SeaWorld tries viral online marketing, with JealousPenguin.com

From Robert Niles on June 5, 2006 at 11:11 AM
The lesson I took from this was... if you want to suceed at viral online marketing, turn your employees loose with video cameras. Don't blow a was of cash hiring whatever ad firm Busch used.

I sent those "Jaws" links to bunch of people, but I wouldn't bother passing JealousPenguin along to anyone. Maybe I missed the good ones, but I thought the jokes just weren't that funny. And the promotion doesn't exude the love and enthusiasm for the attraction that the Jaws video did. (Plus the site's up and down and the Flash app choked by browser whenever I tried to vote on a joke.)

Busch long ago proved itself a master of unconventional marketing techniques (though for its beer brands, instead of the theme parks). But this one... just isn't very fresh. Burger King's battling chickens were more fun, and how long ago was that now?

From Jason Goldsmith on June 5, 2006 at 11:37 AM
That is true. The jokes could be funnier and it doesn't have the uniqueness as this "Jaws Musical" does. I just thought the concept was good, but the execution of it could have been better.

From Bruce Lane on June 5, 2006 at 10:44 PM
(After visiting the site...)

OK... I'll admit the line about "Shamu" really being a penguin with a thyroid problem was pretty good.

Outside of that... I wonder if any of the big pharmaceutical firms would be willing to come up with a vaccine for this particular type of "viral" plague?

Sorry, Sea World. You're trying too hard.