While I was watching Homeland on Channel 4 last night, during the ad breaks the television kept flickering like something was interrupting the signal and a message was would flash up. It was a hashtag with a message, but it disappeared again so quickly I barely had time to make out what it said.
It was at this point I realised it must be a clever new marketing campaign. As it was on Channel 4, I assumed it would be for some controversial new drama show. But after the advert had appeared several times in the space of one ad break, my curiosity got the better of me.
I worked out that it said #becomeelectric. Being prefaced by a hashtag, the first place I typed ‘become electric’ in on the Internet was, naturally, Twitter, home of the hashtag.
It turns out it is the advert for the new electric BMW i3 car. Clever advertising it I was not the only one who was driven online, excuse the pun. Lots of people on Twitter were also tempted to type the ‘become electric’ tag line into Twitter to satisfy their curiosity.
For those who weren’t tempted to venture online, when Homeland had finished at 10pm, the end of the prime time viewing slot for Sunday night, there was a full length advert explaining #becomeelectric and the new BMW cars.
While it was confusing not quite being able to read the hashtagged message in the second it flashed up on screen (it would have been easier to take in had it been left on the screen for longer, but perhaps that was part of the mystery) it was successful at driving potential customers online to explore further.
This gave the BMW website an increased number of hits and saw it, briefly, trend on Twitter. Great online exposure for a brand.
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Maybe this is the way forward for TV advertising? Give a teaser and then tempt people online to explore further if it catches their interest.
Did you see the #becomeelectric advert? Do you think it is an effective way of advertising? Leave a comment below to let us know.
