I came across this jolly little site today. It is part of a campaign from Sony Ericsson which centres around building your own Space Hopper. I received a space hopper for my 7th birthday and it was my main mode of transport for some time afterwards so I have a special interest in the Space Hopper. The site is simple to navigate and the campaign is visible on digital outdoor screens around London so I have no doubt that it will get some attention. The problem that I have with it is that I don’t know what they want. I didn’t register for anything, I didn’t see any products and the only reason that I know it is Sony Ericsson is by reading the small print on the site.
I attended a session this evening called ‘How was it for you?’ where talented panel members from the agency, TV, culture and content worlds bemoaned the fact that it was hard to define success and even if they had got that far then it was hard to measure it across multiple channels. It would be really interesting to see what the success metrics are for this campaign, but then again maybe it is just a teaser for something bigger. If the aim is just to create buzz for Sony Ericsson then they may need to be a bit more explicit.
As a viral piece of content it has a few of the essentials
- It is cute
- It is short
- It is set in a well-visited place which enables recognition
- It has the essential – how did they do that factor
- With the ability to create multiple versions of the hopper – you have a reason to come back
I hope that it is a success (by whatever metric they are using) but I can’t help but think that it is a bit weak as a campaign since the user doesn’t know what it is for even though it is lovely to look at. Have a look at the Hopper Invasion site for more.
p.s. in a nice twist, if you grab the embed code from the site you end up with a preview clip of their new handset, this clip was taken from their YouTube brand channel, clever huh?
