Ringtones from Geico commercials - cool, or trying too hard?

Filed under: Freeware, Social Software, Analysis

You're probably aware of the insurance company Geico due to their ubiquitous quirky TV commercials featuring the Geico gecko. Some of their commercials are actually pretty funny, which I think is a good way to go about advertising.

Now the company has added a page to their website where you can download audio clips from their commercials as ringtones. This seems like a blatant attempt to "go viral" and have people passing around Geico's URL on Twitter and Facebook. While there's nothing wrong with the strategy, at some point making such obvious efforts to take advantage of social networking will likely backfire and garner disdain instead of positive word of mouth.

So that leads me to this question: do you think campaigns like Geico's page offering free ringtones are fun and make the company seem more hip, or do you think people feel like it's an obvious attempt to manipulate their feelings towards the company?

Personally, I'm in the latter camp, but I'm still going to install the Boss's Ringtone on my phone. It's pretty funny.

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Ringtones from Geico commercials - cool, or trying too hard? originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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