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Brand Is King
And Buddy Is the Prince
by Jessica Repa

In the retail industry, brand is king. Well-respected brands are more able to inspire consumers to buy products. Brands rule the retail fiefdom. If your brand fails, your integrity is at risk and recognition and approval may go down the "tubes", especially if it’s a TV spot. So what happens to a corporation’s integrity if a brand campaign fails online? Do approval ratings go down the … Internet pipeline? Here I will explore the Buddy Lee "Villain" ad campaign web site spoof.

Enter Buddy Lee, the proposed champion of the Lee Dungarees brand. You’ve seen the ads of the little toy doll jumping out of airplanes, surviving a tornado and driving a car -- all in the name of proving just how truly rugged and strong the Lee line of jeans can be. Now enter his competition: Curry, Rod and DJ Super Greg.

A Lasting Impression
What do Curry (a racecar driver with rock-star hair), Rod (a poorly behaved object smashing brute) and DJ Super Greg (a tacky record spinner a.k.a. Sir Mix-A-Lousy) have to do with Lee Dungarees? Absolutely nothing. Why, then, was this spoof of a campaign involving Buddy Lee, our hero, against these three annoying villains, so successful?

It was memorable.

Lee’s ad agency built spoof web sites for the villains. Check them out at http://www.rubberburner.com, http://www.borntodestroy.com and http://www.supergreg.com. People thought the sites were real home pages when they stumbled upon them either by mistake or through a forwarded link. I remember the day I first saw Curry, one of the villains that ad firm Fallon McElligott dreamed up in an effort to start a "cult" following for the Lee brand. When I visited rubberburner.com, the first thing I thought was "Is this guy for real?" A friend forwarded me the link - which in turn had been forwarded to her. I checked it out and saw a Fabio wannabe with terrible split ends, bad teeth, and in desperate need of a new personality. Something about him made me cringe, but I forwarded the link to several friends anyway. Only recently did I realize that he was part of a massive ad campaign Lee was running in an effort to bump up Buddy Lee to "hero" status.

Through the creative use of viral marketing, Lee gained more exposure than they ever could have dreamed through the villains’ web sites. But was it successful? And did it actually synchronize with their brand image? Yes, in a roundabout way. Buddy Lee, as a concept of the hero, gained clout and recognition through the Curry/Rod/DJ Super Greg spoof.

Successful Branding From Alternative Fronts
If you track the success rate based on how many people bought Lee Dungarees as a result of being exposed to Curry and the gang, I presume the success would be minimal. At first glance, these characters have nothing to do with the Lee Dungarees brand. After closer analysis though, the villains help reinforce Lee’s brand image - of a strong hero symbol personified by Buddy Lee. And if you track impressions, it could be considered one of the most successful campaigns of the year.

The Villain campaign succeeded because it left behind a lasting impression, took advantage of viral marketing’s wildfire reach, targeted its audience more quickly than sending to a direct marketing list since it inherently incorporated forward-to-a-friend techniques, and had a very low total cost of ownership. Inspiring your audience to send a link to a friend is free! The web sites were so tacky that visitors felt compelled to pass it along as the "Best of the Worst" sites to see.

Flaws in the Fiefdom
Although the campaign reinforced the brand, it may have also wreaked havoc on the brand. The Lee spoof was flawed because the original intent was lost. I didn’t know where the characters originated. I felt disconnected from the source. There were no direct links on the spoof web sites to BuddyLee.com. Perhaps this was in an effort to enable the spoof sites to come across as genuine though. The campaign doesn’t inspire me to buy Lee, but I’m outside of the age bracket of their target audience. In addition, the credibility of the company may be at risk after running the hoax and after using less-than-professional actors as villains. In addition, for a line partially targeted at young women, some of the aspects of the campaign may be misinterpreted, specifically the machismo persona of Curry. I initially thought Curry was "for real". In fact, I would be willing to bet that if Lee’s target audience (unisex teens ages 17 - 22) were surveyed with the following questions about Curry’s site, rubberburner.com, they would all answer the same:

Would you hang out with Curry? No.
Did you forward the link to a friend? Yes.
Would you buy Lee Dungarees after visiting rubberburner.com? Huh? <perplexed look>
What ad campaign is he from? I don’t know.

The million-dollar question is this: Did Lee sell more jeans as a result of the spoof? Still waiting for the jury on that one.

You’ve Got A Friend
Fallon explores brand as personality by bestowing a genuine and witty hero, Buddy Lee. Buddy symbolizes strength and resiliency and beats the competition. After seeing the ads, the audience views Buddy as a "friend". So through exposure to Curry, Rod and DJ Super Greg, the villainous characters, the world comes to love the charming little lad, Buddy Lee. He’s the hero in this series because he outwits the villains. The villains think they have outer strength, mystique and charisma. In reality, these characters are duds. Witty? Nope, they’re 100% certifiable dimwits. Lee deployed a strategy that relied on the emotional "disconnect" between its audience and the villains. The audience hates the villainous characters so much that they like Buddy Lee even more for his charm. Hmmm… if I wear Lee Dungarees, perhaps I too can be a humble hero like Buddy. Yes indeed, brand is king.