Alec

McNayr

Two quick links, both forwarded to me by Alan Beard in the last 24 hours:

How to Create Product Demo Videos that Get Social Media Attention: 6 Strategies to Increase Sales
via Marketing Sherpa

“Aaron Miller, President, ProGuitarShop.com, sees online video as the perfect medium for selling the retailer’s boutique electric guitar effects pedals.

In late 2007, ProGuitarShop.com was primarily an eBay retailer struggling to build traffic to their website. Miller’s team created a new strategy that avoided focusing on search engines. Instead, they built traffic through social networks, mostly by video marketing through YouTube.

Two years and more than 550 videos later, the team captures about 45,000 unique video views daily on YouTube and between 15,000 and 20,000 on their website — all from a niche audience. Sales have doubled each year since the effort began.”

Stella Artois Ditches Old-Time Campaigns, Creates Retro “TV” Station
via Fast Company

“How long is it until companies begin sponsoring full-on TV shows of their own and publishing them on the Web? That doesn’t sound too much different from television entertainment in the 1950s and the rise of soap operas. And now, the economics make tremendous sense: Why bother creating TV ads if you can get a few million views with no distribution costs while simultaneously creating and having final cut control over far more ambitious content?”

How long indeed?  It’s happening already.  One by one, brands are realizing the power of creating a constant flow of interesting, inexpensive media — forgoing the overhead-rich worlds of TV and traditional advertising.

The Fast Company asks how long it will be until a brand asks the creators of a show like Gossip Girl to create extended storylines with brands in center stage.  Not too long, I feel. But the question for aspiring and independent creators is — if I don’t work for a network and I don’t make a TV show, what career path can I take to get better cred with brands?

It’s something I’m wrestling with myself.

The answer is that you have to have proof of your work.  And, following the logic trail, you have to have work to get results!

If you’ve followed my career — and I know all six of you reading this have — you’ll see Pepperdine University (recognizable brand), Mann Theatres (regionally known brand), my own project Flipper Nation (350,000 views + awards), deals with ABC (again, a brand), Historical Tweets (4.7 million page views this year), and only now do I have an opportunity to step in front of brands.

The shackles are off.  Make something.  Put it online.  Do it again.  Brands don’t want a one-time hit, they want someone who can deliver results.  So don’t be the one-timer.  Keep working, keep crafting.  Keep getting better.  In time, the results will come.  And so will the brands.

Katie sent me a video from a non-profit/cause called Advent Conspiracy.  Their purpose: to give less at Christmas (less gifts, less stress) in order to give more (time, fun, donations, etc.).  They’re encouraging churches to redirect Christmas funds to build water wells around the world, a cause already close to my heart.

Now, on to the video.  What a powerful, yet simply done message.  The tempo, flow, imagery, and music all come together to really get the point across.  This group targets church members around the United States and their YouTube video already has about 90,000 views.  Not bad for trying to reach a niche audience.

According to Ad Age, 40 execs at advertising agencies were polled and 70% are looking to direct more budgetary consideration towards online “viral videos,” which can be a very hit-and-miss operation.

The “viralness” of your video depends on a) whether or not your video’s tone resonates strongly enough with your target audience, and b) whether or not your target audience is web-savvy enough to forward, blog about, re-post, and redistribute your viral video to their friends, contacts, readers, etc.

An interesting statement from the post:

Some respondents said a viral video for a marketing campaign is a hit if it draws 100,000 views, while others pegged success at 250,000 or 50,000 views.

One million views seems to be the number that everyone throws around, so it’s good to see smaller numbers get some attention as well.  50,000 views is an expensive ad buy for $100k, unless your 50,000 viewers were hitting your client’s sweet spot.

Presentation Zen design master Garr Reynolds has an extensive breakdown on John McCain’s background visuals during his speech at the Republican Convention last week. His comments are mostly non-partisan, and a good read.

I am really impressed by the size and brightness of that screen, and was overall impressed with the visuals that went behind it.  At times, they seemed out of sync with what he was saying, and other times, added to the moment.  The biggest problem with the setup was that they didn’t make sense to the TV audience during the close-ups (Garr goes into details about this).  He should make available a wide shot photo of each and every slide with him in front of it.  It would give bloggers something to talk about, rather than just the missteps.  My visuals grade: A for Effort, B+ for Execution.

Conversely, Barack Obama painted a different backdrop at his speech at the DNC.  His staging wasn’t that fancy: what seemed like a bunch of American flags in front of a building (looked like a ranch-style house, or stable?).  But the true backdrop was the crowded Denver stadium.  The TV cameras were able to cut away to thousands of average, seemingly middle-class people listening to the speech.  It was a different way to generating and furthering a message.  My visuals grade: B for Effort, B for Execution.

Saw this quick report from Daisy Whitney, who spins viral videos “tricking” the audience as a positive tactic for advertisers.

Tricking your customers can add to the mystique of your product or brand, but it’s important to not overstep your boundaries. While people like to uncover a mystery, they don’t like to be the butt of a corporate joke.

The video mentions a viral video by Parrot, which manufactures hands-free Bluetooth cell devices, where a kid records his drivers ed sessions while he talks on the phone. With 485,000 views on YouTube, this video did a ton better than the other Parrot vs. Quail Parrot-backed viral campaign I mentioned at SSM a while back.

The latest Batman movie comes out tomorrow: “The Dark Knight.”

Surely this isn’t news to you. If so, where you been?

Aside from all the great buzz being hyped about this movie, there’s been some great viral online marketing done. First, there was Why So Serious, then Commit Your Friend, and then live events covered by MTV interns (Hollywood and New York).

One thing caught my eye: a trailer recut into what it would look like if The Joker’s After-Effects-competent henchmen got a hold of it.

Ledger aside, it’s a chilling effect on the dark nature of the character and the movie. And to think, someone might say, “Hey, they’re ruining the scenes! They’re literally drawing on what WB spent millions of dollars to shoot and create!”

Let’s learn a lesson from the biggest blockbuster hit of 2008 (yes, bigger than Iron Man): no footage (and no brand) is too precious to not take a chance at telling a compelling story.

If you have trustworthy people with video-editing skills, let them mash up some footage. Let them experiment with your brand in their eyes. After all, they’re already brand ambassadors to their circle. Why not give them some slack on the leash. You might find viral gold.

My mom has no idea what 3G mobile technology means.

But she knows that the Apple iPhone 3G comes out tomorrow.  The buzz is on her lips, and everyone’s lips.

My personal measure of marketable buzz is: if my parents are talking about it, it’s big.

How does Apple consistently generate such big buzz?  How does any company or movie or product or restaurant or web service generate it, and how do they measurably turn it into revenue?

Being in the viral video business, I have a vested interest in creating tactics for generating buzz about my videos and media, be it for marketing clients or for personal entertainment projects. Here are the characteristics of buzz:

#1 Buzz is Real, But Fleeting

Screenwriter John August and Ask A Ninja’s Kent Nichols have been downplaying the importance of film festival buzz on their blogs.

From Kent:
“I view awards [and film festival wins] as a karmic thumbs up that I’m going in the right direction. Nothing more, nothing less.”

I agree with them in that buzz alone does not create a career, or even a job, but it can generate a first step into a different world.  Once in that world, of course, you need to back it up with talent, training, and hard work.

#2 Buzz is Triangulation

Buzz is hearing about something from multiple channels on multiple levels. Media, social, and personal.

Iron Man was a perfect example of a buzz-worthy summer blockbuster movie.  The industry said it was good.  The commercials made it look good.  The reviews were good.  All that is standard mass marketing, however.  Those media outlets can be bought. The most important component to buzz can’t be bought…

(more…)

WSJ reported today that BMW (and their ad agency) took credit for a 30-minute mockumentary about a German town building a ramp to literally launch a new 1-Series BMW car to America.

The story was leaked to blogs and traditional press, and has apparently gathered some big attention for the German auto-maker, and for a fraction of the cost of a traditional 30-second TV commercial.

More than the film itself, which is a Guffman-style mockumentary about a independent film director discovering the strange event called Rampenfest, the creators continued to build out the world in which the events transpire: creating Web sites for the film The Ramp, the filmmaker Jeff Schultz, the event planner Franz Brendl, and the fictional Bavarian town of Oberpfaffelbachen. Many characters also have Facebook profiles.

What’s more, a store on cafepress actually sells the T-shirts and other merch featured in the movie. With a big enough viral push, this “commercial” could even turn profitable.

Active Rain posted a snippet of an interview with TurnHere marketer Morgan Brown.

It’s a quick discussion on how real estate agents are (and should be) using online video to sell houses. In this down market, every little advantage helps.

Online video is clearly a great way to reach out, emotionally, to a house hunter in a way an MLS listing could never do.

Selling houses is about getting the buyer to see themselves in the house. What better tactic than to film a quick video?

“The fact is making good video that is compelling, authentic and relevant to the viewer is difficult. To wit, of the millions of videos watched on YouTube each day the average view time is less than 10 seconds. This is a direct result of most video not meeting the needs of the viewer.”
more

[Hat Tip: TurnHere is run by Brad Inman, whose real-estate themed Inman Blog gave my online series Flipper Nation some great blog love a few years back.]

A friend of a friend of a friend makes these funny videos featuring a cartoonish Sasha Vujacic commenting on his own Laker performance.

It’s hilarious, though potentially offensive: “Kobe! I Machine! I open!” If any part of Sasha’s public playboy persona is real, he’ll love it. It makes him into a star (even if it’s just in his own mind).

The real Sasha is getting some great national coverage by performing well in the NBA Finals, so it’s no surprise that the latest spoof video got 211,000 views after being featured by MySpace.

Attention ad agencies and people responsible for marketing NBA teams: this is a clever (and relatively cheap) way to advertise your lesser known players, especially in a smaller ad market. Everyone knows Kobe, but how can you build an experience around the marketable characteristics of your supporting cast?

Sasha Vujacic – “I SHOOT LIKE MACHINE”

PS – The 2.5-D style reminds of a great online comedy series: “It’s Jerry Time!”