The primary reason why I chose marketing as my major is due to the freedom of creativity. As long as the ideas are attractive and provides a positive impression to the audience, the marketing technique has succeeded.
Image from : http://blackriverfc.co.za/blog/dumb-ways-die-and-great-ways-advertise
Recently I downloaded an Application on my phone called “Dumb Ways to Die”. The game consists of various cute characters where they engage in dangerous activities which gets them killed in an unpleasant way. For example
- Using a fork to pull out a piece of toast while the toaster is still plugged. The character gets electrocuted.
- Playing with a bee hive. The character gets stung to death.
- Swimming in a pool with piranhas. The characters are eaten by piranhas.
The purpose of the game is to follow the instructions for each scenarios in order to save their life.
- Carefully pulling out the fork without touching the toaster.
- Smack all the bees.
- Flick away all the piranhas.
A video is unlocked when a certain point is achieved. As for the video, it uses a great sense of humour to showcase how these characters die in a dumb way. The video is presented with a pleasant melody and the lyrics are very innovative. This mini game and video was created by Metro Trains which the company is located in Melbourne and the purpose of this campaign was to promote rail safety. In the game, players can also pledge to “not do dumb stuff around train”
This marketing campaign was certainly effective as it became viral through sharing in social media.
As of now, the video has already reached 59 million views.