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Viral Video Ad Weekly Round Up: December 5, 2011

Posted on December 5, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Norte – “Photoblocker”

Norte Beer, an Argentinean beer brand, has come up with the perfect solution for your nights out and the one or two pictures what will be taken and inevitably end up on a social media network, leading to terrible results. Fortunately, with the help of a new product, the Photoblocker, this will never happen again. This is, of course, a fake product, but the concept is based on some very relatable occurrences. This viral hasn’t garnered too many views since it was released a little under a week ago, but this could be to the underwhelming situations the humor is delivered with. This is a pretty safe commercial even though it has an amusing concept. If Norte had taken a more aggressive approach, perhaps mimicking the style of some of the better ads from New Zealand, this ad could have been catapulted into a whole new level of humor. That being said, this is a fantastic concept and the built in social media aspect gives this extra sharing potential.

Samsung France – “Limitless Creativity”

Over the past few months we’ve seen some great commercials featuring dubstep tracks and amazing dancers. Now Samsung France can be added to the list. This red pants wearing man is festive as he moves through air like water, mesmerizing all who watch. The VFX heavy ad has the buildings turning into Tetris-like blocks as the dancers skills inspire even the ground to pop up and get down. This ad has a desperately low view count of just under 12,000 views after just under two weeks, which, given what the ad has to offer, isn’t completely surprising. Branding is limited to the final few moments of the ad, but unlike Samsung’s previous viral ad, this one leaves much to be desired. It lacks the explosiveness the previous ad had, and for all the skills this dancer possesses, they don’t get him moving fast enough for this ad to be intriguing. Samsung’s ad from last week was also very clever (this one making fun of iPhone users) so there is no doubt they are capable of making great virals. And who knows, maybe this one will catch on in a few weeks.

Nando’s – “Last Dictator Standing”

Nando’s might not be a household name in America, but they are a well known food brand based in South Africa. This ad is likely something that would never fly in the U.S. due to sensitivity issues, but in South Africa it’s fair game. The ad goes through the past of Robert Mugabe President of Zimbabwe, as he reminisces about having fun with now deceased dictators Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi, Pieter Botha, and Idi Aman Dada. He plays in the sand with Saddam and has a water fight with Gaddafi, but my favorite scene is when Mugabe and Dada recreate the “I’m flying” scene from Titanic on top of a tank. The ad has nearly 500,000 views at the time of this writing and continues to be showered with positive comments from YouTube users. It seems the average citizen appreciates the death of certain dictators. The comedic finish of this ad is comprised of the tag line “this holiday season no one should eat alone” as Mugabe is the “last man standing” at his lonely dinner table. Fortunately for those of us not residing in South Africa this commercial was put on YouTube for all to enjoy. Over the past few weeks we’ve gotten to enjoy some very creative ads from brands outside the United States and with quality like this, that’s just fine with us.

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TV Commercial Weekly Round Up: November 23, 2011

Posted on November 23, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Chevy – “Nick and Hunting”

In the spirit of the holidays, Chevy has introduced a new campaign staring the one and only “Nick”. Hopefully you got that this is in reference to good old Saint Nicholas, otherwise known as Santa Claus. It’s possible this is a cheap politically correct way of throwing Santa Claus into the mix, but we’re pretty sure it’s simply playing off the average viewers knowledge of Mr. C’s stereotypical look and asking, “what would you do, if Santa was your Car Salesmen?”

Each ad in this campaign plays with different aspects of the Santa character, such as milk and cookies, is his beard real and even his reign deer – which leads us to our ad in question. Jolly old Nick, like the great Chevy salesmen he is, begins a conversation with a customer who explains that he’d love a truck for hunting…deer in particular. The customer gets one look at Nick and quickly changes his story (Santa doesn’t want you hunting his reindeer now, does he?). What ensues is a bit long and overdone, but awkwardly funny enough that it’s enjoyable. Reminiscent of a Seinfeld or an Office sketch – it’s fun to see this customer crash and burn in front of Santa…Nick…whatever.

When all is said and done, Chevy did do the smart thing and cut the commercial down to a 30 second spot, which does lack a bit of the humor from the original but is much better suited for the television audience. Looking forward to seeing what other idiosyncrasies Chevy can come up with for ol’ Nick in future commercials.

The Shelter Pet Project – “Sandbox”

The Shelter Pet Project has been around for awhile with some pretty funny commercials staring your favorite lovable pet, complete with talking monologue. They started out with cartoons, progressed to the E*TRADE baby technique of making the mouths move and finally for their most recent campaign have completely internalized the animals discourse.

This looks to be a good move and is quite a bit funnier than the older versions. The talking mouths are ok, but quite unnatural. It always seemed like animals with mouths that move like a humans, especially since they obviously lack the same muscular structure, is just creepy. The day dogs learn how to curl their R’s…we’re out.

The Shelter Pet Project makes some funny commercials that have just enough humor to keep you  interested in what the project actually is. It isn’t hard to figure out that it’s a commercial for adopting a dog or cat and once you found yourself at the website, it’s pretty hard not to want to adopt one. The personalities of each of the animals in their commercials are very fun and we hope they continue to put out more of these. It’s like viral cat videos, but with the animals thought process provided for us…what’s next…catvertising?

Samsung – “Next Big Thing”

This week, Samsung decided to grow some apples and pick a few fights (more puns!).  At first it would seem that Samsung is touting that the release of their next phone will come with long lines of adoring fans waiting for the day it launches – this idea turns quickly, though. These “fans” seem a bit too obsessed about waiting in line, and a bit too concerned with the updates and all around just a bit too fanboy cliche…they sound more like a different company.

Then comes the ‘shocking’ reveal – these are iPhone fans, not samsung fans waiting in line. All the Samsung fans are outside, doing every day activities and enjoying the use of their 4g phones with super big screens. The iPhone users, who start to ask questions (uh oh, Apple) get a taste of the Samsung and they seem to like it. Except of course for the grand hipster-cliche-stereotype of them all: the “too creative for samsung” guy, who’s actually just a barista.

We have to give Samsung some props for this particular pie thrown in apples direction. They do bring up some serious concerns for iPhone users and ‘solve’ them with their own phone while providing funny back and forth banter between the two users (even though Samsung has had some security issues of their own). When iPhone was first released, comparing the two would be like comparing apples to oranges…completely different products – but as the market shifted towards the android, it seems Apple may actually have some cleaning up to do. It’s not like Apple never tried to start a fight with anyone…

If you’re a brand or agency in need of a commercial or viral campaign, contact us here.

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Viral Video Ad Weekly Round Up: September 19, 2011

Posted on September 19, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Google – “First Google Wallet Customer”

Google Wallet is a new service which utilizes Near Field Communication (NFC) integrated into Android smart phones allowing a user to sync their credit cards with an app so that they can pay at any NFC enabled pay station with a simple tap of their phone. NFC is nothing new for credit cards, it’s been around for quite some time but some people have had issues with the security related to NFC credit cards. The Google Wallet system will apparently offer more security and versatility, featuring the ability to integrate and scan coupons without the annoyance of a large paper wad to sort through. This particular feature is what this Google viral is highlighting. Whether it be receipts, coupons, or stray pieces of paper left over from a purchase, these can all be eliminated with the help of this one device.

Google must have went to some lengths to hire Jason Alexander, get the proper Seinfeld music, and then even mimic the look of New York which was shot in the old series. The video is currently going viral, but as of this writing it only has about 210,000 views, significantly less than the most popular Google ads which feature celebs. This type of live action commercial isn’t something that Google does very often, especially something which has a tinge of humor, but it would be great to see them continue to explore this space.

Jim Beam - “Bold Choice”

This Jim Beam ad which recently went viral was posted some time ago, but for no logical reason has suddenly become very popular. With a modest 120,000 views it’s clear this is a recent find. The ad features William Dafoe talking about life choices while living out life along different paths, such as a sumo wrestler and a circus performer. His narration is pretty good, but the ad as a whole is just so off the wall that it isn’t really clear how Jim Beam connects its product to the different paths alternate universes might have in store for Dafoe. Regardless, the production value and emotion in the ad are very strong.

Isang Litrong Liwanag – “Advertisement”

In Sitio Maligaya, Philippines, there is an impoverished town nestled next to a railroad in which many homes are built so close together that hardly any daylight gets in.  Out of this difficult situation some people have taken one small step to better the living conditions of many in this village by creating what is essentially a skylight made from a soda bottle.  This video is inspiring and tells a good story, and the students at MIT who developed the project have done a good job of staying off camera.  Also, if Pepsi didn’t fund any of the project, they certainly are receiving some good viral marketing out of it. You can donate to the project on their website here.

AMD – “Maximum Speed”

AMD is preparing to launch their new FX line of processors to compete with Intel’s high end offerings. To drum up some interest in the capabilities of the new FX series AMD held an overclocking event (to those who are unfamiliar, overclocking is the process of raising the recommended running frequency of a CPU as high as possible without breaking anything). During the event AMD successfully broke the 8 GHZ frequency, setting a new world record for fastest CPU. They created a video showing the competition and the (now ad) has since gone viral. The success of the overclock also gained a lot of press from various tech blogs, which has helped bolster the impending release of the chip and given it legitimacy as an Intel contender. While not the most traditional ad for a brand, it’s an effective way to showcase ones accomplishments and abilities.

Samsung – “The Way We’re Wired”

The new Samsung Galaxy S II ad is inspirational and philosophical, words that were used in the past for a Levi’s ad titled “Go Forth”. Whether this is a trend of companies trying to be bigger than themselves, or companies just trying to make the consumer believe a product will inherently motivate them into becoming someone better than they already are remains to be seen. What is evident is that there has been a dramatic tonal shift in advertising lately, and it seems to fall into two categories: copy overly sarcastic and dynamic Old Spice ads, or do the exact opposite with emotional ads like Levi has been doing lately. While this commercial is not solely a viral (it’s broadcast as well), Old Spice doesn’t keep its silly commercials off television either. Whether you love it or hate it, however, this shift in interest towards these two categories of commercials can make things quite amusing if the writing can stay unique and creative. Let us all hope, for the sake of early morning office giggles, that these important prerequisites do no change.

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Viral Video Ad Weekly Round Up: June 6, 2011

Posted on June 6, 2011 by | Leave a comment

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.

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