Basically, Smirnoff is setting out to show the world how other cultures party with their 'Nightlife Exchange Project'. Facebook fans of Smirnoff can add the 'Nightlife Exchange Project' application and then read or contribute thoughts on what makes their nightlife special in their country in terms of food, music, dance moves, entertainment and so forth. Great Britain, Brazil, Australia, South Africa, Lebanon, Canada, Poland, Thailand, Venezuela, United States, Argentina, Germany, India and Ireland are the countries involved. Some of the ideas I read under the 'entertainment' category for Australia were: have a ball pit - like the one's in primary school, a glow in the dark jumping castle, and my personal favourite; vodka jelly wrestling!
Each country's chosen curator will then sift through the ideas and select some of the most highly rated suggestions to create a culturally-authentic night out. These ideas will then be packed into a 'crate' representing each country, and on November 27th, each curator will swap their country's crate with another, unleashing 14 global nightlife events simultaneously. Can I just mention that our chosen curator is Dan Single (whoever the hell that is!), and I must say he definately drops the 'cool factor' of this project down a notch...just look at him:
And if you watch his video on the Smirnoff Facebook page it's even worse - does anyone else think his chest hair looks like some kind of dead animal? Anyway, luckily for Smirnoff, it can get away with having a wanker representing our country, because the awesomeness of the Nightlife Exchange idea makes up for it! It's only the early days of the campaign, but I really like what they've done. As I said the TV ad definately worked on me - the party scenes looked amazing, just the kind of thing I would want to be a part of...and then when it reveals that this is a global initiative, you realise it must be pretty freakin cool! It gives you just enough information about the project to get you interested but not quite enough - so then you HAVE to go look it up on Facebook as it tells you to!
Also, as we always go on about, Facebook is all about engaging your customers - the Nightlife Exchange Project is clearly very successful at doing just that! Smirnoff knows their target market: 18-25 year olds who love to party. What better way to engage them than to ask for their ideas on how to make an unforgettable party?! I even had a go at suggesting an idea myself; I said that everyone should wear morph suits (under the 'fashion' category). In reality, you'd have to pay me a lot of money before I'd ever squeeze myself into one of those, but I just wanted to have a go at suggesting an idea. I also posted a question on their wall asking how this event can possibly take place simultaneously in 14 different countries all at NIGHT on November 27 (surely different time zones would mean that some crate parties would take place during the day?!). A bit of a silly question but I really just wanted to see how quickly (and if they WOULD) respond. They responded approx 2 or 3 hours after I posted my comment! So kudos to Smirnoff for that! Pretty impressive considering they have over 100,000 fans to attend to!
Overall, I think the idea is a great way of engaging and creating conversations with customers, as well as building Smirnoff's brand personality. My only slight reservation about the whole idea is the fact that fans put all this effort into coming up with great party ideas and getting thier friends to vote for their ideas...and at the end of the day their ideas get swapped for those of another country! I guess it could be cool to see what crazy ideas other cultures come up with, but on the other hand, wouldn't those people want to get to experience the awesome ideas they came up with?
So what are your thoughts on the Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project?
Your right - that guy looks like a complete tool unfortunately, which considering he is the face of Australia could be very damaging.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a great idea for getting the name out but I wonder if they missed the boat exposure wise. Considering its in loads of different countries are 100,000 fans enough?
Yeh you have a point there. And considering that only one of my Facebook friends is a fan of the Smirnoff Facebook page, when in reality I think quite a few of them would like Smirnoff's campaign and SHOULD be fans of the Facebook page, this also implies that they may have missed the boat exposure-wise! It will be interesting to see if we start hearing more about it in the coming weeks!
ReplyDeleteKate I’m so with you – who the hell is Dan Single (yes i’ve googled him and am now fully across his fashion and Dj’ing skills... but i’m still not impressed – seem’s Smirnoff is going to do more for him than him for it!!) - matching the celebrity to the activity is an integral part of the communication mix...the UK went for kudos with Zane Lowe (Aus equivalent would have been to get a triple J presenter)... We should have done the same...(or does Dan - who the hell are u - Single have international status!?!?).
ReplyDeleteStill, for a global campaign that executes right through the line, this is fantastic and i can't wait to see them pull it off. I can definitely hear the mantra 'think global, act local' behind this one and using facebook definitely helps to make global+local happen in a genuine way, although personally i'm sure it also helps that it's alcohol that's behind this global experience... nothing like a drink to bring us all together!