Everyone wants ‘em, but are they just a fad? Christina Goodman mulls over the prospects for viral video campaigns in the future over at MediaPost. She’s fairly confident the trend will continue in light of the current user-generated video world, but does suggest proceeding with caution.
In this age where consumers have more and more choices, content and advertising are being controlled by what consumers want, how and when they want it, forcing marketers to rethink their old ways of communication. In some respects, viral advertising is a way of reaching consumers that gives them ultimate creation and viewing control — including the media platform they choose to watch it on, whether it is viewed on the Internet, or using their iPod or mobile device. Shifting focus and control to the consumer does not guarantee a promising outcome, particularly where viral videos are concerned, and marketers need to consider both the positives and negatives of launching a viral marketing campaign.
I think she’s got a lot of great points in this piece. However, I also believe that our cultural consumption gravitates increasingly to the current fluidity of media sharing and this fervent hurricane of portable video cultural conversation. The urge to inject brand messages into this chaotic mediasphere is too strong now to resist and will continue getting stronger the more eyeballs are drawn to it. The fact is ‘viral video’ is the way it’s done, and it’s no fad.
The Amazing Pitch was a call out for pilots and trailers for great webisode series ideas. Even with a short, couple-week window, a bunch of people entered their creative vision into the pool. And they were truly fabulous! And then, we had a great opportunity to show these videos to big advertisers at an ad agency conference.
Pretty awesome, huh? But, wait, there’s more! We had a ton of great entries, and the 5 runners up won an Sanyo Xacti E1 waterproof video camera. Congrats to you folks! Great work. Some of the vids are super wacky, others are down right cool. Watch all the entries, but make sure to watch the winners:
And, while I’m talking about Amazing Pitch, we had so much fun with these, we’re going to go ahead and roll out The Amazing Pitch II (coming soon)! Get on over and send us your best pilot for an online series here.
[tags]news, video, xlntads, the amazing pitch, winner, contest, webisodes[/tags]
Got the chance to talk to Andy Plesser of Beet.tv on camera at the NewTeeVee Live conference in San Francisco couple weeks ago. Pretty excited to see we made the cut! Thanks, Andy!
We got some great ink in this week’s edition of AdWeek, thought we’d pass it along for you to enjoy.
Eleftheria Parpis at AdWeek got some good quotes from Neil in her story about emerging companies tapping into consumer-generated advertising:
Perry says they have a special interest in budding industry players, from wedding videographers to ad students. “There is tremendous talent in Des Moines, Iowa, or Madison, Wis.,” says Perry. “These are people who don’t have access to major brands, major corporations to get their work showcased. It’s hard to get a job at DDB New York if you live in Des Moines.”
These have to be some of the simplest, cleanest spots I have seen in a while. And short! Perfect for pre-roll or mid-roll ad placement. And really, anyone could make videos like these. So simple!
Our friends at AdPulpwrote today about Tay Zonday’s Dr. Pepper Cherry Chocolate Rain video that echos some of our thoughts on the video and how this is a vision of things to come. To wit, mining for talent on YouTube is fun! And inexpensive! My favorite line from the AdPulp post is: “Strategies are being written by the brand team and execution is being handed off to DIY consumers and culture makers. Isn’t disruption fun?”
Yes. Why yes it is! Learn more about how XLNTads is shaking things up.
In one of the more painful exchanges about viral videos, a young student at Stanford and ‘viral video consultant’ began with a lengthy post on TechCrunch about how to game YouTube. People were furious, for various reasons. Next, he posted a reply in which he backpedaled on a few of the claims. Now, after all the noise surrounding these posts, he’s interviewed on CNN. I have never seen a more awkward and lame discussion of ‘viral video‘ in my life (they show Dramatic Chipmunk 3 times in a row!). But here you go, it’s news (sort of):
