When in doubt, piggyback

Looks like the Joseph Schooling lesson wasn’t enough for brands. Marketing executives are back at it again, trying to piggyback on the latest trend to gain relevance for their product. For those who suffer from the FOMO, fret not. Now, you too can help embarrass your company! Here’s a simple three step guide to creating a failed marketing campaign.

Find something trendy to piggyback on. Be very late to the party. Like 1 month late. Inject no creativity of your own to ensure maximum cringe.

And now we present – the latest masterpiece by Mediacorp’s Toggle.

This video is being used to promote Toggle’s new Cash Struck! program. They must have thought it was cool to piggyback on the negative sentiment the Internet has for Sun Ho. And for their second idea, they had to dig 7 years deep just to find another person to bash, using Miss Singapore World 2009 Ris Low and her “leopard prints” comment which has long lost relevance.

How does PPAP, china wine or leopard prints relate to the show? I have no idea but I am guessing it doesn’t. That’s the hallmark of great advertising. Because after viewing the video I still have no idea what the show is about. Ok, actually no. It is a gameshow – the Facebook title tells me that so well done Facebook.

Epidemic ensues on cyberspace

Don’t feel bad for just having wasted 40 seconds of your life. Because the real entertainment is found in the comments.

So bad it’s good?

To be fair to Mediacorp, the video wasn’t such a marketing failure after all. It managed to enter the realm of being “so bad it’s good” – gaining significant awareness for their show. Even if nobody knows what it’s about. And at the expense of their branding.

So congrats to the Toggle team, for creating this marketing gem with 60,000+ views and counting. It may have been their ingenious plan all along to deliberately troll us to get more views.

(nah)