In December 2008, Heineken had a huge viral success through their Walk-In Fridge spot.
Oftentimes, spoofs of viral videos appear on the Net, and become successful as a result of the virality of the original spot, an example being the creative Bavaria spot.
However, marketers know that it is very difficult to repeat the success of a brand through a viral video with another one based on the same concept (T-Mobile tried quite succesfully with their Trafalgar Square Sing Along). In February, Heineken launched a spot that appeared to be a fake, in order to increase the buzz around the original spot, but the online community quickly realized that the video had been launched by the brand and consequently the buzz was insignificant. This time, Heineken seems to have learned its lesson. A few days ago, the brand released a parody of the Walk-In Fridge spot and the buzz is already building.
Launched on April 24, “Walking Fridge” has already been watched over 120,000 times. It may not be a phenomenal number, but with the holidays and the enormous buzz around Susan Boyle (which led to a significant drop in numbers of views of other videos), there is still potential. A great example of web marketing!
Source: Stratégies
