Dabbling with Viral Videos

[Psychobel]

We've just done our first viral video. It's fairly experimental. Before we try to use it for clients, we thought we'd try and use it for ourselves and see the results. So far, the traffic is superb but I wouldn't say that it has gone "viral" ie, the traffic we are getting is traffic we have directly worked for rather than others finding it and doing the job for us. We're trying to squeeze every ounce of juice out of it. Using Social bookmarking ( A digg would be lovely thankyou ;-) ). We are blogging it as honestly as we can to detail the process. There's both good and bad from what we are learning. We will be writing articles after the event. We are also using the phone and Skype as SEO tools. If anyone has got any input, both positive and negative, it would be welcome.

I must warn you though, the video does use some rather colouful language which some may find offensive.

And there is also some butt photocopying involved.

The Viral Marketing Video

and

The Blog of the Viral Marketing Video

Hope it proves useful.

Just as I've been writing this, I've seen an IBL come into our blog from a pretty damn fine contextually appropriate blog. Makes me rather happy.

[incrediblehelp]

"Blue sky thinker", funny. Little long for me and the audio needs a little work on clarity. I think the cursing might offend some, not me of course.

[rivux]

Quite funny though as was mentioned above, a tad long. I think it would be good just to cut it off when he counts 5..4..3.. etc. That first part would be enough to get people interested I think.

[bj]

WAY too long. Should be cut by 2/3.

[Psychobel]

So if you cut it, what gets cut out?
Where's the fat to be trimmed?

Mostly the feedback we've had has been about the swearing and whether that would restrict our access to audiences

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by Psychobel

So if you cut it, what gets cut out?
Where's the fat to be trimmed?

Mostly the feedback we've had has been about the swearing and whether that would restrict our access to audiences

Since the video is about being number on in Google, cut to that part. Don't need the whole build up with log design and brochures and such. Just focus on the "pie in the sky" selling that is being number 1 in Google. Keep the cute girl in there and the humor with the camera man. That helps with the male audience.

Like I said focus on just the Google concept.

[bj]

Keep the cute girl in there and the humor with the camera man. That helps with the male audience.

In most cases men don't make the purchasing decisions. And quite frankly most women will mentally (and probably in reality) click off when they see yet another cheesecake exploit.

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by bj

In most cases men don't make the purchasing decisions. And quite frankly most women will mentally (and probably in reality) click off when they see yet another cheesecake exploit.

Maybe, maybe not. Humor works best in these videos. That was my main point.

Also I am looking at this from a US perspective (even the video is targeting the UK obviously) and as some know the American men can be pigs sometimes.

[Psychobel]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

Since the video is about being number on in Google, cut to that part. Don't need the whole build up with log design and brochures and such. Just focus on the "pie in the sky" selling that is being number 1 in Google. Keep the cute girl in there and the humor with the camera man. That helps with the male audience.

Like I said focus on just the Google concept.

Interesting response. I'm wondering whether there's a National perception diference here. To my mind, the most valuable bit is the build up. The pitch is that the guy is spouting a lot of the nonsense we come across when pitching. SO it was important to get a lot of the misconceptions we deal with across. The "Number one on the google" was someting of an adlib from the actor, which worked for us.
The pay off is at the end and we had to build to that, "Alan is talking out of his arse..." hence the butt photocopying.
Clearly this video isn'y going to get us sales though. That's not the objective. Though having said that, I'm fairly certain it has been put in front of a marketing director in a decent sized corporate. Which is nice

[Psychobel]

Originally Posted by bj

In most cases men don't make the purchasing decisions. And quite frankly most women will mentally (and probably in reality) click off when they see yet another cheesecake exploit.

Who makes the purchasing decisions wasn't a consideration in this whatsoever. It's certainly not exploitative either. The point of her involvement is to underline how small the male characters are and how easily distracted. Would you trust your marketing to these men? Didn't think so.

[bj]

The point of her involvement is to underline how small the male characters are and how easily distracted. Would you trust your marketing to these men?

Most women won't stick long enough to get the message.

[Psychobel]

Originally Posted by bj

Most women won't stick long enough to get the message.

I disagree. I think it's all to easy for both genders to make assumptions about what women find acceptable and/or funny

[getmea]

I enjoyed the video...couple of things I might consider:

- think "subliminal" - a shorter shot of the cute woman may work better without making us men seem like "pigs" - I got distracted for roughly 5 seconds; not sure what the actor said in that time. If your video is to show how men can get distracted, I'm a perfect example...I did not get the point until I played it a second time.

- the still of the actor's face superimposed over the xerox copy of the "arse" also distracted me a bit (maybe it's me???)...maybe let the actor continue speaking without his audio playback while mixing in the narrator's voice

- this is no offense...but if you plan on marketing to the US, the speech needs to be clearer for us Yanks...the actor said "broshure" 4 times before I understood what he said (again, maybe it's me...it took me a while to understand some of our company's outsourcing partners in Belfast)

[bj]

I disagree. I think it's all to easy for both genders to make assumptions about what women find acceptable and/or funny

Well, this woman would have found it a lot more funny if it was some ditzy young buff guy playing the part of the gopher, and a woman behind the camera. But then you'd have to rewrite your punchline.

[Calius]

Had I not known before I saw your video that this was an ad, I would have never guessed. I would have seen it as simply a YouTubeish video because the message about your company is missing until the end. You have the company on-screen but that's not my focus. My focus is the video. I agree with a lot of the above comments about length.

[chrisJumbo]

Time and language were the big ones for me. I think the message can still come across without the language and for those who aren't offended by, they won't miss it. For those that are, they will be ever so grateful.

[bangitup]

At BANGitUP we first started playing around with viral type video over 6 years ago with the launch of our cheeky music video (now on Youtube, 44,000 views and posted on a number of channels). It was a great success.

Bangitup on Youtube

Back in those days we we're limited to a video the size of a postage stamp and the typical customer bandwidth of 56k dialup.

Needless to say we learnt some pretty valuable lessons which are just as relevant today.

To achieve viral video growth the most important thing you need to understand is your customer and the need to entertain.

Your typical Youtube audience consumes lots of small packets of information - anything longer than the length of a typical music clip is too long. Short and punchy works. Image works. Sex sells.

High production values and entertaining content tends to raise to the top.

If you look at Youtube successes then you will also see that it takes several clips in a series before exponential growth usually occurs. This creates ongoing customer engagement and loyalty to your content and brand.

The question you need to ask honestly is - will someone forward this on? Will they make a comment or add it to their website or blog. Is what you think is funny really funny and entertaining? Test your content with friends, family and work mates who will give you honest answers before you post on the web for the world to see.

We've also just launched a new viral video program. The first clip was launched a couple of weeks ago - its now up around 1,000 views (across two channels).

The next one is due in a couple of weeks.

Each month a new video clip in the series will be launched. Each new clip is based on user feedback - more a conversation than a sales pitch.

Hope that helps.

[Psychobel]

Originally Posted by bj

Well, this woman would have found it a lot more funny if it was some ditzy young buff guy playing the part of the gopher, and a woman behind the camera. But then you'd have to rewrite your punchline.

I like the idea of that actually. It would certainly cause comment, which is what we want.

[Psychobel]

Originally Posted by Calius

Had I not known before I saw your video that this was an ad, I would have never guessed. I would have seen it as simply a YouTubeish video because the message about your company is missing until the end. You have the company on-screen but that's not my focus. My focus is the video. I agree with a lot of the above comments about length.

Strangely, after receiving some crticism, I'm of the opinion it should mention less about our company.
I'll explain why later. I have to be a bit cryptic in the short term to avoid a certain skew issue

[Psychobel]

Originally Posted by chrisJumbo

Time and language were the big ones for me. I think the message can still come across without the language and for those who aren't offended by, they won't miss it. For those that are, they will be ever so grateful.

I think time is the biggest criticism we've had. It works for a lot of people as it is, coming in at just over 4 minutes, but I get the feeling that about 2 minutes to 2 minutes 30 would have been ideal. It was probably achievable as well. This has been about a learning.

The language I have some thoughts about but not about the coarseness of it. It adds a little to provoking reaction one way or another and we're not too bothered about our brand being associated with it either. Mu issue with the language was more that it didn't necessarily travel across all variants of the English language. We should perhaps have looked at a Mid-Atlantic version of cursing ;-)