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May 20, 2005
Wendy's square peg in a round idea
Fast food giant Wendy's is dipping its toe into the world of viral marketing with Good to be Square.
There's not much to report on this two-minute Flash movie; a traveling "square" cartoon evokes the company's square hamburgers as a pied piper in a world of circles. In the bigger picture, Wendy's and other companies creating solitary Flash videos like this are essentially betting a pile of money on one number of a giant roulette wheel. It's part of a tired, one-way broadcast model.
What's missing is customer involvement. Engaging citizen marketers in web-based content creation and distribution is an answer to the million-to-one bet. Instead of an agency creating a "video," Wendy's could turn to the thousands of talented amateur videographers or Flash designers who produce their own work around the theme. This is what the agency produces.
Showcase all submssions on the website, and let the congregation vote for their favorite submissions (and make them easy to forward). It's a hedging strategy that bypasses the one-way model and engages customers on a two-way marketing street.
Other blogs that reference Wendy's square peg in a round idea:
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this is the idea that the well known converse gallery site is using (http://www.conversegallery.com/) also a tactic used by AA's why you fly campaign, cadillac's cadillac in 5 contest, and the bush in 30 sec contest of last fall. a good idea indeed! OBTTV (http://www.obttv.com/) is arguing that companies should run ongoing campaigns of this sort (both consumer generated stuff, and documentaries about customers) and make them easy to access online (how 'bout with an RSS video aggregator like ANT or mefeedia?)
i agree with the general lack of customer involvement, but they are fun and engaging... and the "Square's School of Music" is a bit interactive.
could def use more customer engagment though.
