Microsite.com

In May 2007, Microsoft employee Geert Desager posted a brilliant video called “Break Up” with a message proclaiming his employer did indeed “get it.” That traditional media no longer connected with the consumer and that the consumer has moved on. He posted the video on a Microsite Blog at http://www.bringbackthelove.com.

Other bloggers – myself included – predicted it would go viral. It did in a huge way. Winning high praise, a huge audience and multiple awards, including a bronze lion in Cannes.

The general concept of a Microsite.

Client: Salon Selectives
Salon Selectives, the once-popular brand that made women of the 1980s and 1990s feel like they just stepped out of a salon, was reintroduced on March 1, 2008, after being acquired by Select Beauty Brands, LLC.

Marketing Objectives:
Announce to women that the brand is back with a new “customization” positioning and generate trial.

The Challenge:
How can the brand standout in a category dominated by well-known, well-funded brands owned by Unilever and Proctor and Gamble?

The Solution:

CBS Corp.'s fourth-quarter net income fell 15%, reflecting station sales and sliding advertising sales. Advertising sales dropped 7%. Radio revenue slid 10%.

To follow up on last week's news about advertisers losing faith in TV advertising, today's WSJ states that online video has been a real hit and a real threat to broadcast TV (who knew?).

Americans watched more than 300 million videos on Google's YouTube in December alone, and the amount of time spent watching video online grew 34% last year.

Worse, according to the article, Google's new plans to wring advertising revenue out of online video could eventually cause broadcasters a lot of pain.

In case anyone missed the articles in most major papers today, a new study found that a majority of marketers believe that television advertising has become less effective.

The specifics: The TV & Technology survey was done by the Association of National Advertisers, a trade group, and Forrester Research. Conducted last month, the study is based on a survey of 78 advertisers across a variety of industries. It found that 62% of marketers believe TV ads have become less effective in the past two years.

In the middle of April, Microsoft (not Microsite) employee Geert Desager decided to try something a little different to promote Microsoft’s Digital Advertising Solutions. The result is brilliant.

In 2006, one of Microsoft’s European agencies called Openhere delivered a Powerpoint presentation that explained, among other things, “how to communicate with people in this whole new age of advertising.”

The presentation went on to talk about “communicating in a more rich and meaningful way.”

Many folks probably saw the articles about AOL hosting an “Upfront” party at NYC’s Lincoln Center on April 16. Aping the shindigs traditionally held by the major television networks, AOL invited at least 500 ad buyers, and broadcast the event to more than 1,000 people in satellite parties around the country, AOL Media Networks President Mike Kelly told Advertising Age.

AOL rolled out the standard fare, including dollar-bill-shaped confetti raining from the ceiling and Mario Lopez strutting out on stage to host a live version of the portal’s quiz show “Gold Rush.”

The next time anyone asks why build a Microsite, how does a Microsite work, how can you create content that attracts visitors and generates word of mouth, or why not just put it on the corporate website, point to www.willitblend.com.

This is Microsite perfection.

For those who attended my seminar on “Creating WOM-Worthy Online Destinations,” you can download the presentation here.

Conference kicks off today with a keynote address by Chip Heath, co-author of “Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die.” Terrific content – wish Chip would have had a little more coffee prior to speech (but I digress). His rules to make things stick: Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Stories (SUCCESS).