Incito MentisA blog by Syed Abdul Karim

The Internet has done it again! Ted Williams a 54 year old from Columbus, Ohio – a homeless, jobless nobody just 3 days ago has not only got a home and a job! He has been a guest star on the “Today” Show, “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” and is now probably on his way to becoming a celebrity. The Internet has just created a radio star and all this happened in a matter of days. This is the world we live in. The world of Justin Bieber, the world of the iPhone playing Korean applegirl, Kim Yeo Hee who also got discovered on YouTube sometime last year and has signed a record deal since then. This is the world of “The Lonely Island” a trio from Berkley, California that posted some comedy skits that went viral eventually landing them on Saturday Night Live and now they are a famous Hollywood trio. Ted Williams is the latest entrant among the internet famous. This is the video which made it all happen!

The guy is talented alright! But is he the most talented voice known to man or are the forces of ‘The Long Tail’ at play? What just happened! It seems the Long Tail has bubbled up yet another niche and turned it into a hit! Chris Anderson is going to be proud. This is a great example of technology discovering something in the Long Tail of talent and bringing it out to the world. A reporter from Columbia Dispatch takes a video of the “Homeless Man with the Golden Voice” and posts it on their website, which gets reposted on YouTube, gets over 13 million views in about 48 hours, Twitter goes crazy with it and here I am in Saudi Arabia reading and blogging about this guy from nowhere! Amazing. This could not have happened just 5 years ago!

How do they do it! It’s simply amazing what Doritos did for the Super Bowl 2010. 116.2 million viewers watched the Doritos – Snack Attack Samurai spot, making it the most watched television commercial of all time!* WOW!

The brilliant thing about this all is that everything is user generated! That’s right! Doritos simply created a platform and the users did the rest. Anyone with an idea could write it, shoot it and submit it. It was that simple. If they became one of six finalists then they got $25,000 each. The six were then put to vote. The Top 3 were aired as Doritos commercials for the Super Bowl 2010.

To top it all, if they got ranked in the Top 3 on the USA Today ad meter as well then the first place would get $1,000,000, the second place $600,000 and the third place $400,000. If all three took the Top 3 slots then everyone would get a $1,000,000. And so they did, the Doritos Underdog spot took the second place. Two 20-something aspiring filmmakers walked away with $600,000!

I found this entire contest very interesting because Doritos got it right at multiple levels. For one, Doritos engaged the filmmaking community by building on the premise that a great idea can come from anyone! Secondly, they engaged America to participate and vote for the best commercial, thereby taking the idea to the masses and creating interaction!

Lastly, the thing that I found most brilliant was the simplicity of the brief. “Go for action-packed. Or go for funny. It’s up to you.” It is all about Originality, Creativity and Appeal! No big ideas, No big strategies. All the commercials have taken a ‘creative leap’ on a simple message – People who love Doritos don’t want to share them with anyone.

As a creative strategy there was nothing new there! The power is in the creative itself. My personal favorite is ‘House Rules’! “Keep you hands off my mama! Keep your hands off my Doritos!” LOL! Check it out!

Doritos – House Rules

Doritos – Underdog

Doritos – Snack Attack Samurai

* According to the Nielsen Company