Thursday, September 14, 2006

Rozerem Beaver Buzz

I am having some fun looking over the visitor stats for this blog, finding out how people are ending up here, what the most popular pages/posts are, etc.

It's incredible, but true! The most visited page on this blog is the post about the Rozerem ad:
Rozerem Ads Dis Lincoln, Show Beaver. It could be the sexual symbolism of the beaver and/or the deep sea diver (see comments below) or it could be something else.

Many people, for example, are finding that particular page through search engines and they aren't looking for sex -- they appear to be looking specifically for information about the Rozerem ad.


If you search Google for any of the following terms (listed in rank order of page views that resulted from the search referral), the "Dis Lincoln, Show Beaver" page is listed as number 1 or number 2 in the natural search results:

  • rozerem commercial
  • rozerem ad
  • rozerem beaver
  • rozerem web
  • lincoln beaver
If you use "rozerem" or "rozerem web" in a Google search, you will a link to the official Rozerem Web site within the first or second entry on the page. So the search engine optimizers did a good job as far as that goes.

The search terms listed above, however, are not leading people to the Rozerem Web site. Most of the time the Rozerem Web site is NOT even on the first page of results! That's a shame, because the ad is obviously creating a lot of "buzz" and several commenters to this blog suggested that because of this buzz the ad "did its job."

"I believe the ad is doing exactly what it was set out to do. Create awareness and have people remember. You guys sure are talking a lot about it. I say job accomplished." -- Anonymous commenter.
I imagine many ordinary citizens -- as opposed to bloggers like me -- were confused about the ad or were interested in what the ad meant and may have searched for information about the ad itself or about Lincoln and the beaver. Unfortunately, that search activity only got them as far as me and my "snarky" critical post!

If the Rozerem advertisers' goal was to create buzz, they should have thought about how to close the loop and make sure that when consumers searched for more information about the ad (rather than the drug), they would be more likely to find the Rozerem Web site, not my blog! That would have completed the "buzz circle" and helped drive traffic to the Rozerem site.

That's my advice for today. Now, back to the beaver.

What Does the Beaver Mean?
A few people agreed with me that the beaver had a sexual connotation:

I don't like the talking beaver either, but its use seems obvious to me (as a male) -- the guy dreams about "beaver," aka sex. It's exactly the politically incorrect interpretation John alludes to. And yeah, it's pretty hokey when you think about it. Too clever by half. What's next, a train?
Speaking of beaver as sexual symbolism, have a look at this:



Other people eschewed the sexual interpretation in favor of a good old Puritan work ethic spin:
The only reason I can see for the Beaver is that if you're "busy as a beaver" you may be sleep deprived and/or have insomnia. I know that when I'm working my tail off (no pun intended), my brain is constantly working and I have trouble sleeping. Regardless, after looking at the website....I am unimpressed. I am not sure whether or not it is informative, because it could not keep my attention long enough for me find out.
Of course, we may all be analyzing this too much and finding deep meaning where there is none according to the following comment:
'I dreamt I was jumping rope with Abe Lincoln and a beaver' - no deeper meaning than a highly compelling evocation of how utterly ridiculous most of our dreams are.
One wonders what future Rozerem ads might be like.
I would hazard a guess that a few months after the Abe/beaver/diver commercials and ads are in the public's awareness, the commercials will start making more "sense."

8 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:31 AM

    It looks like Takeda dropped the ball on the so-called 'last click' problem -- getting a motivated searcher to find and navigate to the desired destination.

    Like John, I too find a lot of "lost" Rozerem searchers in my archive of the brand's online ads:

    http://adverlicio.us/rozerem

    I didn't intend for this to happen, but Google seems to like my inbound links, keywords, page title, URL, etc. Net, I get a lot of their traffic (whether I want it or not).

    Takeda would have been better served by supplementing the campaign with paid search marketing touting that they are the "official" Rozerem website. By investing in a broad set of keywords, they'd capture most of the traffic that John is describing.

    A quick look at Google suggests they've completely overlooked this tactic. Very unfortunate!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Are they selling any Rozerem?

    The silence is deafening!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous2:20 AM

    I think you are all missing something. Maybe there is no imagery. Maybe the ad is just supposed to be funny. Really damn funny. Beaver. Its a funny word. Its making a funny face. Its holding a jump rope and standing on a ladder. Its really really freakin funny. I tore it out of the magazine and put it in my wallet for when I feel like laughing. In fact, I'm laughing right now.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Whatever turns you on!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous7:26 PM

    I can't believe the analysis of the add. Why look into it so friggin deep for meaning. Why a beaver...? OOOO... sounds like a bunch of psuedo intellectuals with nothing better to do. The whole point of the damned commenrcial is that it is absurd. We see a guy in a robe having a conversation with Lincoln and a Beaver with a guy in a diving suit in the background working in the kitchen. This is absurd - why can't we just accept it as absurd. It seems like the type of thing you'd only see in a dream.. oh.. wait.. that is the point! I searched for the Beaver to find out who voiced it... not because I was wondering about whether or not he was placed there to symbolize sex. Get a life...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous9:40 PM

    The beaver saws logs, abe lincoln as in lincoln logs, and the diver sleeps with the fishes. That is my take on it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous5:14 AM

    Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America’s Rozerem sleep aid, which used offbeat ad characters such as Lezley Jerrome and a beaver, cut spending from $91million in the first half of 2007 to $15million in the first half this year.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous10:51 PM

    maybe it's about Lincoln's "beard" and
    a "beaver"
    and a "diver"...put it together --what do mean dream of...
    For the woman...a unicorn....again, both can be sexual

    ReplyDelete

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