Branded Utility

I really don't use a lot of branded utilities. I do own an Xbox 360 but it doesn't go online so I don't really see a lot of the advertisements. There are a lot of them on there though, I remember that. I especially remember the branded video games. There was one for the Yaris, and I know there was one for Doritos recently as well. They were free games so automatically people would download them. I mean why not? Even if it was terrible they at least don't cost you anything. The games were always subpar, if not flat out terrible, and were just a giant advertisement for the product. But it got everyone to pay attention. I'm not even positive that counts as brand utility, but it's still some clever advertising that needed to be mentioned.

I use to have a couple widgets but I found them, at least the ones I had, to be more obnoxious than anything. They always seemed to be drawing attention to themselves. They would shake or make a noise and it would get so irritating that I just had to delete them. I think something like a widget should blend into the background. 

I do think it's a great idea for advertisers to use something like a widget. Take those countdown widgets for example. Nothing gets me (or any human for that matter), more excited about an upcoming product/release than a countdown. I think that is a fantastic way for advertisers to get people excited about a product. The key is to make it subtle, not loud and irritating.

The thing with branded utilities is that it's tricky to do it well. The ones that are a success are much rarer than the ones that really don't get any attention. It seems every company now has a viral video and I think viewers are now just immune to it. These videos are just so standard now that they've become almost boring. It used to be exciting and cool if a company had some sort of online viral video. Now there are hundreds (maybe even thousands of them) and the most intense reaction I can muster up for them is "meh". I would say maybe 10% of these videos are actually engaging, the rest just exist because companies feel they need to make one. Don't do it unless you're going to do it right!

The best way to go about it is to give the customer an incentive to use your utility. It shouldn't just be some video that tricks them into thinking they're involved. It should be something that draws the viewer in and lets them play a part in everything. It's like those online webisodes (god I hate that word) that I believe Dove is doing where viewers actually choose the outcome of the story, sort of like those old Choose Your Own Adventure books. Something like this is a great idea because it actually is interactive. I'm not sure if this is branded utility either though. Wow, I'm bad at this.

There really aren't any companies that couldn't do some sort of branded utility. Some of them might be a stretch, but I can't think of a single company where it would be impossible for them to do it. 

I think the same thing is going to happen to these online utilities that will happen to 3D movies. At first they're exciting and rare and worth talking about. But then there's going to be way too many and everyone is going to be doing it, and people are going to get burnt out by them. Eventually nobody is going to give a damn about these things and advertisers are going to have to latch on to something new.

I do think that the idea of branded utilities has a long life ahead of it before people get to the above stage. There are a lot of great ideas still waiting to be used, and as long as companies can come up with innovative ways to use these utilities, then people will continue to use them.