Archive for the 'YouTube Video' Category

How to make a great viral video.

Published

on March 4, 2010

Be inventive, be shocking, be funny, be fascinating, be captivating and be awesome… all at the same time.

I have to admit I’m not a big fan of the music that this video promotes but the video is incredible. Obviously a great deal of time and effort went into the making of this music video for OK Go’s new song ‘This too shall pass”. Captured in a single four minute shot the video keeps you glued to your screen. CNN published a good background piece on the making of this video.

Sure this type of video has been done before, it’s still a great video. Don’t know if they’ll catch up to the 50,000,000 views that their last video received but, way to go OK Go.

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5 Reasons You Should Post Your Marketing Video on YouTube

Published

Jimm Fox

on February 16, 2010

in Content Marketing, General, The Effect of Video on Your Brand, The Future of Corporate Video, Video Marketing, YouTube Video, how-to video and video production

. 0 Comments

Happy Birthday YouTube.

The LA times just posted a recent article that highlights YouTube’s meteoric rise over the last five years. Google’s $ 1.6 billion purchase of the site in 2006 is still being debated but few people are betting against Google eventually turning YouTube into yet another money making machine.

All hype and controversy aside, YouTube’s numbers are impressive:

85% online video market share in the US
#4 site globally in terms of overall traffic
#2 site globally for search
20 hours of video uploaded every minute
5 Billion video streams a month
#2 time suck behind network television
…etc.

The folks at ReelSEO posted a great article in the fall that compared the options of ‘Hosting’ your video versus ‘Posting’ (placing it on a free hosting site like YouTube) and considered nineteen variables that should influence your decision. Their conclusion: “Unless your business is dependent on monetization of content (you are Hulu), chances are that the odds will be in favour of posting video.”

The biggest complaint about YouTube is that it is a big messy sandbox where you can’t control how your video is being presented. That’s true, but it’s important to remember that YouTube is more than just a place to post your video for free – it’s also a marketing platform. Here are five reasons why you should place your marketing video on YouTube (regardless of whether you also host them on your own site):

1. Sharing
Yes, you do lose some control over how your video is presented on YouTube, that’s the down-side of social media – the single biggest issue for companies deciding if and how to engage the great social media experiment. The upside however is huge. YouTube was built for the express purpose of sharing. The reality is that your website isn’t as important as it used to be – it’s no longer the exclusive or final ‘destination’ for all things about your products and your brand. More than ever people are discovering content wherever they happen to be (physically or virtually). You need to create content that is intended to be shared and consumed in many different ways and YouTube is the world’s biggest content bizarre – open 24/7.

2. SEO
Google is prioritizing video in it’s universal search algorithm. Every SEO article I read tells me that Google is explicitly looking for video content. Does Google have a bias toward video on it’s own website? It’s hard to say but you know that Google is certainly aware of it’s own video and is reading the meta data that you have tagged on your YouTube channel. Ideally, if you have a video sitemap on your website with proper mRSS feed Google should be able to find and promote your video as well. Why not do both? As well, you benefit from metatagging your video content on YouTube and linking back to your own website to help improve your site’s pagerank.

3. Content marketing and getting noticed
Content marketing will have the greatest potential to influence your brand in the future. Traditional marketers will argue that it’s a waste of time to place their videos on YouTube because no one is looking for them and no one is going to find them. That’s true. No one is looking for your traditional marketing video because it talks about you and your products and no one cares much about you or your products. If instead, you post a really informative video that solves a specific problem that your customers are facing your video will not only get found, it will get shared. ‘Yes, but we can’t just give stuff away,” you might respond. If you don’t someone else is going to.

4. Reach.
The long tail gets longer every day. YouTube has the greatest reach in the world (thanks to Google). Your audience may be huge or it may be very, very small. It doesn’t matter. There is no more cost effective way to reach your potential audience than on YouTube. Sure, the person typing in “Lolcats” into YouTube is not your customer, but the person typing in “North East Bolivian Pitted Kumquat Ripple Delight” just may be. Your customer may not frequent YouTube but I would bet that someone who knows and is trusted by your customer does.

5. It’s free.
Chris Anderson explains in his new book ‘Free – The Future of a Radical Price’ (a great read btw) that free is the inevitable price for many things online – you just have to figure out something else to charge for. Free doesn’t necessarily mean cheap either. YouTube continues to upgrade it’s service every month with things like better support for HD video, interactivity, metrics, mobile integration (i.e. the only easy way to get video on an iPhone at the moment) etc.

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The 5 Most Awful Viral Video ads of 2009

Published

Jimm Fox

on January 13, 2010

in Corporate Video Examples, General, Marketing with Video, The Effect of Video on Your Brand, Video Marketing, Viral Video and YouTube Video

. 4 Comments

{Bias warning: Large companies have no excuses for putting out poor quality work – they have the resources to develop the best creative on the planet. Sometimes however, they fail gloriously.}

There’s a big difference between ‘Ineffective’ and ‘Awful’.

‘Ineffective’ just means you spent a bunch of money and received very little benefit in return. Most viral videos ads fall somewhere between ‘Somewhat Effective’ and ‘Totally Ineffective’ usually because the video just isn’t that good or because there was no proper promotional/seeding program to help it get noticed.

The good thing about bad television advertising is that it seems to quickly go away – the negative impact is limited. On the web bad ideas live on. Not only are the following videos not effective, they cross into the negative side of the ledger where their existence most likely has a detrimental effect on the brand.

1. ‘Funny’ Lenovo Ad – W700ds

Company: Lenovo
Why this video is awful. This video is crass, not particularly well acted and just not that funny (even though the title suggests otherwise). Lenovo, the Chinese company that purchased IBM’s PC division really missed the mark with this approach. I doubt 13 to 24 year old males with limited social skills are a big market for this really expensive laptop but I can’t imagine who else this video might appeal to. And the ending is pure gold: “Man, that thing is huge”…“That’s what she said.” (Calling this an ‘homage’ to The Office, or a satire, or a parody doesn’t excuse it). If you are a global brand trying to compete with Apple, Dell, Sony and HP you have to do much, much better than this.

2. Launch Party

Company Microsoft
Why this video is awful. You have to know who your audience is. I have no idea who Microsoft thought this video might appeal to. It’s difficult to tell whether Microsoft made this video really bad on purpose, or whether they really don’t know how awful it is. If they were going for parody/cheesy they failed. If they made it bad on purpose to generate buzz – as some bloggers have suggested, then you really have to question this being a viable marketing tactic. As I mentioned in a previous blog, hurling farm animals off the roof of your corporate headquarters will also generate a buzz – but not necessarily a ‘good’ buzz. Is the old saying ‘any coverage is good coverage’ true? Perhaps if you are a B-list entertainer trying to rekindle a career, but if you are a global company competing with well respected global brands like Apple and Google, quality and consistency in your messaging is critical. Ten years ago when Microsoft was at the peak of their monopoly this video wouldn’t have mattered. Today it does.

3.Track Packages with Mobile Solutions by FedEx

Company Fedex
Why this video is awful. Unlike the previous Microsoft Launch Party video you know that Fedex intended for this video to be campy/funny. It just isn’t. Fred Willard is an interesting/inspired/bizarre/amazing/questionable choice for presenter but this video (and the others in the series of viral videos created) just don’t work. They are not funny or clever enough to be of interest, they don’t impart enough information to provide any real value and nobody is watching them. Like Pepsi, Fedex chose not to advertise in this year’s Superbowl. Pepsi has reallocated funds to launch a social marketing initiative that looks to have huge promise. Fedex, on the other hand took their SuperBowl savings and created this series of viral-intended videos. They aren’t viral.

4. Chevy Volt Dance

Company GM
Why this video is awful. (Note to GM Marketing team – it’s not the 60’s!) GM’s YouTube channel describes this video as “GM’s official dance routine performed at the LA Auto Show and set to the official song ‘Chevy Volt and Me.” An official dance routine? This marketing program was created to promote the single most important car the company has ever launched. The ‘Volt’ is the future of the company and GM should be knocking us back in our seats with how remarkable this car is and showing us (the whole purpose of video) why this is the vehicle that is going to change the automotive world. Instead GM delivers a high school dance routine. Will this video appeal to potential car buyers willing to spend $35,000 to $40,000 on a hybrid vehicle? Everything GM does right now has to be excellent – nothing less.

{Full disclosure: I want GM to succeed – they are a critical part of the North American economy and now we are all shareholders… but man, it’s frustrating when you see this stuff. My reaction should be “Wow! not, “Are you kidding me?!” Perhaps being ‘too big to fail’ renders all of these discussions moot.}

5. Microsoft Songsmith Commercial

Company Microsoft
Why this video is gawd awful. This video almost crosses the line of being so bad it’s good… but not quite. If nothing else, the YouTube comments are fun to read:

“I just threw up in my mouth”,
“I can’t believe I watched the whole thing and didn’t kill myself”,
“Epic Fail”,
“WTF – I think Microsoft is serious” etc.

Did I miss one? Is there a viral intended video circulating that will probably do more damage than good. If so, let me know.

{Added Jan 14…}

Follow this link below to see how Toyota, one of the most trusted brands in the world , stumbled horribly with video and social media:

http://mumbrella.com.au/how-saatchi-saatchis-toyota-social-media-disaster-unfolded-14257

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The 5 Most Effective Viral Video Ads of 2009

Published

Jimm Fox

on January 4, 2010

in Corporate Video Examples, General, Marketing with Video, Video Marketing, Viral Video and YouTube Video

. 3 Comments

‘Popular’ is great, ‘Innovative’ is cool and ‘Most talked about’ is wonderful, but if you are running a business, ‘Effective’ is what really matters. So what makes a viral video effective?
1. It has to be viewed by many people – some say 1,000,000 + to be ‘truly viral.’ (Ideally those people are your customers and prospects.)
2. It has to be obviously associated with your brand (otherwise it’s just entertainment) and
3. It has to achieve a measurable business objective (otherwise what’s the point).

Many companies have added or have considered adding viral video to their marketing mix. Patiently waiting for your child or pet to do something adorable or videotaping a funny skit the guys in IT created might eventually garner a lot of views on YouTube but it probably won’t move your business forward. A lot of planning and promotion and a bit of luck is what’s required if you want your viral video to have any measurable impact on your bottom line.

Here are my candidates for the most effective marketing viral videos of 2009:

1.“Will it Blend”

Company Blendtec

Why it’s effective. Blendtec has developed an ongoing series of viral videos that continue to be viewed by millions of people. These videos are effective because they do something that very few viral videos do – they drive sales. Blendtec has created a video series that is not only entertaining (who doesn’t like to see things being pulverized) but also demonstrates the power and utility of their product. Yes, most of these videos are not new – they originally launched over three years ago, but they continue to drive sales. The marginal cost to produce each new episode is minimal and there is an unlimited number of new things that people are keen to see vaporized.

2. Evian Roller Babies

Company: Evian

Why it’s effective. This video (and it’s various versions) have been viewed more than 35 million times – which sets it apart from almost every other viral video ad. As well, the video title ensures that the Evian name is directly associated with this video – a very important step in maintaining brand awareness. This is arguably one of the best (most popular, most engaging, most discussed….) viral videos ever made so associating your brand with quality and success at this level is a very good thing. Do I see an obvious connection between roller-blading babies and bottled water? No, but then again, the connection between girls in bikinis and beer isn’t that direct either.

3. Samsung HD Youtube Camera Trick Challenge

Company: Samsung

Why it’s effective. This video had smaller numbers than the rest of the videos on this list (just over a million) but was included because it did a number of things very well: 1. It demonstrated the quality of the product – the video was shot on that camera; 2. It clearly mentioned the product name without seeming too ’salesy’; 3. It was very clever -A contest to solve the puzzle presented in the video ensured good viral numbers and; 4. It was well done – it had a natural user-generated style but it was obviously very well planned. Unless you are Apple it is very difficult to get people to willingly share your product videos.

4. United Breaks Guitars

Business: Sons of Maxwell (Musicians)

Why it’s effective. Absolutely brilliant marketing by a relatively unknown band called Sons of Maxwell. Dave Caroll, the lead singer of the band was mistreated by United Airlines and decided to write three songs about his experiences in frustration. Whether this video was simply opportunistic marketing, motivated by revenge, the beginning of a new and growing consumer advocacy movement or just a way of escaping writers block we’ll never know. The outcome however is clear. The previously unknown band has gained a huge following and are booking shows all over the continent because of this viral video.

5. T-Mobile Dance

Company - T-Mobile
Why it’s effective. Sure T-mobile weren’t the first to film a flash mob, but they still hit this one out of the park. This video is clever, energetic, human, beautiful, entertaining and just plain fun to watch. It has huge numbers at over 17 million views and it does a great job of supporting T-Mobiles ‘Life’s for Sharing’ marketing campaign. T-mobile has smartly followed up with a sing-along video in Trafalguar Square and will undoubtedly continue the ‘Life’s for Sharing’ viral video series – a wise decision, but it will be tough to beat the magic of this video.

Which video would you add to the list of ‘Most Effective Viral Video Ads of 2009?”

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GM strikes out on YouTube

Published

Jimm Fox

on December 21, 2009

in Corporate Video Examples, General, Marketing with Video, The Effect of Video on Your Brand, Video Marketing, YouTube Video and video production

. Closed

What is the marketing brain-trust at Government Motors thinking?

You’ve survived bankruptcy by taking in billions of taxpayers dollars and you are facing the lingering effects of one of the worst recessions in our lifetime – one that could potentially hollow out a huge portion of this continent’s middle class (the folks that buy most of your cars). You’ve been building mediocre automobiles for years and there is little to show for your investments in innovation. You are now pinning a great deal of your credibility {insert sarcastic comment here} on a (partly) electric car called the Volt. You need to hit this one waaaaaaay out of the park. What do you do?

Amongst other things you pen a feeble song, you stage a 1960’s style showroom dance promotion, you capture them both on cheaply produced video and throw them up on the YouTube channel you have specifically created to promote your new game-changing car to the masses.

Ouch.

(Kudos to GM for allowing comments on the Volt YouTube channel – that was rather brave)

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Web Video – a powerful way to make a point

Published

Jimm Fox

on December 1, 2009

in General, Marketing with Video, Video Marketing, YouTube Video and video production

. 0 Comments

“If I put the real price I don’t get any customer.” Ha! Ouch.

Wind Mobile is in the process (pending CRTC approval) of launching a new mobile service in Canada. One of their key differentiators will be not locking people into ridiculously long service contracts. (I believe the good people at Bell, Rogers and Telus have currently all agreed to handcuff users for three year terms.)

Wind is pre-launching with promotions that go after the ‘mobile services indignation niche’ – that’s a big market in Canada.

Here is what Wind didn’t do:

1.They didn’t hire some Windbag to get in front of the camera and try to convince you that Wind will have the “best combination of mobile features in the country”.

2. They didn’t associate themselves with cute or exotic animals.

3. They didn’t clutter up their promotion with excessive information or complexity.

What they did do is present a single scenario that everyone can relate to and they associate that scenario with the frustration and absurdity of the current moderately competitive (at best) mobile landscape that we all have come to accept as the status quo.

Simply telling your audience that things are out of whack and that Wind has a better way would have had limited value. Showing your audience your key differentiator by means of a simple, but powerful example is a far more effective method of soliciting a visceral reaction (and also a great way to highlight the key benefit of using the new Wind service.)

The video also benefits from being fun to watch. A great example of ’show me, don’t tell me.’

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The ‘art’ (parody) of local commercials.

Published

Jimm Fox

on November 10, 2009

in General, Viral Video, YouTube Video and local videos

. 0 Comments

Sure a lot of local commercials are absolute crap, but some of them can be quite engaging.

The creators of the commercial (and making of video) above are Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal, two self-proclaimed ‘internetainers’. Like Kevin Nalts, they have managed to make a good living creating entertainment and infotainment videos for the web. The two North Carolinians have created over 200 web based videos including some very successful marketing promotions such as The Alka-Seltzer Great American Road Trip. They certainly look like they enjoy what they do and I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before Hollywood comes calling.

Their most recent promotional adventure, I love local commercials, is sponsored by Microbilt a finance company that developed this promotion for small local companies encouraging them to enter a contest to win a commercial created by Rhett and Link. The promotion is coming to an end and there have been a lot of commercials created. Some of these are (c)rude, some are strange, some are funny and some are really engaging.

The Cullman mobile home commercial above features Robert Lee (no middle initials given), a no-nonsense business owner who says it like it is. This commercial is part reality TV, part parody, part local TV commercial and part documentary. It’s fascinating. I imagine it will make Robert and his mobile homes famous for a while and that will probably translate into more business.

The media have picked up on some of these videos and YouTube and other web hosting sites are seeing impressive take-up of this series.

Are the creators making fun of the people in these videos? Are we laughing with or at these people? Hard to say. Parody is funny that way.

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Are corporate websites dead? No, but some may require life support.

Published

Jimm Fox

on October 29, 2009

in Content Marketing, General, Marketing with Video, The Future of Corporate Video, YouTube Video and video production

. 0 Comments

Websites don’t matter. The content on them and the content that gets consumed and shared (wherever) is what matters.

I recently responded to a blog article that posed the question “are corporate websites dead?” My take was that the purpose and function of corporate websites is changing – they will still serve as a repository for corporate information but the days of websites being a ‘destination’ for information about the things you do are long gone. An Example:

Recent changes to driving laws where I live now make it illegal to hold/use a cell phone while driving. I needed to pick up a good quality Bluetooth headset. While scanning some recent tweets I noticed a comment about a new Plantronics Bluetooth headset. I followed the link to a YouTube video. It sounded interesting but I wasn’t convinced. I then viewed a number of related reviews on YouTube that seemed more credible and decided that this was indeed the device that suited my needs. I Googled to find the best price and ordered the product online. I never went to the Plantronics website – there was no reason to. I know the company and have purchased products from them before so there were no credibility issues to investigate.

The user generated videos I viewed provided good general information but ultimately the more professionally created videos sold me. The whole process took ten minutes and at the end of it I felt very informed and very comfortable making a purchase decision. Would I have been as confident if I just went to the Plantronics site and consumed their literature? No way. Would I have been as comfortable if I went to my local electronics store and waited to listen to an inexperienced sales clerk sell me on equipment he may or may not have a lot of real experience with? No.

We are moving from the ‘text web’ to the ‘next web’ ( or ‘web something dot something’) and many companies still don’t see it coming. I’d rather watch a video review or video product demo than read product literature because video and other rich media content show me things that a document cannot. It’s also easier to make value judgments about the presenter and the content.

There is huge value in showing your product/service being used, showing people talking about their experiences with the product and showing how it clearly benefits the potential buyer.

It’s the content (and where that content is seen) that matters, not the website and the implications of this reach far beyond simple consumer products. All companies have to take into account how social media, rich media, mobile engagement, word of mouth, and especially the creation of truly valuable content is going to affect their brand and their business. Even companies with long sales cycles that involve complex buying decisions need to consider how they are going to engage the ‘next web.’

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Bank of America backs down after YouTube smackdown.

Published

Jimm Fox

on September 30, 2009

in General, The Effect of Video on Your Brand, Video PR and YouTube Video

. 0 Comments

Most companies are not prepared for the impact of social media.

CNN Money recently posted this article about Ann Milch, an irate BOA customer who concluded that the only way to get even with the ‘thieving, scheming bastards’ at the Bank of America was to post a scathing YouTube video letting the world know exactly how she felt. At 400,000 views and 6,000 comments, she has received a lot of people’s attention… including the bank’s. Bank of America has since retracted the 30% interest rate (is that legal?) it was charging her and has reinstated the previous 12.9% rate. Good for them.

Whether you agree with Ann and the vast majority of YouTube commenters that the Bank is evil or whether you feel, as some do, that Ann would not have experienced this problem if she had simply lived within her means you have to agree that the impact of a single angry customer can have a significant affect on your brand.

It’s tough to know what makes any video go viral. YouTube is filled with angry rants, this one just seems to have struck a resonant chord. A lot of people are hurting right now. Perhaps BOA is just the lightning rod de jour, attracting the current anger and frustration surrounding these difficult economic times.

These are still early days. If a single video can garner this much attention imagine what would happen if the angry hoards got together. Imagine if the conversation started to spiral out of control and you were not part of it. Imagine if the groups and people that are impacting your brand were all playing in a sandbox that you knew nothing about, and frankly had no credibility in. Imagine if the majority of negative word of mouth about your brand was visual and interactive and the only arrow in your quiver was a press release.

Time to engage.

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Perhaps bad is the new good for Microsoft. This video is really bad.

Published

Jimm Fox

on September 23, 2009

in Content Marketing, Corporate Video Examples, General, Marketing with Video and YouTube Video

. 3 Comments

Let’s assume for the sake of argument that Microsoft made this video lame on purpose.

What’s the point? To generate buzz? Mission accomplished I suppose, but it’s not the type of buzz a company should be promoting. Microsoft has turned the comment feature off on the YouTube channel it sits on so if they are trying to generate buzz, they don’t want it recorded. So far the comments on various blogs break down roughly between the following:

1. This video being six minutes of your life that you will never get back (I only lost two of those minutes)
2. Criticism of the acting, the film work and just about anything else imaginable about the video
3. Microsoft providing another reason for people to switch to Apple.

I can’t see much value in that buzz. You could start hurling farm animals from the roof of your corporate headquarters and that would generate a buzz as well. It probably wouldn’t move much product however.

Microsoft lost their way with the Seinfeld/Gates ads, which tried to be funny but were not. They then adopted ‘lame’ as the new corporate video standard in their Songsmith music – thing. Now they have circled the wagons around ‘just plain bad’. Maybe bad is the new good but I can’t imagine how this will help the brand.

Of course the other possibility is that Microsoft actually thought this was a good promotion. That would be really bad.

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Archive for the 'YouTube Video' Category

How to make a great viral video.

5 Reasons You Should Post Your Marketing Video on YouTube

The 5 Most Awful Viral Video ads of 2009

http://mumbrella.com.au/how-saatchi-saatchis-toyota-social-media-disaster-unfolded-14257

The 5 Most Effective Viral Video Ads of 2009

GM strikes out on YouTube

Web Video – a powerful way to make a point

The ‘art’ (parody) of local commercials.

Bank of America backs down after YouTube smackdown.

Perhaps bad is the new good for Microsoft. This video is really bad.

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