The emergence of Chat Roulette earlier this year was one that intrigued and appalled in equal measure. The site works by randomly connecting two users by video-chat, with each user allowed to hit next and move on to a new partner at any moment. It became known chiefly for attracting weirder types which, among some, provoked outrage. However, the popularity of the site has also led to some moments of creativity, my favourite being ‘Merton’.
With a large amount of press coverage and such a high level of usage (especially among teenagers), the potential for marketing activity seemed great. But relatively few brands have picked up on the site, I suspect, mainly due to it’s risqué associations.
The first brand to attempt to use the technology was French Connection, who challenged male users to ‘chat up’ women with the promise of a £250 voucher if successful. The campaign, being the first of its kind, guaranteed the brand column inches at a time when Chat Roulette was much discussed. Also, the pairing wasn’t all that surprising, given that the brand’s most famous campaign was to rename themselves FCUK. A more recent example is Coca Cola, who used the tool as part of their latest campaign for Dr Pepper. On April Fool’s Day, they got a cheerleader to ask users to do more and more ridiculous things before replacing the cheerleader with a middle-aged, semi-naked man and then revealing the brand logo with a Happy April Fool’s Day message.
Chat Roulette clearly has its limits as a marketing tool. But Coca Cola have shown that it can be used best by creating funny videos that are then likely to go viral. By using the medium creatively, with good humour and even slyly referencing the one thing Chat Roulette made headlines for, Coca Cola have been able to create content that is likely to be passed on and gain column inches. It’ll be interesting to see which other brands approach the technology and what new ways they devise of using the medium.
About the Author
Paul Barnett
Paul Barnett is a Social Media Analyst for Social Media Library, responsible for developing the content within Social Media Library. Paul lives in a world of blogs, blogs and more blogs, scouring the web and plucking out the juiciest information he finds. Previous to this, he worked as a Music Press Officer. He is also a freelance writer, an organiser of Scrabble Sunday and blogs about stuff that he does here.
