In fact, it was just plain dumb IMO. I can’t imagine too many women thinking this is a good “call to action” to go check out zafu’s site, and no man is likely to be amused at it if he’s actually trying to buy a bra for his lady.

Trying to be too clever & creative = LOST OPPORTUNITY 4 Sales.

Fire the ad team that came up with this dog, I say!

For those who take offense at this you are wasting your time. With Jena 6, violent movies and music, and moronic television shows there are plenty of other REAL issues to gripe about

But I do want to address one theme that has come up throughout the comments – “is this video offensive to women.” I’ve corresponded online and offline with many of you – and here’s what I’m hearing:

Some women say there is nothing at all offensive. It’s funny and clever. It made me laugh out loud.

Some women say it’s very offensive. Who would buy a bra or anything else from these folks?

There is no right or wrong response. Some women are offended. some women aren’t. But you have to honor their opinions. If someone is not offended – they have every right to their feelings. If someone IS offended, it’s dangerous to just write them off as prude or not a member of “The YouTube generation.” It’s dangerous to tell them they are “wrong” for being offended.

I’m referring here to marketing to women campaigns in general, not just Zafu.

This is a HUGE issue when marketing to women. I find many women don’t speak out for the very fear that they will be put down or accused of being old or a prude for finding marketing material offensive. They don’t write to the company, they don’t comment on the blog – they simply add the product or company to their “I will never buy from…..” list.

You can’t please everybody. Chances are you’re going to tick someone off. So look at who your core audience is. They’re the only opinion that matters. But do listen to their opinions.

Thanks to every single one of your for your great comments and interesting discussions.

Looks like the video embedding was broken when you first saw the post, so thanks for bringing that to our attention. It’s fixed now.

Anyway, it seems a lot of folks who didn’t like the commercial weren’t “offended” per se; they’re just questioning how effective it will be. One of Geico’s advantages lately is that they’re now an established brand. They can get away will being irrelevant and irreverent more often because people already know what they do. Although the Zafu ad is clever, it’s difficult to know what to glean what it is that the company does off of the ad alone.

But you’re right. It does a great job at piquing interest. Should they switch directions and not do similar, follow-up ads? I’m not sure that’s the answer, either. Perhaps next time, though, it would be good to get a deeper sense of what the company has to offer women. One knows it has something to do with bras, but that’s about it.

At least an ad like this works better online than it would on TV. If you’re watching it online, it’s easy enough to go to Zafu.com to see what they’re all about. Personally, I think it would be possible for them to have it both ways — i.e., show the benefits without leaving women with JUST the “creepy guy” imagery — so I see Holly’s article as a bit of tough love. She’s praising the service itself, while questioning the relevancy of the ad campaign.

Either way, I think we’re all looking forward to what Rob and the rest of the Zafu team does next.

(By the way… More analysis of Geico in another post VERY soon.)

I did think it was pretty darn funny and memorable. It piqued my interest to check out the site and see what it’s about. I’m actually a little shocked that people really do get offended by this stuff. I can see zafu doing a series of follow up spoofs, kind of like what Geico does with the caveman storyline.

The fact that it isn’t an actual television commercial and instead seems to be aimed at the ‘YouTube’ audience is somthing that I think we should keep in mind when critiquing such things. The YouTube standards are so different.

However, I wonder how many potential customers may be turned off by the spot not believing that this company is respectful of what they may want or need or how they feel about their bodies.

I think it could’ve been funnier if it happened in a bar, too, because expecting women in a bar to react well to “Excuse me, but can I ask you for details about your breasts?” is even more absurd than expecting it of a woman in a parking lot. But then I like absurdist humor.

No problem at all.

The “poor geeky boy” is alive and well and living close by. No problem at all with your comments. We avoided using blood and tryed to make it look like some of those old science fiction films where it was obviously a guy in a fake suit. Most people I’ve seen viewing it, laugh at it.

Now we’re being asked for more bra scientist movies!!

Rob

I gave up on age years ago as I have friends in their thirties who seem to have one foot in the grave and I know people in their sixties and seventies at our climbing gym who put most to shame.

Our team spans from the early twenties through to me.

Rob

PS – he didn’t really get his head kicked off

The first thing I did when you suggested to check the Bio’s was to look for their ages, because ever since I got ripped up for standing up against the violent act of kicking a man’s head off, I’ve felt very, very old.

On reflection I’d agree that we may have strayed too far away from communicating benefits, but I’m not sure how we’d incorprate it in a viral piece without seeming to be preaching. I’m sure your readers will have their own ideas . Our goal was to intrigue in a light hearted way. This is a fine balancing act.

Regarding feedback. It’s been overwhelmingly positive with a few “offended” responses. My experience is that in general people that are disliking something are always more vocal.

Gender of a team – hmm – interesting thought, but seriously our “creative” team is predoninatly women – see our bios page.

Your site is really very good, so congrats to you on that!

Rob

Thanks so much for joining the disucssion! I was hoping someone from Zafu would stop by.

You are in nice position – you actually have a product women find valuable. (too often companies try to save a mediocre product with marketing – you are meeting a true need and providing an obviously valuable service)

Yes, many “viral efforts” are polarizing. My only concern is that the majority of your target audience is on the positive side. Dove’s campaign for real beauty really brought out the critics. A lot of people really hated it. But women sick of size “0″ models loved it. It was their opinion that counted.

On your home page – I think the problem may be more that women don’t equate buying jeans with buying a bra. (I wouldn’t buy my jeans the same place I buy my lingerie) I understand there is a similar “fitting” issue, but in the minds of many women – they are two unrelated items. So when you see the most prevelant images – which are jeans, you thinkn “oops, wrong place”

I couldn’t agree with you more on the mistake of trying to communicate too much in an ad. It is instant death if you have too many messages crammed into your ad. Simple and focused is the secret to success. I think the video does a great job of that. But a common thread in the comments is that they did not understand the real benefit you are offering. If they did, they may not have been as offended and would have actually clicked through to the site.

You offer a great service. But from the video – the real value of the service isn’t obvious to someone who has never heard of you. (it’s also not a service a lot of others are providing – which is great for you – but the audience might neet a little more education on it – even just one more slide with a sentence explaining the benefit could have been enough to do the trick)

Thanks for your input. I wish you much luck at Zafu.

P.S. one of the questions I’ve received is “what was the gender of the creative team” – could you share that with our readers?

Great article – it’s rare to see such thoughful and insightful analysis on the internet. You make a bunch of really good points.

Full disclosure – I work for zafu and this is our first entre into the world of viral marketing and videos.

It’s interesting how people react to videos and the feedback we get. My experience is that feedback online tends to polarize. People either like what they see alot or simply hate it. I’ve seen this on all types of executions in all media all across the world. As you rightly point out, different segments of the population will also react to marketing in different ways. This is part of the fun of trying to get it right.

We’ve had 2 million women come to zafu since we launched and there’s no doubt that the service itself works extremely well. I was surprised by the comments about people not seeing bras as there are pictures and no less than 3 references on our home page alone. Our UI testing certainly tells a different story.

We took the view that doing an explanation video was not going to be much fun for anyone in this media. In addition, one of the biggest mistakes companies make is trying to communicate too much in each ad.

So once again, thnaks for the feedback.
Rob

I often laugh when marketers talk about “targeting women” – it’s as if they believe “women” all think and act alike. Nothing could be further from the truth.

You can see from the above comments that there are widely varying responses to the video. When it comes to women’s reactions to advertising, never make assumptions.