Hewlett-Packard is breaking a new campaign for its personal computers. The great part is that instead of putting a ton of poorly-targeted banner ads on a ton of sites, the company has posted their video spots on things like YouTube and Google Video. Viewers who click through the ads are taken to a microsite that has outtakes and other content related to the spots. The reason they've gone with this approach is that they've finally realized generating word of mouth by targeting services people are already using is more powerful than just throwing a bunch of traditional ads out there and hoping some stick in people's minds. The first two spots feature HDNet's Mark Cuban and reality TV maven Mark Burnett and the upcoming third one will star Pharrell Williams. Unfortunately they also created a Facebook profile for the PC and a personal ad on MySpace. That's too bad but I'm willing to overlook it because of the strength of the first part of this.
7/15 UPDATE: On his blog, HP's Eric Kintz gives an inside look at the thought process behind the execution of this campaign. In case you were considering launching a corporate blog but wondered what use they could be to you, this is Example A.
1. It's innovative decision. HP Pr managers at last found normal way to advertise own company
Posted at 3:58AM on Jul 14th 2006 by Mike