The New Ray-Ban Wayfarer Sunglasses Advert…

…and a collection of other Ray-Ban videos for marketing their sunglasses.

This video released on the 23rd March 2009 (just a few days since writing this), has already generated a lot of interest amongst the YouTube.com community, the video has already racked up almost 200,000 views and 600 ratings and well over 300 comments – comments ranging from “Awesome video”, and “Would make a great Ray-Ban commercial” to the oh so common “FAKE!”. The amateurish looking Super Chameleon ad features no direct Ray-Ban branding, the only giveaway is that the creators of this video have cleverly used their iconic Wayfarer sunglasses to advertise both their brand and the large collection of colourful RB2140 Wayfarer Sunglasses. Some of you may be wondering why Ray-Ban would make an advert yet fail to put their name to it, a mistake perhaps?  Not exactly, these internet only adverts are what is known in the industry as ‘Viral Marketing’, this technique uses pre-existing social networks to produce an increase in brand awareness through a self-replicating viral process – in other words viewers will watch the videos, leave comments, and share with other internet users (through emailing links to friends or posting links to the videos on blogs or social networking websites) because it’s a great or funny video without realising it’s actually an advertisement.  This type of marketing can be very successful if done correctly and the fact that Never Hide Films has managed to generate such an interest demonstrates the power of viral campaigns. This video is just one of the many internet only adverts created for the Ray-Ban marketing campaign, “Never Hide” which comprises of an innovative mix of media: from cinema to print, posters, outdoor, Internet, and “consumer generated viral content” in order to promote their brand and collection of Designer Sunglasses. Here are a  few of the previous Never Hide YouTube videos…