Questionable Tactics for Intel and Christopher Guest

Last week, Intel launched a new online campaign featuring rock videos directed by Christopher Guest. Now, I find these really funny — I love the swearing singer from Old School and I love cleverly-worded mock rock lyrics, but I wonder about the effectiveness of bringing in a big-name director like Guest in to do a viral video. Do the ends justify the means?

I would assume that this campaign cost a ton of money — from talent to production values — but when I search for the video on YouTube, I see less than 4,000 views. A search on Digg yields worse results. How can this be?

Intel’s attempt at viral HAS netted them some nice press exposure, like an article in the New York Times, which states:

I.T. people are a “huge fan base” for Mr. Guest, Ms. Bhagat said, but Intel wants wider notice. “If it does go broader, whether people understand the technical terms or not, the pure entertainment value will be positive for our brand imagery,” she said.

True, this campaign will probably add a positive, funny vibe the general brand-feelings of customers (and potential customers), but I think that this campaign will ultimately not meet the needs of Intel, who must gather an audience, inspire interaction, request feedback, and build loyalty with a campaign like this.

Our goal, at Space Shank Media, is to do just that — deliver more than a one-time smile — to deliver a well-rounded strategy for delivering regularly funny content.

All this said, I would be stoked to work with Christopher Guest (truth be told, I saw him last week on Melrose Ave. - he was driving a Porsche). He’s a brilliant guy, but, these days, it takes a combination of brilliant creative and hard-nosed strategy to deliver the funny. Rock on!

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