A few weeks ago I got a chance to sit down with the President and Founder of Feed Company, Josh Warner. We talk a bit about how Feed Company began and what they’re up to with regard to video seeding, social media, video marketing. Among the things Josh talks about is the importance of video seeding:

Video seeding is the practice of taking brand video content and seeding it across the social web. What Feed Company does is we take videos and we place them through syndication and earned outreach on targeted websites, on mobile on social games on Facebook and through digital PR outreach, and also other grass root tactics. Ambassador programs with celebrities, grass roots outreach. All sorts of different tactics both earned and promoted to drive views around video content.

You can click the “view the transcript” button below the player for the full text of the video.

Originally posted on ReelSEO

Josh Warner is president and founder of Feed Company, which promotes and distributes brand videos, including campaigns such as Levi’s “Backflip,” Ray-Ban’s “Catch” and Activision’s “Bike Hero.” In five years, Feed Company has seeded more than 300 videos across the social web.

This year in viral video ads feels a lot like last year — many advertisers chose to evolve successful concepts and characters, such as Old Spice pairing Mustafa with Fabio for an old-fashioned Internet duel, and DC Shoes continuing Ken Block’s hugely popular Gymkhana series. I guess the adage is, “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”

For some advertisers on this year’s Top 10 videos, the creative choices may be less obvious, but feel more innovative. Boldness trumping caution is certainly one theme for videos represented by K-Swiss’s foul-mouthed Kenny Powers and Ford Focus’s flirtatious sock puppet. But other advertisers have other audiences in mind, drawn to the poignancy and emotion of Volkswagen’s The Force and The Silent Indian National Anthem videos, which proves there is no single formula for success for viral video ads, other than knowing your audience and being very creative about engaging them.

Here are the top ten viral video ads for 2011. Let us know your favorites in the comments below.

1. Kenny Powers – K-Swiss MFCEO (Uncensored)

Originally Posted on Mashable.com

Major advertisers, including Nike, Ford, and Microsoft, are using the marketing practice of video seeding to reach online users with brand videos longer than the 15 or 30-seconds required by pre-roll video ads. Marketers like that video seeding reaches online audiences in environments that are inherently more social (YouTube, Facebook, blogs, mobile) than commercial. This helps the brand video and its message get passed along by more users than a traditional display video ad.

Video Seeding – Give Your Video A Head Start

Yet as a marketer, how do you know if video seeding is the right tactic for your ad campaign? If you envision people wanting to talk about and share your brand video on YouTube and blogs then it may be the way to go. Do you have a hook? Is there a celebrity involved? Or is your creative just plain awesome and buzz-worthy? If the answer is yes to any of these, video seeding is a strong option to get brand related video in front of audiences where it can be shared and commented on.

User choice and share-ability are why video seeding is well considered by users and advertisers. Both help audiences connect more deeply with video that seems more fun than commercial. This is the Holy Grail for marketers trying to engage audiences bombarded at every turn by ad messages. Once you recognize user choice and share-ability, you’ll be able to distinguish that not every video view is equal. This is important because all major video seeding companies including Feed Company, Sharethrough, and Viewable Media charge on a Cost Per View (CPV) basis for views they generate from video seeding.

Why Video Seeding Works

Consider Company A, who engages a website or video ad network to host their brand video. The views are delivered using a proprietary video player and tracked by the provider’s own reporting system. The videos can be auto-play, with or without sound, and below the fold where a real view is less likely. The video can also be shown multiple times to the same viewer yet all count toward a view, and there’s less opportunity for sharing.

Consider Company B, who engages a video seeding provider to place their video on websites, social networks, mobile devices, and gaming environments. The views are delivered using a shareable YouTube embed and tracked on YouTube’s reporting system. Every play must be initiated by the user and verified by YouTube, which has stringent qualifications for counting views. There’s also a sharing opportunity to help turn the right creative into a viral video for the brand.

Company A and B are both paying for video views but the audience, delivery, and engagement are different, as are the costs. Decide which approach best achieves the goals of your particular brand video campaign – reach vs. engagement – type of creative – commercial vs. social, and aspiration – display vs. viral – and plan accordingly.

Originally posted on ReelSEO

By: Emma Bazilian

You might have heard of extreme coupling, extreme ironing, or even extreme cello playing (yeah, it exists). Now, courtesy of Hotels.com and Young & Rubicam in Chicago, there’s another crazy activity to add to that list: extreme hotel-room booking.
Y&R is behind the ubiquitous Claymation ads for Hotels.com, the latest of which features a skydiving couple who take a minute out of their free fall to book a hotel room. Seems like false advertising, right? Apparently not. The client enlisted skydiver and all-around extreme-sports aficionado J.T. Holmes to prove that its mobile site is so fast and easy to use that you can book a hotel room in less time than it takes to fall from an airplane. After announcing that he’s making a last-minute stop in Lake Tahoe and needs a room, Holmes jumps from a plane and attempts to book a room (and squeeze in a flip) in the 30-or-so seconds between the jump and the parachute deploying, aided by an enormous watch and “extreme” soundtrack.

The moment of truth comes when Holmes lands on the beach at Lake Tahoe. A jovial Hotels.com employee uses his walkie-talkie (this is supposed to be high-tech?) to confirm the reservation, and gee whiz, it looks like Holmes has a place to stay! Cue the cheering crowd, who seem to find hotel booking peculiarly thrilling.

The skydiving concept isn’t exactly new—McKinney already used it in Lenovo’s “Boot or Bust” spot, in which a laptop speedily booted up while plummeting toward earth. (Do I smell a new trend in extreme advertising?) But for those who scoffed at Hotels.com’s skydiving Claymation, it’s kind of satisfying to see it put to the test—even if it’s doubtful that anyone will so desperately need to book a hotel room in 30 seconds or less.

CREDITS:
Client: Hotels.com
Spot: “Extreme Booking”
Agency: Young & Rubicam, Chicago
Chief Creative Officer: Bob Winter
Creative Director: Sonya Grewal
Associate Creative Director/Copywriter: Evan Thompson
Associate Creative Director/Art Director: Richard Fischer
Director of Digital: Matt Witt
Head of Integrated Production: Brian Smego
Agency Producer: Peter Hullinger
Production Company: Humble TV
Director/Director of Photography: Jerry Dugan
Aerial Cinematographer: Joe Jennings
Executive Producers: Eric Berkowitz and Persis Koch
Sr. Producer/Post Producer: Andrea Papazoglou

In March, eMarketer released a report declaring that, contrary to the pro-digital pundits, TV ad spending will not be shifting dramatically to digital display. They are partially right. TV spending will not be shifting to the nebulous “digital display” realm (comprised primarily of search, banner ads and rich media). Instead, what is already in the active planning stages and will become evident soon after a record TV upfront in the U.S. TV spend is steadily shifting to the new distinct medium: “video,” which includes online, mobile and connected TVs.

Is video really a medium?
It is neither TV shrunk down nor display with moving pictures and sound. It is a strange amalgamation that, at its best, combines the narrative-driven engagement value of TV, the relevant targeting capabilities of display, and the interactivity of social media and gaming. As an inherently social medium with very few limitations, video allows marketers and their audience to tell an extended story with nearly limitless creativity and distribution possibilities aided by listening to and responding to, if desired, the specific audience of the marketer’s choosing. Marketers and their partners can reward awareness, behavior and loyalty. Virtually no other medium allows literally anyone to create, produce, distribute, view, share or comment in real-time and as transparently as desired.

Video encompasses all connected devices from the computer screen to the mobile screen, from the TV screen to the tablet screen. With these connected devices, the very nature of TV, as we know it, is merging with video to form the most powerful, accountable marketing medium. The introduction of dynamically inserted, highly addressable, brand safe, relevantly targeted, interactive advertisements at scale will reshape our ideas about TV advertising forever. More importantly, this will all happen in just the next few years.

Is video big enough?
At Kantar Video, we believe annual U.S. online and mobile video advertising investment alone will reach $5 billion by 2015, beating out the directory industry and challenging the aggregate size of annual outdoor ad spend. In other words, in 10 years time, the medium of video will have gone from near zero to one of the top six ad mediums. In five more years, video advertising will likely enter the top five, if not top four.

So, if video will be so large, why does it tend to get lumped into “display” or “digital” so often? One reason may be that video currently lacks high-profile, sustained, medium-defining brand and agency role models acting as standard bearers and magnets for talent. Imagine what outsized share of voice might be possible in any category were a brand (family) to commit to even $50mm per year of video ad spend. Similarly, what if there became available to support such an effort an end-to-end video agency? Moreover, video is the largest growing advertising medium without a separate advocacy organization. Mobile has one. Social has one. The IAB is leading the charge, but keeping up with the pace, the demands, and the disparate stakeholders of this medium is no easy feat.

All of this is why we in the video-advertising community really need to step up and put a stake in the ground. We should no longer let display and TV claim rights over video. If the “medium is the message,” then video has one heck of a good future. It’s time we start respecting it and make sure all marketing and communications strategies account for it … explicitly.

Feed Company, the leading video seeding company for creative brands and agencies, today announced that Jonathan Quello has joined the company as Vice President of Sales. Most recently Director of Digital Ad Sales at Alloy Media + Marketing, Quello will be responsible for fueling sales and client service growth at Feed Company.

Quello joins Feed Company from Alloy Media + Marketing, where he led the digital division in sales servicing Fortune 500 companies including Microsoft, Sears, Disney, T-Mobile, and Warner Brothers. Prior to Alloy, Quello was a media planner at MediaCom Los Angeles.

Quello is the second video ad industry expert to join Feed Company this month. Jeff Sue, formerly of Traffic Marketplace, a top 10 ad and video display network, joins Feed Company as Director of Publisher Development responsible for overseeing the company’s growing video syndication network. Sue joins Feed Company from Traffic Marketplace where he was Manager of Publisher Development responsible for top properties in the company’s network, including AOL, MSN, and Huffington Post.

Both join Feed Company during a period of rapid sales growth at the company, spurred by increased demand by major advertisers for video ad solutions that feature a social engagement component. “Feed Company is expanding because marketers and agencies recognize and want a video advertising solution that’s able to reach and engage audiences socially on the web,” said Josh Warner, President and founder of Feed Company. “Both Jonathan and Jeff bring a track record of experience and new thinking to Feed Company so our clients can have meaningful conversations with audiences with video they create.”

“I joined Feed Company because we have a custom and scalable solution for advertisers that delivers engaged video views wherever the audience is – on Facebook, YouTube, mobile, blogs,” said Quello. “Having options is incredibly attractive to advertisers.”

About Feed Company

Feed Company is the video seeding company creative brands and agencies rely on to get video exposed to users on top blogs, video sites, mobile and social networks. Our ability to guarantee millions of user-initiated views and social engagements make us the first choice for Fortune 500 companies and their agencies. Our selected clients include Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, BBDO, DraftFCB, Universal McCann, Levi Strauss & Co. Founded in 2007, Feed Company is a privately held company based in Los Angeles, Calif. For more information about Feed Company, please visit http://feedcompany.com/

YouTube has been a powerhouse in the online video arena since well before search giant Google (GOOG) bought it for $1.65 billion in 2006. What’s still a question is how much the video-sharing site will add to Google profits. One thing is certain: YouTube dominates the sector, accounting for nearly four out of 10 online video viewing sessions in the U.S. in May.

Google also dominates market share among people who come online to watch video. Comscore reports that “Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as the top online video content property in May with 147.2 million unique viewers.” The research firm say that in May total unique viewers of video in the U.S. were 176.3 million.

Total viewing sessions across Google’s sites reached 2.1 billion. (Viewing sessions are defined by unique visitors multiplied by the the number of times those visitors come to the site to watch a video.) The total viewing time per unique visitor to Google sites was an extraordinary 311 minutes in May. No other site comes close. The No. 2 spot is held by premium-content site Hulu, which held its viewers’ attention for a fairly impressive 218 minutes. But Hulu only had 28.5 million unique viewers in May. Hulu visitors also tend to watch long-form content provided by media companies. YouTube is still dominated by shorter, user-created videos.

The sites directly behind Google in traffic in May were VEVO, a premium video site, Yahoo! (YHOO), and Facebook.

The data on YouTube suggests that, if the site can get more premium content, it could rule the business of distribution of the products of major media companies on the Web. Early in YouTube’s history, content companies were concerned that their video was being pirated by the site. Viacom (VIA) even filed a $1 billion copyright suit against YouTube in 2007.

But the online world has come a long way since then, and YouTube has begun a campaign to create partnerships with major media companies to bring premium content to the site, in some cases including rental and pay-per-view video. The first set of deals, with companies including Sony Pictures (SNE), Warner Brothers (TWX), Universal and Lionsgate (LGF), was announced last month. YouTube has also become an important destination for music videos, which labels use to promote album sales.

Google has claimed YouTube will be profitable, but that remains to be seen. The bandwidth and storage costs for its video content are huge, perhaps in the tens of billions of dollars.

The big hurdle YouTube must leap on its path to becoming a major provider of premium video is its current content. It’s still viewed by many as a video-sharing site dominated by amateur content, and with good reason. The most popular video on YouTube this month is a 61-second clip called “Cat mom hugs baby kitten” with 27.8 million views. Some Hollywood studios don’t want their movies mixed in with that.

Originally posted on DailyFinance

Last year Ford put its Fiesta brand in the hands of America’s drivers to help tell the real story behind the car. This year the company has placed its social-media faith in an orange puppet called Doug.

Doug isn’t your normal benign company spokesperson. He’s full of attitude and kinda funny or kinda obnoxious depending on your point of view. In the official launch “episode” of what Ford hopes will become a must-watch-and-share set of video snacks, Doug was unveiled to the media and he revealed himself to be a bit of a lady’s man — as he might put it — or just downright misogynistic as anxious Ford “execs” described his performance. Subsequent YouTube skits have shown Doug getting to grips with the features of the Focus while also trying to get to grips with the female Ford employee demonstrating them.

What’s going on here? Cynics might say that Ford has run out of crowdsourced, tap-into-real-people social-media ideas and so an irascible puppet is the next logical step away from those old-school sweeping Canyonlands “real American” TV adverts.

But in the annals of adland Ford is following a well-rehearsed script of using puppet power to help add spice to a brand. Puppets, after all, allow brands to get away with stuff no actual human brand representative could try. Imagine a real actor trying to be as louche as Doug — it just wouldn’t work for the brand. Ford also understands that social media affords brands multiple opportunities for experimentation/edgy engagement with customers. Doug’s behavior could be alienating on TV but in the back-and-forth banter of social-media conversation it is likely to be embraced and shared just as much as it is criticized or ignored.

So can Doug achieve media greatness in the fickle world of social-media marketing or will he end up on the scrap heap of failed puppet props? Here are 10 puppet brand ambassadors that could teach him a few tricks:

1. Wilkins Coffee
Some say Jim Henson’s Wikins puppet character, created in 1958 to hawk an eponymous coffee brand, was the inspiration for Kermit. We think Doug might also be taken inspiration from this granddaddy of brand puppets.

2. Basil Brush and Haze Pomander
A generation of Brit kids grew up watching Basil Brush, his rapid-fire patter (he could have been scripted by Aaron Sorkin) and his famous “Boom Boom” punchline. Appearing for an air freshener was not his finest moment.

3. Muppets do Polaroid
In the early 1980s, the Muppets were at the height of their powers and Polaroid film and instant cameras were still cutting edge. A rare case where a puppet dynasty has outlasted the product it was promoting.

4. Flat Eric and Levi’s
Flat Eric was adapted (or adopted) in 1999 from a French music video and refitted to help sell Levi’s Sta-Prest jeans. He became an instant cult classic and even starred in the U.K. version of “The Office.”

5. Pets.com
For one year, the Pets.com sock puppet shone more brightly than any branded puppet had shone before. The first puppet to have its own Super Bowl ad (complete with the instantly recognizable punchline “Because pets can’t drive!”), the puppet also scored interviews with “Good Morning America” and had its own Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade float. Pets.com flamed and died in the dot-com crash but the sock puppet lived on, as the brand advocate for auto loan firm Bar None.

6. Kermit does Ford Escape
The greenest of all Muppets probably struck ad execs as a smart puppet choice to front this 2006 Ford Escape hybrid advert. Alas, Kermit’s fronting for an SUV was dismissed as greenwashing. He was on safer ground with Jessica Simpson talking green pepper toppings for Pizza Hut.

7. Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, Most Valuable Puppets
The puppet re-creation of the Kobe-LeBron basketball rivalry was an instant online and offline hit for Nike. It spawned a whole series of videos as well as a merchandise range.

8. Zappos employee puppets
Social-media darling Zappos chose a novel approach for its first TV ad — it recreated its customer-service employees as “Avenue Q”-style puppets, or “zappets,” as the brand called them. The scripts were actual customer-service conversations to show how politely Zappos handles even the zaniest of requests.

9. Thunderbirds and SpecSavers
Those of us in our 40s normally reach a point when we need glasses, so what better way to appeal to this nostalgic demographic than through cult TV characters from our youth. Hence, the return of Gerry Anderson creations The Thunderbirds and Joe 90 in this British SpecSavers ad.

10. Lipton Brisk Ice-Tea
Another Super Bowl, another puppet, but this time the Pets.com mantle is stolen by Eminem. The dog was funnier.

Originally posted on Ad Age

Air New Zealand has teamed up controversial puppet Rico with superstar rapper Snoop Dogg in its latest video – although it is hard to tell how the clip promotes the national carrier. In the music video, entitled Hello Sunshine, Rico is “down in New Zealand – lost in a bush” when rapper Snoop Dogg – real name Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr – calls him from California and asks him to join him in his studio.”I’ll be there in a hearts beats,” Rico says, before flying Air New Zealand to the United States. To a rap backing track, Rico, a small, fanged animal with a faux South American accent, joins Snoop Dogg in the studio.”Ladies, Rico’s here just off the plane, ready to take away all your pain,” Rico sings. “We’re gonna cook a dish, made to savour. Come add your spice, don’t matter the flavour.” Snoop Dogg, sporting an All Blacks jersey, chimes in with lines such as “from Cali to Kiwi – we do it big in the new zee” and “Air New Zealand, yeah – got the feeling, yeah”.

Previous Rico ads have attracted criticism from both the public and staff – with some labelling the puppet as sexist and staff complaining in-flight videos starring Rico were trivialising safety messages.In one ad, Rico talks about his time in New Zealand, saying: “I love her bush – it’s amazing” and “I spent my time beating off the track in many place”. The Snoop Dogg video is of a similar vein; when being escorted through Snoop Dogg’s home by an attractive woman, Rico exclaims the home has a “nice backyard”. Then, looking at the backside of one of the many beautiful women, he adds: “really nice backyard”. In a statement, Air New Zealand general manager marketing Mike Tod said Snoop Dogg and Rico combined have millions of followers in social media and performing a song together came naturally.”Both have courted controversy in their careers and both love to sing – arguably one better than the other, but still, it makes for some light entertainment,” he said. The statement also said: “Rico has also ruffled some fur amongst mainstream media, who have had fun talking up the controversial aspects of his personality”.

When the Herald requested an interview with Mr Tod, a spokeswoman instead offered an interview with Rico and said a request would be put in with Mr Tod. In the statement, Snoop Dogg also said: “Meet this guy and you’ll understand why I wanted to work with him. He’s funny. He’s a little bit edgy and a little bit naughty, which is a nice change for an industry that is known for having some of the dullest marketing known to mankind.” Snoop Dogg’s latest album, Doggumentary, is due to be released on March 28 – although does not include Hello Sunshine, according to the track listing.

Originally posted on the New Zealand Herald

Is Old Spice the brand your viral video could look like?

Ever since Wieden & Kennedy’s body-wash campaign for Procter & Gamble became a viral sensation with millions of views, hundreds of response videos and a bump in product sales, brands have been clamoring to find their own Isaiah Mustafa success story. But to do that in 2011, it requires a lot more than just a sexy spokesman and a catchy tagline. Here are 10 tips for making your branded video truly go viral.

1. Start with a goal for your brand. Too often, marketers or agencies come up with cool ideas or concepts that have little to no connection to their brand or product offering. Dan Greenberg, CEO of video-distribution company Sharethrough, said he asks clients to write themselves a “postcard from the future” before releasing each viral video, detailing what they hope consumers will say about their video once it’s been shared, e.g. “That was really funny” or “I had no idea that product actually did that.”

“You’d be surprised by how often the creative director doesn’t have an immediate answer to that question,” he said. “It makes them think really hard about content that’s truly shareable.”

2. Pick a creative concept that’s going to grab attention. Jonathan Small, senior VP-editorial at Break Media, said the four types of videos that tend to strike a chord with Break’s audience of young males can broadly be categorized as “funny,” “sexy,” “wow” and “ow.” Of course, only the Funny and the Wow tend to be the most ad-friendly. Being topical helps, too. “If it’s timed to a recent event and it’s relevant to the audience you’re trying to target, you’re more likely to get views pretty quickly,” Mr. Small said.

3. Encourage engagement. The most successful viral campaigns are those where fans create their own brand-inspired videos. Old Spice’s “Responses” campaign has amassed 80 million views from aggregate consumer-generated parodies and clips. Revlon’s Mitchum deodorant learned this over the past summer when it teamed up with Creative Artists Agency and Brett Ratner Brands for a contest to find the hardest-working person in America, a theme tied to the brand’s positioning as the hardest-working deodorant. A YouTube contest caught the unsolicited attention of “Dirty Jobs” host Mike Rowe, who submitted a nominee and helped the campaign attract more than 150 submissions and more than 3 million views. Mitchum saw sales reach a two-year high as a result. “We wanted to create a natural environment, but there were some things that were deliberate in terms of creating certain tools so consumers could create their own videos and help get the content in front of the right people,” CAA Marketing Co-President David Messinger said.

4. Go easy on the branding. Josh Warner, CEO of video-seeding firm Feed Company, said a new kind of “engagement capital” has emerged with viral marketing in which different levels of branding tend to work better than others. Lightly branded videos that function as standalone content were found to be four times more effective than heavily branded videos and 10 times more effective than clips with a call to action. “The minute you put a brand upfront in the video with a lot of brand mentions, it turns from being an entertaining piece of content to ‘I’m giving you a product,’” Mr. Warner said.

5. If you do use heavy branding, use it wisely. Ford Motor Co. wanted to communicate the unique features of its 2011 Ford Fiesta, such as ambient lighting and push-button-start ignition. Rather than film the standard product-demo videos for its micro-site, Ford tapped social-media influencers on Twitter and YouTube to do the product demos for it. “People in general can be distrustful of viral videos from large companies; they see it just as marketing. If it comes from somebody socially vibrant, then it becomes something relevant to their own life,” said Jonathan Beebe, Ford’s digital marketing manager.

6. The more the merrier. When it comes to branded videos, one is not enough. In some instances, brands will sponsor entire web series and enlist scripted talent such as actress Illeana Douglas (Ikea’s “Easy to Assemble”) or reality stars like chef Paula Deen (Kraft’s “Real Women of Philadelphia” contest for Philadelphia Cream Cheese) for their online content. Other brands such as Evian will create alternate viral clips featuring popular characters (in a recent case, the Evian babies) and use alternate footage and cast interviews to boost impressions for the campaign at large. “You don’t get a ton of views anymore by just letting the original asset work on its own. Related assets and behind-the-scenes clips will drive crucial additional viewership,” said Matt Fiorentino, a senior marketing analyst at web-analytics firm Visible Measures.

7. Celebrities don’t guarantee views. While having a household name can certainly boost awareness and even search results, it’s not the end-game to securing viral success. However, an Ashton Kutcher or a Seth Green might be more likely to find an audience than, say, a Jennifer Aniston. “Celebrities who have an audience that’s active online and have made a commitment to online see a lot more activity than those celebrities that exist more offline than online,” Feed Company’s Mr. Warner said.

8. Network, network, network. Using every social-media platform available from Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon and MetaCafe is a given. But leveraging relationships with key bloggers, press and online personalities is the secret sauce to a hit campaign with lots of earned media. Ford and Team Detroit, for example, hired YouTube star Brittany Taylor to help compare the Ford Fiesta to a Lamborghini, and gained more than 800,000 views on YouTube alone by tapping into her subscribers and Twitter followers. Although Ford bought a little bit of paid search around the videos, Mr. Beebe said the organic traffic ended up outperforming some of the company’s own recent paid campaigns.

9. Use paid media strategically. Although “organic” and “earned” views are still the ultimate gauges of viral success, most brands need to have some proof of audience. Some companies and ad networks are working with marketers to buy video banner ads on key sites that are likely to encourage sharing after the fact. Rates vary, but $100,000 can often buy 1 million paid views on cherry-picked key sites such as Metacafe, Daily Motion and CollegeHumor, while ad networks can often guarantee 1 million paid views in the $10,000 to $20,000 range. “If your strategy is just editorial outreach and it doesn’t work out for whatever reason, it’s tough to be the vendor in that position if you didn’t get views,” Sharethrough’s Mr. Greenberg said. “But if you buy 1 million views, sometimes the content is so compelling you maximize the sharing and it turns into 4 million or 5 million views.”

10. Don’t underestimate Facebook. Many publishers are finding Facebook is becoming the dominant place for off-channel views, as sharing and embedding clips achieves critical mass. “Six months ago it was still a lot about sites like Digg and Huffington Post. But now a lot of our traffic is coming from Facebook directly. It’s almost like its own separate internet,” Break’s Mr. Small said. “We’re working with our team to write headlines that work better on Facebook, because the way a video might be played on our homepage is different than something people would want to share on Facebook.”

~ ~ ~
Originally posted on AdAge

For this year’s top innovative viral video ads, advertisers and ad agencies split their goodness between web specific videos and great TV ads that did well online. Regardless of origin, the top 10 videos share several traits worth noting. Every creator knows his or her audience well and what executions appeal to them most. The videos are also inclusive in tone, making you feel like you’re a part of the brand’s message and experience.

This positive, inclusive tone and tight content/audience match make this year’s social videos worth sharing. Let us know your favorites in the comments below.

1. NSFW. A Hunter Shoots A Bear!

Click HERE for the full interactive experience.
Advertiser: Tipp-Ex

Ad Agency: Buzzman

Why It Works: What if you were a hunter and had to choose between shooting a bear or dancing with it? With a seemingly infinite number of responses to anything clever or dirty you might think of, this video from Tipp-Ex, a white-out tape, takes choose-your-own-adventure style videos to a whole new level. A distinctly old-school product does something brand new on the YouTube platform.

2. Embrace Life

Advertiser: Sussex Safer Roads Partnership

Ad Agency: Alexander Commercials

Why It Works: One of the most innovative videos of the year is a British PSA that encourages people to wear a seat belt. You expect it to be boring, right? But it takes your breath away with simplicity and emotion. It is a welcome respite from traditional scare-tactic PSA’s.

3. Guy Walks Across America

Advertiser: Levi Strauss & Co.

Ad Agency: Conscious Minds Productions

Why It Works: Walking across America should take more than two minutes but this imaginative stop-motion-film from Levi’s definitely makes you want it to last even longer. The 2,770 still photos of a hipster footing it through America’s byways and landmarks clearly strike patriotic chords for a country in search of good news. It even comes with a Google map that traces the route of the filmmakers.

4. Old Spice Responses

Advertiser: Procter & Gamble

Ad Agency: Wieden + Kennedy

Why It Works: Not having this as our number one ad is the same reason why you pick someone other than Arcade Fire as your favorite band. It’s just too obvious. But Isaiah Mustafa is, hands-down, this year’s social superstar along with W + K for the Old Spice response videos. All 200+ of them.

5. The Puma Hardchorus

Advertiser: Puma

Ad Agency: Droga5

Why It Works: Millions of men had to choose between soccer and their loved one when major matches fell on Valentine’s Day this year. So Puma put the toughest European footballers in a video to sing a romantic song that would help soccer fans out of their scheduling jam — a brilliant example of doing something nice for your customers. Take a look at the video comments on YouTube for a peek into the psyche of European football.

6. Google Chrome Speed Tests

Advertiser: Google

Ad Agency: BBH

Why It Works: This video shows a race between Google Chrome loading a web page and a potato getting shot through a gun on its way to becoming a French fry. It’s a video for everyone that’s sick of waiting for web pages to load in their browser, which is, well, everyone.

7. Swagger Wagon

Advertiser: Toyota Sienna

Ad Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi LA

Why It Works: One of the best ways to find an audience online is to know exactly who you’re looking for — and then make them feel good. Toyota and its ad agency did both with a video that makes any parent in search of a minivan feel cool and hip.

8. There’s A Soldier In All Of Us

Advertiser: Activision

Ad Agency: TBWA\Chiat\Day

Why It Works: Kobe Bryant and Jimmy Kimmel join us regular folk (the concierge, short-order cook, businesswoman) in playing real-life soldiers in this spot for Activision’s “Call of Duty: Black Ops” video game. The video’s inclusive message does a great job showing us the new game is for everyone.

9. Write the Future

Advertiser: Nike Football

Ad Agency: Wieden + Kennedy

Why It Works: This epic video takes you through make-or-break moments of three soccer greats and how their lives change either way. Shot by Mexican director Alejandro Inarritu (“Babel”), it got millions of web views in its first week and was a great promotion for both the FIFA 2010 World Cup and Nike.

10. Master of Business Card Throwing

Advertiser: Samsung

Ad Agency: The Viral Factory

Why It Works: Viral video trick ads are dated, but this execution for Samsung’s new digital camcorder makes you want to toss business cards for a living. You can’t watch it without trying to do it yourself, or at least film it. Hopefully with a Samsung Digital Camcorder H205.

Originally posted on Mashable.

But first, just in case you haven’t seen it yet, check out the 60 second ad:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So how did this whole thing come together?
KEVIN BACON: [Logitech] sent me like a breakdown for [the ad]. I read it and said, you know, it could be kind of cool, but I have to make sure that we’re all in sync about it. I didn’t know how far they wanted to go with the look and the character. If it was just me kind of walking around, people would think it was weird. So I started to talk with the director, this guy Ringan Ledwidge. And he was like yeah, we should really go far [with the character]. It was sort of like any other character that you play. You have to figure out the back story and you gotta figure out who he is and what makes him tick, what’s his life like. Exactly the same process working on anything [else].

It’s a pretty distinct character — the paunch, the voice, the hair. How did you come up with that? How far did you want to take it?
It’s funny, I don’t know always where all these things come from. I happened to have a mustache and so we left that on. We started to test some different things in terms of the hair and the makeup. At one point there was some concern that I was going to go too far away from me — you wouldn’t know it was me. I said, “Listen, I don’t want to be a diva about this, but you guys just have to let me do this the way I want to do it, because I think it’s going to work.” It was a really fun day [of shooting]. And what’s on the air is really just a tiny taste of what we shot.

What else did you shoot? Do you think we’ll see it?
I hope so man, I really do, because it’s great. Uh, let’s see, well there’s a little dancing that was kind of fun. [Laughs] There’s a lot more there. I would hope [it will be released], I don’t know. It’s up to Logitech.

Where did all the Kevin Bacon paraphernalia come from?
The art director put that stuff together. I had nothing to do with that. It blew my mind. I mean, I walked into this house and I was like, Oh my god, you gotta be kidding me. There was one little thing, I don’t know if you see it in the commercial or not, where they had taken this series of little diagrams of my hairstyles, from the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s. It’s just so silly. I loved it.

To walk into someone’s idea of a house of an obsessive fan of yours — it seems like it could be a bit like the scene in Being John Malkovich where John Malkovich goes into his own head.
It was a little weird, but, I mean, at this point, what’s weird is not weird anymore. You know what I mean? It’s just the way my life is. But it was fun. It was like a day of just playing. I really like doing comedy, and I don’t get the opportunity that often because I’m not one of the comedy guys. The last few years there have been a certain kind of intensity to the parts I’ve been getting and the kinds of movies I’ve been in. So to get a chance to lighten it up every once in a while is kind of fun.

Is it strange at all, imagining the life of an obsessive fan?
I know people have mentioned that it’s a little creepy, but I don’t find him creepy. I worked to make him sweet and genuine. In a way, I feel like there’s a certain responsibility to do that because the last thing I would want to do is make fun of a fan. [Chuckles] Because that’s my bread and butter, right?

So does this now put you within, like, negative degrees of Kevin Bacon? How does that work?
[Laughs] I don’t know. That’s one for the bloggers. I’m not that much of an expert.

Well, I don’t know if anyone is more of an expert on Kevin Bacon than Kevin Bacon, but if you say so.
But, you know, the game [Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon] — I’m not sure exactly how that works.

Okay. I just feel like the cosmos might implode in on itself at any moment now.
[Chuckles] Yeah, I’ve upset the balance.

Originally posted on Entertainment Weekly.

So what really separates a viral sensation from just another one of the other millions of clips on YouTube that never rise above the fray? Well there’s a little known secret to many of the branded videos that eventually make it to be a chart-topping viral hit. The videos are strategically and methodically seeded by online viral video specialists who, through technical know-how and special editorial relationships across the Web, provide multiplier effects to their clients’ latest video clips online.

One of the leaders in this space is The Feed Company, the unit behind a number of viral hits over the past few years. Josh Warner, the founder and President of Feed Company, came by the Lab recently to share a bit of the magic behind viral video online seeding. Check out the highlights.

Originally posted on the Digital Lab Blog.

by Michael Learmonth

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — I’m a little surprised it took Levi’s excellent “Walk Across America” this long to appear on the Viral Video Chart given press attention and pass-around its received over the past few weeks. The video debuted on the web in July and seemed to generate a good bit of buzz, but maybe that’s just my Twitter feed talking.

The video was created from 2,770 individual still photos by director Sam Griffith, producers Blake Heal, Peter Cote and actor/model Michael Johnson. And while Johnson didn’t really walk across the U.S., the crew did drive across over 14 days (here’s the route) shooting Johnson’s steps along the way. In addition to the ad itself, the creators posted a making-of video, which has received hundreds of thousands of views. Biggest challenge: “living on an RV for two weeks with six other dudes.”

“Walk Across America” has been watched 3 million times since it was posted July 20, and 1.5 million times last week, according to Visible Measures, allowing it to push aside some Old Spice videos into the No. 2 spot. Those Old Spice videos are still hanging on, by the way, even though their collective audience dropped again by about half.

Another debut on the chart this week is from Kia Motors, whose “A New Way to Roll” saw about a million views last week and took No. 7. That video is the latest in a series for the Korean automaker and has been on the web since May, suggesting that some paid promotion gave it a bump last week. Kia has tapped YouTube celebrities Smosh, LisaNova and ShayCarl for their “Who’s Next?” promotion asking for wannabe YouTube stars to submit their own “new ways to roll.”

Originally posted on Ad Age.

The Ford Fiesta Movement, a social media campaign launched last year to promote Ford’s newest subcompact model, is being extended with a video series that shows YouTube celebrities interacting with the Fiesta in creative ways to show off the car’s features.

Eight new videos began playing last week at FordVehicles.com, a YouTube page and a series of sites and blogs. The videos were created by Team Detroit and seeded by the Feed Company.

In “Fiesta Breakdance Battle” (embedded below), YouTube celeb Beto Lopez breakdances in front of the Fiesta as the dragon’s-eye headlamps, side mirror turn indicator and other features are highlighted. In “Fiesta Gets Romantic,” YouTube celeb Winston Robinson opens the Fiesta trunk to retrieve picnic items while his harried date uses the voice-activated sync to call a taxi.

The videos, which run about two minutes each, use graphic overlays to identify Fiesta features that fit into the humorous video plots.

“Viewers learn about the Fiesta in an entertaining way,” said Scott Lange, an executive creative director at Team Detroit. “It’s a new way of engaging people with more than just informational content.”

The YouTube celebrities were recruited last year to test drive models of the new Fiesta, which hadn’t been released in the U.S. yet. They reported on the experience through their blogs and individual YouTube accounts.

The social element of the Fiesta campaign carries through to the TV spots, said Lange. “The production value of the TV spots, which feature two people inside a Fiesta, were inspired by the personal connection with the audience we get through social media. Print and outdoor ads are also being used, but the foundation of the campaign is the social element.”

An initial series of seven videos, launched in May drew over a million cumulative views, and the second series has already generated 500,000, according to data compiled by the Feed Company, which guaranteed 500,000 and 350,000 views for the respective series.

The videos that play on YouTube utilize a feature called annotations, playing brief clips of two other videos in the series after a selected video is viewed in an effort to generate additional plays and keep viewers on the YouTube page.

Jackie Mayer, director of marketing at the Feed Company, said the company worked with the YouTube celebs and contacted editors at hundreds of sites to distribute the videos from the first and second series. “We went out and pitched communities and sites. It’s like 15 different marketing campaigns going on,” she said.

The goal of the video plays at YouTube and the other sites is to “bring them back to the experience at Fordvehicles.com, where more information on the Fiesta plays,” Lange said.

Originally posted on ClickZ