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How a Viral Video Turned a Threat Into an Opportunity

  //science-technology.news-articles.net/content/2 .. l-video-turned-a-threat-into-an-opportunity.html
  Published in Science and Technology on Tuesday, February 15th 2011 at 12:55 GMT by Market Wire
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IRVINE, CA--(Marketwire - February 15, 2011) - Software giant Quest (NASDAQ: [ QSFT ]) recently faced a modern PR challenge when well-respected technology blogger Brian Madden decided to call the company out for what Madden thought was an outdated logo. The plea aired during an interview hosted by Tech Target's popular website SearchVirtualDesktop.com, and had the potential of portraying Quest as being stuck in the 1980's. The buzz quickly spread over the Internet, so something had to be done... fast. Enter INK.

INK, Quest Software's advertising agency of record, jumped on the opportunity to have a little fun with Brian and his fans, while telling their side of the story at the same time. Working in parallel streams with Quest's corporate marketing team, INK executed an animated version of Quest's logo that visually represents the brand's bright new future direction. While the logo refresh was underway, INK developed a fun, yet impactful social media strategy based around a response to Mr. Madden's comments. Scripts were written, video was shot and edited, and Quest crafted a special reply that would change the face of the brand.

Within a week of Brian Madden's criticism, Quest had a YouTube response of their own. Light-hearted and clever, the short video gave Quest CEO Doug Garn a chance to debut a new animated logo. INK's strategy was designed to garner results, ending with a direct challenge from Garn: if Brian could motivate 500 of his fans to re-tweet the video link with the hashtag #ilovebrian, he and one of his fans would win a new watch of their choice from specialty watchmaker Vestal. View the Quest video response at [ http://tinyurl.com/4w496kt ].

Madden immediately posted the response on his site and word quickly spread. Within 24 hours of Quest's response, over 93,000 people had been exposed to the re-tweets, and over 2,200 watched the video on YouTube. In addition, Quest management was sending emails stating: "This is the most social media coverage I think we've ever gotten on any single piece of content created by Quest. People aren't just regurgitating information we've put out, they're actually heavily commenting on it."

And the total cost to concept, produce, and release this social media campaign? Two watches... which were provided by Quest's CEO.

This is the power of viral video and leveraging communities to spread an impactful message. INK and Quest found an opportunity to take a PR hiccup and cure it with a new corporate look. All it took was a video camera, a willing corporate partner, and a lot of imagination.

[ www.ink-la.com ]