An RSS feed I always take notice of is the Viral Blog's Viral Friday. Which this week had this gem (Take on Me the Literal Version) as their #1. We can't stop laughing. I can see more in this series being rolled out soon.
The creator has his own Youtube channel as site Dust FIlms. This is how the new bread of directors are getitng their start. With the funding for music film clips going as low as $2,000 for semi-mainstream artists (according to the talk I heard last year from TDB) it's these guys who offer something that the bigger directors cant. Slave wages with unlimited enthusiasm.
Oh look Dan Aykroyd is promoting his new line of Crystal Head Vodka. He must be trying to capitalise on the release of Indy 4 on DVD on Oct 14. Or is it for Ghostbusters 3 a franchise Dan has much more vested interest in.
Dan did have a bit part in Temple of Doom so it's not too much of a stretch to see that he'd be pimping a fake product to promote a movie. What is weird is that Dan actually has his own winery, aptly named Dan Aykroyd Wines and from various reports like on Notcot the Crystal Skull Vodka is actually real. That said it might be PR gifts which would make more sense and would explain why Notcot did such a big post about it. Check out the products website. No where to buy page though which seems like a waste if it was real.
Update: Jean from NOTCOT replied to say no PR gift and you can buy it here. It's sold out though.
Either way it's brought to light that Dan Aykroyd is still alive and kicking (even if Bill Murray is taking the spotlight), there's talks of Ghostbusters 3 brewing and that until now I never realised "Aykroyd" sounds rude.
Oh and if you think Dan is faking it when it comes to the Paranormal check him out talimg about how the "Men in Black" cancelled his show about UFO's. (This is not a SNL sketch)
It's hard to take what ever he says seriously as his usual delivery is so deadpan.
These look to be official Muppet videos. Will there be a Muppet film coming soon? They are all over Youtube as well. Each character has just one video with limited cross linking. I look forward to seeing if they continue with this or if it's leading up to some bigger Muppet related announcement. Considering the amount of cash Alvin and the Chipmunks made recently Disney would be stupid not to pump out a new Muppets movie.
These videos are not only fun but right on the Muppet brand. It's extending the Mahnahmahnah! song which went mental when I was in highscool. It was on the Triple J Hottest 100 or something.
There are quite a few Muppet Videos done by fans. Plenty of gansta rap videos and movie mashups as seen below.
Having trouble coming up with the next award winning idea? Try one of these to get the creative ideas flowing.
Comes in ECD, CD, ACD, AD and Junior sizes.
I love the fact that Youtube have put this on their domain to make it seem even more real. The game looks like fun too. Glad to see someone hasn't forgotten about the good old platform game genre.
What I love best is you can actually throw the elements around the page once it's complete. I clicked around just to see and it was a nice surprise. The Wario Land Shake It official website is very tight as well.
LeBron James beating in a game of HORSE by a nobody
Watch this video as a contest winner beats NBA all star in a game of HORSE. In spectacular fashion!
This would be like me whipping Tiger Wood's ass in Putt Putt. What Lebron James has here (or one of his many sponsors) is an opportunity to redeem him self much like EA did with their Walk on Water shot. If Lebron leaves this video up without a response he'll fail.
Schtock is meant to be the visual blog of someone who works for a large photo library. Here's the about page
About Schtock:
I work at a major stock photo company cataloging images. The majority of the stuff I work with will never see the light of day for no other reason than that most people don't know it's available to them. It's a shame which I'm trying to remedy with this site. As an amateur designer, I occasionally can't help but play around with the images I see floating across my desk on a daily basis. This site contains the results.
Who describes themselves as an "amateur designer"? The about text seems contrived and smells of a marketing cover up. The actual artworks are nice and designy. The type of stuff you see on FFFFound.
The Denver Egotist seems to have deduced that it's Corbis. So is this an official promotion or really just someone doing it for fun. If this was indeed someone just mucking around they spent longer on the HTML setup of the site than the actual designs. A Flickr account or simple blog template would have worked better for someone just mucking about. They also would not have registered the domain via a private register either.
If it is Corbis they are now in the awkward position that if they do admit they are behind it they look stupid for trying to fool us. This is sad as the idea behind the site is solid just the way they tried to sell it to the world is sloppy.
Getty Images also have a blog. 4 in fact. but they all seem to have little readership.
Come to San Fran and see the Star Wars Empire :) Throw in a super at the end for a Star Wars convention and you got yourself awards fodder. This is probably just fan boy stuff but it'd be great is tourism ads were like this.
The Coke and Mentos guys (EepyBird) have followed up their experiments with Sticky Note experiments. The budget for the videos is bigger (cinematography and direction is spot on)
I kept waiting for a brand of office supplies to appear at the end. Then I remembered that some people do stuff just for the fun of it or under the umbrella of "art" rather than "advertising".
Update: Their other videos (like the one below) are sponsored by OfficeMax and ABC Family. So that would explain the budget busting effort spent on the longer video above. Phew everyone has a price. I thought maybe I had become to commercialized.
This video stars the girl from Samurai Girl (oh dear) and this was taken from the Eepybird site
How do Samurai Girl and Sticky Notes go together? We premiered our grand finale video, "the Extreme Sticky Note Experiments", on ABC Family on September 5th during Samurai Girl.
Sorry the answer is "f*ck all". But we wouldn't have this video if it wasn't for ABC's money. Oh the video stars the lead actor from Samuari Girl who will also be in Fox's Dragonball. A Google image search explains the appeal.
Also interesting is that Samuari Girl is one of those event TV thigns that if it goes well gets turned into a series. Why waste all your money on a pilot no one will see?
20th Century Fox Australia held a flash mob/ social experiment in Sydney's Pitt St Mall on the weekend which tied into their new film from M. Night Shyamalan called The Happening.
There is a Freeze Sydney happening next month along the same lines as the Fronzen Grand Central stunt done while ago.
A TAMPON company may be forced to cancel TV ads that show an attractive, young woman going about her day with a beaver in tow.
The Kotex advertisement, rated M and broadcast only after 8.30pm, features a woman and her pet beaver eating lunch, having their nails done, at the hairdresser, and being gawked at by men on a beach.
Looks like they cast the gopher from Caddy Shack and changed it's tail.. Also reminds me of that classic line from The Naked Gun 'Nice Beaver' 'Thanks, I just had it stuffed'
The designer creates an idea for a web page, then passes it to the developer, who can only recreate the design as much as the technical limitations allow. Before they know it, the work is compromised. The designer blames the developer. The developer blames the designer. And the riot police are called.
OK I didn't want to post another Youtube video but this is too good.
Yes it Starwars so that attracts the fans but a kid retelling a classic movie plot makes great viewing.
Imagine trying to pitch an idea like this to a studio for a viral piece. I'd love to see more kids interpretations of films.
If you want an insight into a kids mind and what they see a computer for check this article about the "Laptop Club". You can't get a more honest answer than this. I hope the OLPC has a games button!
These were inspired by this very old Windows Sounds Flash animation that did the rounds back in early 2000.
These videos hit 3 touch points that help make a good viral.
1: Technology: people eat up content around technology and
2: Lots of work: any video that makes you think, "wholly shit that would have taken ages" gets good traction.
3: Music: Check the top viewed videos on Youtube and you'll see its heavily dominated by music. Followed by sex, obscure and the humor.
This ad for Betta Electrical is causing a bit of an uproar here in Australia. Church Groups have claimed the ad by Sydney agency De Pasquale is "tacky and offensive". Still waiting on what the Rabbi and Mullah think of it, although I suspect their respective versions of the ad would have been slightly different, but let's not go there.
Personally I'm outraged at the Church Groups outrage. These groups have a monopoly on hang-over prime time TV from 2.30am-5.30am each night and a 24/7 cable television channel in which to pimp their beliefs. Outrage is coming home at 2.30 in the morning after a night on the piss and the only thing on the box is wall-to-wall TV evangelists like Benny Hinn's 'Miracle Crusades' or phone sex ads. Give me the phone sex ads any day, they make more sense and I reckon a few of those girls are miracle workers too in their own special way...
Anyway, enough ranting. Here's the ad :
A spokesperson for Betta has suggested the ad may be pulled if "community outrage grew". We'll it's on the interweb now, so unless the Church Groups have a Simon Wiesenthal type character that can track down and remove religiously offensive virals, then this half-arsed attempt at censorship has failed.
Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell said "The advertisement is interesting because it shows how commercialised Christmas has become,"
Indeed it has Archbishop, and it seems the ad is working.
Cardinal Pell is presented with a High Definition Plasma TV
I love this new campaign from CP+B. The guy in the white shirt at the end is the closest they came to a punch in the face. He looked like a kid at Christmas when he finally got what he wanted.
Thought for the day - it might be a bit of an obvious point, but YouTube seems to have drastically atrophied all of our already-short attention spans.
You know it. When you're watching something online, and you automatically look at how long the video takes, before you decide if its worth waiting to load.
This has interesting relevancies for the kind of content we are willing to consume, where and when. Would something like The Gamekillers, which was a bit of a pioneering piece of longer format content, best suited to release as mobile episodes? Online? Giveaway DVD with spray? How long works best in what space?
Case in point, the story of the man with no limbs, see below. Nick has no arms, no legs, yet can swim, operate a DVD, and even make an omelette (although he is a bit sloppy with the shell. Sheesh, lift your game Nick).
Now, this is an incredible story, an incredible person, and an incredible video. Yet, I found myself skipping through it because of its length (7 mins).
No doubt you looked at the length of this post to see if you could be bothered reading it. : -)
Also, in a bit of a nod to their new Google ownership perhaps, YouTube modded their logo for Halloween:
This is some viral genius from Toyota. Anyone familar with the various WoW gamer videos that occassionally do the rounds (i.e Leeroy Jenkins) knows how spot on this is for the target audience.
Philips Bodygroom, that microsite/product that was probably only a close shave away from bagging the cyber grand prix a year or two ago, was actually worked on by Pete, the guy who puts together the always cynical Douchebag series of comics:
Perusing the douchebag site also led me to come across a nice behind the scenes prequel to the Bodygroom stuff - The Story of Sack:
If you watch mainstream news here in Aus, we're a bunch of fatties too. It's a wonder I can even type on a standard size keyboard with my fat fast food eating fingers.
Here's a few Behind the Scenes green screen photos T.Scott Major from Mono sent us.
And here's the treatment from Daddy from which the site was built from.
I wonder what the talent think when doing these types of jobs. "Yeah I was an angry lunch lady and I pretended to throw food at the camera"
I love this stunt for a "nudie site" (i can't use the P word my host blocks pages with that word) where they posted photos of what was said to be a lost camera. A facebook group gained 15,000 users before being quickly shut down. Full article here.
Supervirals.com (terrible name made worse by the logo) is a new venture that allows brands to brief out "viral video" in exchange for prizes. They've signed up mambo, Krispy Kreme and Nudie juice so far.
They describe themselves better than I can so this is form their FAQ section
"SuperVirals is a new creative platform where you can win big prizes by creating and uploading original ideas for sponsor brands. Which means it's also the place to see the best new viral content on the web!"
The briefs are open enough to allow creative freedom but my cynical view on the world won't be banking on this taking off. It just feels too labored?. But I've been wrong many times before. I think 1% (read here) sums it up well.
I haven't hear much from Telstra's WotNext site but it still seems to be going so that's one thing. They also have Project Joystick which is asking for game ideas.
All comps require the user to sign over all IP with their winning entry. I guess this matter little to the general public but matters a lot to people who actually have talent.
Google and Sony (with Big Spaceship actually creating the site) have teamed up for an online experience to promote Bourne Ultimatum called The Ultimate Search for Bourne.
What I love best about these type of promos is you can instantly gauge its success. By using Youtube videos as a clue delivery service one only needs to check the view stats on said videos and you'll know how many people are playing. Day 4's clue (we're up to Day 5 now) is sitting on 800 views. The first videos are at 7,000. (see below)
Maybe people do what I did and just Google the questions and cheat?
It looks great but its tiny type and super long UI is annoying as is Flash's limitations with copying and pasting text but that's not the agencies fault. Also I would have liked to have done more than just find answers and past it into a message window. Mini games or anything would have been a nice change.
What's interesting is Google didn't charge Sony for the privilege of hosting the game as it saw the benefit as mutual. Without Google's support this would have made the whole thing a lot harder to pull together.
Updated: (Sorry I had my agency's wrong)
The level of complexity for this game is quite easy compared to Red's ARG game out there called Ethanhaaswasright.com And yes I can't get past the 2nd puzzle!!! (it's shitting me)
Update 2: I was completely wrong (like most other people) Ethan Haas Was Right is actually for Alpha Omega a new RPG. More info here.
Thanks B!X you tried to set me right but I didn't listen.
Internet memes or phenomenons are everywhere these days and its hard to catch one early. There's nothing worse than sending something to a friend only to get back "that's so last week."
Memes vs Viral:
The way to think of a meme vs viral is like this. Viral is something advertising agencies create to try and sell a product and if popular will stay around for a few months.
A meme is something that changes the way people talk and will end up being mentioned on Family Guy or The Simpsons.
Another fancy word for Viral
If the word VIRAL feels overused and has lost its meaning then try using MEME. It hasn't hit the mainstream yet and if you explain it as I have it's like a Viral on steroids then when someone else pitches to do a Viral your ideas will sem better.
Note: You say it mehm not ME ME.
Untapped Memes:
Here's a couple new ones which I saw last week which have yet to catch on as much as the previous examples
Chocolate Rain
Algorithm Dance
If the Algorithm dance seems slightly odd what's even more odd are these Inmates from the Phillipines dancing to it
Or the same inmates reenacting Thriller.
Advertising Funded Memes:
It's interesting to note that very few of these memes actually helped any product get sold. Almost none were created by advertising agencies. Aside from Ford's Hurra Torpedo but they just latched onto an obscure band that already existed.
OK Go's career was saved with their treadmill film clip, Blair Witch and Snakes on a Plane would be forgotten if it not for the web. SNL is probably more popular now thanks to Youtube than it has ever been. (Narnia Rap and Dick in a Box)
Aside from these, very few were actually created with the purpose of selling something and I think that's because these things grow organically. When something is forced it rarely sees success.
The only two examples I can think of quickly are Subservient Chicken and Million Dollar Homepage. Both created solely to make money for someone and both wildly popular and spawned many imitators.
The Simpsons movie is 8 days away (I would say how great it is but I've been told not tell anyone I've seen it) and we're heading into the biggest marketing push Fox has ever done. So big they have put together a website to showcase the promotions. See Yellow.
What's not on there is the new Simpsonize Me tool for Burger King. Just launched by CP+B.
Now it's a little rough around the edges (read: buggy) but when it does work it's actually pretty cool. Uploading a face definitely takes the grunt work out of creating a character.
Here's me Simpsonized. I had to adjust the hair but it's a pretty good likeness. It's even captured my terrible fashion sense. I also Simpsonized myself age 80. As you can see I no longer wear glasses and my ears are bigger but I've now got a great sense for fashion. I look forward to my Versace days to come in my 80's.
What's confusing is that the official Simpsons site has their own Create your own Simpsons avatar tool. Here's the Simpsons character I created a few weeks back. To launch two similar online initiatives seems a waste and also takes the allure off the BK one.
What's missing from both is a gallery function. I want to see other people's characters. I want to see them all in a huge crowd shot. I guess I'll have to browse the Flickr groups and fan forums for my fix.
And and if you dial you age in at 200 this is what you get. Don't do it as you have to upload your photo again after.
As for what else is happening outside of what's mentioned on See Yellow, there is also:
Both Samsung and Vans should have created official sites for these promotions. Their corporate sites (Vans | Samsung) don't even mention these at all. You can't rely on bloggers as your only form of information distribution!
Even more detailed info can be found on Wikipedia.
It's a mock 70's porno. You could say a "spoof" but that word has a different meaning in the world of porn.
This is the latest work for the Department of Health, the previous campaign (one of my favs) can be seen here & here.
We'll post up the banner campaign for this soon.
And if the world of porn is something of interests you, then you might want to check out Ron Jeremy's The Hardest (working) man in Showbiz Rob at Soap is currently reading it and says it's a great read.
New viral from BBH in NY. Boostyouresp.com also have more on the amazing Mr Mack. The youtube vid is doing pretty well with 600k views so that's a good sign. Too bad I can't oder the free book here in Aus.
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