Hump Day

I have been waiting for a good time to write this blog...

and today is the day!

Yes, everyone - today is hump day! I had the idea to write this blog LONG ago, but then in my media class a few weeks ago we talked about advertising, and I knew that it was time.

In 2013, Geico aired their first "Hump Day" commercial. Some have referred to this as a stroke of "social video genius" (Jarboe, 2013) while others have referred to it as "disruptive" (Wenzel and Lucey, 2013). I can see both sides of the coin, but there is not arguing the fact this this commercial really captures the feeling that we all get on Wednesday. Please, bask in the awesomeness of these commercials (see below).

Alright, alright! Distracting. But you feel better don't you? I have more desire to get through my day, and the rest of the week, now. Granted, it doesn't need to be said everyday, but on Wednesdays, yeah, I will gladly jump on that bandwagon.

Now, to get away from my personal opinion, I want to look at some of the statistics that were done after the ad was released. Do you think this commercial helped or worked against Geico?

Figure 1. Two weeks after the first ad aired, numbers were pulled. This figure is in regards to peaks in shares since the ad launched. David Waterhouse, Unruly's Head of Content and PR, provided Geico with the stats tot the left. Waterhouse said this: "We pulled the data today, and to be honest, it's better than I though, with 67.3 percent of the 1.64 million shares it has attracted so far occurring on Wednesdays." How crazy is that?! A simple change in marketing and advertising strategies upped Geico's shares sold each week.

Figure 2. Waterhouse also shared the graph to the left with Geico. Each of the humps (or upward spikes) on the graph, are Wednesdays. Isn't that awesome?! The first thing that came to Waterhouse's mind when asked if this had ever happened before was Rebecca Black's "annoyingly-catchy music video 'Friday,'" (Jarboe, 2013). Research in Google trends show that the web search interest in the keyword Wednesday peaks on Wednesday. That same pattern applies to Friday or any other day of the week. This truly was a stroke of genius.

The numbers and statistics may not interest you, but they do prove a point. Advertising makes all the difference - especially in HOW it is done and WHEN it is done. Some companies just wait around to "make it big" during the Superbowl (you know how famous those commercials and ads are!). But this can give brands hope, I think. I agree with Jarboe (2013) when he said that this ad was a stroke of genius. Online video shares increased, shares sold increased, and more customers were buying during the week (Wednesday). Coincidence? I think not. Genius is what this is. Take a look at the ad below if you don't believe me yet.