Although the fact that a certain upcoming date practically guarantees that this isn’t true. I want it so badly to be real. Please be real!
Fresh Step jumps on America’s obsession with bacon to eliminate the malodor of kitty litter.
While Green Works expands their scents to include bacon too. Now your laundry, dishes and countertops can all smell like delicious bacon.
I smell a great Kickstarter project! (Assuming this is all a very clever April Fools Day Joke, of course.)
Recently, HBO aired the third season premiere of its cult-hit, Eastbound & Down. The show follows the missteps and exploits of a self-centered and foul-mouthed former big league baseball player, Kenny Powers.
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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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Just to help make sure we don’t get cultural tunnel vision by focusing too much on American branded video campaigns or American audiences, we like to make a point to talk about some of the best social video successes internationally. As usual, January 2012 was a month that saw international brands grabbing tons of attention and buzz from social video.
Palencia33 is a YouTube channel/brand that has had several successful videos, many in the realm of “explainer videos.” And they also serve as a great example to remind us of the power of international audiences: the English language version of Palencia33′s SOPA video has over 300,000 views… but the Spanish-language version went mega viral, grabbing over 6 million views:
Finnair has a viral hit on their hands with a mid-air dancing flash-mob to celebrate India’s Republic Day (the flight was headed to Delhi):
While the government takedown of Megaupload and the ensuring controversy has made plenty of headlines in the U.S., it’s the international audiences (and Megaupload’s international fans and users) that drove their mid-December music video to over 13 million views:
Coke is one of the savviest American brands in terms of tailoring their online video for multiple audiences. In early January they put out this ad, which is also doubling as the official anthem for the national team of Tunisia:
Every country and every culture in the world is unique. As the global community continues to break down borders, successful brands will begin to tailor their social video campaigns more and more specifically for all possible audiences.
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:
By now most brands are aware of the potential of online video, and more and more brands succeed with video every day. But it’s the rarest of brands that is able to harness the power of the user community and turn it into free advertising.
Almost as long as online video has been around, brands have been launching contests for users to submit their own videos. Doritos has been doing this with their Super Bowl commercials for years–they let anyone submit potential commercials, hold audience votes for the finalists, and the winning entry becomes an actual Doritos commercial. But where Doritos’ use of crowdsourcing really pays off is in the videos that don’t win.
Filmmakers who submitted for the contest but did not win are still likely to share the Doritos commercial they made with friends. Like David Ward Film did. They had three potential ads rejected by Doritos for this year’s Super Bowl contest, and decided to submit them to Reddit, where they hit the home page yesterday. Here’s the first rejected ad they posted:
The view-count is stuck around 300–which happens to most popular videos in the first day or so of activity–but I have no doubt it’ll be in the tens of thousands or more very soon. Here are the other two rejected ads David Ward Film posted:
Doritos has to pick the ad they think will entertain the largest possible Super Bowl audience, which means there are surely plenty of rejected ads that are probably still funny, like the ones above. Because filmmakers are passionate about their craft, Doritos reaps tons of free publicity annually from their Super Bowl crowdsourcing efforts.
Late night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live is another brand that has absolutely mastered the art of letting your fans do the work for you. The latest stunt is yet another challenge from Kimmel to viewers to share footage of Christmas morning–with the specific instruction to give your kids a terrible gift and film the reaction. And despite none of them getting paid for their work, thousands of viewers created and submitted footage at Kimmel’s request. The result is another likely viral hit for the TV talk show, who barely had to lift a finger:
Food brands are typically appealing to the same consumer needs as their competitors: hunger and thirst. So most food brands focus their ads on product quality (“Ours is better than theirs”) or else they do something out-of-the-box to get the audience’s attention (brand awareness). But even with those two main destinations, there are countless paths to get there.
Coke seems to really care most about making people smile with online video, and the company has several videos that have gone viral just by sharing happiness:
Natural Light also likes to make people smile. Instead of trying to make the case that their beer is more ‘premium’, they’ve decided to try to be more memorable instead. And sending a beer into space seems to have done the trick:
I mentioned Nando’s in a previous article rounding up some recent international branded video success. Nando’s is a restaurant chain in multiple countries, and has opted to take their social video campaign in a very unique direction:
Martini accomplishes multiple things with this ad that shows two possible lives for one man. The video is entertaining, while also driving home the subtle message that the man whose life had Martini in it was much better:
Hollywood is loving the online video boom. Taking a major product or service and boiling it down into a short, concise video message is what they do best–they call them movie trailers. And the things go viral every week. Film fans and online video viewers have a natural–and large–overlap, and it drives social video action for Hollywood on a consistent basis.
This holiday season has already seen several great trailers for anticipated upcoming films. None bigger than the Batman himself, in the just-released first trailer for The Dark Knight Rises:
Borat prankster Sasha Baron Cohen is at it again with his new film, Dictator, which should tick off as many people as his other movies have:
Jack and the Beanstalk gets a pretty cool update with Bryan Singer’s Jack The Giant Killer:
And it looks like Stallone has rounded up even more 1980′s action stars for his Expendables sequel:
Another action sequel hoping viewers will be drawn to new co-stars is G.I. Joe:
Every year we see a ton of year-end top ten list articles from publications around the web…just in time for us to go on holiday and not fully indulge in them. It’s a lot to keep up with, so we’ve consolidated the best lists into the ultimate round-up of round-ups. Read up and then you can officially move on to 2012 as an expert on all of last year’s viral video highlights.
YouTube
YouTube was kind enough to compile a list of the ten best video ads of the year, based on view counts. The list leaves room for smartwater’s Jennifer Aniston commercial, Apple’s first Siri video, and of course DC Shoes for this incredibly popular ad featuring some insane stunt driving:
AdWeek
AdWeek and the Hollywood Reporter got together to rank the top 10 commercials of the year. They gave roster spots to Google’s “Dear Sophie” ad, Chrysler’s acclaimed “Born of Fire” commercial, and this fantastic ad from Chipotle:
The BBC gave us their own version of the Top 10 YouTube Videos of 2011 (which combines video ads and standard user videos into the same pool, and seems to be based on view counts). Ultimate Dog Tease–one of my favorite videos–took the top spot. Here’s a look:
Mashable brought in Feed Company’s Josh Warner to talk about something more subjective–the “most innovative” video ads of the year. Warner includes the K-Swiss Kenny Powers campaign, YouTube’s Life In A Day, and the Ojai Valley Taxidermy TV Commercial. Here’s the entry for Go Pro that made the list:
Venture Beat
Venture Beat also combines video ads and non-ads into one top ten list–theirs is the “most hilarious and surprising” videos of 2011, like the cat mother hugging her baby, Nyan Cat, and this gem about bike lanes in New York City:
Billboard
Billboard magazine charts the music industries’ 10 best viral videos of the year in the world of music–including amateurs and pros. Rebecca Black made the list, as did Lady Gaga (obviously) and the Saturday Night Live digital short crew. Here’s KarminMusic’s explosively viral cover of “Look At Me Now,” which grabbed over 51 million views:
Time Magazine has a Top 10 Viral Videos of 2011 feature. They like My Drunk Kitchen, Anderson Cooper’s laughing fit on the air, and some other great gems of the past year. And they actually present their list in video form. Here’s Jorge & Alexa Narvaez, who made Time’s list with their adorable cover of “Home”:
There’s a year-end video list for almost anything you might be interested in. There’s a top ten animal videos of the year list. Social Times gave us a list of the top 10 Christmas Light Display videos. The Telegraph gave us the 10 best fashion videos of 2011. Even Golf.com put out a year-end video list, giving us the 10 best Viral Golf videos of 2011.
Of all the brands that are creating social video campaigns, entertainment brands might have a slight advantage. After all, creating entertaining content is already their core business, so it’s not as much of a pivot for them to add video marketing to their PR arsenal.
But it’s encouraging to see so much variety in the social video campaigns from entertainment brands, and not all of them are playing it safe or sticking with what they know.
ESPN and Monday Night Football, for instance, got together for this excellent behind-the-scenes documentary video that sheds light on how the decades-old program is pulled off:
Online video gives some brands that aren’t typically known for a comedy a chance to try their hand at humor. World of Warcraft pulls it off brilliantly:
Jimmy Kimmel is definitely known for comedy, so in a way he’s been sticking with what he knows with his online videos. However, Kimmel’s path to viral dominance has involved making his viewers a part of the video-creating fun:
Of course, some brands just stick with what they do best. Some don’t even bother creating new content for their online video campaign. Take TLC, for instance, which has a much-buzzed-about show called Virgin Diaries, chronicling the lives of self-proclaimed virgins. They found the most outrageous, over-the-top, ridiculous moment from the premiere, and loaded it up on YouTube so they could watch it go viral and build anticipation for the show:
By Jessica Rosenberg, Visual Designer, Sharethrough
Growing up, I was a creative kid with an extremely vivid imagination. I went through phases where I wanted to be an architect, then a fashion designer, then an illustrator. I would draw elaborate houses with 5 garages and three indoor pools. I’d sketch out fashion models wearing crazy outfits involving dresses made out of peacock feathers , candy, and balloons. I had a few sketchbooks of comics that I had created- illustrated characters with plot lines that reflected the everyday suburban life that surrounded me. Then I discovered advertising.
My mom had a collection of Metropolitan Home Magazine stacked in the basement, and while she was doing laundry, I’d sit nearby and flip through them. Instead of reading the content, I went straight for the ads. Before long, I was on the obsessive hunt to find and collect every Absolut Vodka print ad I could get my hands on. They fascinated me, and at the time (I was about 10), I didn’t know why. I just knew they triggered something that caught my creative attention.
After collecting hundreds of Absolut ads, and eventually Got Milk ads, my dream was to one day create creative pieces of [advertising] content of my own. I began to think in terms of concepts- “If I were to create an Absolut campaign, what would it be?” Countless more sketch books got filled up with ideas, drawings, ad ideas. At the age of 12, when someone would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I told them “I want to make Absolut Vodka ads.” I didn’t know the correct term for that was “art director.” I immersed myself in countless art classes in high school, and eventually studied graphic design.
It was in college where I learned that design is about problem solving- it is the technical execution of a creative idea. The first job I had after college was as a junior “designer” in an advertising agency. I wanted to be the one coming up with the big “absolut-vodka-esque” campaign ideas, however my role was to be the one executing them.
I had trouble understanding what the differences were between art direction and design. Eventually I understood that art directors are supposed to provide the concept and designers are supposed implement the concept. But it’s never that black and white. In my experience, the process is much more collaborative. The ideas inform the concept and vice versa.
After having professional experiences as both a designer and an art director, it is interesting to point out their respective trends in pieces of branded entertainment. The following videos are ones I admire and appreciate. They do a fantastic job at combining the magic that is design and art direction:
The visual juxtapositions are what drew me into this video. The contrast of old and new, depicted by the older photographs against a present-day background, ties the concept of this video together.
The organic looking graphic overlays are beautiful here. They help give the video more of a hand-made look and feel, driving home the goal of the video itself: to show how Persol glasses are handmade. Effects like this add another layer of detail and beauty to the overall video piece, making it even more interesting to watch.
I have always been a fan of kinetic typography. When done well, it is an effective (and creative) tool to communicate a message. If timed correctly it also proves effective in keeping ones attention. The video is still entertaining and engaging if you choose to watch without sound.
I love how this concept meets the execution half way in this piece for Nokia. The video demonstrates a new smartphone’s imaging capabilities through this magical, microscopic animation. (Fun fact: this ad holds a Guinness World Record as the smallest stop-motion animated film, pretty cool huh?)
This uplifting video communicates that everything is better in color- the combination of concept, stop motion animation, and music choice tie the whole piece together. Makes me want to go paint something.
With the holiday season quickly approaching, November is a big month for video advertising, as brands all try to get the word out on their latest products and specials. So we had a wealth of branded social video content hit the Internet last month. But as usual, some were better than others.
World of Warcraft has found a very clever marketing strategy utilizing recognizable celebrities playing the game and talking about it–you might have seen the Ozzy Osbourne one on television. In November, the company scored viral hits that racked up social activity starring the likes of Chuck Norris and Parks & Recreation’s Aubrey Plaza:
Just about the time most of you were traveling to your in-laws for Thanksgiving dinner, Victoria’s Secret released a video featuring some of their models in a lip-sync video of Maroon 5′s “Moves Like Jagger.” And hey… what do you know? It turns out people like lip-sync videos from lingerie models, though I think Victoria’s Secret already knew this.
Toronto Ad Agency, John St., created Catvertising, a satirical new branch of their business entirely run by cats:
Finally, Old Milwaukee has apparently decided to re-join the beer commercial wars, and they have a heck of a secret weapon: Actor Will Ferrell. Here’s a couple of the ads he recently filmed in Davenport:
Last night I noticed that three of my friends (I have amassed 1100 or so somehow) shared the same video on Facebook. The title of the video was “Zach Wahls speaks about Family”. Without having any idea who Zach Wahls was, I clicked on the video. For the next three minutes I was deeply moved by the speech of a 19 year old student at the University of Iowa. He was speaking in public about his parents (both female)–and systematically picked apart the argument that a gay lifestyle does not provide the proper environment for children to grow up and be successful. Zach’s story and speech struck a deep emotional chord with me–and without thinking I shared it as well. At the time I viewed the video yesterday–there was 232,000 views of the video.
The speech was originally given in February of 2011 when the first debates about gay marriage started in the Iowa legislature. This video, went viral after almost 10 months of being out on the open web. Moveon.org put it on its website yesterday and it spread like wildfire.
24 hours after I wrote this post, over 5 million people have seen the video on Youtube. 25 of my Facebook friends have shared the video on Facebook–and the conversation about gay marriage in America is clearly in the minds of the millions of people that have seen the video in the last 25 hours. I have personally never experienced a video phenomena like this in my Facebook feed.
This is interesting to me for a few reasons outside of my firm belief in everything that Zach communicated in the video.
1) I am in the in Social Video advertising industry (Social Video = distribution of video content in paid media placements that generate additional sharing and engagement)
2) Next year is an election year.
We have found ourselves in a place and time in history where we can distribute videos like Zach’s in targeted areas that matter. Areas like North Carolina (where they are voting on gay marriage in May) and Minnesota (where there is legislation to add terminology to the constitution about marriage being between a “man and women”). It is now possible to take a video like Zach produced, about an important issue, and deliver it to make an impact in specific states where issues are being voted on.
Zach’s speech would not be as effective if it was repurposed as a television ad, or a radio commercial, or a pre-roll ad. Its medium is Youtube. It is a three minute piece of content. Its not an ad. To try and edit or change it would take away from its power. Never before has there been an election year where we could take such a wide range of video content and systemically distribute it to the masses.
It took Zach’s video 10 months before catching fire. I am sure there are hundreds of videos on Youtube right now about numerous social issues that would spread in the same way if there was a moderate media buy placed against the content. People are extremely passionate about social issues, involving labor issues, medical marijuana, women’s rights, and net neutrality to name a few. There is a Zach Wahl for each of these issues out there, but with 40 hours of video being uploaded to Youtube every minute, who knows if we’ll ever find them.
Both sides of the aisle (blue and red) will be able to create or repurpose content to make a difference for their causes, candidates, and ballot initiatives in 2012. Further, candidates and advocacy groups need to make (or find and repurpose) content in 2012. If candidates rely solely on 15-30 second television ads and interruptive pre-roll online video advertising, and ignore the opportunity with longer form, authentic video content, they may very well find themselves at a significant disadvantage.
By Dave Ford, Sharethrough NYC Sales Manager
Insurance companies are all selling the same thing, and yet each of the current market’s dominant players has chosen a dramatically different style and tone for their video advertising.
Nationwide Insurance, for instance, has opted to make a big splash at the Super Bowl the last few years with celebrity endorsement ads starring the likes of Kevin Federline and MC Hammer:
Allstate’s campaign with the suit-wearing “meyhem” has been nearly as popular online as it has been on television
Most recently, State Farm has been getting mileage out of their series of ads where consumers use the State Farm jingle as a virtual genie in a bottle:
Look closely, and you’ll see a theme in all those examples: they’re all television commercials repurposed for the web. Sooner or later, these insurance companies are likely going to be creating their own original content for online marketing purposes. Actually… it’ll be sooner… as State Farm has already done it.
You might have seen their Eat, Fry, Love social video, starring William Shatner with some tips on deep-frying a turkey, which has racked up a quarter of a million views in just a week:
As video continues to grow and become the most in-demand content variety online, audiences are increasing their attention spans for longer videos, including branded videos.
Several brands have found social video success through something we might trace back to the brief golden age of DVDs: behind the scenes videos.
Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy is one of the most beloved film series of all time (not to mention the money and critical acclaim it piled up as well). So the fact that the director is now tackling two films based on The Hobbit is pretty big news.
How is Jackson using online video to create a built-in audience for the film? With a series of 10-minute behind the scenes production diaries that give fans a look at costumes, scene staging, digital effects, and more. They’re really pulling back the curtain on this thing, and fans are eating it up:
When was the last time you saw a 10-minute video go viral? The latest Hobbit production diary did just that, with over 300,000 views in just a week. This is the fourth production diary, and the first three all had a couple hundred thousand views too, like this one:
Behind the Scenes footage works anytime the brand has a loyal following (the way Peter Jackson or the works of Tolkien do). Freddie Wong knows this. The YouTube star grabs millions of hits for each of his weekly special effects videos, but then also grabs hundreds of thousands of views in addition every week by releasing a behind the scenes clip of how his latest masterpiece was created. Here’s his recent viral smash hit (over 6 million views), Battlefield 4 trailer, which imagines a future version of the popular video game:
And here’s his behind the scenes clip for that video, which itself has nearly a million views:
Celebrity endorsements have been a staple of advertising almost since the day advertising was born. We just can’t help it, we love celebrities. So brands think of lots of ways to use them to drive buzz, interest, and sales.
An emerging trend in social video campaigns is to combine several celebrity appearances in a single video ad. Why not? More celebrities = more happy. And the potential appeal to a wider audience.
You’ve probably seen the Macy’s television commercials that do this, drawing on the intense star power and wattage of Donald Trump, Mariah Carey, Jessica Simpson, and Martha Stewart all in the same ad:
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is using the same tactic, and has already racked up 8 million views in just a week for their war-simulation video ad starring Jonah Hill, Sam Worthington, and NBA player Dwight Howard:
Just a year earlier, the same company tapped Jimmy Kimmel and Kobe Bryant for a similar multiple-celebrity ad for their Black Ops title:
Toyota is paying attention, and this week scored nearly a million views for their new Camry ad. The spot stars singer Kelly Clarkson, Inside The Actor’s Studio host James Lipton, Bizzare Foods host Andrew Zimmern, and ESPN personality Chris Berman.
It’s an eclectic mix of celebrities to be sure, and the ad actually gives off more of a “strange and odd” vibe than a funny one. And yet, I still forwarded it to my friends, saying, “Look at this strange mix of celebrities.” At the end of the day, all social video campaigns are trying to get people talking, sharing, and discussing. And combining multiple celebrity endorsements, no matter how unlikely the mix, appears to get the job done.
Each month we take a look at some of the most buzzed-about and most shared branded social video campaigns. While the amount of branded content and level of creativity continue to rise each month in online video advertising, The following campaigns stood out for their combination of originality, viral pick-up and overall cultural impact.
This month saw several familiar brands score viral-type hits with social video campaigns. Like Rovio, whose Angry Birds is now recognizable all over the globe. Their latest Angry Birds adventure, Ham-o-ween, hit video audiences right in the sweet spot:
It was a very kid-friendly week for social video, with several kid-friendly brands going viral. Like Sour Patch Kids, who somehow recruited Method Man to help bring a little street cred back to the candy brand:
Dermablend Pro continues to rack up the views and the shares for their inventive Go Beyond The Cover ad:
Apple made plenty of news over the last month, including the announcement of Siri, the voice-operated personal assistant found on the new iPhone 4S:
Wonderful Pistachios continued their series of ads featuring pop-culture references, this time drawing on the popularity of a certain viral video star… the honey badger. Here’s their ad:
And just in case you’re curious, here’s the original honey badger video (Warning: there’s plenty of foul language in it):
While social video advertising is growing by leaps and bounds here in the U.S., its popularity is absolutely skyrocketing throughout the international community. So to help us avoid tunnel vision, we take some time every month to look at a few of the best international social video campaigns.
Soccer is as good a subject as any to prove how different the rest of the world can be from the U.S. In America, soccer is just one of many sports, and far less popular than football or basketball. However, around the rest of the world, soccer is practically a religion. That’s why Casillero del Diablo’s Manchester United-themed commercial makes perfect sense:
Contrex scored a huge social video hit with their public performance piece called Ma Contrexperience – 97s. When citizens find, and then begin peddling on a dozen or so stationary bikes, some pretty interesting things happen on the building in front of them. Let’s just say it’s a light show the ladies seem particularly fond of:
Oh my god does this video make me want to dance and eat cereal:
Over in New Zealand, the New Zealand Transport Agency gave us a pretty great anti-drunk-driving campaign:
Nothing beats a superfan.
In the age of online video we saw constant examples of superfans incorporating their favorite brands into their own videos, reaping tons of buzz and benefit for that brand when the video goes viral. This week there were several examples of this, none more perfect than CubeStormer II.
CubeStormer II is a robot build entirely out of Lego parts. Using a Samsung Galaxy S II, the robot solves a Rubik’s Cube in a ridiculous amount of time:
It’s possible one of those brands might have been a sponsor or behind-the-scenes producer of the video. But look at how many brands benefitted from this one 30-second video: Lego, Rubik’s Cube, Samsung, & ARMflix (the YouTube channel).
Another brand that received viral buzz this week due to a fan’s efforts is Hot Wheels. Check out the Mother of All Hot Wheels Tracks, which should earn someone a lot of votes for father of the year:
When a brand as beloved as Apple comes out with a product as impressive as Siri, there are bound to be a lot of videos from superfans showing off its capabilities. Like the fan who was moved to write A Duet With Siri:
Video games are no strangers to receiving this kind of consumer love, resulting in an entirely new genre (machinima). Bricks of War is one such expression of love from a Gears of War fan–check out Lego getting even more free publicity this week from viral video):
Online video has rapidly become a competitive marketing space for major brands, each of whom competes for viewers. Creatively, online video is just young enough a medium that we’re seeing a explosion in possibilities for brands that want to create engaging content that gets people talking.
Documentary short films are one of my favorite emerging styles growing popular with brands that want to tell a story that interests and entertains viewers. Like this piece about Major League Baseball’s “baseball mud” from NewsWorksDotOrg:
Some brands go way outside their own industry in an effort to create memorable, share-able video content that only has entertainment as its goal. Like Head & Shoulders latest video success, starring NFL player Troy Polamalu. He’s been a longtime spokesman for the brand, and last week released a bit of a hidden-camera style prank video, where he pretended to be his own wax statue in order to fool and frighten unsuspecting citizens:
Go Pro is one of the most successful brands in the world with online video, and I think they must live by one motto: make a great product that people can’t stop talking about. Of course, it helps that in their case the product is directly related to video creation… an HD camera that is super small and very portable. So Go Pro benefits from the millions of viewers that tune into amateur videos and fan-made clips, many of which proudly tout the fact that the Go Pro camera was used for filming:
Of course, some of the old standby methods for video marketing are still alive and well. When the product is as highly anticipated as the upcoming video game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, a well edited trailer can do the trick just fine:
For premium content brands, trailers are the best thing since sliced bread. If the content is compelling, and the trailer cut together in an exciting and intriguing manner, then fans can get excited. And when fans get excited… they share. Here are some of the most shared gaming and movie trailers from last week:
Sherlock Holmes 2: The first film wasn’t a runaway hit, but showed enough promise that there are still plenty of fans anticipating the sequel:
Another trailer getting tons of buzz this week on social media is the one for Chronicle. Chronicle is a bit of a mash-up between the found-footage style of movie (like Cloverfield) and the superhero genre. And it’s that unique mix, combined with a very well executed trailer, that has impressed viewers:
Video game trailers are almost as popular as movie trailers these days. Gaming is huge business, and the upcoming Battlefield 3 lays it all on the line with a final “launch trailer” packed with cinematic, intense footage:
Batman Arkham City is another hotly anticipated game, bringing the free-roaming style of game play to the world of the Caped Crusader. They scored with a game-footage trailer:
And then, just to prove their viral success was no fluke, they put out a standard commercial for the game, and that spot went viral as well. It features some gameplay footage, but mostly consists of two fans of the game trading hilariously lame insults:
As brands look to encourage as much sharing behavior around their videos as possible, many are finding they can expand the reach of those videos by putting multiple characters, stories, or icons in the same piece of content.
Like the incredible new PS3 Long Live Play ad, called “Michael,” which sees several famous characters from PS3 games interacting together:
Fans of all the games featured scour the ad for their favorite character, which increases sharing after viewing to their friends who also like the game. It’s a smart way to promote the overall PS3 brand by bringing together characters from other game brands in a single ad.
Müller, a dairy company, is generating buzz and social activity with one of the weirdest social video efforts I’ve ever seen. And they’ve created a world in which their dairy products, Kitt from Knight Rider, and Yogi Bear all interact, along with a huge cast of secondary characters:
Mashups are so successful at bringing in wide audiences, Hollywood’s started making mashup movies. Like next year’s tent-pole film, the Avengers, which mashes up several recent film heroes into one crime-fighting force, including Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Captain America, & more:
Sometimes it’s too easy for us to get tunnel vision in talking about branded social video, focusing on the major U.S. brands and marketing efforts. We forget that there are millions of brands in countries all over the world, and they’re also making sometimes-brilliant use of online video and social media to help generate buzz and increase engagement. Let’s take a look at some of the better and more memorable international social video campaigns of the last month.
Bouygues Telecom, a french company, scored a viral video hit by turning to a topic that is culturally universal: cats. Cats in the workplace is a silly enough concept that the brand has already captured nearly 2 million viewers:
Byturen, an alcohol brand, gave us a popular video showing two alternate versions of one particular night out on the town:
Dior went with an old standby technique for their video success: celebrity endorsements. They landed Charlize Theron for a kind of short film that has earned nearly a million views as of this writing:
Over in London, Westfield Stratford gave us a very entertaining walk through 100 years of London fashion, racking up the views and shares alike along the way:
Finally, we have this absurd ad from Nissan, which entertains some and creeps others out completely, all to the tune of 3 million views:
Every culture is unique. While we all share common characteristics, traits, or practices, every culture is different.
This can make online video marketing a bit of a challenge for brands with an international focus, as videos that are entertaining and engaging to one culture might be boring and uninteresting to another. Which is why the smartest brands are diversifying their video efforts and trying new approaches to see what works best around the world.
Like Tasca d’ Almerita, a winery in Sicily, who crafted a great little short film called A Glass Of Sicily:
On the other end of the spectrum you have a brand like Axe/Lynx. They’ve never been shy about leaning on sex appeal to sell their products, and the same is true with their recent online video efforts… at least for the Australian market. Check out this racy video that summarizes the rules to rugby–while showing the viewer a bunch of scantily clad women:
Then, in between the two extremes, you have a host of international brands aiming for memorable entertainment content. The kind you get with hidden-camera-style pranks? The tourism department for Carlesberg Belgium is generating tons of online buzz this week with a movie theater prank where all the seats are taken by angry-looking bikers:
Nike had kept their brand in front of consumers very well over the last few months, and it’s mostly due to one product: The Nike Air MAGS… otherwise known as the self-lacing sneakers from Back To The Future, Part II.
First, the brand scored a viral hit with this teaser video:
Later that same day, they went ahead and launched the product’s official campaign with this video:
Now, the company is engaging viewers in major ways by offering a behind-the-scenes look at how the shoes were designed and created:
It’s a tactic more brands are turning to, because behind the scenes style content offers many benefits: it’s cheaper to shoot than traditional scripted content, and it endears the brand to viewers by giving them an all-access pass to how their favorite product or service is created.
It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia this week demonstrated one of the oldest “behind the scenes” tricks in the books: the outtakes:
Blooper reels take viewers behind the ropes, and let them see their favorite stars doing what normal people do: mess up. It’s a fantastic way to engage fans and potential customers by delivering a unique and memorable entertainment experience.
Video audiences have a lot of recurring interests. They like cats, they like insane acts of nature, and they like comedy. But there’s a voracious appetite out there for heart-stopping action–scenes that leave you on the edge of your seat and take your breath away.
And that kind of content is providing social video benefits and viewer engagement for all kinds of brands–some of whom didn’t even create the content themselves.
The trailer for upcoming martial arts film, The Raid, made the rounds this week, picking up over 100,000 views for a new red-band trailer in just a few days (Warning: Intense action and fighting):
Sometimes the action helps sell a brand that didn’t even have a hand in the video’s creation. That happens a lot for Go Pro, whose tiny-but-powerful HD camera is a popular choice for action sports enthusiasts. So when a group of basejumpers uses the Go Pro to record a thrilling slow-motion video of their activities, and that video grabs hundreds of thousands of views, Go Pro reaps loads of free publicity and brand awareness.
(click the screenshot to see the video)
Go Pro isn’t the only camera that benefits from this kind of thing. The Phantom Flex got their brand in front of 250,000 eyeballs this week when a Vimeo filmmaker released this impressive paintball action video, shot in “Call of Duty” style and making excellent use of sporadic slow-motion.
(click the screenshot to see the video)
Of course, we can’t talk about social video campaigns involving heart-stopping action without mentioning DC Shoes, who have been dominating viral video charts for weeks with their Gymkhana series, featuring the intense driving skills of Ken Block:
Anyone with even a little experience in online video, as a viewer or a video creator, knows that cats can be a big draw for audiences. And while the vast majority of the so-called “cat videos” that go viral are home videos, more and more brands are beginning to tap into the curiously strong popularity of felines on the web.
Big Cat Rescue is an organization that, as the name implies, operates a rescue facility for big game cats like tigers, lions, and cheetahs. This week, they hit the social video jackpot with a video experiment in whether big cats have the same reaction to laser pointers as their household counterparts:
This isn’t the first time Big Cat Rescue has found viral success with video. In fact, they’ve been succeeding at this social video game for years. Five years ago they released Lion Tiger Vs. Giraffe?, which today has over 6 million views:
In 2008 they let the cats celebrate Halloween a bit:
My personal favorite was another experiment, this time on whether big game cats would enjoy catnip as much as house cats (hint: they do):
Think about the boost to the average consumer’s awareness of Big Cat Rescue in particular, and big game cat rescue operations worldwide in general. Word of mouth like this is difficult to buy, which is why so many brands are opting to augment traditional advertising with social video campaigns.
Cats are popular video subjects all around the world, transcending cultural boundaries. For instance, I have no idea what’s being said in this video ad for a French telecommunications company, because it’s in French, which is a language I do not speak. But I don’t need to speak the native language to enjoy the entertainment, as over 200,000 other viewers can attest:
Online video is growing with lightning-quick speed, gaining popularity with viewers and advertisers alike throughout the international community. Outside the U.S., brands are going viral every day with the same kind of entertainment-focused original content American viewers love.
Last month, Burger King Brasil brought in MMA fighter Anderson Silva (who is from Brazil) to help them promote the new Mega BK Stacker with a strange-but-entertaining lip-sync:
Copenhagen Phil decided to mash up the worlds of classical music and flash mobs to help generate some buzz:
STA Travel Australia scored a huge social video success with their Move video, chronicling a six-week world tour in just one minute:
Auto maker, Nissan, scored one of the biggest international branded video hits of the year last month with their “Pôneis Malditos” video. The ad generated tons of sharing activity, primarily because of how bizarre and twisted it is:
The principles of social video transcend cultural boundaries. No matter where viewers live, or what language they speak, a video is more likely to be shared when it entertains and moves them.
Every month we see plenty of great branded social video campaigns, and August of 2011 is no different. Several brands found great success, both in view count and in social engagement, through the use of original, entertaining online video content. Below are some of the highlights from the past month:
Battlefield 3 is a combat-based video game, set to go head-to-head with the upcoming latest Call of Duty game for 2011 first-person-shooter dominance. And with fans of war games, sometimes the best approach to video content is to simply show the gameplay itself, particularly when it has dazzling graphics and intense action:
Red Bull has been a leader online in creating branded original video content. Because the brand is so closely related to action sports–both in terms of sponsorship deals and demographic similarities–the company has been featuring videos showing off the insane talents of some extreme athletes. Like Industrial Revolutions, a short film Red Bull released in August starring Danny Macaskill, showing off some of his incredible abilities with a bicycle:
Easton, a sporting goods manufacturer, went the route of the hoax video last month, gaining over 2 million views and plenty of media buzz for a video featuring an eye-popping batting practice session that also happens to be completely fake:
Kia brought back their infamous hip-hop hamsters for another round of viral action:
Finally, DC Shoes continued their online video dominance with the latest in their Gymkhana series, featuring the impressive talents of driver Ken Block (with a cameo from the stars of Epic Meal Time thrown in for good measure):
Many brands are giving short films a chance to tell their story. You might remember Nokia’s “Gulp,” a short film created by Aardman Studios, which tells a cute story of a fisherman–the clip’s content has nothing to do with the brand whatsoever, except that the entire thing was shot on a Nokia:
Even documentary short films are helping brands succeed with social video. Like The Eyeborg Documentary from video game developer Square Enix. They hired Eyeborg–the man who has a prosthetic eye equipped with a video camera–to host a documentary about the cyborg characters in the new game Deus Ex: Human Revolution:
Short films let brands tell a longer story than traditional ads, but still keep the content length to a minimum to help hold the viewers’ attention.
Have you ever heard of Garbarino? Me neither–at least, until a week ago.
We’ll end your tantalizing wait: Garbarino is an Argentinian electronics store. If you’ve never been to Argentina before, there’s a good chance you have not come across it.
But now, after a huge viral hit, people all over the world are aware of the brand. Why? Because they scored a casting and endorsement coup by landing Back To The Future star, Christopher Lloyd:
Back to the Future remains a very popular film, despite being 25 years old. And there have been precious few endorsements–this is the first ad I’m aware of where Lloyd appears in character as Doc Brown.
One has to guess that Argentina must have a lot of Back to the Future fans–like Star Wars, the film’s sci-fi theme helps it transcend cultural barriers. But with the viral attention this video has received, the brand might just as easily be looking at expanding their reach into new markets.
Duct tape was developed to seal ammunition cases during World War II, and has since gone on to become the ultimate tape of tapes. The ultra-sticky adhesive saved our toys as kids, made our wallets “cool” in high school, and now acts as a quick fix for those leaky pipes that we don’t have time to call a plumber about. Now the San Francisco Bay Area media company Ryactive has come up with a new creative use for this multi-purpose product.
Ryactive’s new ad for Duck Brand “Duck Tape” was developed for a contest hosted by the creative crowdsourcing site Tongal. It shows duct tape being used by a middle-aged man to re-create a Tron lightcycle race in his very own garage.
It’s easy to get tunnel vision when you work in the states and forget to look around at the creativity happening internationally. This is especially true with social video advertising, where there is truly a global transformation taking place. We thought we’d round-up some of this year’s most successful and creative international social video campaigns for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!
We really liked this recent Portuguese-language video ad from Nissan – how could you not be a fan of trippy animated ponies?
That video is barely a month old, but already has over 10 million viewers and is one of the most-shared branded videos on Youtube this month.
Sharing is the ultimate goal with social video, because it can keep people talking about a brand long after the ad’s initial appearance and guarantee the highest level of engagement with content. That’s true in international markets as well as the U.S. Like the social video ad from creative agency, DDB Paris, featuring some amazing beat-boxing skills. The clip hit in January, has over 5 million views, and is still among the most-shared branded videos in all of the world seven months later:
Reliance Big Cinemas in India also scored a hit in January that’s still resonating with viewers and being shared to this day with their “silent national anthem”:
There’s an entire world of video fans out there that American brands sometimes take for granted. Smart companies are diversifying online video efforts in an attempt to go global by appealing to international communities with videos that encourage sharing and social activity.
Ben Stiller is pretty much a household name, whether you know him from Zoolander, Meet the Parents, or Night at the Museum.
Like a lot of Hollywood celebrities, Stiller has decided he wants to do something good to give back… to help those less fortunate than he is. So he started a foundation (The Stiller Foundation) to help children around the world reach their full potential.
That’s a great idea.
An even better idea was the one he made to launch the foundation with a humor-based social video. In the clip, he explains how “The Stiller Foundation” isn’t quite catchy enough, so he’s come up with a name for his nonprofit that is sure to get viewers’ attention:
They even purchased the URL seejenniferanistonnakedfoundation.com–that’s attention to detail, even if it is silly.
The video is a little similar to the recent Smart Water campaign, which also humorously leveraged Aniston’s sex-appeal by touting a fake “sex tape.”
Aniston may not have had a huge box office hit in the last few months, but she’s as hot as they come in social video marketing–guess we should have seen that coming.
It’s been another great summer for social video campaigns, as more brands than ever are turning to the creation of original online video content as a means to engage their customers.
It’s always easier to see where you need to go by first checking out where you’ve been, so let’s take a look at four of the top performing social video campaigns from the month of July 2011.
K-Swiss is continuing the endorsement deal they began last year with fictional character Kenny Powers from the HBO show, Eastbound & Down. In July the company launched a huge number of Kenny-related videos, all centering around the theme of Kenny becoming the new K-Swiss CEO. Be warned–the video, much like the HBO program Powers comes from–is full of vulgarity:
Over a million views on that five-minute-long video, but the campaign has countless more views on the multitude of other supporting videos they released.
Another company used a campaign involving many individual video clips to score a huge social video success in July: Old Spice. That’s not surprising, since they sort of pioneered that approach last year with their day of personalized videos. This year’s campaign also featured personalized videos, but combined a new spokesperson (Fabio) in a duel of the Old Spice Men:
This campaign has piled up millions of video views, Facebook mentions, Tweets, and more buzz than Old Spice can probably handle. All because they decided to throw the traditional commercial out the window and start creating awesome content on their own.
In one of the most successful instances of hoax video marketing, Fox scored huge online awareness for their new Planet of the Apes film, Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The clip purported to be footage of a chimp being given an AK-47 by some African soldiers, only to start shooting wildly.
It’s not even a very convincing hoax–the studio’s name is on the actual film. And yet millions around the world thought that this was real footage, helping to push the video to over 12 million views.
TomTom is no stranger to social video–they had huge viral hits last year with their Star Wars voiceover commercials. This year, they took on another pop-culture icon: Knight Rider.
Some brands do social video better than others. But mostly I’m just happy to see so many of them giving it a try. Traditional commercials simply don’t work as well in the online video age. Brands that think outside the box and shift toward developing their own original, entertaining content will be the brands that thrive online.
