. This debate (link below) goes into it in depth.
http://adspace-pioneers.blogspot.com/2008/08/pimp-my-kettle-fantastic-noodles-and.html
I saw the poster on the train and laughed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVhW_TZJzCQ
What’s that old saying? Those who can, do. Those who can’t, blog.
Jules has nailed it. What is supposed to be a social site actually feels like a ghost town. And I can’t imagine this has actually sold any noodles, because the offline work just makes me feel like I’m a weirdo freak if I eat Fantastic Noodles.
Oh and why didn’t they even build the site themselves? It’s just hosted by Ning, which is actually just a network for amateur porn videos.
Pimp my ads…..ADMA Grand Prix last year……..wtf
Un-real!!!
Hey, I’ve got a great idea let’s rip off a TV show!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NnzF772EkI&feature=related
This is nice. It was also nice the first time when it was done for “pimp my microwave” for microwave burgers in the UK.
Julian, Julian, Julian…
Finally there is someone that makes Naked sound dumb! You’re over thinking it mate. It’s called a Parody.
Ever heard that you’re not meant to hold a mirror up to your target market?
It’s the best Fantastic noodles ad done by a long shot. Impactful, relevant and just plain old funny. And what is all that stuff you’re rabbiting on about social networks? I just saw posters that took me to a website where I saw some funny stuff. Don’t take the joy out of it dude. It’s an ad for something that costs a buck fifty and I chuck in boiling water.
I too am failing to see how exactly this connects with Gen Y. I’ve recently blogged my thoughts on this matter here.
I love it! Well done to Clemenger Adelaide, Spirit Films and Oasis Post
It only connects with GenY in the minds of GenX
as a GenY, a cheesy parody of a cheesy TV show doesn’t boil my water.
The taste level here is deplorable, some people think this is good? This is a crappy rip off of a tv show that got cancelled in 2003 and has no more relevance… and VW did it in 2005 anyway. Get with the times aye?
The guys critiquing this ad still haven’t explained how they would do it properly. Also they seem to be missing the fact that this is just a piss take and probably not really a true social marketing campaign anyway. I’m not particularly sticking up for the work but just wondering what the answer is according to these cocky social market “experts”.
So say they did do it as “proper” social marketing. Say for example they asked real punters to make art using noodles or write their next ad or do stunts with noodles or whatever and let the message spread in a less contrived way, through face book etc. While the few people involved would get a deeper experience, they would just never reach anywhere near the kind of audience they’re after. And this seems the problem with social marketing. While people might seek out cool brands like adidas or whatever, when it comes to low-interest categories like noodles I really think you struggle. In many cases people just don’t want their social web experience mixed up with marketing. I think one day it may be the only choice for marketers but right now, a funny TV ad like the english supernoodles ads would probably get you more mass-interest in the brand. So what would you tell maggi? How would you reach their mass audience social marketing-boy?
How does this not connect with Gen Y? Everyone is over thinking this ad! its 1 minute noodles – which all students eat and its a funny advertisement which taps into the humor of Gen. Y’s. I am a Gen. Y and i like it…
To Anonymous 11:31AM,
In my blog, I actually did suggest what they should have done. Any campaign that I criticize I make sure that I give a solution to what they should of done. This is part of Rules of Engagement I go by, it is called the Market Cross (on my blog).
Anyway back to your question.
What Fantastic Noodles should of done or new brief to Maggi
There are already online communities, do not try to create a new one, support the one that already exist. Find the people who are influential in the space and get in contact with them. Instead they tried to create a false interest group (pimping kettles? Who wants to pimp Kettles for godsake) and get people to come and join a social network. No one but the Clemenger Staff joined! Are you surprised? I am not!
They stole this idea straight from Youtube as well. This guy in the UK made the clip a year ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVhW_TZJzCQ
Social Media is about a long term strategy not an in and out campaign hence the reason why agencies will struggle to get real meaningful results.
If you’re an advertising agency and think that social media is about creating a myspace page, creating a social network or having a Youtube channel then you have missed the point.
It is about the value in conversations. Conversations being both listening and responding, rather than the model of mass communication of just talking at users. A lot of companies in the Advertising Industry think that the conversation (advertisements) that they make are the best conversation to be having. Ad Agencies thought that the best image to communicate was the one where they are flawless and never wrong.
Well you want to know, when you admit you are human and wrong sometimes, people warm to you.
The American Marketing/Advertising Industry found this out 12 months ago when Dell admitted that their customer service was not perfect and started responding to people’s problems online, these were complaints that were not coming straight to their emailed customer service departments they were going out to communities and joining the conversation that already were occurring.
Clemenger had a great chance to show they understood social media. They had a chance to join the conversation about their work. Actually listening to what other people are saying and learning. However they decided to ignore the conversations that were occurring online
(I emailed them these responses 2 weeks ago)
http://www.e-cbd.com/zakazukhazoo/pimp-my-kettle/
http://adspace-pioneers.blogspot.com/2008/08/pimp-my-kettle-fantastic-noodles-and.html
http://www.pigsdontfly.com/2008/08/pimp-my-blog.html
And I have feeling they have come in here and just attacked me from behind the cover of ‘Anonymous’. I think everyone would have had more respect for them if they gave full disclosure of their name and who they are.
Luckily, not all companies are showing this ignorance to social media. Hats off to BMF and Connex, who actually responded to criticism that I brought up about their True Local campaign and Connex.
BMF – http://adspace-pioneers.blogspot.com/2008/08/bmf-we-be-viral-before-we-launch.html
Connex – http://www.marketingmag.com.au/blogs/view/dear-connex-we-hate-you-ignorance-is-not-bliss-an-open-letter-366
What happens when the guy is asking for compensation?
Can people get sued for copyright reasons?
@ Anonymous
Just to clarify, no one said we were “experts”, in fact I hate the word.
Yep, this ‘idea’ has been done to death and, like someone said before, VW did it better.
One question… Why a set up social network for this campaign? Why? Why? Why? Not every brand needs its own frikken social frikken network.
Julian, it’s should have, not should of.
Apart from that, you’ve certainly got your head around this communication stuff.
Just out of interest, could you answer the following multiple-choice question:
(a) I am in the 19-25 age group.
(b) I am in the 26-30 age group
(c) I am in the 31-40 age group
(d) I am over 40.
julian
i cant agree more with what this guy said:
“What’s that old saying? Those who can, do. Those who can’t, blog.”
unbelievably true.
clearly you were one of those students at uni that was a ‘borrower’ of everyone elses ideas. and now that all the good students went on to jobs actually working in the industry, you have nothing but to bitch and moan about all the work you wish you were doing. im sure you’re one of those children getting paid ok money to put together Coles catalogues!
At 23 or however young you are, you really need to get your name out there as a ‘do person’ and not a ‘talk person’
and again, its only advertising. clealry you dont get it!
To all the Researchers that call themselves Planners: You don’t have to use your names to comment. We all know that your comments are the really long jargon filled pieces that don’t say anything to anyone but other researchers (planners).
I am A) 19-25
Anonymous, I agree with you that I have not had much experience and therefore this is definitely is something that I am looking forward too.
However I don’t understand why you are attacking my credibility, my CD said my Coles Catalogue was the best the Agency has ever seen?!?!?!?!
No but seriously, if you have obviously taken the time to write something wouldn’t that of been better of actually debating the points that I brought up. Here are some questions that would have been better for you to have answered rather than attacking my Researcher/Planner cred;
Is the Pimp My Kettle Social Networking site an effective part of the campaign or was it a waste of the clients dollars?
What good has Clemenger done for themselves by not responding to the criticism of their work and explaining themselves?
Is it okay for Clemenger to steal an idea straight from Youtube and not give credit where credit is due?
When the client does not see results that they were after are you going to respond ‘It is just advertising, clearly you don’t get it’
Do you know what is going to keep Creative Directors up at night in 2010? This scary fad that we refer to as the INTERNET!
When the advertising dollars start flowing down the internet river, the ‘It is just advertising’ argument is not going to hold much weight. Unlike mass communication where you have got an audience already watching your advertising, online, people decide what they want to watch, therefore you are going to be judged by the consumers and not by the advertising industry.
If your so called ‘awesome advertising viral idea’ gets 10 views on Youtube you are going to get called out and the client will not put up with your shit ‘It is just advertising, clearly you don’t get it’ rhetoric.
Julian… Dude… What has Naked ever done but just blab? You’re embarrassing yourself mate.
Naked (and all their employees) just keep trying to over intellectualize communication and all it’s mediums without actually contributing meaningful and long-lasting pieces of communication or campaigns.
Naked’s last 5 minutes and is never spoken of again. I honestly can’t think of a single thing (let alone the guy in the street). The real deal still gets spoken about 5, 10 and even 20 years later.
Pimp my kettle is 10 times better than anything that’s come out of NAKED. (TRUTH not HYPE). Contiki for example… BAD.
Ps. Before you go taking the piss out of catalogue designers think… Am I really that funny? Or am I just a dick? At least they’re not delusional. Catalogues are what they are. Are Naked?
Mate… It’s time to show (as in put up the work) not tell.
Julian are you saying there is already an online community of noodle eaters?
Jay, any offence that was taken from catalogue designers was not intended. Sorry if I offended anyone.
If you are going to respond to this thread, why not actually debate what we are talking about instead of attacking my credibility. If what I am saying is completely ludicrous please show me where I am going wrong. And here is the echo….
1. Is the Pimp My Kettle Social Networking site an effective part of the campaign or was it a waste of the clients dollars?
2. What good has Clemenger done for themselves by not responding to the criticism of their work and explaining themselves?
3. Is it okay for Clemenger to steal an idea straight from Youtube and not give credit where credit is due?
http://adspace-pioneers.blogspot.com/2008/09/2008-cntrl-ccntrl-v-agency-award.html
4. When the client does not see results that they were after are you going to respond ‘It is just advertising, clearly you don’t get it’
Jack, an Online noodle community,
‘Mi Goreng’ Facebook Fan Page 43,000+ members
http://www.new.facebook.com/pages/Mi-Goreng/8398012579
Julian, don’t get me wrong, I’m sympathetic to your ideas, but while 45,000 people clicked on that button to become a fan, there are only 5 comments on that page. It’s basically devoid of activity. That’s not really a dialogue or true involvement in the product. You’re suggesting hypothetically that a company then create a dialogue with that existing group. Judging by the low involvement of this group I doubt if they’re really interested in talking about noodles on any great level (as opposed to a connex type of client) So the next choice is to contrive some competition, function or some reason for the group to engage with the noodle brand. I feel if that group sniffed a corporate hand behind that group they wouldn’t have even clicked on that facebook button.
Anonymous you make a really good point. I think you are totally right, although people added Mi Goreng, it is not really a community it is more about a symbolism of what they like and explaining that to their friends.
In terms of the ‘sniff of corporate’, I think that it is not so much whether they are corporate or not. It is more about companies not giving any value to people and just abusing their position. If they didn’t offer anything people would be skeptical but if an organization offers value for being a part of the group then they will join. Case in point 7-11 ‘Free Slurpee Day’ Facebook event, people knew 7-11 was behind it but because they were offering value they were happy to be a part of it.
In terms of the Fanatastic Noodles they should of given the money to someone in the community who is influential instead of trying to create a fake hobby. The best example of this is the latest Burger King and Seth MacFarlane Collaboration. Burger King is funding Seth to make great Youtube content that people actually want to view.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOdAGubUhUU
Julian Cole from Melbourne will never forget the brand fantastic noodles. Nice work Clemenger. Minimum mainstream ad spend. Everyone I know has ‘noticed this ad’ and they all have remembered the brand. That’s effective in my book. Am I going to buy fantastic noodles over boring old maggi? Hell yes! Job done.
Julian… Everyone of those questions could be asked on Naked’s Contiki campaign. Yes?
You may argue it’s incredibly effective having been named the #4 – Most Subscribed (All Time) – Sponsors – Australia. After a month they have a whole 109 subscribers!!! Woah!!! 39,000 views
Take note clients. The Youtube channel ideas aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. TV isn’t dead people. Not by a long shot. TV can get 39,000 viewers on Kerry-Ann
http://www.youtube.com/user/contikiholidays
Of course at award entry time it will be 50,000 subscribers. How many travelers have they converted? Is it at all measurable?
I don’t know if you can really compare something that is put on Youtube with the reach of a television commercial. You are comparing push vs. pull content.
People don’t watch KerrieAnne for the television commercials whereas people watched The Contiki videos for the actual content that Contiki was producing.
Clearly 32,000 people searching and pro actively seeking your content is much more valuable than 32,000 people who have had the content pushed on to them with no choice.
At the moment we are in a stage where there is no measurement that can measure the engagement of someone proactively searching out content to the engagement someone has with an advertisment that is pushed onto them. It will vary on the content but I would really love a comparison study and a rough percentage to be worked out on this.
Getting back to the Contiki project, although I didn’t work directly on the project, I think that there were a number of lessons learnt from the project. For one I think that it is very hard to get traction within the community for a short term project, it requires a long term commitment to the Youtube community to actually start seeing substantial results. You look at the unbranded content that gets the most viewed (excluding videos with shots of boobs as the thumbnail), most often it is people who have been a member of Youtube for a long time and have built up an audience.
I believe there are two options for brands who want to produce content in the social media environment, if you are going to be short term; unless you have got amazing content, the best idea is to find someone online who is producing content that people are already enjoying and collaborate with them; otherwise option 2 is to create a channel and manage expectations and remember that it is a long term proposition and that you need to always be giving engaging content through the channel.
@ Jack
Is there already an online community of noodles? You betchya there is, on Facebook alone…
40,000+ Fans of Mi Goreng Instant Noodles
http://www.new.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Mi-Goreng/8398012579?ref=ts
9,000+ Members of the Group Mi Goreng Appreciation Society
http://www.new.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=2210993222&ref=ts
Plus I count 10 others with more than a thousand members.
@ Anonymous 12/09 6.52pm
Will Julian Cole from Melbourne ever forget the brand Fantastic Noodle? No.
Will he ever buy from them? No.
Will he tell his friends and colleges how much his dislikes them because of this campaign? Yes.
Zac
I already commented on the Mi Goreng link you mention above. ( I forgot to put my name to it.) I think it’s a bit of a creative cul de sac. So what if people pushed a button to say they like Mi Goreng. There is no activity on that page at all. They are not truly interested in that product on any real level.
With Burger King, by giving money to someone who’s good at content you’re really just replicating what a good (push) agency does. Get some great creatives and director to think of something genuinely amusing and people will come – cadbury gorilla etc. Or it’s just like sponsoring a show. What everyone is calling “content” rather than social marketing.
I’m just trying to get to the bottom of a really affective creative solution using social marketing in the pure way you guys are talking about. It seems to always come up against the problem that people try and avoid marketing in their social life. Unless its a fashion brand or something they seek out in the first place. And when you get to the difficult clients like connex you suggest something that will basically just become a complaint line (while I agree that such a forum is still positive as people will let off steam and connex might get the odd good idea from it).
Jack
PS. Zac. Sorry, before you start about the originality of cadbury gorrilla I shouldn’t have used that example. Pick a thousand other examples of great ads that have lots of hits on youtube.
Jack
Hey Jack,
Have a look at the Social Media Marketing Framework this may answer your question.
http://adspace-pioneers.blogspot.com/2008/07/5min-video-social-media-marketing.html
What I am suggesting for Connex is a Response Feedback, what I am suggesting for Fantastic Noodles is a Platform Creation. Hopefully this helps explain the angle that I am coming at this from.
Jack, the example for Fantastic Noodle is actually Idea Propagation not Platform Creation.
Here is the written up version of the social media marketing framework too
http://adspace-pioneers.blogspot.com/2008/06/4-dimensions-of-social-media-marketing.html
I had a bowl of noodles once.
Julian.
Obviously research has been completed by the Pimp My Kettle people..
I am in the demographic. I am Gen Y. I will choose Fantasic over Maggie.. Why?
Manifest motives to eat Fantastic Noodles – They taste fantastic
Latent motives to eat Fantastic Noodles – They are funny, cool, engaging
Has the director of Naked seen your blog?
I doubt he has because if I were your boss, I would have fired you or made you take down your blog asap. You lack experience let alone credibility to pretend you are a guru in regards to creative campaigns and social marketing. Yes you may have written a piece on Social Marketing, but until you show some actual realistic concepts, your opinions are invalid.
From what I can see, Pimp My Kettle was never meant to be an actual site, it is a spoof. People do not actually pimp kettles, let alone actively engage in it. It is aimed at taking the piss, so to speak, it is a mock site.
Julian, ask a kid what noodles he/she buys. More than likely the response will be Fantastic.
You have tainted your company. From what I have heard, corporations have heard lots of negatives in regards to Naked.
Australia is too small to be actively dissing other companies only because you are jealous and wrote a paper on social marketing.
Director of Naked Communications – Julian puts your company at risk.
Jacob
Wow what a slanging match!! Looks like everyone is taking this all very personally; Client, Agency and Third Party Observers. The success or failure of this campaign will be determined by the sales impact and whether it met the Client’s objectives. Having said that, it has been interesting reading this commentary and yes, it is disappointing that the idea was not an original one especially when it has been touted as the best thing since sliced bread. A lesson perhaps for both Fantastic and Clemenger.
Hey Jacob,
Maybe you want to have a chat with Adam Ferrier one of the partners of Naked Communications because he was the one who emailed me the link to this post.
Invalid as my opinion may be, I think Jacinta points it out perfectly, it is still disappointing that Clemengers clearly ripped off an idea from the internet and are not giving kudos where it is due.