Flipping Out Is In!

Are advertisers and marketers reaching the young girls/Gen Y market? Not according to the team at 3iYing. Its' offensive, insulting and plain stupid! Who i 3iYing, what's a Flip? and what has this got to do with Word of Mouth? Plenty!

The group of young women at 3iYing have taken on the advertising world by posting 190 ad critique videos called Flips on YouTube. Everything from tampons to jeans and perfume are being flipped. Since 3iYing began its flip requesting program, more than 400 entries have been submitted by young girls - and the number grows daily.

In a recent AdAge article on the ad flipping girls from 3iYing, a representative from Sony was quoted defending its' ad depicting a pink Vaio being used at the beach... " While we understand 3iYing's take on this Vaio ad (stupid color, would never take my laptop to the beach...), we believe the ads are subjective and shouldn't necessarily be taken literally. The Sony Vaio shown in this ad is one of our best-selling models and we think conveys the message that Vaios (especially in colors like pink) are fun and liberating." Notice the WE's in Sony's response..they are missing the point...what they think is not important, what their young, tech savy, video creating and posting market thinks is important! (as a side note, there has been enough research, articles and books about the use of pink and women to date , so shame on Sony - while they are using the color to support breast cancer with the product's purchase they didn't have to make the computer pink to get their point across.)

While reading this article and reviewing 3iYing's Relevancy Report  I remembered two tattered books on my office bookshelf - Branded, The Buying and Selling of Teenagers and Body Wars, making peace with Women's Bodies. Both of these books takes a hard, critical look at the advertising world and their portrayal of women in ads and marketing campaigns; BUT, and its a big BUT, these books were written in 2000 and 2003 - before the dawn of YouTube, Flickr, and the social media revolution being driven by Web 2.0 technology Their ability to change thinking beyond the traditional bookstore, book launch speaking tour was limited. This is the power that 3iYing understands well and this is the power that is driving the viral viewing of their critique of Madison Avenue.

Once again, the lesson is clear - the face of marketing is forever changed by the customers' ability to share their views globally. Like it or not, Brand stewards, CMO's, product developers can no longer sit behind their 'silos of power'. To survive and prosper co-creation at many levels within an organization will be necessary. This requires an openness and willingness to listen as never before, and the stomach to admit when you are wrong. It also requires that agencies re-think how they staff, train and assign those that work on accounts and how they utilize research to direct their approaches...the hallowed creative for creative's sake is on shakey ground.

And for my readers that come from the BtoB side of the house, you are not immune to this type of negative WOM. Somewhere on the Net is lurking an unhappy manufacturer, a supplier or a channel partner that thinks your approach sucks...its just a matter of time before they find their viral voice.

I wish 3iYing all the luck and success in their mission to change bad advertising. I see great promise from this young group - perhaps they will be able to change what no generation before them have been able to do. If they are successful, there may not be a need for revised additions of Killing Us Softly.