The problem with Flip’s ad campaign
I’ve owned a Flip Video camera since July. I enjoy the product, so when I heard about the Cisco-owned product’s consumer ad campaign, I was especially interested. But when the ads started showing up on TV, I was immediately disappointed. The campaign is built around what Cisco is calling “flipable moments,” which apparently include a dog almost barking “I love you,” two young children having a screaming contest, or a woman doing a handstand on the beach.
So what is a flipable moment? The through-line for most of these is that they appear to have been captured on impulse. The people depicted in these 15-second ads have fun—they enjoy the little things in life, and now they’re able to capture them on video and share with friends and family. What a great concept for a brand to own! …a brand other than Flip Video.
Competitive advantages for these products, off the top of my head, include:
- Ease of use (compared to your father’s camcorder, at least)
- High-quality video—higher resolution and arguably a better aspect ratio
- Easy sharing—one of the ingenious features is a built-in USB plug that “flips” out at the touch of a button
- Memory size—my camera would let me record about two hours of video straight, if I wanted to
Have I missed anything important? Regardless, it’s probably more important to point out the products’ disadvantages. One significant one is that it is just a video camera. It’s not a phone, still camera, or mp3 player. And mostly for this reason, positioning the brand around the idea of impulsiveness rings false for me. Who’s carrying this device, which is a bit bigger than a pack of cigarettes (although, to its credit, seemingly just as light as a pack of cigarettes, too), waiting for the dog to say “I love you” or the kids to get in a screaming match? None of these videos demand high resolution. For low-res impulse videos, why not use your phone, which is more likely to be in your pocket at the time? (And it’s not a price question either—these things cost as much as many smartphones.) Why not use your digital still camera, which probably has video capabilities, and which you’re more likely to carry with you to an event worth documenting?
There’s a quote from Cisco that frightened me a bit because I think it highlights how out of touch their marketing team may have been in creating this campaign. It’s from Jodi Lipe, director of marketing, Cisco Consumer Business Group (CBG), who says, “We believe the effort of this campaign will help the brand become one of those devices you can’t leave your home without. If people leave home with their phone, email device and Flip, it’s a great day.” Really? That just sounds like a day with a lot of pockets. And, speaking of out of touch, I thought my phone was my email device. Does anyone know what an email device is?
The technology and interface from a Flip Video camera would be a valuable addition to a smartphone, and it sounds like plans to make this happen are already in the works. But in the meantime, why not position the brand around something differentiating? Instead of giving these cameras to laypeople and irrelevant celebrities (Tony Hawk, Stephen Colbert, etc.) why not give one to every graduate from a cutting edge film school and challenge the graduates to make short films? TV ads could be 15-second previews that drive traffic to a website where viewers watch 3-minute masterpieces. Or why not have users capture visually stunning places or events that demonstrate the value of higher-quality video?
Based on its scale alone, I’m sure this campaign will generate plenty of brand awareness for Flip Video. Maybe that was their only goal. But to me it seems like a huge opportunity wasted, in that many people may think to themselves, “Oh, that’s neat looking, but why would I spend $150 just to get a better 15-second video of my dog barking at me?”
comment
Please Leave a Reply
TrackBack URL :






Wait a minute – now you’re in support of direct comparison advertising?
I suppose the fact that these were captured on impulse kind of implies the ease of use competitive advantage, and as far as I can tell Flip’s video quality/ease of use is much better than a cell phone’s (though I’m still on a RAZR bought in 2006), so I think there’s some merit to this campaign.
As cell phones become the point of convergence for personal devices, the Flip’s days are clearly numbered. That having been said, they’re still selling a shitload of them, and probably have a few more years to do so (until relatively high-def video on cell phones is cheap enough that I have one and intuitive enough that my boss can use it).