Archives for posts with tag: Viral Video

$30 versus $30 million

May 19, 10 //

Regardless of your politics on California’s Proposition 16, this article posted at Huffington Post yesterday is impressive for the sheer audacity of it’s claim: that with social media, opponents of the proposition can beat PG&E’s $30 million dollar lobbying with a $30 video campaign.

From the article:

“We decided to take one millionth the budget of PG&E’s expensive, drab, one-way mass-media distortion campaign, and create a cheap, hopefully humorous, person-to-person social media conversation, offering a real-person discussion that no corporation can fake. To kick it off, we borrowed a video camera, rented a microphone for $5 and headed to the streets to film, joke, fight and cry with people from all walks of life about their values, and how Prop 16 would affect what matters to them.”

There are is a central truth to this campaign about viral marketing in this article: the best viral campaigns call viewers to contribute, not just watch. Like Lady Gaga videos, Stephen Colbert’s green screen challenge, commercial parodies and tributes, the real online phenomenons inspire people to participate.

Although this campaign is more directly asking for contributions (going on the street and sticking a mic in people’s faces), it’s on the right start with a call for responses and conversation instead of donations or volunteers — once that conversation starts, momentum won’t be far away for the project. Additionally, although viral success stories aren’t hard to find, it’s interesting to see a campaign with such a specific metric, trying to defeat a traditional ad campaign via an internet-only push with exactly one millionth the budget of their opponent.

The question is, can these tactics inspire a larger conversation online, and engage their audience? The campaign is releasing nine videos leading up to the June 8 election, using serial releases and staggered buzz to their advantage. But what they need to do is get viewers to either contribute, argue, respond or forward — and luckily for them, money can’t buy you virality.

Follow the “”One Million Strong Against Prop 16 with One Millionth the Budget of PG&E” campaign, which launched yesterday, on their blog and YouTube page, and watch the first video after the cut.

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Scarface the School Play

April 2, 10 //

As in the case with most viral videos, this elementary school production of “Scarface” is too good to be true.

Masterminded by LA director Marc Klasfield, the video has drawn over two million views on YouTube to become this week’s top viral sensation, and has spawned a fair amount of controversy from viewers who were shocked by the seemingly real school play. Using an odd, G-rated version of the script (“You motherfudging son of a b!”), the kids run through the final scene of “Scarface,” complete with a popcorn pile of cocaine and a bunch of toy guns.

The YouTube comments are priceless, as internet denziens scold the imaginary parents and teachers behind the play…our favorite? “The parents have to be very ignorants or be Idiots, to allow childrens to play a dirty roll like that… Wake up parents, we have better things to teach our childrens.”

Klasfield is no stranger to viral video — looking at his resumé with his production company, Rock Hard Films, he’s also filmed an MC Hammer-themed flashmob for A&E that might not be as awesomely bizarre as his interpretation of “Scarface,” but no less silly and re-watchable.

Source: NY Daily News

Hayes Valley Farm pt. 2

March 30, 10 //

A few weeks back, we posted about the awesome local Hayes Valley Farm project, in which a chunk of old highway is being transformed into a sustainable, local organic farm with produce for the neighboring communities. We were impressed not only by their work, but their awesome DIY online marketing tactics as well.

Well, Hayes Valley Farm got word of this, and Chris, the founder of HVF, sent us a new promotional video they put together for one of their work parties. We got to talk to Chris about how online promotion and video has helped bring in volunteers and momentum to their very exciting urban agriculture project.

Summing up the importance of web video to Hayes Valley Farm, Chris said “Online video is the next best thing to experiencing our work parties. We’ve been told by our volunteers that our videos are a great way to stay connected. Some of our volunteers actually came the to site because they saw everyone having so much fun…” And looking at the videos, HVF do an excellent job capturing their work parties in spirit and connect potential volunteers to online tools that get them involved.

The video is below, and the interview is after the cut…

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Fresh Pots

March 26, 10 //

Them Crooked Vultures: a pitch-perfect supergroup that fell flat.

Comprised of rock heavyweights John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters) and Josh Homme (Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age), the fanboy wet dream supergroup dropped their album to a salivating mass of active rock fans a few months back, on the back of huge hype and anticipation. Unfortunately, the album’s actual music didn’t hold up to the weight of its members, with lukewarm singles and overly “active rock” production that sounded more Nickelback than Nirvana.

That said, the album was promoted via a series of YouTube videos incorporating music samples and studio footage, all of which built on the promise of the band’s members, and via a well-promoted central YouTube channel. The best of these videos was “Fresh Pots,” chronicling Dave Grohl’s serious need for caffeine, filled with Grohl’s hyperactive noodling, coffee chugging and drum shreddery.

So, although we can’t get behind a wholehearted recommendation for Them Crooked Vultures, we most definitely can salute fellow caffeine addict and general badass Dave Grohl:

iamamiwhoami pt. 2

February 10, 10 //

According to Pitchfork Media, the viral video author “iamamiwhoami” has posted another installment in the mysterious series:

We reported on this video series a few weeks ago (proof here). The speculation continues as to who is behind the videos — Bjork, the Knife, Lady Gaga, Lykke Li — with no hint offered other than sonic similarities and aesthetic similarities. We, for one, think that this latest entry smacks of one Mr. Flying Lotus, whose “Camel” sounds a whole lot like the music soundtracking video #4.

Either way, our interest continues unabated.

Iamamiwhoami

January 29, 10 //

It appears that if you really want to get your music video seen, it’s best to not tell anyone who made it.

Enter the iamamiwhoami viral video series, featuring surreal imagery and dark, atmospheric electronic beats. So far, three videos have been released, each without any credit to the artist behind the music or the visuals. There have been a number of guesses (Nine Inch Nails/Trent Reznor, The Knife, Lady Gaga, Klaxons, Christina Aguilera[?]), but with no proof one way or another.

All we know is, they’re pretty awesome, and we’re excited to see where this viral series goes!

Guesses in the Trent Reznor camp have some weight to their claims, considering Reznor’s use of viral marketing for his Year Zero album, but everything at this point remains a guess. The Knife seem likely, considering they’ve emerged from hibernation with their avant-garde opera about Charles Darwin, “Tomorrow In A Year”, and of course, Lady Gaga has been heading towards the deeply strange over the course of the last year, so she’s in the running as well.

Our personal hope is that Taylor Swift has a dark, twisted side that we’ll see at the end of this viral campaign. Fingers crossed.

Go to iamamiwhoami’s YouTube page for the two other videos.

Extremely precocious viral video

January 22, 10 //

If viral marketing is all about brand partnerships, then this pairing is quite the odd one: indie musician Lavender Diamond and advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy. WKE commissioned Ms. Diamond (also known as Becky Stark), to make a series of short webisodes for a series titled “Califunya!” And it is perhaps the most intensely adorable thing ever made, barring Cute Things Falling Asleep.

Unsurprisingly, due to W+K’s office in Portland, and Ms. Stark’s past collaborations in the indieverse, the show features the likes of the Decemberists, Mia Doi Todd and TV on the Radio’s Tunde Abedimpe. So far, there have been three episodes, each with a differing brand of “holy shit that is too precocious for words.” We prefer the sing-song episode “Bluebird,” if only for the two-part song at its center, sounding like a Vashti Bunyan throwoff dressed in apple pie optimism.

It’s interesting seeing a large advertising firm hosting such an funny, interesting art project, and for no discernible reason other than they thought it would be really cool. Is it going to be part of a larger viral campaign? Is this a test shoot for a new kid’s show? Did they just want to meet Colin Meloy? We’re not really sure.

Alls we know is, once we can afford to do this, we’re giving the Wu-Tang Clan a show on our site.

More local commericals

January 20, 10 //

We found a three-part musical odyssey on good ol’ YouTube today. Luckily, it’s Steve Winwood-free, and it was commissioned by car dealership owner Cecil Myers.

His voice is tuneless, yet somehow totally endearing in its flatness, like Lou Reed, except Cecil’s selling you Mitsubishis at a reasonable price.

The first installment is a relatively cutesy uke track, complete with a lady on a boat.

If you think you had Cecil pegged, THINK AGAIN. Homeboy then proceeds to bring it down home and down with the homies, as it were:

As for the rap, it threatens the “Wet Pets” rap previously posted on our blog as the most innovative fusion of rap music and local basic cable television commercials.

I don’t know if this was a pitch for Cecil to “reach the kids” from a local video company, or music is just in his heart, albeit music that’s more or less never in tune.

Hosting Your Party

December 15, 09 //

So thanks to Twitter, we’ve been told a couple dozen of times about this year’s Best Viral Videos, care of Mashable.

We’ve seen most of them, but the one that we hadn’t already been blown away by was the hugely misguided video for Microsoft’s “Windows 7 Launch Party Planning Guide”:

This neutered, oversensitive corporate crap-pile really is amazing in the sheer volume of “don’t get it” on display here. I’d like to say this feels like an infomercial, but I feel like it’s disrespectful to the careful showmanship of Billy Mays and Ron Popeil. In fact, it’s doubly impressive that this isn’t just a bad web video, it’s also a really bad 90’s-era infomercial. Maybe it’s a union thing — where do all the infomercial actors go when everyone just wants to make another “Will It Blend?”

Ron Popeil defined the infomercial for me in the 1990’s. I cannot count how many times I was lured into the drama of “Set It And Forget It.” His pacing and tone were reminiscent of old showmen, and if Ed Valenti invented “But wait, there’s more!”, Popeil brought it home. Maybe it’s just me, but his classic infomercials are seriously compelling, even against a sea of viral videos. Something about Ron’s endless salesmanship and lack of guile that get me excited — as in, HOLY CRAP $39.99?? I brush off most YouTube videos that are longer that 45 seconds, but I would hang around on Sunday mornings for a good two hours of RonCo goodness. Just saying.

I love local commercials

December 9, 09 //

Namely, ones with music. Here are two favorites.

WET PETS

I saw this bad boy on local cable back when I lived in Berkeley. Although slightly out of time and out of tune, the song’s rapper has a flow similar to Eminem in a few spots, and the faux-drawl of “scorpeeawns” is weirdly memorable.

MR. SPRIGG’S

Finally, a commercial that addresses my concern for the tenderness of my barbeque, and my love of R. Kelly modern R&B.