Alec

McNayr

With so much comedy being broadcast around the web these days, it’s difficult to rise above the fray on concept alone.

UK’s answer to the Cup O’ Noodles, Pot Noodle has a comedy-friendly brand (hey, the feature dwarf wrestlers on their web page, after all), and they recently worked with ad house AKQA to create a little viral buzz.

They created a news report from the 80′s about a guy who develops sheep-like wool after eating enough Pot Noodle. “You are what you eat,” the guy claims. It’s funny, but certainly not funnier than anything else I’ve seen online.

The value comes from its editing — the video itself was copied onto an old VHS tape and re-imported to give it that static-y, 80′s feel. AKQA also teamed up with The Sun to run a fake news article about the video.

The video only has about 1200 views on YouTube, but is creative enough for me to take note.

Can’t help but mention this amazing video that my wife shot at a wedding we went to about a year ago. All the groom’s friends are bboys, and they performed at the reception.

The groom himself even got down — that’s him at the end… in his rented tux shoes, no less!

Just saw that the 2008 Computers in Libraries conference (yes, everything has a conference) hosted their 2nd annual Info Tubey Awards, featuring great online YouTube videos used to market to their book-borrowing, magazine-reading, database-searching, group-room-reserving patrons (read: college students).

Some are really well done, and some are really well done… for librarians. Nevertheless, I applaud the effort libraries are putting forth these days to make their facilities relevant to a new generation of student needs.

Now Your Library is Open Late Night, Too!
QandANJ.org, New Jersey Library Network

When I travel, I book my flights based on two things: 1) my desired departure and arrival times, and 2) cost. The airplane’s brand name usually has nothing to do with it. The only exceptions are JetBlue (positive: TVs for every seat) or Southwest (negative: cattlecalls), but neither brand persuades me to use them (or not use them).

I’m just indifferent when it comes to flight brands! To my eye, Alaska is Delta is American is Lufthansa.

So, imagine my surprise when I saw that a Delta safety video was featured on YouTube and has 600,000 views!

With interesting shooting angles (creative cinematography), informal confessional-style interviews (increased approachability), and pumpin’ background music (just fun!), Delta took an average, boring experience and made it interesting to the average Internet viewer — people not even forced to watch it on a flight, mind you! It doesn’t help that they had an 11-year employee (nicknamed “Deltalina”) that looks like a Angelina Jolie…

My takeaway is that Delta changed the way it tells its own story: they offer a creative experience with friendly, attractive people there to serve you. It’s certainly not my experience with them (or any airline), but after this video, I’m open to the possibility of it being true.

What boring, internal, or even government-enforced media can you replace with something that fits your brand aspiration?