Real People

I often wonder how many 'virals' have been viewed by real people.

I'm not talking about those figures that may have been faked by bots and all that underhandedness, but people outside of the industry we all have the privilege of working in. Ok, I know we are real people that consume so our viewing figures do count but if I had a quid for the amount of friends I've mentioned 'famous' viral campaigns to and they've never heard of them I'd probably have about £20.

Part of our job is viewing work being produced by our competitors so sometimes (well, most of the time) I'd love to be able to reclaim a YouTube view so as not to add to the clip's figures, or at least mark myself as "work in the industry, just checking out the promotion, not actually interested in the product".

Who needs Ad Agencies

After spending a couple of days digesting this news I'm still not entirely sure what I think about it so excuse the brain dump.

I do think it fits into the viral subject however as Ideas Bounty is surely a viral exercise in itself but can this really work as a sustainable model across a brand's advertising. I'm not a huge fan of over-inflated ad agency models myself but there's more to creative than just shitting out a one-off idea. Isn't the Peperami brief (which is a tactical element of the overall 'Animal' creative concept) essentially another lazy UGC campaign in the same vein as Doriotos, Confused.com and quite a few others? It's great news if a client is taking more responsibility for the creative output of their brand, but it's not like Creative Agencies have been doing absolutely nothing for the past 50 years; is it?

Ok, I'll eat my face (on face)

As I've previously mentioned I'm not a big fan of face-on-face. This is perhaps just me, I don't get it, why would I bother. I don't like things not making much sense within their own world - however much fantasy is involved; I also still doubt how many people have direct to camera images of themselves.

However, if you get a chance to sniper a friend and the technology is the best implementation yet seen I can be proved wrong so check it out here.

Oh, and here's a kind of face-in-video that Ralph have just produced (www.jigsawsgame.com), but that's only one small part of the entire experience so I think we got away with it!

I'm wrong aren't I; people love seeing their own picture in anything?

Bad viral is good viral

So there's a new set of groundbreaking Microsoft viral clips/ads out for Windows 7; I say that with sarcasm behind it but I think I'm wrong to slag them off. Here (1, 2, 3) are a few of them

Apple's competitor has become known for pretty dodgy advertising of late (well perhaps it's not just a recent thing) with the laptop hunter ads and ripping off Apple's "I'm a PC" concept - why even mention/reference a company that is by far the number two in operating system market share, come up with your own campaign, but I digress.

We were in awe of the crapness on display with these 'Windows 7 Launch Party' videos, but I think we've been sucked in; damnit. They're meant to be crap, they're meant to make Apple fans go "peh, so not cool" and then pass it around. Why would they care, Microsoft will never be as 'cool' as Apple. All Microsoft want is for people to know Windows 7 is coming out and it's not called Vista.

I think I might have opened a bigger can of worms than I meant to, and there's more to be said about 'crap' work becoming viral - and it being so on purpose.

Older people passing on viruses

I was sat in a meeting this morning talking about a Christmas concept we're working on. A lovely chap from the agency we're working with pulled out his iPhone and showed us an email he'd just got from his brother 'Look at this it's a cracker' was the subject line. I'm not going to tell you what the picture attachment was as I'm sure you can work it out for yourself.

This slightly boring story is a random link to talking about how different demographics interact with 'viral'. My Dad still sends me PPT files with a few funny pictures in and I usually respond in a Kevin The Teenager way of "oh gaaawd Daaad, I saw that yeeaaars agoo, pah". At Ralph we work predominantly in entertainment aimed at the youth market who are seemingly up for interacting with brands more than my parent's generation. Or is this bollocks? Is it just that the entertainment is different, perhaps a Hale and Pace sketch from the 80s on YouTube is the best way of reaching my Mum and Dad?

P.S. Ben, if you read this, I'm not saying you're old by receiving the cracker email!

Win £500

Confused.com's Moneysupermarket.com's latest's viral campaign is a sure-fire way to win £500 by the looks of it, at the moment you have a 1 in 10 chance of winning (probably more like 1 in 2 as most of those videos don't look like the creators are legally allowed to win).

I always think it's pretty ballsy to put views as publicly available when you're running an online promo and especially a UGC (User Generated Crud) one such as this. Prove me wrong, upload loads of videos of you being stupid (those that are obviously filmed in an agency office don't count) and then add to their views by watching all of the videos. Everyone loves watching videos of people being slightly wacky to try and win a bit of cash don't they? Bollocks they do, same as people hate the gits on the Confused.com TV Ad (hatred = viral). If they had been asked to do something truly horrendous then maybe it would work (pain = viral), but based on what's there at the moment it's like the cutting room floor of You've Been Framed or YBF as I believe it's now called.

A YouTube commenter has potentially got it nailed with "VIRAL MARKETING... FAIL!".

Advertainment

I didn't make up that term, promise. It's something I've been thinking about recently though and ties into what Louise has written about here.

Digital has driven advertising to become much more about entertaining people than straight sales messages; and as I've said a few times, this has driven the term v***l to be something that all markeeters strive for. To be an advert online you need to: entertain, engage, enable, educate, economize . Holy crap that's tricky, more tricky than a lot of people give it credit for (don't get me started on budgets) and kudos to all out there that do it well, there are plenty of digital agencies out there only happy doing one of those things, usually entertainment, and forgetting about all the others. No wonder traditional ad land has a tendency to hate us digital types and refer to us as 'below the line'.

Shouldn't some brands just stick to advertising instead of advertainment, we've got a lot of shite entertainment on our media as it is; oh and are we still referred to as 'below the line' or was the guy I punched in the face for saying that to me the last one?

Article about viral on competing marketing news site

So here's an article on Ad Age.

We've sent around Ralph as something relevant to us and definitely the vibe we pick up from existing and potential US clients; they consider us quirky, funny Brits and therefore more likely to come up with something that requires no media spend to get massive. I'm grateful for this image and I think it's true of us and many other great UK agencies out there. I agree with a lot of what's in the article but the groundbreaking point of it seems to be that for something to be successful it needs to be a great creative idea.

I mean, Jebus, you don't say, I thought that people would pass on any old turd because they love bombarding their friends with boring unimaginative adverts.

What isn't said in the article is that of course these ideas still need a crap load of media spend (Ads across all formats, PR, seeding etc.) to guarantee the big views. I had a meeting the other day where the client is trying to replicate the success of a viral video (I was going to put that in inverted commas but it actually became a viral to be fair) they had a few years ago. The traffic shot up apparently after it was shown during the Superbowl.

Makes me want to cry.

Lovely girl + comedy + pure idea = viral.

Right, this can most definitely be classed as a viral and a fecking great one. I hate it as we were asked to come up with some concepts for this movie, and whilst I still believe we had some absolute belters, this is so pure you can barely fault it.

Ok it helps having the most searched for girl on Google in it but I love it for the following reasons:

• - "we need 10 minutes with Megan, no more, no less, just brief her, point and shoot".
• - The clip works as a 'prank', I genuinely thought it was what it said it was as first.
• - It gets across the basic synopsis of the film.- If you don't know it's for a film, you will check out the site to find out what it is for.
• - Lovely Girl (put most likely not a 'marry').
• - It couldn't be shown on telly so it has to be used online yet it fits with what this stuff we call 'work' is supposed to do - advertise something.

Facebook Connect Jealousy

I talked about the greatness of Facebook Connect (for marketeers) a couple of posts ago, then this promo for a new video game is brought to my attention. Have a go on it, the video itself is alright (the 3D spinning pictures part annoys me as it's so obviously Flash) but it's the speed and simplicity allowed by Facebook Connect that really enhances the experience. We've used it in a few of our projects (www.areyoupopular.co.uk and www.waltswarning.com) but as we were fitting it within a narrative we had to ask users to make a picture selection etc.

I'm so jealous, always with the simple ideas and their success. Bit of a bummer I couldn't access it for a day when Facebook had problems with Connect though!

'Video game' is a bizarre term don't you think, or is that just me?

TV Ad on Youtube = VIRAL!

Hey there everyone, check out this amazing new viral clip.

Some people took a TV ad and shock of all shocks uploaded it to YouTube for all to see. It's not that I'm against the clip, it's not too bad a TV advert but it's most definitely that and not a piece of content designed from the outset to be passed-on. I've added to its success virally as I sent it round to our creative team in anger so I guess it can now be considered 'viral'. Shite. It has a decent amount of views yes, but I would question how many of those are from friends sending to friends. I could be wrong, it has been know to happen; quite a lot.

I'm linking you through to the story on Revolution as I beg you not to view it on YouTube and add to the figures. I don't want to make any enemies here, although I think I'm going to, but I can't help but see the irony of writing about something I don't consider 'viral' and linking to it so people can see it.

Your face on Bruce Willis' face

I usually dislike 'your face on other people's faces' stuff (I'd be lying if I said we'd never done them so will pay money to anyone that can hunt down similar Ralph projects); did anyone see the Arkham Asylum one for The Dark Knight, what was that all about?

Oddcast must've got all excited when they heard about Bruce WIllis' new film. It's perfect for their stuff and is all pretty cool (check it out) until it descends into ridiculousness when your send your surrogate on holiday and diving out of a plane; you suddenly look like you're a Mii on the Wii.

There again humor is one of the biggest viral tickboxes.

More Tron viral action

I know this is quite geeky, but you're the one on the Internet so in my Gran's eyes you're geeky as well.
Such a pure idea to get what is essentially a teaser trailer out there, sent around and talked about (we need a term for this). Don't call it a teaser trailer, call it a VFX Concept Test.

Again with the 'viral' marketing

Check this out.

I love the idea, and it deserves to be written about on many, many blogs etc. Does the guy need to get so angry at the end though. Especially as he's yet another person using the term viral marketing for anything that seems to reach out and touch the Internet in any capacity. This is a PR stunt, a great one, but not a piece of viral marketing. Oh no, wait, it is viral as we're now talking about it.

Facebook Confusion

Let's get this out of the way first; I personally don't like Facebook. I see it as the downfall of society, people refer to it as a great social tool and improving their lives but I can't see that. Are people really more sociable than they used to be, isn't the pub or school supposed to be the place where you chat with mates, not through an evil online empire? Perhaps it's because I'm a 'digital immigrant' as opposed to a 'digital native' like the yoof is nowadays innit, but I just don't get it.

However, for evil marketeers (of which I consider myself) it's a godsend for personalised advertising. You can target people down to ridiculous detail and, especially useful for us at Ralph, you can bring personal information in to cool online promotions with incredible ease. Facebook Connect is a cyber-godsend. You can bring in photos from wherever you are - no more "but I don't have a picture of my friend on my hard drive at work, why would I", you can attempt the 'viral' effect by sending to all and everyone in a punters address list, and a whole lot more.

So there you go, I'm so confused about my feelings towards Facebook

Oh, and please could my (actual) friends share their photos on Flickr instead?