Unilever's Butter Opera

The New York Times reports on Unilever's launch of a webisode series to promote its $250m brand I Can't Believe It's Not Butter.  The 4-part series is a soap opera spoof called 'The Sprays of Her Life'...

Javier Martin, who manages the brand at Unilever United States says, "Classical advertising is not as effective and efficient as it has been in the past so we're looking for more innovative ways to reach our consumers."  A sentiment that has become pretty mainstream in the world of brands.

The series is OK - certainly no less entertaining than a TV ad and probably massively cheaper.  I should imagine Unilever will also learn a lot from the exercise.  Real information and experience of the post-broadcast market is just as valuable as hard sales.  That's the sentiment behind the recent McKinsey report recommending that brands spend 25 per cent of their budgets on, 'well-structured experiments".

(Via Joho).

Comments

[thecod]

I personally think the plot is bad. I am not too much into soap operas, ok, but hey.
Especially the "carefully" intertwined product nutrition information is, well, remarkable. I guess this was a clients request.
On the other hand, I enjoy the fact, that even old-school television advertisers (like Unilever) are now testing waht's my favourite channel. More of that, please.