Wired just released a demo they did with Adobe of how their magazine will live on the iPad (and other tablet devices I’m sure.)
With the magazine experience completely changing, the ad industry needs to start thinking about how the advertising in them will change to. Print ads are no longer just print ads, they are some form of hybrid print/video/banner/app. In the very near future, the definitions of the ads we create will no longer apply. We will have to create ideas that can live anywhere, no matter what the medium.
I came across a couple of interesting lists regarding viral videos. The first is Mashable.com’s list of the top 10 most innovative viral video ads of 2009. This includes agency-created videos, as well as ways that brands leveraged popular user generated videos correctly, and in some cases, incorrectly. Interesting to watch either way.
I’ve been seeing a lot about this new YouTube campaign created for the Metropolitan Police in England. Apparently, stabbings are on the rise there, so this is part of an effort to show the impact of simple choices that may lead up to violence. Naturally, I had to live on the edge and choose a murderous path, just to see what would happen. And it would seem that the vast majority of people on YouTube share my violent tendencies. The difference in numbers between those like myself, and viewers who opt not to bring the knife, not to follow friends to the fight, and not to join in the fight (I couldn’t help myself!) are pretty significant. For shame! Still, I think it’s a cool idea.
A half dozen months ago Phillips released the spot ‘Carousel’ to promote the launch of their 21:9 LCD TV. The video travels through a frozen moment in time during an epic gunfight between the police and some clown-masked bad guys. The video is shot as a seamless loop, so you can start the video at any point and the story will still make sense. Its a great video, but has limited legs for such a well-produced piece because it lives solely online.
So how do they help the video retain its relevance? Get 50 Cent to base his next music video around the concept of ‘Carousel’. Fitty’s new video starts out exactly like the Phillips spot, zooming in on the 21:9 LCD with the gunfight playing on it, until he pulls off one of the clown masks and steps out of the narrative.
“We actually have a partnership with Phillips where they gave us the rights to take this commercial,” he added. “It was kinda underexposed. They made a great piece but maybe didn’t know how to use it that well so we took it and we just taking it way over the hill with a smash record at the same time and the biggest hip-hop artist on the planet.”
The TV is featured a number of times before the song ends.
Phillips have managed to expose their commercial to an entirely new audience by allowing 50 to co-opt it. On Youtube, the original ‘Carousel’ has been viewed almost 500k times. The 50 Cent ‘Ok You’re Right’ video has been viewed 1.4 million times.
It’s probably no coincidence that the director of ‘Carousel’, Adam Berg, is a veteran of music videos.
I was able to sign-up and participate using a hotmail address and good ole 90210, which is a little creepy that the American Government now has an email address of mine on record…
The wired article gives you a good sense of what features the site has and doesn’t have. The “Online Town Hall” that the article speaks of will be interesting to see as well, perhaps similar to Obama’s weekly YouTube video.
The videos of Obama are also kinda creepy, reminds me of 1984, etc. not in what he’s saying but rather the uniqueness of receiving government messaging in this way. Not sure how much other countries’ governments have done in the digital space, but definitely haven’t seen much like this from the Canadian government. It will be interesting to see how this grows into the President’s “personal” relationships with his constituents and if/how it affects the way other governments communicate with their peeps.
So you’ve got this great TV commercial that you’d like to put online. But wait, how much more is it going to cost for talent rights?
Previous to this November’s ACTRA settlement, the talent rights for porting video to online were prohibitive, often exceeding the media cost of the placement. For this reason, Canadian advertisers have lagged behind the rest of the world in using online video as a medium, despite the fact that Canadians lead the world in online video usage.
The ACTRA settlement has dramatically reduced the cost of porting over to online, opening the door to in-banner streaming video and pre-roll for our clients. For more information, see this press release from the IAB Canada.
So should we be using video online? According to studies by the IAB and Dynamic Logic, video ads garner double the click-through rate, and are 40% more effective at driving brand message association. So I would say yes.
Please feel free to contact me with regards to digital video media strategies in the Canadian market for future campaigns.
Beginning almost a year and a half ago Fox and NBC began to quietly remove all of their content and their channel from Youtube. This came at a time when their programming (SNL, The Office, Family Guy, Simpsons) was more popular than ever. Everybody and their mother were heading to Youtube to watch the chicken fight or people getting punched*. Then all of the sudden…they were nowhere to be found. Anytime there was a hilarious new SNL digital short everybody was talking about at work, you’d have to search the deepest bowels of the internet just to find a dubbed version posted on Kyrgyzstan’s leading video sharing website. It was infuriating…why are they keeping their comedy gems from me?
Well, I guess the answer to that is that people were watching their content online, from full episodes to the shortest clips, and they were making no money off of it. FOX and NBC knew it was inevitable that people want to, and are going to watch tv shows online, it was just a matter of figuring out how to profit off that. And that is the million-dollar-question for everybody in the television/advertising/online industry: how can online video be profitable?
In an effort to find an answer, FOX and NBC teamed up to launch Hulu in March of 2008. Here they have full episodes and movies from their current offerings, as well as a substantial number of titles from their back catelogue, available for streaming in HD. Each is supported by a handful of ads interspersed through the show’s duration. Does it equal the profit they’d make from people watching these shows on tv? No. But at least they’re trying. Its inevitable that people will be watching tv online more and more as broadband coverage expands and devices like the iPhone make it that much easier.
This all brings me back to my initial problem; I want to watch ‘football in the groin’ the moment the urge hits me. That is what the internet is for…bringing me what I want as soon as I want it.
Now that these companies have a (somewhat) viable means of generating revenue from their content established, the most popular clips from Family Guy, Simpsons and SNL have found their way back onto Youtube. Each is underlined by an ad driving visitors to Hulu. They can give us the scraps if it will lead us to the main course.
It is encouraging to see these companies attempting to embrace online videos, because I would hate to lose these shows because they no longer make money. Almost as much as I hate to watch them during their regularly scheduled time on tv.
Now I can watch ‘football in the groin’ as I please. Thank you Hulu.
*That’s a lie, my mother has no idea what either of those are.
In my opinion, video based content is the single most under used element on the web. I think that there is a lot of content that would benefit from using video as oppose to images or just plain old text.
Meal and drink recipes can probably benefit the most from video content. Not only can someone learn what Julian or Simmer actually means, but they can see exactly how to do it.
Eat Drink or Die is a website that has video based recipes. From fried chicken to Crème Brule, this website will show you step by step how to create some classic recipes.
Whether you are looking for a chicken recipe, a vegetarian dish or Saturday night cocktails, this site is a good example of how Video content can be used to enhance the web experience on some basic content such as meal making.
Malibu Rum also takes advantage of Video content when teaching their consumers how to mix drinks using their product. If you enter the Malibu Bar on their website, a virtual bartender will ask you to choose a drink from one of three menus. Once you have chosen your drink, the bartender will show you how mix your drink using the proper proportions, tools and mixes.
