Social Media
Viral Videos Delight Audiences, Boost Brands
Sunday, January 31st, 2010
Done right, and with a bit of luck, a viral video can yield millions of views, a heap of media buzz and maybe even some sales.
But these catchy films also let people see the humanity of your brand. Video content can make people feel good about you, your company and your products. And those positive vibes are priceless.
Here are some examples I like.
Dancing Inmates Promote Michael Jackson’s ‘This Is It’
Sony is banking on hundreds of prison inmates performing a dance routine inspired by the Michael Jackson documentary “This Is It” to sell copies of the film’s DVD.
156 Countries Sing Together for the Starbucks Love Project
On Dec. 7, Starbucks posted this feel good video of people around the world singing “All You Need Is Love.” They also launched Starbucksloveproject.com, where visitors can upload webcam videos of themselves belting out the song. Brew up some good feelings and, hopefully, lattes will sell.
Coca-Cola Smiles Thanks to ‘Happiness Machine’
This video captures the unscripted reactions of college students as a Coke machine doles out free soda, pizza, flowers, balloon animals and more. You can’t help but feel good watching this.
Piano Stairs Take Volkswagen to the Top
The Fun Theory inspires the audience, encouraging people to come up with fun ways to do the right thing. Watch all the videos at TheFunTheory.com, and you’ll learn how the amusing campaign earned Volkswagen a fun new ethos.
Sony Celebrates JK Wedding Dance
Sony could have laid down the law, demanding that this couple strip out Chris Brown’s song “Forever” from their wedding video. Instead, Sony saw the millions of viral views as a chance to sell more Chris Brown music. Smart move, Sony.
Share Your Favorite
Which one of these do you like best? Do you have other examples of viral videos that are helping brands? Leave me a comment and share your thoughts.
If Gatorade’s ‘Ball Girl’ Ad Is Good Viral Video, Let There Be a Cure
Sunday, October 18th, 2009
The folks who market the sports drink Gatorade duped my friends and me on Facebook this week.
We were dazzled by a year-old clip showing a ball girl making Spider-Man-like moves up an outfield wall to catch a foul ball during a minor league game. We shared the video with our friends, celebrating the ball girl’s amazing feat and making comments such as “that rocks” and “great video.”
Then, a couple of days later someone pointed out we had been hoodwinked. The video is an ad to promote Gatorade. It was shot using a stunt woman attached to wires. The campaign, according to Snopes.com, was created by Element 79, a Chicago ad agency that also makes commercials for Amway.
Gatorade told the media it had shelved the ad and has no idea how it got posted on the Web. But with more than 2 million views on YouTube and many more on sites such as Facebook, the company is not complaining.
“This has all been a pleasant surprise, so why not let it happen?” Gatorade spokeswoman Jill Kinney is quoted as saying.
Unless you’re in the business of selling lies, you should be worried, Gatorade. There is no mention of your product during the video and, near the end of the clip, a bottle of Gatorade briefly appears next to the chair where the ball girl is sitting. We missed the subtle product placement.
Authenticity matters in the social media world, and the Gatorade brand just took a hit. There’s nothing wrong with making a viral video that uses digital wizardry to get people buzzing about your product. But be up front about what you were doing, and get noticed for being clever, not for being misleading.
Have you seen any other examples of misleading corporate viral videos? What are the best examples of companies using viral videos to reach the public?
Top 10 Aha! Moments in ‘The Chaos Scenario’
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
Chaos sometimes can be inspiring. And I definitely feel inspired after reading Bob Garfield’s new book The Chaos Scenario.
Garfield, an Advertising Age columnist and co-host of NPR’s On the Media, lays out the hastening death march of old media and the Brave New World of possibilities unleashed by bloggers, tweeps and the wisdom of crowds.
I’ve been on the front lines of this revolution since 1996. While covering San Francisco’s emerging “Multimedia Gulch” for the San Jose Mercury News, I got an early glimpse of technology’s potential to disrupt traditional media and marketing. I asked – okay, I begged — then Managing Editor David Yarnold to let me go work in the digital arm of Knight Ridder. I’m grateful he let me do it.
It’s been painful to watch the layoffs, the plunging profits, the acquisitions and general tumult as my former media employers grapple with a new way of doing business because advertising can’t foot the bill for the vast amounts of free content available online.
Garfield’s book lays out the reasons why anyone who’s in the business of marketing, media, government or religion must listen to the digital conversations or perish.
Here are my top 10 “aha!” moments while reading The Chaos Scenario:
10 – Why people share: “It goes back to something primal,” says Henry Jenkins, director of the Comparative Media Studies program at MIT. “There’s still a desire to have a shared cultural context. We hunger for things we can discuss.”
9 – “The opposite of love is not hate. It is indifference. Apathy,” says Yakir Krichman, BuzzMetrics’ “Sentiment Master.”
8 – “Better yet, host the conversation.” Having dealt with the fallout from “Dell Hell” and other social media debacles, Dell now “embraces the crowd with the zeal of the converted.” Among other things, they host IdeaStorm, a place for customers to post complaints and product suggestions.
7 – “Practice Jujitsu,” turning “the energy of the aggressor into your own best weapon.” That’s the model used by National Express, the U.K.’s largest long-haul bus company. They ask customers to text or call a toll free number to file complaints. Those are immediately routed to employees on the ground, who do their best to take care of the messes, impressing their costumers and improving their business.
6 – “What’s in it for Us? Not You. Us.” “Do something nice for people and they will come to you,” says Jess Greenwood of London’s Contagious magazine.
5 – “Remember Siegfriend and Roy. Especially Roy. Just when you think you do have the tiger by the tail, do not ever forget, the tiger can turn against you. Word of mouth is a wild and dangerous beast.” Here’s some research to back that up: “A 2007 study by University of Michigan social psychologist Norbert Schwartz demonstrated that attempts to correct misinformation not only tend to reinforce people’s false beliefs, but to attribute the baloney to the very authoritative source trying to clear things up.” So the old saying, “‘I don’t care what you say about me as long as you spell my name right?’ It isn’t true.”
4 – “Listenomics” is “the art and science of cultivating relationships with individuals in a connected, increasing open-source environment.”
3 – “In the Listenomics Age, never get in a dispute with someone with access to a computer.” Case in point, Garfield’s creation, ComcastMustDie.com, a site bent of having the cable goliath deal with the wrath of dissatisfied customers.
2 – “We now have [total-population] data, and that changes everything,” says Dave Morgan, founder of Tacoda, a behavioral-marketing firm that’s now part of AOL. “With [that] data, you can know essentially everything. You can find out all the things that are non-intuitive, or counter intuitive that as excellent predictors…. There’s a lot of power in that.”
1 – “Chaos. Someday it will end. …Nah. The very nature of Listenomics is such that there will always be some level of chaos in the scenario.”
Are Bob Garfield’s views of the media industry’s future too extreme or is he right on the money? Share your comments.
ABOUT
Jeordan Legon
Content Strategist
For over 10 years, I’ve been helping companies tell a story that is relevant. The views expressed on this site are mine alone and don’t necessarily reflect those of my employer, Chevron.
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