Teaser & Buzz Marketing Campaigns

Toronto was recently littered with teaser ad posters for a marketing campaign promising a new drug which helps parents curb the life ambitions of their kids, and limit free thinking and being individual. Other posters read: "My son used to have his own hopes and aspirations. Now he has mine. Thanks, Obay!"

"When Amy started thinking for herself, we had to nip it in the bud with Obay".The campaign was part of the marketing strategy by University of Western Ontario. Teaser ads tend to work because they make us stop and think and work out the meaning behind the campaign, which gives us a sense of accomplishment.

When the product is eventually revealed consumers pay attention.Last summer, a teaser trailer for an untitled movie in which Manhattan was attacked by an unseen force drew widespread international speculation, ultimately building such a powerful buzz that the film - later revealed to be Cloverfield - opened in January 2008 to record-breaking box office numbers.But the marketing gambit doesn't guarantee success.

But the marketing gambit doesn't guarantee success. In 2007, a video of a bride cutting off her hair in a pre-wedding fit drew 12 million views on YouTube. When SunSilk, the product behind the campaign, revealed its involvement two weeks after the Canadian clip was uploaded the buzz abruptly stopped.

Consumers stop caring pretty quickly once the mystery is revealed. And hence planning the mechanics of teaser / buzz campaigns is a real fine art to get right.Though a wide array of organisations such as Scientologists and anti-pharmaceutical lobbyists have been widely named as suspects in the Obay whodunit, despite being clustered in eastern Canada, The Colleges of Western Ontario have gained national / international attention online.