Sometimes when people say they laughed out loud, they didn’t really laugh out loud, at best they probably broke into a smile. This, however, is an example of something that I actually did laugh out loud at.
I’m going to stop by the shops on the way home and pick myself up some yeast and flour and stuff and have a good old bake dance. Get it? Like bREAk dance but baking. Sorry.
Creds: Emily.
There’s a great article over at the ever-reliable Web Urbanist about guerrilla marketing. They make the point very well that big brands need to steer clear of this area but considering the attention this sort of activity generates online I think there is still a case for it.
I have no idea why this chap isn’t getting more than 250k hits on YouTube. It’s a great lesson executed in an innovative an creative way. Perhaps no matter how well crafted your message is, a dull subject is a dull subject.
Best bit: “Because if you use ‘bold’ it’s old and wrong.”
Sega have just released Condemned 2, which is fairly gruesome bloodbath of a game, apparently. And to help ease the spillage of blood they have launched Offset the Evil. It’s like carbon offsetting but it’s evil, a bit like carbon then.
Via Adverblog
Apparently, the key to getting enormous amounts of traffic to your YouTube video is to place suggestive imagery at just the right moment of your clip. Suggestive enough for people to think it’s porn. This public service announcement appears to have had over 72 million very disappointed views.
Radiohead recently asked people to remix their Nude track, all in the spirit of user-generated content. Apparently it was in some bonkers time signature so it was fairly tricky but this chap James Houston, incredibly, managed to get a load of old tech gear to bleat through the number. It’s proper genius, each machine is struggling through like a new born chick.
Big Ideas (don’t get any) from James Houston on Vimeo.
Personally I think it’s way better than this one.
James did this work for MTV recently too.
MTV from James Houston on Vimeo.
UPDATE: Had a chat with James over email, apparently he was offered a record deal over email and he’s not even a musician. I guess that being a recording artist is probably a lot to do with visuals these days.
We’re taking part in The World’s First Internet Baloon Race, courtesy of Orange. It’s another lovely little concept from the outstanding gentlemen of Poke. I think we have some kind of racoon. This seems to be following up on their Spot The Bull idea that they are re-working from last year.
It’s probably appropriate to begin by defining our terms. The concept of viral marketing represents a very broad church, commonly used to describe any marketing initiative (predominantly but not exclusively digital) designed to encourage our innate desire to share the things we find appealing; for the benefit and enjoyment of others, and to express something about ourselves as propagators.
Successful viral marketing campaigns create community distributed or propagated content. Online this could be imagery, a video, an application, a game, a story, a simple document or virtually any other piece of digital content. Generally speaking viral initiatives can be categorised as:
Pass along
Self-contained viral pieces, often video or imagery, but sometimes just text, that can be attached and forwarded peer-to-peer, primarily by email or MMS. Often these pieces are also seeded into community sites, viral archives, or across the blogsphere.
Hosted
Self-contained experiences that are hosted on a website or specially developed microsite. This approach avoids the inherent problems with pass along material, and allows a richer, more interactive experience.
Incentivised
A broad category, primarily hosted in structure, describing viral concepts that integrate a direct incentive for users to alert their peers to the piece. Often a part of a prize draw, competition or challenge mechanism.
When talking about viral marketing, we’re generally referring to intentional virals. It’s worth noting that some of the most widely distributed viral pieces are actually non-intentional, or at least non-commercial, primarily due to the power of YouTube and social networking sites. One video that consistently finds itself at the top of the viral charts is StarWars Kid, whose star has made a career of fighting to earn royalties from the est. 900m of impacts his stolen video performance has received.