Gillette’s Viral YouTube Video is Marketing Kryptonite

Are you among the millions of people who watched “Evan Longoria’s Crazy Bare Hand Catch” on YouTube?  Frankly, it’s an amazing demonstration of athletic skill and lighning fast reflexes, one worth checking out.

(Spoiler alert:  with his back to home plate during an on-field interview,  the Tampa Rays’ third baseman  plucks a baseball out of thin air that was rocketing straight for a female reporters face. And he did it barehanded.  Without looking.)

Awesome, right?  I thought so.  In fact, I watched it over and over and shared the link with my friends and family.  A close call for the reporter and a great sports moment, all caught on tape.  The kind of thing that will make highlight reels for years – great for the Sea Rays franchise and Evan Longoria’s personal brand.  All in all, the perfect viral video.  And at nearly 3,000,000 views, it’s living up to expectations.

But the video’s rising star was soon clouded over by issues that called into question its authenticity.  Things noticed by uberfans like my friend Anthony – the type of person who studies sports like I study Dead show setlists:

As he pointed out, no team would let a multi-million dollar asset like Longoria to stand that close to a batting practice, without protection, and with his back turned.

And where’s the batting cage?  Why does it look like the video’s shot in a minor league ball park?  Who is this broadcaster, and why aren’t there any call letters on her mic?

Suddenly, it appears to be more than a spontaneous viral sports video.  Is it an ad? Part of a cheap and effective branding campaign? All signs point to yes.

I’d been duped – played by a fellow marketer. I was mad at myself for being so gullible, and mad at the perpetrator for deceiving me.

I soon watched it again to figure out who that may be and immediately noticed something I hadn’t seen before.  The word “Gillette” was plastered all over the stadium. Didn’t they pull a similar stunt with a tennis player last year?

Yes, but according to BleacherReport.com, Gillette is claiming ignorance:

“the clip is definitely not an ad: Evan Longoria is a Golden Glove third baseman and this catch speaks for itself.”

Liars. Fool me once…

If Gillette had nothing to do with this stunt and the video was not shot and posted as part of a campaign, why does the description read, “Tampa Bay Ray and Gillette Young Gun Evan Longoria makes a crazy bare hand catch right before it hits a reporter!”

Unless you work at Gillette, would you really identify Evan Longoria as a “Gillette Young Gun?”

My once beloved viral video is just another attempt to hijack social media for commercial gain.

Notice I used the word hijack. Gillette could have harnessed it instead. It should have been transparent about it’s role from the start – or at least honest when asked. Not only did they deceive their customers, they lied about it too.

My sudden affinity for the Sea Rays is quickly fading.  And I want nothing to do with the brand behind it.

Gillette lies to its customers and thinks they’re stupid enough to believe it.

That’s how they turned this perfect diamond of a viral video into marketing kryptonite.

Now I’m going to go shave – with a Schick.

Turning Tears into Gold: Why In-N-Out Burger’s Crying Fan is the Secret to Marketing Alchemy

Surprise!  Humans can detect bullshit from a mile away – including crappy copy. Thousands of years of evolution and tribal living have made us adept at separating fact from fiction as we interact with others.  In fact, we’re hard wired to do so using thousands of verbal and non-verbal cues.  Humans are constantly assessing these cues, including many that are not even perceived by us on a conscious level, to assess the intentions of others and alert us when someone is being deceptive.

Phony Facebook marketers and paid reviewers take note:  our ability to discern the genuine from the disingenuous with our built-in Bullshit Detectors works just as well in social media as it does in real life.

We respond to human expressions of emotion very differently than the contrived variety, and with an altogether different area of the brain, resulting in a more intense, visceral, and longer-lasting impression.  Transparent displays of human emotion are something even the finest, trigger-rich marketing copy in the land cannot duplicate.

Many of you may already have seen this video of a woman quite literally brought to tears by her love for a particular chain of burger joints.   Aside from the immediate affection I feel for this woman based on our mutual love and respect for grilled meat, she’s the customer of my dreams.  The holy grail of social marketing.  Fans like her are few and far between.

That’s unfortunate because a single “superfan” like her can do more to support your brand than 5000 average Facebook fans or Twitter followers.

Why?

Because she’s passionate about the product – not in a rational, “I prefer Starbucks over Sanka” sort of way, but in a slightly crazed, “I’m so happy a new In-N-Out Burger opened within 5 minutes of my house that I’m going to bare my soul and cry on TV” sort of way that’s infectious and a little bit scary at the same time.  This woman’s endorsement is powerful because she gives you precisely what the best copy in the world can’t deliver:  emotion so real that you can taste it.

Admit it – you can empathize.  It makes you think about a burger joint or sandwich shop everyone loves in the town you grew up in, the food that tells you you’re home, the one place you have to eat when you visit.  In my case it’s Hoagie Haven.  For some of my friends it’s the Whitehouse Deli. In any case, her passion for In-N-Out Burger and her willingness – or need – to let it shine through is what makes her so able to influence other customers.

In-N-Out Burger should thank their stars lucky stars that the ideal customer outed herself on TV with her emotional display of brand-love.  If they engage this superfan (which, one can assume, wouldn’t be too hard) and harness the power of her emotion, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this burger joint spring up in a town near you.