Everything I never knew I wanted!

I was on tumblr when I first saw the ad for Phonebloks. I rarely click on videos while scrolling around my dashboard but the comment underneath it caught my attention; it went something like this: “...the new iPhones look interesting. But this is an excellent idea for the future of cellphones.” And so I clicked. Within 30 seconds, I wanted one. After the 2 minutes 46 seconds, I wanted everyone to want one. Something in the simple explanation of how the device would work, the idealist opened platform and the possibility of customizing the phone to one’s liking created a need in me that I didn’t know I had. My iPhone seemed irrelevant. I was already hooked and moments later I was using all my social media reach to bring them more attention; their marketing objective to increase awareness of the idea worked on me without me even realizing it. And I wasn’t the only one. In less than 24 hours – 6 days before its official launch – the Phonebloks’ YouTube advertisement went viral! Both Reddit and tumblr loved the idea so much, it crashed Phonebloks’ website. In less than a day, they had reached 200 times their initial goal for 500 supporters on Thunderclap. 

The way ad is designed as a great impact on the ‘why’ of such a success. Even though the ad appears to be talking to a mass market, showing you examples of all the different people who could benefit from the different bloks customization options, they are really focusing on two main target markets;  social media users and ecologically-friendly people. The ad focuses really on two main aspects which reach those target markets perfectly. They start by show you how wasteful current phones and how to help eliminate that specific problem by simply giving the project a voice using three of the biggest social media websites; Facebook, Twitter and tumblr. Since I am both a bit of a hippy and a social media fiend, I guess I never stood  a chance!