Can’t wait to read the New York Times Book Review.
Sharethrough congratulates Mother, NY for winning this year’s Social Media Influencer Award. Our own Dave Ford had the honor of awarding the prize for the music video to Method Man’s hit “World Gone Sour (The Lost Kids).” The video is a flawless example of brand integration and truly deserving of this year’s award. Cheers to the folks at Mother, NY.
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January is regularly stocked with great video ads because of the Super Bowl. This year took Super Bowl advertising to the next level with a huge variety of trailers, extended cuts and other creative content released along with the spots. Since we’ve covered the Super Bowl in great depth of late, we thought we’d do a round-up of non-Super Bowl social video highlights from January.
One of the most successful branded social videos of the entire month actually hit the web just one day before the month was over. It’s a piece of viral marketing for the film Chronicle, and it features some clever contraptions used to trick New Yorkers into thinking real humans were flying in the skies above. The UFO-sighting quality of the stunt propelled the clip to nearly 7 million views in less than a week, and hundreds of thousands of social media shares:
Only one day earlier, HBO launched the latest trailer for their highly-anticipated 2nd season of Game of Thrones. And it’s already sitting near 5 million views, with press mentions on more prominent websites and blogs than you can shake a stick at:
Disgraced former pitchman, Vince Offer, is apparently no longer disgraced by his prior arrest. Instead, he’s started a YouTube Channel… and apparently a pitchman business as well. His first product, which appears to be a real product (despite many notes in the ad that suggest it could be a parody), is something called the Schticky (Update: the copyright police have come a callin’ to Vince, so we are gonna post the Auto-tune remix)
ok fine, we’ll throw in something from the Super Bowl. This video gets the all-time award for gratuitous brilliance, enjoy 5 hours of Adriana Lima in 1080p courtesy of KIA:
Improv Everywhere–the kings of video social experimentation–did their annual no-pants subway ride. And judging by the 12 million views, it’s more popular than ever:
Epix recently announced a two-day marathon of William Shatner programming, which they have dubbed ’Shatnerpalooza.’ To help celebrate, they’ve created a collaboritive online video experience that we’ll call UGS (User Generated Screaming).
Epix is asking fans to upload video of themselves recreating Shatner’s iconic “Khan!” scream from the end of Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan. If you’re unfamiliar with the movie, or can’t remember the scream, here it is:
They have set up a standalone site for this promotion, at TheLongKhan.com, where users simply upload their own scream, and it gets added to the stream. The video player at the center of the page just keeps cycling through the user-submitted screams, resulting in a “Khan” scream that never really ends. (Also, every time I refresh the page, the user-generated clips come at me in a different order, so there’s some kind of randomizer at work as well).
It’s a lot funnier than it probably should be. But it’s also fantastic social video. Users are way beyond just viewers, actively creating video and participating in the project. And anyone who uploads a video is surely alerting their social media contacts to come check it out, driving more awareness for Shatnerpalooza.
Unfortunately, they don’t have an embed available, but I did grab a screenshot:
You can view The Long Khan video here.
When we talk about how social video can increase a brand’s engagement with consumers and help drive long-term sales, we most often talk about larger brands. Largely, because they have the resources to experiment with new forms of content and set the tone for new marketing directions. Marketing innovation is in no way confined to the Fortune 2000 though, particularly when it comes to social video advertising.
Which brings us to G-Form.
G-Form makes a protective padding that they put in everything from elbow pads to laptop bags. But the company is small–only a dozen employees–and like any company of their ilk, needs to be extremely scrappy and creative with their marketing efforts to make a big splash.
So they turned to YouTube. Taking a cue from Blendtec, their videos are simple-but-powerful demonstrations of how well the product works, and the clips even star the company CEO, Tom Cafaro.
Here’s their most-viewed YouTube clip, which is a couple months old and features a laptop being dropped from an ultralight:
Just a week ago, they released this clip, showing how a laptop survives a 20-foot drop from a balcony:
That video grabbed about 90,000 views in a hurry, but G-Form had already moved on to the next one–a video released this week sees a bowling ball dropped onto an iPad:
That latest video already has over 100,000 views.
Before finding their groove with these product-demonstration videos, they even filmed a testimonial video with mountain-biker Jojo Petterson:
G-Form is a shining example of how a young company can use social video to reach a big audience in a fun, impactful way.
If I were handing out an award for consistently great social video campaigns, it would almost certainly go to T-Mobile. Way back in 2009, they racked up 29 million views with their “T-Mobile Dance” flash mob video:
In one of my all-time favorite flash mob videos, from last Fall, the mobile company orchestrated a musical welcome for weary air travelers in the UK:
Then, this past April they had another video go mega-viral, with their hilarious dancing send-up of the Royal Wedding:
And now they’re latest masterpiece, launched late last week. It involves a real-life Angry Birds game that is controlled by a smart phone kiosk. Let’s just say the realism was enough to draw quite a crowd:
It’s easy to see why this drew such a crowd—both at the actual live event and on YouTube. It’s cute and fun. It’s brand new—most of us have never seen anything like this. And it prominently features a pop-culture phenomenon. All these ingredients come together to make a very entertaining video experience for the viewer. And entertained viewers are far more likely to spread the word and lead to video sharing.
The Alamo Drafthouse is a chain of movie theaters located mostly in the Southwest U.S. It’s not an ordinary movie theater: they serve beer, and they have a very strict no-phones policy (customers aren’t even permitted to text or light up their cell phone screen for any reason).
Their unique way of doing business buys an awful lot of goodwill with their customers, except for the ones that get thrown out for texting during a movie.
A recent woman was so upset at having been kicked out that she left a nasty voicemail. And like any savvy small business in the time of online video, the chain decided to turn her voicemail into a social video campaign, uploading her rant (and the text translation) to their YouTube channel. Oh, and this video now runs before every feature at every Alamo Drafthouse theater as well:
I’m not sure I’ve seen a better demonstration of how little cost and effort are required to make a branded video that goes viral. Alamo Drafthouse paid nothing to make this… nothing. They simply grabbed an audio file and created title cards that transcribe the audio. Then they uploaded it to their free YouTube account. That’s it.
1.7 million views later, I’m guessing they’re pretty happy with the free publicity they got out of the whole ordeal. Thanks to the power of social video, a whole lot of people now know who The Alamo Drafthouse is—and more importantly, what they stand for. Which should earn them a ton of new fans, and maybe even a few new customers as well.
Nike is no stranger to brand video success. In some ways, their original Jordan commercials back in the day were that era’s version of social video—everyone was talking about them, even without the aid of email or social media. In the modern era, the brand has had numerous online video successes.
In February of this year, Nike had a viral hit with their Human Chain video, which used some pretty cool editing techniques to create a unique visual look at how athletes push themselves:
Last week they scored again, with a clip called Nike Chosen: Just Do It. The video features a group of talented extreme athletes (a surfer, a skaeboarder, a snowboarder, a bmx rider, etc.) doing their thing… only at night. It’s definitely engaging—even more so if you happen to be an extreme sports fan. Check it out:
Of course, not all of Nike’s social video successes have been located on the company’s YouTube channel. In fact, the biggest Nike viral hit is probably the hoax video they made with Kobe Bryant:
As far as apparel brands are concerned, Nike is leading the charge in embracing social video with varying clips that entertain and amaze the viewer (long before they try and “sell” them anything), while also driving sharing of great content.
In order to engage viewers with social video, a brand has to reach them on an emotional level, causing a reaction that spurs sharing. One proven way to do this is the use of cutting edge technology.
McDonald’s is just the latest brand to build a viral video campaign around emerging technologies, but they did it as well as anyone can.
In Sweden, the company set up a digital billboard with some interactive capabilities. Using “new technology,” citizens in the town square below were able to use their mobile devices to interact with the billboard, controlling paddles on a Pong-style video game—all without the need to download an app or any kind of software.
Winners got a code sent to their phone, which then translated into a free item at a nearby McDonald’s. Of course, the citizens in the square weren’t the real targets of this marketing effort… we who watched the video online are. Check it out:
Now, I have no idea how they were able to let people connect to the game without needing an app—that’s kind of mind-blowing. Which is precisely why I forwarded the video to many of my friends.
With branded social video, the idea is to get people talking, because conversation breeds sharing. The use of brand new gadgets or gizmos is just one way to spur that conversation. Thankfully for brands, there are thousands of others.
Any kind of video can be a part of a social video advertising campaign, but some varieties are proving to be more reliably successful than others. A key lesson brands are learning is that traditional video ads–like television commercials–are not as effective in encouraging sharing behavior that drives viral success.
As a result, we’re seeing a push toward more original content, including web series and long-form videos. Advertisers are learning that to truly end up with a social video campaign, viewers need to be entertained instead of overtly pitched.
One brand that’s having a great deal of success in generating buzz around their original video content is Captain Morgan. One of their recent campaigns generated over 600,000 views. And it worked–at least in large part–because the content was less like a traditional TV commercial and more like a short original comedy clip. It’s a “workout video,” from the unlikely fitness master… the Captain himself:
Just last week, the brand launched another original video, showing how Captain Morgan handles a confrontation at sea:
For a branded video to really catch fire, it’s got to have the elements that drive social video: engagement, entertainment, and share-ability.
One of the most acclaimed and popular video game series in the action genre is Call of Duty. They’ve won raves from critics and fans for superb graphics, huge scale, and superior game play. And for their latest addition to the series, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, they’re leveraging social video.
Instead of a typical, 30-second television ad, they’ve released a long-form trailer that looks and feels like a Hollywood movie:
The game was already highly-anticipated, but the new footage sent fans into hysteria, racking up nearly 8 million views in just the first four days of being online. It’s just flat-out impossible for that to happen without massive social behavior going on as well, and the trailer has seen lots of play on Twitter feeds and Facebook walls. The Facebook page for the new game–not for the entire series, but just this one upcoming game title–has over 700,000 fans!
Part of the launch strategy for this trailer was the release of a series of teaser videos the week before–one for each of the major countries that serve as settings in the game. Here’s the teaser for America, which grabbed over 4 million views despite showing no actual game footage whatsoever:
Social video campaigns have to find the right audience, at the right time, with the right kind of content. It requires an understanding of the audience, as well as the insight into what kinds of things motivate them to share. It’s far from easy, but the Call of Duty team clearly has it figured out.
Hollywood flexed its social video muscles again this week when Kung Fu Panda 2 released an interactive YouTube video. In the piece, which you can see here, audience members are encouraged to drag the fake video thumbnails over the video player itself. When they do so, the film’s star, Po (voiced by Jack Black) does his signature move.
When you’re through playing around with Po, you’re treated to a trailer for the upcoming sequel. Hmmm… what’s that down on the left side of the video player? Oh, it’s social sharing options for Facebook & Twitter:
But more and more brands are starting to notice the success Hollywood is having with social and interactive video… the move away from traditional advertising videos to original content creation and truly engaging video ads is making its way through the various industries and verticals like baseball fans doing “the wave.”
Take, for instance, the new Chrome experiment, ROME. It’s a collaborative effort from composer Daniele Luppi, producer Danger Mouse, and Google. If you have Chrome installed, fire it up and head over to the ROME page. When you do, you’re in for a memorable, creative, and immersing kind of experience.
It’s part movie, part music video, and part art project. And it’s all controllable by the viewer–you can use the mouse to change the view and “look around” in the world they have created. When you’re done with that, the really cool stuff starts if you click “add to the dream,” which gives you a blank sky or ground scene and some tools to build your own dream world–it’s like Minecraft… or the Sims… only a much lighter version.Viewers can then browse other people’s dream scene contributions–and those are interactive too, allowing you to control the angles and viewpoints.
But it makes for an incredible experience that is as fun as it is memorable–one of the most important keys for promoting share behavior is to create a social video project that stays with people long after they’ve seen it. “Static” videos, or one-sided video ads, are a dying breed. The future of video marketing is in engaging content that is interactive, allowing the user to have some measure of control over the experience. Hollywood may have led the charge in this area, but other brands are beginning to catch up.
Hollywood is clearly leading the charge in social video, with new creative tactics showing up all the time. And there’s a good reason for it: social video works. Social video ties video marketing directly to social media and social behaviors, and lends itself more readily to viral attention than standard marketing techniques. Traiditional brand advertisers would do well to learn from Hollywood’s lead. And now they have another object lesson from the film industry.
J.J. Abrams’ upcoming summer film, Super 8, has already done enough with social video to warrant mention in the online video hall of fame. But apparently it’s only the tip of the iceberg, as another ingenious viral campaign has just kicked off.
Wired magazine wrote today about a very cool package they mysteriously received in the mail. Inside was an old Kodachrome 40 box, with a reel of film and a thumb drive inside. The thumb drive contained a black and white video that you can watch here (or just click the image below).
There was also a code and an email address in the package:
From what Wired has been able to piece together, this is one of several unique clips the film’s producers have mailed to various media outlets–including /Film. The code appears to unlock extra footage in the Super 8 Editing Room(a viral micro-site).
Super 8 has had a mysterious plot from its inception until now, so the marketing tactic is playing on that element and spiking fan interest in the plot and the film itself. From this new wave of video teases alone, the film has received media attention from Entertainment Weekly, io9, ComingSoon.net, and more.
A campaign like this works because of the speculation element. The trailer hints at a government cover-up, so the cloak and dagger approach is a perfect match for the film’s tone, and it’s gotten fans on Facebook & Twitter guessing at what the film might be about. Even if you’re not a fan of Abrams’ films, you have to admire his knack for building mystery.
The lead time on movie marketing is getting longer every year. For instance, in 2010, we saw a trailer for Super 8, which doesn’t come out until this summer. Those studios that choose to leverage viral video for promotional purposes are starting earlier too.
Like next summer’s expected tent-pole film, The Avengers, which will bring together multiple Marvel Comics heroes in one film (Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America, etc.). For a little perspective on how early The Avengers has started their viral marketing pitch, consider that they only started filming last week. But that’s not stopping the studio from revving up the social media engine with some clever buzz-building.
Specifically, they sent cards last month to a number of media members that cover the film industry. The cards purport to be a message from Nick Fury (the character played by Samuel L. Jackson in both Iron Man movies, who brings the Avengers together) and state that the recipient has been chosen. There was also a prompt to turn on the television to channel 72, where this message was then displayed (video shot and uploaded by a fan, which is always a good sign that a viral campaign is going well):
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0JuRbzu998
While that video consists mostly of footage from the May 2011 release, Thor, the messaging is all about S.H.I.E.L.D., the fictional government agency that manages The Avengers. There’s even a prompt in the clip for viewers to go to JoinShield.com, which looks like this:
Fans can then basically apply to S.H.I.E.L.D. as a new recruit, connect to the agency through Facebook, or simply enter the rest of the site as a visitor to browse the contents.
I guess if you want to get technical about it, Marvel has been putting out viral marketing material around The Avengers since the first Iron Man film, which featured the Nick Fury cameo during the end credits. And each successive Marvel superhero film has made S.H.I.E.L.D. a more and more prominent player in the story. And it’s all leading up to next summer’s anticipated The Avengers release. Time will tell how well this social media and viral video effort will pay off, but it’s clearly getting the fanboys excited, which is half the battle.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy did huge business at the box office, won a bunch of awards, and delighted fans of the books with its faithful interpretation. So you can imagine how excited fans were when director Peter Jackson took the reins again for the upcoming adaptation of The Hobbit.
Jackson brings experience, talent, and a great deal of marketing savvy to the project. During the original trilogy, he basically pioneered and perfected the concept of a video production diary, giving fans glimpses behind the scenes throughout the many years of filming.
Something Jackson couldn’t do during the making of the LOTR trilogy is take advantage of Facebook (mostly because it wasn’t invented yet). But for The Hobbit, he’s combining his proven strategy of releasing behind-the-scenes diary videos with the social networking power of Facebook, making it easier for his fans to share the content with their friends. His first diary video for The Hobbit, which only recently began production, is available only on Facebook video. You can see it here. Unfortunately, we can’t embed the video, but we can show you a version that made its way onto YouTube (and picked up another 300,000 or so views in the process):
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2m2x8qJcGQ
The only trouble with using Facebook as the video host is that the public can’t see the view count, so there’s no way to know exactly how many people have seen this diary video. However, we can infer from the 29,000 that “liked” it and the 5,280 that commented on it that it’s been viewed by a huge number of people. Don’t forget that every comment and “like” appears on each user’s wall, exponentially increasing the reach of the campaign.
It may be a simple strategy, but it’s very smart, and proven to be an effective way to build anticipation for a film.
Brands are quickly learning that interactive online video is more engaging for the audience than traditional video ads. As a result many advertisers have begun experimenting with video environments that allow users to click, type, or otherwise impact the experience.
But one upcoming summer blockbuster took things to the next level. The film in question is Super 8, from Lost creator J.J. Abrams. The story involves a group of kids in 1979 who encounter a strange phenomenon while making their own movie with a super 8 camera.
Here’s the original trailer, which has racked up 3 million views so far, in part helped by the social behavior of viewers through networks like Twitter and Facebook:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpzUCA5i6zY
The second trailer, released a couple months ago, is even better, and calls to mind many of the 1980′s sci-fi films of Super 8′s producer, Steven Spielberg:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCRQQCKS7go
Now that you know a bit about the film’s social video history, let’s take a look at their extremely clever new interactive video ad… which is a playable level inside of the new monster-hit video game, Portal 2:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgwAmeWhC7c
It doesn’t get much more interactive than a playable level embedded inside a video game. And in addition to the millions who will see this when they play the game itself, the YouTube video embedded above has an additional 164,952 views. The secretive, “Easter egg” nature of the video ad also lends itself nicely to the word-of-mouth buzz movie studios thrive on.
Pixar does a lot of things right, and their films are almost universally beloved by audiences and critics alike. They’re also one of the savviest studios around when it comes to social video marketing.
Just prior to Toy Story 3′s release last summer, the company put out a fake 1980′s-era advertisement for Lotso Huggin’ Bear–one of the film’s new characters. The attention to detail is astonishing, which helped many people fall for it and think it was an actual old-school Japanese ad for a bear (that apparently likes to be hugged). Check it out:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5ZwkcHCVkE
Pixar’s next feature, Cars 2, has taken a similar approach. This time, they released an intentionally-bad used car commercial–with a few tip-offs that let the audience know this is no ordinary local commercial:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRz5YDokhzE
That commercial drove tons of sharing and was featured on sites like Mashable, Devour, and of course… Facebook.
But Pixar didn’t just stop at creating a single social video. The ad is almost like an alternate reality game (ARG), and contains a lightning-fast frame that is almost subliminal. That frame shows what appears to be the silhouette of Lightning McQueen, the film’s hero, as well as a URL: chromeA113.com. In addition, the phone number given several times in the fake ad leads to a recording that also reveals the secret URL.
The URL redirects to an unlisted video on YouTube containing a sneak peek at the upcoming film:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAlwJ438Nkk
Pixar has released traditional trailers for the film, and they’ll continue to do so. But Hollywood marketing is all about creating that anticipation on the part of the viewer. Engaging, interactive, game-based social videos like these help immerse the viewer in the world of the film, and create that increased anticipation all studios are gunning for.
We’re going to be taking a special look this month at Hollywood studios that have utilized social video to help build buzz for feature films. Hollywood has always relied on buzz and word of mouth for promotional purposes, and studios have been among the first companies to fully embrace social video as a marketing tactic.
The most recent example of this is from Relativity Media, who commissioned a viral video to help spread the word on their film Limitless, starring Bradley Cooper.
The studio hired thinkmodo, a viral marketing agency, to create a video that would show off an everyday person doing something incredible… unbelievable… limitless. Their concept? A geek with an iPhone that has been hacked, allowing him to control the many video screens in Times Square. Here’s the video they created:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_HUYi9aVvI
In reality, the phone wasn’t controlling the screens at all. The producers purchased legitimate ad time on the Times Square screens, and then timed their shoot with expert precision so that it would look like the man in the video was controlling the screens.
After the original hoax video went viral, they released a follow-up clip, talking about how the hacker took a drug called NZT (the fictional brain-enhancing drug taken by Cooper’s character in Limitless):
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKxG7wQoSt8
Only at that point did people begin to notice the trailer for Limitless that played at the end of the original video–it’s the final screen the hacker “takes control of.” And then the pieces started falling into place.
Did it work? Well, Limitless was the surprise #1 movie at the box office the weekend it launched, edging out The Lincoln Lawyer and the alien comedy, Paul. We’ll let you draw your own conclusions.
There’s a pattern emerging over the last year or two of online video, and it’s related to worldwide weather events. Videos pertaining to breaking current events–particularly related to weather–are going viral at astronomical rates.
Earlier in the year, we saw viral video success stories related to the Nashville flood, the Haiti earthquake, and an Oklahoma hail storm. And now the last big blizzard of 2010, which has blanketed most of the East Coast in many inches of snow, is illustrating this trend again. When some part of the world faces a natural disaster or other crisis, the rest of us are inherently curious. But for years, we’ve had a finite number of sources for finding news footage.
But online video is changing all that, giving viewers and concerned citizens around the world new perspectives on “the news.” Take this example video from Vimeo. It’s a simple, 37-second time-lapse clip of one man’s back yard. Over those 37 seconds, however, you’ll see over three feet of snow fall in just 20 hours’ time. It’s part art, part news. Take a look:
December 2010 Blizzard Timelapse from Michael Black on Vimeo.
The video hit on the morning of December 27th, and was at 500,000 views just seven hours later. That’s an astounding rate. And I can’t help but think that the reason is because it offers us something the news channels don’t. Here, in one single, consistent angle, we get the whole story of exactly how much snow the East Coast has gotten.
That’s not the only video related to the blizzard online either. I searched for “blizzard” on YouTube–searching only videos uploaded on the 27th–and found nearly 5,000 different videos. There are clips of city employees in NYC destroying an SUV on accident, thunder and lightning during the storm, people grilling burgers during the blizzard, and many more.
The weather is the oldest word of mouth phenomenon in the book. Why do we share our thoughts and new about the weather? Because we’re astounded… we’re concerned for loved ones… we’re in awe of nature….we just can’t help but share our thoughts and stories. The success of the aforementioned videos show a new opportunity to capitalize on the world’s predictable weather interest and create a cool hybrid of video art, storytelling and good old fashioned weather reporting.
There’s a great piece over at ClickZ by ShiShir Mehrotra, the Director of Product Management at Google. It’s called 4 Ways Video Is Fundamentally Changing, and it’s a fantastic breakdown of the major evolutions we’re currently seeing with the online video format. One of his main points is that the infinite shelf-life of online video paves the way for fragmentation—more niches, more channels, more content—it all leads to a more engaged viewer.
Because video lives online forever, it can be found by its most-perfect audience at any time. Which is just a fancy way of saying that a viral hit doesn’t always see success right away.
Take this video for example, which was uploaded to YouTube over 2 years ago:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvxCv_yrcCY
Now… that video was uploaded on September 9, 2008. And it sat there, largely unnoticed. Sure, it slowly picked up views in batches of a few thousand here and there, but it didn’t rocket to viral stardom until just this past week. Check out the YouTube stats below the video:
I’m sure the original uploader is freaking out right now, wondering how a two-year-old video could suddenly just explode. And now there are even parodies popping up, like this one that dubs in what the cats might be saying:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3iFhLdWjqc
So what is my point in all this? There are several, actually:
A video has to be shared if it’s going to go viral, and some sources are better sharers than others. For instance, emailing a video link is a share, right? But it’s not likely to turn into more than one or two views (depending on how many people you send the clip to). But making the front page at Devour or Buzzfeed can do wonders for a video, bringing a nice collection of seed views from which the viral snowball can begin to grow.
The days of simply uploading a great video and hoping for the best are over. Successful online videos simply must have a strategic element in place if they hope to go viral. You can—and should—plan for the social behavior that your video will need if you want it to be shared by viewers. Which, as it turns out, is exactly what Sharethrough was created to help brands do.
While increasingly more brands want to ‘go viral’ with their videos, taking all the necessary steps to drive social video activity (or ‘virality’) can often be neglected. An important part of ensuring that a brand video stirs up social behavior is to think “socially” in every decision from content to platform.
Ashton Kutcher and the clever folks at popchips published a new video last week that showcases many of the attributes needed for a brand video to succeed in the new world of ‘social video advertising.’ Check it out:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3yYjIkzTBU
The video is quickly closing in on 400,000 views on Youtube, so we know they are doing something right. Lets briefly take a look at some of the smart decisions that they made:
Popular Subject Matter – Check. The TMZ television show is widely-known and hugely popular. Turning the focus back around on them as the subject of embarrassment is new and something people have probably secretly been waiting for.
Celebrities – Check and check. Not only do they have mega star Ashton Kutcher starring in the video, but they also cast online video superstars Dave Days and iJustine, which helped spread the word to their own massive followings.
Earned media potential – Yup. A prank video that features a celebrity of Ashton Kutcher’s profile with modern day digital celebs like Dave and iJustine, sounds like something that would get covered on TMZ, right? Exactly. Even TMZ reported on the video, not to mention a host of other publications such as the LA Times and OK! Magazine.
These are not the only things to consider if you want to give your brand video a viral lift, but the results speak for themselves. If you wanna go viral, you need to think social from day one about your video. You should always have answers for questions like: What type of content do people most frequently share? What drives them to share? How can you set off the most sharing possible from your paid distribution strategy?
Got the answers? Now go create the next viral hit. (Drop us a line if you need some help driving views and sharing.)
I can’t click on a magazine ad. I’m not able to “like” your television commercial. And I can’t ReTweet your awesome radio spot.
There is power in sharing, and it can lead to great marketing impact for a brand that is willing to embrace the creativity of online video and the culture of social media.
To quantify some of the impact of social video advertising, Sharethrough recently partnered with Vizu to measure the results of an online video series that was created for the launch of a new video game. The campaign was built around a series of online video episodes that acted as a prequel to the video game itself, telling the back-story of the game’s characters and events while also teasing what was to come. The final episode in the series ended in the exact spot of the story where the actual game would pick up.
Vizu’s real-time online brand advertising effectiveness platform, called Ad Catalyst, allows advertisers to see hard data on how well their online marketing efforts are going. Dan Beltramo, Vizu’s CEO, says it best:
“Online video, social media, and viral marketing are some of the hottest topics in online advertising. At the end of the day, however, the same rules apply – advertisers need proof these tactics are driving the desired result, Brand Lift, in order to justify continued investment. We’re excited to have had the opportunity to work with Sharethrough to provide this proof.”
And provide proof, they did. Because of Vizu’s participation, we were able to have independent verification of what we at Sharethrough already knew: that brand video content shared through social media can drive awareness, engagement, and sales.
Specifically, Vizu’s research showed a 110% lift in consumers’ intent to purchase the game after discovering and watching the videos. And consumers who had exposure to the campaign were more than twice as likely to want to buy the game as those who were not. Allow those numbers to sink in a bit; they’re kind of staggering.
We believe in the power of online video to grab the viewer’s attention and deliver a message. And we believe in the power of social media to help online videos find their optimal viewers. These are foundational, core beliefs at Sharethrough. And though we’ve seen plenty of proof in recent years that our theories about online video were correct, it is nice to have a respected branding expert like Vizu come along and verify our convictions with hard data.
