Videos Starring Amanda Congdon Aim to Perk Up DuPont's Image

Venerable DuPont is experimenting with an ultra-modern form of marketing: Weblog videos it hopes will give it a young-at-heart image while chatting up the virtues of several of its products. Featuring perky video blogger Amanda Congdon, the 205-year-old company’s five videos are sprinkled with humor and some vintage movie footage. DuPont is promoting and distributing the video content with a media buy focused on blogs.

So far, DuPont is happy with the results it’s seeing from the venture, said Gary Spangler, e-business and project leader for DuPont Electronic and Communication Technologies. He said blog readers who decide to check out the DuPont videos tend to watch all of them and are spending an average of 10 minutes doing so.

“We’re hearing that the format and style are different, they’re easy to listen to and watch and that people are actually learning things from the videos,” Spangler told ClickZ.

He said DuPont is testing the campaign on a variety of general and targeted-interest audiences. The general interest blogs are Boing Boing, Digg, SEED Science Blogs, Science Blog and Kircher Society. The targeted blogs — for automotive and buildings — are Boompa, Left Lane News and Building Blog.

“The videos were made for online audiences looking for different and interesting stories told through video,” said DuPont in a release. “Each video showcases how DuPont science helps to protect people and how innovations developed by DuPont enhance people’s lives.”

Spangler said DuPont is happy with its choice of Congdon, arguably the world’s first video blogger, known for her work on news and entertainment video blog Rocketboom. Congdon now works with ABCNews.com and other ventures.

“We were looking for a hostess or host that would be interesting to the viewers,” said Spangler. “I was familiar with Rocketboom and knew Amanda has … online viewership and is already skilled in video blogging. Her experience and acceptance by a large audience around her delivery and appeal led us to think she was a clear choice for delivering these messages.”

Spangler said the videos enable DuPont to discuss science in a way “that’s entertaining and fun.” The company said it launched the five entries “in a pilot marketing program designed to increase DuPont’s presence on the Internet and introduce DuPont science to a younger generation.”

DuPont is measuring the success of that effort in a number of ways, using online and offline analytics to gather as much data as possible.

“We’re going to be measuring the impact,” said Spangler. “Does this deliver of DuPont science resonate with the audience? Is this the way they would like to receive information? Did we pick the right blogs? Is it the right channel strategy? Should we broaden it to other channels with video?”

One good sign for DuPont is the fact that the videos are already being shared across the Web. “They’re being copied,” said Spangler. “People who are reading the blogs, if they like the videos, they’re copying them onto their own blogs or sending them to others telling them, `I saw this over here and I thought you might like to see it.'”

While Spangler said DuPont was “hoping” such sharing would occur, he stressed, “This wasn’t supposed to be a viral marketing program like one of those `look how cute this is’ type of thing. We really are just telling the story behind DuPont science in an interesting way… They were made around the story, the delivery, presentation and, to some degree, Amanda.”