With YouTube extending platforms to reach household TV’s, it was only a matter of time before we started to see major chain product launches take place through the growing communication portal. Carl’s Jr. is launching their new hamburger, but they’re not doing it on major television networks. Instead, they’ve tapped social media and YouTube.
With penny’s being pinched due to this blasted recession, it will be the innovators, those that take and hit on risks, that gain market share. Carl’s Jr. wasn’t a household name where I come from (we had good, old fashioned Hardees). But with a solid and smart internet campaign, that may change…
Justine Ezarik might not be a household name, but the 25-year-old has a cable TV-size audience. The only difference: Ezarik’s audience is on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
Thanks to Google, she’s also now part of Carl’s Jr.’s effort rolling out this week to sell the Portobello Mushroom Six-Dollar Burger to young men. The search-engine giant drafted Ezarik and eight other popular YouTube creators to participate in an ad campaign for the fast-food chain on the video-sharing site. They were commissioned to put their own spin on the CKE Restaurants brand’s infamous Paris Hilton-eating-a-burger commercial by showing how they would eat theirs.
Carl’s Jr. Makes New Kind of Network Buy
Very interesting what Carl’s, Jr. has attempted. I just read an excellent account of the campaign at YMC: http://bit.ly/11H9aX. They’re right that the videos aren’t exactly brilliant, but the distribution channel is absolutely worth investigating.