In the midst of AOL Live Auditions chaos, a Real Time Ad for Secret Deodorant is created
Over the weekend, AOL hosted a nationwide competiton asking would-be news anchors to audition live on its website as it was streamed out to over 250,000 viewers.
People on Twitter were then asked to vote on who they wanted to win, using the hashtag #aolanchorquest, with the chosen anchor then starring in AOL’s new Live Programming venture.
Amid this chaos, where a Jay-Z impersonator and a guitarist in drag auditioned while a Taekwondo champion attempted to decapitate her on-air rival, an advert for P&G’s Secret Deodorant brand was created.
Heralded as a bold move by the brand, the auditionee was questioned live about her nerves (and what this was doing to her sweat glands) and then asked for her unscripted thoughts on the Secret’s new deodorant.
The real-time marketing experiment paid off for Secret and highlighted how AOL’s Live platform could offer brands greater authenticity in advertising – as long as it’s a likeable product.