Elave, an Irish skincare products company has achieved a perfect 10 score on understanding, harnessing and leveraging off viral advertising and the web community.

Utilising a kiwi film and acting crew, CEO Joanna Gardiner created a highly risque and highly effective video ad to be utilised on her own website as well as dispersed widely across the web.

Forget the content but think of the concept in terms of how much marketing punch it packs.

Well done Joanna!

Ben Kepes

Ben Kepes is a technology evangelist, an investor, a commentator and a business adviser. Ben covers the convergence of technology, mobile, ubiquity and agility, all enabled by the Cloud. His areas of interest extend to enterprise software, software integration, financial/accounting software, platforms and infrastructure as well as articulating technology simply for everyday users.

7 Comments
  • Ummm…bollocks.

    Nothing personal (and no pun intended) but, as an advertising profession I have to disagree. The spot is a dull meaningless dirge. I can’t concentrate on what is being said – touted – because I am wondering about why the presenter has one breast slightly larger than the other, why so many of the actors shave their pubic hair, if the guy in the background has been fluffed (surely)…

    now, what did she say again?

  • But just the fact that you knew what Elave was surely indicates that brand recognition has occurred. It’s a branding rather than a sales tool and I reckon it’s worked…

  • I know who OJ Simpson is because of his association with the murder of his ex-wife and her lover. I don’t know what else he was famous for (The Naked Gun? – ironic). My awareness doesn’t convert to a preference or affinity for the brand. Whilst I support your basic ideas I don’t think this is a very good expression of them.

  • Fair comment David – I’m an entrepreneur, a strategist and an investor and make no claim to being a marketing guru – I defer to your obviously better informed analysis (and that wasn’t tongue in cheek).

    I guess my point is that Elave have created great brand awareness and the question is does that translate into real sales. In much the same way that OJ has good “brand awareness” but it doesn’t mean you’re likely to buy laundry powder off him (that IS what he’s famous for isn’t it!?!?!)

  • I must admit I had never heard of Elave until today. Like many other people. And now I’m aware of the claim to provide products for sensitive skin – like the skin we keep hidden away from public view.

  • This is one of the things that irritate me so intensely about advertising ‘creatives’. The use of nudity (Elave) or bad language (FCUK) to promote a product thanks to ‘shock value’. If I were to use the word c..t in an ad it would gain a great deal of publicity, this wouldn’t make it a good ad, just because people were talking about it. Give me intelligent persuasion any day. All I can remember from the Elave ad is the magnificent nipples on the asian girl and the distressingly large penis on the bald guy.

  • I don’t think the fact that the actors were shaved is unusual. Don’t most women shave their pubic hair off these days? Everyone I knows does!

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