Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

It's a simple story, but it is a story that never would have happened 10 years ago. We have reached a space beyond YouTube users creating reactions and parodies of TV commercials. We have reached a space beyond YouTube users creating their own commercials. We are now living a time where a brand will pay money and hire a celebrity to create a video response on YouTube to user-generated content.

EA just PWNED Levinator25!!

Levinator25 put up a video on YouTube display a glitch he found in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08. The glitch was called the "Jesus Shot" and featured Tiger Woods walking on water to take his next shot. EA produced a video response in which they show Tiger Woods (the real person) walk out on water (real water) to take a golf shot. It proposes that Levinator25 thought he might have found a glitch, but "It's not a glitch. He's just that good."

Marta Strickland

Flip Video has recently become synonymous with social video. The ease and cost of flip cameras have enabled bloggers to become vloggers, companies to turn events into social content without blowing their budget, and community managers to more easily create engaging conversations between members and brands. People have even done side by side tests with HD cameras versus flip cameras on YouTube to see which is better at storytelling through video.

To bring it full circle and just for some popcorn Friday fun, here is a viral video from Circuit City promoting the social nature of a flip camera on YouTube. I got the chance to chat with Bill Rattner, from Circuit City, about the motivations behind the video:

"Circuit City would never run something like this on a broadcast medium but for YouTube, it's perfect! We don't want to be just another clueless company that posts their commercial on YouTube. Somewhere between Ridley Scott and the Star Wars Kid lies the great opportunity for storytellers. It's kind of the philosophy that ad agencies used to have back in the day. You know, entertain and inform. Those two seem to have gotten separated somewhere along the way."

With the accessibility of simple camera equipment, intuitive editing software, and a hugely popular broadcast medium, the power for entertainment lies in the hands of the consumer. The smart brands know that they need to play in that space or get out of the game.

Thanks to Adam Turinas for submitting the video.

Marta Strickland

This will be a fun one to start out Friday.

"It's Mad Men meets nerds... I found this group of slides from a 1975 IBM presentation that are quite amazing. I love the typefaces, layout and '70 corporate patina. I think this would make a great presentation today. Plus, they use the term 'online' everywhere."
Shane Ginsberg

http://www.squareamerica.com/ib.htm

I don't know what's funnier: the needless pointing to large keywords like "decision" and "database" (precursor to the tag cloud?) or that this all apparently takes place aboard the spaceship from 2001.

CollegeHumor

A bit of Tuesday afternoon fun. If fonts were people and there was a "font conference" this is what it would be. Enjoy!

Baron Conway

While I don't understand the craze behind Joss Whedon, I have to respect the major Web 2.0 embracing that is demonstrated in his latest project, Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. This is not another viral video, this is not another web sitcom. It's an event, a moment in time, a quickfire community assembled around valued content.

Dr. Horrible a three part series releasing every two days and then coming down for good. All acts will be available until midnight, Sunday, July 20. Then they will "vanish into the night, like a phantom (but not THE Phantom - that's still playing. Like, everywhere)" according to Letter from Joss Whedon available on the site.

It's ingenious. In a time of disposable culture, grassroot advocacy, and niche social networks, Joss is tapping into the vein of Web 2.0 in a way that most of traditional media has yet to comprehend.

"It is time for us to change the face of Show Business as we know it. You know the old adage, "It's Show Business - not Show Friends"? Well now it's Show Friends. We did that. To Show Business. To show Show Business we mean business. (Also, there are now other businesses like it.) "

And it looks like it's already working. The first installment released on Tuesday crashed the website.

So why is this important? Again, I'll defer to Joss who explains it best in his letter...

"Do what you always do, peeps! Do what you're already doing. Spread the word. Rock some banners, widgets, diggs... let people know who wouldn't ordinarily know. It wouldn't hurt if this really was an event. Good for the business, good for the community - communitIES: Hollywood, internet, artists around the world, comic-book fans, musical fans (and even the rather vocal community of people who hate both but will still dig on this). Proving we can turn Dr Horrible into a viable economic proposition as well as an awesome goof will only inspire more people to lay themselves out in the same way. It's time for the dissemination of the artistic process. Create more for less. You are the ones that can make that happen. Wow. I had no idea how important you guys were. I'm a little afraid of you."

Marta Strickland

I'm still trying to decide how I feel about Weezer's new video. Appropriating nearly every large-scale Internet phenomenon of the last five years is a bit of a land grab, but since they've been borrowing liberally from popular culture for some years now it doesn't feel quite as disingenuous as if it had been, say, Fall Out Boy. They've used music videos to create homages to "Happy Days" and "The Muppet Show" before, but those felt like humble and loving tributes. This is straying dangerously into helium-filled flying pig territory.

Thoughts anyone?

Daniel Turman

Clever fun from Nokia.

http://www.get-out-and-play.com/

Adam J. Wilson

I saw a wonderfully weird and irreverent TV spot for Cheetos. The spot left me intrigued – it felt bigger than the common and meager attempts at TV-to-Web integration. Turns out, they want us to commit “random acts of cheetos”, or ROACS (ray-ocks). Or in their words, “to create playful mischief using CHEETOS snacks.” The tone of the campaign as a whole is riddled with subtle and not-so-subtle references to things like Fight Club, LOST and 12 Monkeys. The three things that I like most about this campaign:

The idea is extremely riffable; the nasty little orange snacks are easily accessible and the mischief potential is quite high; I expect they’ll get a lot of UGC participation.
The campaign is a build-up to a mysterious PR event that will take place on April 1st, where “all your hard work will not go unnoticed”.
The full screen video is whoop ass, with chapter-like markers that link to the YouTube profile which serves as a smart campaign hub.

http://www.orangeunderground.com/

Adam Wilson