What do office supplies, chicken sandwiches, and body wash have in common? They’ve all jumped on the interactive ad platform, of course! Bic, being the newest member of the engaged set, now holds hands with the likes of Old Spice and Burger King after producing a knock-out video series in the latest tradition of interactive storytelling. For the groundbreaking page, they chose — drumroll, please — Tipp-Ex® Whiteout to be the star of the show! …Uh, what?
The company used YouTube as a host for its creative campaign, and worked within its familiar architecture to develop an uncommon experience. Visiting the page (cleverly disguised as a singular, standard YouTube video) brings you to a desperate scene with a hunter, a rifle, and a wandering bear. Where does the office staple (whiteout) come into play? The hunter confronts the camera, whining that he’d rather do anything but shoot the bear. He then uses The Tipp-Ex® Mini “Pocket Mouse” to change his story (it’s pulled straight out of a dummy ad on the right side of the page), and implores you to write your own.
Thoughts of Burger King’s “Subservient Chicken” and Old Spice’s video response “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaigns come to mind here. Like BK’s famously submissive chicken, you can command the hunter to kiss the bear, dance with the bear, drink with the bear, and do just about anything with the bear…and I mean anything.
If you’re lacking creativity, command the hunter to shoot the bear — you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Like Burger King, the page has a somewhat limited amount of trigger requests; over 40 commands (but fewer than 60) that have been pre-recorded. This means that if you ask the hunter to “frost a cake with” or “sedate” the bear, you’ll get a quirky “Error” screen that’s almost as entertaining as the other responses.
You may be wondering if the message gets lost amidst all this funny business. While it’s a dangerous pit-fall for some interactive advertising (e.g. unrelated games on brand websites), it’s certainly not a problem here. Buzzman, the French agency behind the viral, has smartly skirted this issue. While you are commanding the hunter and mischievous bear around the woods, you’re reminded that the Tipp-Ex® Mini Pocket Mouse Correction tape allows you to simply “White and rewrite.” The user experience isn’t interrupted with this message, however. Rather it’s a simple and subtle reminder throughout the process. Perhaps that’s why it has amassed over 4 million views in less than a week?
While we can all agree that this is an odd project to test these waters with, the result is wildly entertaining — and not something to write off — or, over. Bravo, Bic!
