Smart Viral Marketing: The MSI X-Slim Notebook is So Slim it Can Fit in Your Butt Crack

Today, I read about a fascinating marketing campaign on Mashable, which is a blog reporting on Web 2.0 and social media and offers breaking news, resources and reviews of web sites and web services.

Ben Parr of Mashable reported on a viral effort from computer manufacturer MSI. MSI is promoting a series of notebooks called the X-Slim. The biggest selling point of the laptop is it's slim size: 3 pounds and less than an inch thick, similar to Apple's ultra-thin and ultra-portable MacBook Air.

To enter the highly competitive market, MSI wisely chose the X-Slim's most differentiated feature, its thickness, to focus its campaign on. And the creative concept will undoubtedly work to stick in consumers' minds.

While Apple compared the MacBook Air's thickness to an intra-office envelope, MSI is comparing the X-Slim's thickness to your butt crack. (You could say it's "so slim it can fit in a butt crack.")

MSI is positioning the X-Slim against the MacBook Air as the ultra-thin laptop that everybody can relate to...especially cost-conscious prospective customers. One commenter on Mashable's blog post, catchmikey, says it best: "Slim enough for any tight-ass."

Of course, the "free prize inside" is that the X-Slim is indeed a heckuva lot cheaper than a MacBook Air.



Smart campaign! And popular, too: the video view count on YouTube alone is quickly approaching a million views after just 4 days.