Viral Stunt of the Year?

If this isn't the viral stunt of the year, it's certainly best example of agency self-promotion. British viral agency ASABAILEY [creators of the aforementioned Sega "Scream at Puppy" spot] hijacked ogilvymather.co.uk to put up their own little message about branding.

I'm sure the O&M lawyers will be all over this one like a biscuit buttered with caviar gravy. But check it out while you can.

Full story from the ASABAILY folks after the jump.

The viral advertising agency ASABAILEY has placed a well-aimed left hook on the chin of O&M, by scooping up http://www.ogilvymather.co.uk  for £4.95.

The question is, is this underhanded, or a cheap attack from the viral team, or is O&M and other Ad Goliaths, fair game for a stunt such as this? What was the team trying to prove? If it was to make a big established ad agencies look outdated – it worked. However you look at it, it's a blow non-the less to a massive advertising establishment, that by its nature, and as the ad states, should know how to protect its brand.

As its been proven before, it can only take a couple of shareholders to spot incompetence, to call in to question a companies position. After all this one does proclaim to manage its clients brands throughout 360 degrees.

But this unfortunately does not seem to apply here. What was the digital department doing, too many Canary Warf shopping trips no doubt  - but the hard question is, does no one care enough to check these things? These questions are quite fundamental; as this really is a simple hole, that could cost the agency a great deal of credibility, and it could have been avoided for the cost of a tall Latté.

This stunt could certainly look like a simple underdogs jibe at the cost of a big company, but at its heart is the serious debate about the way the big and in this case, made to look old agencies are looking after clients’ modern brands. The lesson is simple and clear, check your own URL and protects your brand on and offline, for the cost of a couple of domain names you could save your business a whole load of trouble.

Comments

[ViralAdAgency.com]

People who live in glasshouses...

Go to ASABAILEY.COM and all you'll see is a link to VIRALADVERTISINGAGENCY.COM...

Yet they failed to snag the much more obvious VIRALADAGENCY.COM when it wasn't renewed. Oops!

[LPC24]

Just to put this one right.

Some posts have questioned the attack by the viral team as being misguided as O&M use Ogilvy as its worldwide brand, OK fine, but can any one explain this then...

http://www.ogilvymather.nl

Seems to me that those who are saying otherwise such as the misinformed netimperative.com should do a bit more research before jumping in with their comments. The legend lives on. OH MY GOD check this out www.netimperative.co.uk here we go again, well they did kinda ask for it.

LPC24

[Matt]

Anyone grab thisisgettingkindofold.co.uk yet?