Tekserve is the mecca of broken Macs in Manhattan....


Before there were Mac geniuses and genius bars to wait to be noticed at... there was Tekserve. Tekserve has always had an extremely good word of mouth, if you had a Mac and you had a problem someone would clue you in to Tekserve.
So combine a pretty well-established customer base who like you, put a mediocre commercial on YouTube and see what happens.
Here's what: 400,000 people "chose" to view it, 500 people comment on it, and about 1,000 people rated it.
Notice I said 400,000 people chose to view that ad. Clearly the huge reach that traditional advertisers claim dwarfs that number. But how many people skipped them or went to that bathroom versus actually paid attention? What would you give for half a million peopel to choose to view your marketing message, who opted in to watch your ad?
It's not like this ad was one of those particularly clever, shocking, funny viral ads that companies try and deny they funded. Goes to show what you can do with a loyal user base and some crappy camera work. What they had was a good idea, using iPods like dominoes, and have a hook that gets people interested "$60,000 worth of iPods."
The ad was actually created to be shown outside Madison Square Garden. I wonder if they got more attention from the YouTube broadcast than from that, more traditional venue.

This 15-second ad is featured on the 15' x 30' LED Displays outside of Madison Square Garden on 33rd Street & 7th Avenue from 5/1/06 through 6/30/06. Fun fact: Over 200 iPods were used to film this ad.


It looks like The Consumerist uploaded the ad. The Consumerist is part of the Gawker blog media empire, which could have given this ad a well-needed jump start in the blogosphere.


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Crappy Camera Work...But Still a Success

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Karl Long, straight talk, critical thinking, and strategic vision. Karl is fascinated in what happens and what value can be created "in the space between" customers and businesses, it is this space that customer experience happens, brands are built, value is co-created, and sometimes customers are let down.

Karl likes to focus on these areas and is a passionate believer that companies that pay attention to this space, like Google, Netflix, Amazon, ikea & ebay, create the strongest brands that essentially market themselves.

Karl writes the number 2 site on the topic of customer experience at blog.experiencecurve.com - customer experience strategy est. 2003, where he explores the marketing, branding and design implications of customer experience.

More recently Karl started up CustomersOnfire.com - microbrands & micromarketing to explore what he thinks is next generation marketing and branding that will rely on non-traditional marketing channels, like blogs, social software and co-created content.

Karl holds an MBA in Design Management from the University of Westminster in England and currently lives in the South of Florida for his sins.

Feel free to get in touch:
karl.long@gmail.com



c. 617 794 8475