Following on from the iPhone baiting viral from Verizon I blogged about a few days ago, a group of die hard (and technically skilled) Apple fans have put together this viral in response. Fair game to them but I only see this adding more buzz to the Verizon viral in the first place.
Unless that was the plan all along..? *strokes chin*
Although currently only something for the US, Google have announced that in an attempt to expand the reach of Street View and get some coverage of previously uncovered areas, they’re going to put a camera on a trike and get some Google employee to go on a journey . There’s currently a competition where the American public are able to vote for the places they most want the trike to visit. I doubt this move will add a lot of new content to Street View, but nevertheless it’s a nice idea.
I am fond of my Android powered G1. I like its integration with all things Google, I like Cupcake’s friendly interface…but that’s about it unfortunately.
I admit, I get massive bouts of iPhone envy whenever I step into the Apple store or happen to get on the Tube (everyone has one). So it’s nice to see bitchy little ads like this time to time. Sure, it’s tacky and a bit obvious but it made me get a little more excited about Android. If you can’t be bothered to go to the website – it’s something from Verizon, in anticipation of a new Android powered Motorola handset coming out in the US at the end of the year.
YouTube recently announced that it was receiving 100 million hits a day and that over 20 hours of content was being uploaded to the video sharing website every minute. Behind Google, Facebook and Yahoo!, YouTube is the fourth most visited website in the world.
Although the most recognized and used website in video sharing, it’s not just YouTube that’s in on the game. Sites such as Google Video, MySpace Video, Vimeo, Metacafe and many others all have a slice of the pie. Online video sharing is huge. And this certainly hasn’t passed the marketers by…
For many years now, viral video has occupied a modest chunk of many a brand’s digital marketing budget with high buzz potential and next to free distribution costs proving to be alluring. To some extent certain categories and brands were initially more suited to this form of viral communication and definitely more suited amongst specific groups of people (early adopters of video sharing tended to be younger audiences). However, in a day and age where even the British Monarchy have their own YouTube content, the mass exposure and consumption of video on the internet is now as mainstream as using a search engine.
A few years ago YouTube announced its brand channel project, which allowed brands and corporate identities to customize their YouTube pages, remove advertising and incorporate their own content within. YouTube became another important touch point and much like a blog, a Twitter profile or a Facebook page – a branded YouTube page hosting brand specific content became a given for companies, particularly companies that embraced social technologies. And it is these social technologies that have energised the viral potential of video, catalyzing the distribution of campaign content in a way never seen before in traditional media.
So.
Marketing questions.
What role does my viral video have in communicating my campaign message? What is the effect on my brand? Is there one at all? Should I even be doing this? So many questions yet so hard to answer. And two broader truths at hand are what make things a bit messy.
1) There has been a shift in power – Joe Internet has become active broadcaster over passive receiver. He takes the seat and deems what he wants to see, when to see it and more importantly..if he’s going to share it.
2) There is too much information – The sheer volume of online video that Joe Internet can consume is staggering. YouTube say that the amount of video that gets uploaded in a week is equivalent to Hollywood releasing 86000 feature length films in a week. Of course a lot of that content consists of this and unfortunately a lot of that and not necessarily the content that’s particularly interesting. But a lot of it is.
These truths compounded are the very foundations of the ‘fast food’ information culture the internet seems to have spawned – it’s all about being here today and gone forgotten tomorrow. This paradigm shift in how we consume has impacted on all online media and particularly online video. From a campaign point of view we’re now seeing viral video acting almost like a foot soldier in an army of more antiquated, more trusted and ultimately more senior media choices – viral video is committed and ubiquitous but at the end of the day, entirely expendable.
So if I am someone that has decided that an online viral is something I need in a campaign wouldn’t it be a bonus if this viral could also sit more centrally in the campaign mix and speak with as much authority and weight as more traditional media? That not only had viral capacity but at its very core was saying the things that are relevant to my campaign and intrinsic to my brand?
Something that told the whole story.
That might work.
This is exactly what Epipheo Studios are trying to do. And it’s trés cool
Epipheo studios create short, often animated videos that companies and brands use as a vehicle to visualise a core idea underpinning their product, their campaign, their event… their story. The aim is to create epiphanies by telling a story through video. Epipheo. You see what they did there? Their broad vision is that any marketing campaign will benefit with an Epipheo at the ‘centre’ of the communications rather than on the ‘periphery’. Have a look.
Epipheos are fairly abundant. There’s a quite a heavily viewed one on the social media revolution, there’s one on Google Wave and even one on the history of…er, evil. There is also a website (epipheo.com) which acts as a hub where users can share and rate epipheos they find.
Check out their own epipheo below. It’s all about where they’re coming from and what they’re trying to do. I’m particularly fond of this. It tells a story in a graceful, memorable way that ‘I get’.
Oh and I’ve also now shared it on Facebook, Twitter and written about it in my blog that you’re reading right now. Job done.
So I was wondering aimlessly back from town, when I came across a disposable camera tied to a bench with a note on it.
Unfortunately the film had run out so yours truly couldn’t take any pictures but after some sniffing around on Facebook, turns out the owner of the disposable camera is a young illustration student called Rachel Lowe. “The Secret Live of Benches” is the name of one of her final year projects – check out her blog here to see some of her pics. Cheeky grins, lunch boxes and tattoos aplenty.
“I tie a disposable camera to a London bench. You take the pictures. I develop them. Voila”
Not only is it horribly cute, but I like the simplicity of it. I like that it’s collaborative.
I’ll be the first to admit, I know very little when it comes to ‘conventional’ canvas bound art. I’ve never been able to fully appreciate it and as a result I can’t stay for long in an art gallery without getting a touch restless. But when it’s experiential, as a collective and on mass..it feels a little more accessible and engaging. And it does seem to get people talking.
On a more extravagant tip, Antony Gormley’s ‘One And Other’ project in Trafalgar Square has been running since June. There’s a live stream on the website – a plethora of oddities, eccentrics and vagabonds on display if you have the patience. Apparently there are in the region of 34000 applicants, all pining to get up by Nelson and flaunt, yet there are only 2400 places left until the exhibit closes in a few days. Popular indeed.
Even in ad land, the use of the collective has proven to be a trendy mechanism – case in point being T-Mobile’s infamous flash mob campaign at Liverpool Street Station and their recent sponsorship of Oprah’s 24th Season Opening a few months ago. Reaction? The Liverpool Street Station dance has had over 14 million views on Youtube (not quite Boyle – but definitely a lot) and Oprah is more popular than water.
