Frontiering Talk

We have often mentioned the car segment as one of the best categories suited to “long format” advertising. If you are in the market for a particular make of car, you really want a more detailed engagement than what can be delivered in a 30 second spot.

So it’s no surprise to us that Honda have today launched an Internet TV channel (which will soon be linked to Honda’s UK site) which will deliver on-demand delivery of the company’s films and video content including Honda racing, driving tips and advertisements. Included in the short films section will be a feature on ASIMO (Honda’s humanoid robot), who will also feature as the host of the tv channel.

Currently the site only runs on Internet Explorer, but a Firefox version is in development. It’s also not clear what plans Honda has to allow it’s consumers to comment or discuss this content.

Perspective: Consumer controlled viewing is continuing to grow, and companies should be providing easy options for their existing and potential consumers to engage with their brands. Whilst this site would have quite a large budget, smaller businesses can utilise free social video sites such as Youtube combined with a channel grouping site like Magnify to share content, and allow consumer participation.

Tags: car, honda, Social Network, Video

101 2 litre bottles of Diet Coke + 523 Methos mints = One cool science experiment

These videos are hosted by Revver, which is a consumer generated video site that includes ads and shares the revenue 50/50 with the video creator. In this case there is a Menthos ad at the end which almost summarises the whole essence of the mint.

See the current Menthos Ad which interestingly enough has a guy who sneezes and mistakingly shaves off a little hair from the guy. He ponders the repurcussions until his friend helps him come out clean.

Perspective: Consumers are freely trading their time to watch these videos, and in this case Menthos gets to communicate it’s product while benefiting from the viral aspects.