tell ten friends::

the essence of new media...way to go Honda!

Let us all stand together and cheer collectively for Honda. These guys get it.

The last three really good ads that I've seen were all from Honda. Their latest is a clever spot featuring a choir, a car...I won't play spoilers, watch it for yourself.

So, why am I so excited about just another tv ad? It's clever, sure, but is that good enough to get my gold-star-seal-of-approval? No. What I love...is that I read in a post today from Adrants that Honda's ad has been viewed on the 'net over 800, 000 times. Know what that means? That means it's NOT a tv ad. Instead, it's a viral marketing success story; not unlike Hugh Mcleod's Stormhoek wine-blogging success, or the lonelyisland.com boys, who now work on a little show called Saturday Night Live because of their use of the internet as a marketing tool. What did they do on their first month on the show? They made a short film called "Lazy Sunday" that has been seen by millions, on the show and especially online; a piece of art so heavily hyped for its number of downloads that it earned talk-show appearances for the likes of Chris Parnell. (That guy rules. He's today's answer to Phil Hartman, a true legend)

These days, there are thousands of examples like these and the main reason I love them is (sorry, Ryan) that they succeeded without the use of mainstream media.

So...what of those two other Honda ads? Well, here's your gratification: The first is actually a series. (bottom of page) Rob saw the "crab" version in the theatre and couldn't stop laughing, then came in to work on a Monday to show it to me. (I love the 'Napoleon Dynamite-esque' dialogue, and the fact that they clearly cost almost nothing at all to make)


The second is talked about by many because it is so incredulously epic, (click "skip intro" and then "watch the tv ad") it acts as a complete chronology of the success of Honda as a brand, with a little schlocky 'spy movie' flavor thrown into the mix.

Anyway, my message to the advertising world: Think outside of the box. If you absolutely insist on making an expensive ad for tv, at least hire a forward-thinker like Ernie Mosteller of Tangelo Ideas. Why? He understands viral marketing. In fact, I bet his clever little "navel oranges" ad is starting to get its share of download views too.

Happy viewing!

posted by Jordan Behan @ 12:44 PM