Great review of our feature doc “Salaam Dunk” In VARIETY
Browsing June, 2011
Viral Video Ad Weekly Round Up: June 27th, 2011
Hello Google, we are now familiar enough friends that I can drop the formalities and instead jump directly into the conversation about how everything you do goes viral. This ad is about a new feature that seems to use photo-recognition technology in order to assist in a search of the web based solely on an image. The way the animation presents the new feature makes it seem pretty cool. Google continues to expand as a business but its presence as an internet marketing machine is quite impressive as well. No other company returns as frequently to our blog posts as Google and no other company has had as many videos featured on our blog as Google. This trend is unlikely to change, people seem to have a fascination with Google and their new technology, specifically in how they choose to reveal it.
If you’re a brand or agency in need of a commercial or viral campaign, contact us here.
Viral Video Ad Weekly Round Up: June 13, 2011
Seeing as we’re guys who create rap videos it’s only natural that we would like other guys that would create good rap videos. This particular song and music video is about Whole Foods. Anyone who has actually shopped at Whole Foods can appreciate this guys lyrics, especially “pay my 80 bucks for my six things and get the heck out”. Yea, the place is expensive, but if you haven’t experienced their hot food you’re missing out (it’s amazing). Regardless of price and quality, this Whole Foods rap is pretty good, and with a million views, we aren’t the only ones that think so. Now it’s time to wait and see if Safeway fans will answer back, or if Whole Foods and Wal-Mart are destined to be the only groceries that have fan songs made for them.
It may not be “cute laughing baby“, but this viral sure has some potential. It’s fairly obvious straight away that this is a CGI baby who’s motor skills are better than mine, but it’s ok, because this is the internet, where reality is suspended and lolz are the only score anyone counts. Rocksmith, the game that is being featured here, did a great job keeping the branding simple. It’s not quite guerrilla, but it’s no Microsoft viral either. One other interesting thing to note is that the man in the video is Dan Auerbach from the band Black Keys and the song being played in the video is called “I Got Mine”, also by the Black Keys. This video has piled on the views, reaching nearly two million at the time of this writing. It’s definitely struck a chord with internet audiences.
If you’re a brand or agency in need of a commercial or viral campaign, contact us here.
Top 5 Viral Video Tips – From Viral Video SF Event
Here at Seedwell we search for ways to cultivate a better understanding of viral media (“what is viral?”, “isn’t it all luck?”, “isn’t it just 13 year old boys?”, “why should brands care?”). Last night we co-hosted a conference with our friends at Portal-A in San Francisco featuring a panel of some accomplished industry professionals with a goal of talking it out (Maggie Finch, CEO King of Web; Chris Schrieber, Director of Marketing Sharethrough; Blake Cahill, President Banyan Branch; George Strompolos, CEO Fullscreen; David Prager Co-Founder Revision3). With the help of an engaging audience, we had a lively evening of discussion, drinks, and of course videos, exploring the evolution of viral video since keyboard cat and discussing brands can leverage the under-used medium. Enough talk, here are some concrete tips that came out of the evening.
Tip #1: The 48 Hour Rule
It’s important to drive as much traffic as possible to your video during the first 48 hours after it’s been released. For example, if you can get ~50,000 views in the first two days on YouTube, you will almost ensure placement on one of the “Most Popular” lists within YouTube, a strategy that can boost the video’s natural search traffic.
Tip #2: YouTube Stars For Talent & Distro
One of the most sure-fire strategies for reaching a wide audience on YouTube is to release the video on a channel with a large amount of subscribers. By casting a “YouTube Star” (i.e. a YouTube content partner with more than 100k subscribers who frequently pots videos to the site), you can ensure a baseline audience of their subscribers. One caveat here is making sure that the demographic you are trying to reach matches up with the audience of the YouTube star you have chosen.
Tip #3: Optimize Your YouTube Metadata
Remember that YouTube users are often perusing thousands of videos looking for the one they want to watch. Here are some ways to catch their attention:
-Use a thumbnail that is visually interesting and/or provocative.
-Create a title that promises action, or fits into a current meme. When in doubt, use superlatives.
-Tage your video with popular search terms and current memes related to you content.
Tip #4: Serialize and Annotate
If you can come up with an idea thats funny and attention-grabbing, consider creating a series of related clips rather than a single video. By giving your viewers the option to watch more than one of your videos in a sitting, you have the opportunity to increase your view counts across all of them and thus your reach on YouTube. You can also use annotation links to drive traffic between videos in a series.
Tip #5: Target A Niche
There are many reasons that people share videos with their friends, but one of them is that the content re-affirms, their bond with a niche community – San Francisco Giants Fans, Tech geeks, food snobs. Think about your audience and what niche they inhabit. What inside jokes do they share? What type of content do they typically enjoy? Where do they congregate online? The answer to these questions will help form both your content production and your distribution strategy.
NEW VIDEO: I Treat Myself (crunk rappers for healthy living)
We’re excited to launch today our newest video “I Treat Myself (crunk rappers for healthy living)”. It’s a music video parodying southern rap where the rappers treat themselves to the finer things in life, like shiatsu massage, pilates, yoga, organic foods, book club and much more.
We had a blast working with Pepsi MAX on this campaign! Hope you enjoy…
YouTube Link -> http://youtu.be/zT3-92jCy20
Click to Tweet the video -> http://bit.ly/itweetmyself
Click to Share the video on Facebook-> http://on.fb.me/m0GhXp
Viral Video Ad Weekly Round Up: June 6, 2011
Sometimes we all need a little something to make us smile during the day and this video should do just that. A very talented magician, Simon Pierro, has put the iPad at the center of his bag of tricks and created a great viral that is full of fun and fantasy. Throughout the video he plays with perspective, taking things out of, and putting them back into the iPad. He even pours milk into the iPad, soaking a friend on Facetime! It’s not an ad for the iPad from Apple, in fact, this is supposed to be a video showcasing the new features of iOS 5 facilitated by the iPad. But to be honest, it doesn’t much matter who or what this video was originally set to showcase, the end result is a head scratching, smile inducing, slow motion-replaying viral that keeps us entertained.
Drool. Allow the majesty of a world record breaking 332 ft car jump to sink in. Now that you’ve fully ingested the fear of nose diving 100 ft before making enough speed to jump over 300 ft, we can focus on the brilliance that was this Hot Wheels viral campaign. The six million views this video has gained so far is remarkable, and one of the most viewed videos listed on our viral video round-up to date. Hot Wheels managed to create a lot of excitement and mystery around this jump with videos preceding it, including tease videos and an expected release date for the video showing the actual jump. The other thing they did to maximize the campaigns longevity was to hide the drivers identity, so even after the jump video had been released viewers would be drawn back again to figure out who was crazy enough to pull this off. The subsequent “reveal” video has pulled in almost a half million views, citing the curiosity aroused by such an insane human being. Overall, this was a solid campaign, hopefully other companies will continue to do such fun and exciting things for online viewership.
Well, now that we’ve seen everything we can happily die in peace. That is, of course, not until “go to a nude gaming party” is crossed off the bucket list. Alas, this is nothing but an ad, but the buzz it caused was really something to behold. The internet was a flurry with questions regarding the legitimacy of this viral, even though it is clear this is an ad. Wishful thinking on the part of the masses, we suppose. After racking up nearly a million views it can be safely assumed that nudity is the only thing as viral as kittens. Rounding out the top three most viral keywords would be gaming. So, to create the ultimate viral perhaps its time for a nudist gaming party starring purring kittens, sponsored by Google, with a Lady Gaga cameo. Eat that, Smart Water!
The Samsung Infuse apparently has a very realistic and vibrant display, something Samsung would like you to believe and subsequently laugh at after watching this ad. This commercial certainly went viral but was likely aided by a large marketing effort, including broadcast plays. They’ve done a pretty good job here of creating a simple but funny ad that sells the excellence of the phone screen while creeping out those who are afraid of spiders, because lets face it, the spider they chose is freaky looking. Admit it, it’s ok. We won’t judge. Phone companies have been getting deeper into the viral space because so many of their customers are in the coveted 18-35 year old age range whom spend so much of their time online. Nearly a million views, they have hit their mark with this ad. We will see if Samsung will continue to use the internet as a marketing device, but with success like this, it’s likely they will revisit the space again.
If you’re a brand or agency in need of a commercial or viral campaign, contact us here.