Toshiba's Floating Furniture

Matthew Yeomans — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:01:51 +0000

Surely you’ve heard about the Balloon Boy. Well, now there’s the Balloon Chair. In this ad designed to get everyone talking about Toshiba’s new flat-screen television, the views get cooler and cooler as a chair floats up to space. And, even better, this footage isn’t a fake-out!

Title: Space Chair Project

Stats: Posted to YouTube on Nov. 16, the video has amassed over 88,000 viewings and 126 comments.

What you see: This video opens with a shot of the desert. A deliberate pan to the left reveals a red chair, the kind you might see in a doctor's waiting room. Cut to a group of men who put the chair in orbit, held aloft by a massive helium balloon. Around the world it travels, higher and higher into the stratosphere. The scenes are spectacular, but what's going on here? Finally we get an explanation. The words appear: "Armchair viewing, redefined." And the model of the Toshiba flat-screen TV appears on the screen: Regza SV. The balloon pops and the chair crashes to earth.

Take Out/TakeAway: Consumer electronics brands have to be pretty clever these days if they are going to compete against YouTube-savvy rivals to create a bit of buzz for their products in a cut-throat marketplace. Samsung earlier this year created a YouTube hit when it strapped light-emitting diodes to a flock of sheep to get across the idea, a bit bizarrely, of how its LED high-definition technology works. Toshiba here is more artistic, appealing to the 2001: A Space Odyssey fans out there.

Social Media Effect: No doubt Toshiba isn't the first brand you'd think of when asked to name a favorite tech ad. But it may be on to something with "Space Chair Project." The comment field is already abuzz with 'how'd-they-do-it?' questions. The only concern is that people will recall the ad more than the product. As one commenter asks: "But where the hell can I buy one of those chairs?!!"

***

YouTube BrandWatch is The Big Money's exploration into how the world's best-known businesses, so adept at managing their images offline, are being perceived online, where control is harder to come by. Every week, The Big Money features a corporate-themed video that's had significant viewership on YouTube: some approved, some unapproved, some mashed-up combinations of the two. And we'll ask our readers to vote on how the video affects the brands. We think the responses will surprise you, and provide a window onto what is fast becoming the most important playground for corporate games. (Note: This feature has no official relationship to YouTube or its owner, Google.)

Radar DDB UK provides social media strategy and insight for major brands.

Cadbury Swaps Bunnies for Dogs

Bernhard Warner — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:32:19 +0000

Never mind a hostile takeover bid by Kraft (KFT), Cadbury’s (CBY) creative team is busy on its latest installment of the "Glass-and-a-Half Full" campaign. Previously, we saw a gorilla on drums and a wacky eyebrow dance. Can dogs at play prove to be its next YouTube hit, and maybe even keep the M&A lawyers at bay?

Title: Cadbury Schwepps—Dogs in Cars

Stats: Posted to YouTube on Oct. 26, the video has amassed a modest 9,600 viewings and nine comments, not a good start if it is ever to catch up to Cadbury's famous "eyebrows" video, a runaway YouTube hit from earlier this year.

What you see: As "The Blue Danube Waltz" plays in the background (poor Johan Strauss II—his most famous composition is a favorite choice today of ad agencies in search of inspiring mood music), the camera zooms in on eight dogs awaiting their turn at the side of a race track. The door of a Cadbury-purple Lamborghini Diablo opens and away they go! Cut to super slow-mo scenes of each pooch, head out the window, gulping at the air.

Take Out/TakeAway: The video is the fourth installment of Cadbury's award-winning "A glass-and-a-half full" campaign to promote its line of chocolate bars. Cadbury has already scored one hit in this series with "eyebrows," a video that has become a Web sensation and has even added a Lilly Allen version (another 3.1 million views). Can Cadbury score again with floppy-eared pooches?

Social Media Effect: This video has been slow to take off, picking up under 10,000 viewings in its first two weeks. We'd hate to think Cadbury and its agencies (Fallon of London and Saatchi & Saatchi of Sydney) went to all the trouble of painting a Lamborghini purple only to have this spot stall on them. The few comments are mixed. There are a few professions of love. And some criticism, too. As YouTube viewer Syntox writes, "This has nothing to do with chocolate. While the ‘Gorilla’ ad also had not much to do with chocolate, at least it had some kind of dramatic heft and narrative, and a surprise at the end. This is just, meh."

***

Radar DDB UK provides social media strategy and insight for major brands.

Michael Phelps Misses

Matthew Yeomans — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:21:25 +0000

To promote the next Winter Games, the International Olympic Committee has recruited popular athletes like Michael Phelps to play sports with which they’re not familiar. Does the ad work, or is it only fun to watch the sports stars when they’re winning?

Title: Michael Phelps Speed-Putting—The Best of Us Challenge

Stats: Posted to YouTube on Oct. 22, the video has been viewed 378,900 times.

What you see: Olympic swimmer, multi-gold medalist Michael Phelps attempting to putt as many golf balls as possible into plastic cups in a 60-second period.

Take Out/TakeAway: This is the most-viewed video so far in an ambitious YouTube campaign launched by the International Olympic Committee to promote next year's Vancouver Winter Olympic games. The idea is to use Olympians attempting off-kilter sporting challenges, and then ask the public to create their own videos beating the challenge. Other videos show tennis champ Rafael Nadal trying to hold over 20 tennis balls and sprinter Asafa Powell balancing a stick on his foot. However, it’s Phelps’ prowess with a putter that seems to be capturing the public's imagination at present. And why not? After all, it seems the perfect skill to hone while stoned.

Social Media Effect: Asking the YouTube community to create their own videos as part of a competition isn't new—Doritos perfected the idea months ago with its You Make It, We Play It campaign. But this is an ambitious six-month effort by the IOC and, in a nice touch, they filmed the athletes in the same handheld low-fi style that they expect the public to respond with in their video entries. With Olympians from all over the world taking part, The Best of Us Challenge is aiming to tap into a truly international community, while creating a pointless but engrossing participatory event. A bit like some of the Olympic sports themselves, when you think of it.

***

Radar DDB UK provides social media strategy and insight for major brands.

Trident's Song and Dance

Matthew Yeomans — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:37:32 +0000

Staged song-and-dance routines are popping up in random supermarket aisles, only to land on YouTube hours later, where adoring fans hoot and howl over the creativity! The randomness! The LOL fun of it all! And now canny brands are sponsoring these mini productions. It's possible every person in this video is an actor, and all the praise comes from family and friends, but even still, it makes you wonder: Can you ever shuffle to the supermarket again in your ratty old sweats for a carton of milk?

Title: Grocery Store Musical

Stats: Posted to YouTube on Oct. 20, the video has amassed more than 848,000 viewings and more than 3,400 comments.

What you see: Random shoppers are pushing their carts through a well-lit produce section when a shaggy character, holding a pineapple, breaks into song. "This fruit is lonely," he sings, leading us into the next three-and-a-half-minutes of singing and dancing with fruit-toting actors.

Take Out/TakeAway: Grocery Store Musical was conceived by a New-York-based performance group called Improv Everywhere, which believes all too strongly in its founding mission: causing "scenes of chaos and joy" [and the occasional misdemeanor of overacting] "in public places." Through the years, it has staged a "no pants subway ride" and, in Los Angeles, a "food court musical." As they explain on their blog, chewing-gum brand Trident Layers approached them to sponsor this recent all-singing, all-dancing gag, "giving us creative control and using no product placement." Trident sponsored this viral video, but you have to hang on until the dear end, courageous viewer, to get a glimpse of the brand.

Social Media Effect: Trident isn't the only brand funding questionable performance art in the hopes of bagging a viral video. Disney posted this feel-good video to YouTube in June. 52 percent of our column readers who voted liked that one, even if some of the YouTube commentary attached to that vid turned nasty at times. There seems to be a lot more support for this Trident-branded musical- produce routine, staged in Queens. What's your vote? A good investment for Trident Layers' brand image?

***

Radar DDB UK provides social media strategy and insight for major brands.

Motorola Ad Slams the iPhone

Bernhard Warner — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:26:20 +0000

The list of so-called i-killers is indeed a long one. Remember the Zune, Microsoft's (MSFT) iPod killer? (Overseas readers of this column of course do not, but maybe a good 5 percent of the rest of you do.) And then there are the many iPhone killers from Samsung, Sony Ericsson (SNE), and Nokia (NOK) that have emerged over the years, plugging along with single-digit market share. Alas, we have another i-killer, this one designed by Motorola (MOT) and to be distributed by Verizon Wireless (VZ). It's called the Droid, and it's just now getting airtime, triggering a never-tiring debate online.

Title: iDon't

Stats: Posted to YouTube on Oct. 17, the video has amassed more than 476,000 viewings and upwards of 1,400 comments.

What you see: Statements drop onto the background of a white screen while a pleasant Lily Allen-esque pop song plays. They read. "iDon't have a real keyboard" and "iDon't run simultaneous apps," obvious jabs at the shortcomings of the ubiquitous iPhone. Midway through, the cheery music cuts out ominously, pointing us to Droiddoes.com and a type of "stay tuned" message for an apparent November launch.

Take Out/TakeAway: There really is only one way to position your smart device these days. Take aim at the market leader straight away and reveal all its annoying flaws. Rival X need not even discuss the merits of its own device. Heck, in the case of Motorola's Droid, it doesn't even need to show us the device at all. It's so "anti" it's not even there. Yet.

Social Media Effect: Of course, the public has heard this all before. And what do they think of the latest i-killer? A lively debate erupts on YouTube directly underneath the Droid video. The public isn't immediately sold on the Droid, but the video does succeed in raising the debate about the merits of open source on our smart phones and more powerful mega-pixelated camera phones. Maybe once consumers get their hands on the Droid the debate will change, or at least be less focused on the iPhone.

***

Radar DDB UK provides social media strategy and insight for major brands.

Ford’s New Focus

Bernhard Warner — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:48:24 +0000

Ford's latest campaign stars its drivers and little else, giving short shrift to the cars. In a series of vignette testimonials, Ford (F) drivers tell you what they like about their new Ford. For all we know, no Ford owners were harmed in the filming of these spots.

Title: One More Reason: Becky's Fusion Hybrid Performance

Stats: OK, the viewing numbers aren't quite in "viral" territory and may not get there any time soon. Still, the first eight 15-second spots Ford has posted to YouTube as of Oct. 7 have amassed more than 40,000 viewers. This one is one of the most popular, registering 8,400 viewings since it was posted a week ago with four text responses.

What you see: Viewers are introduced to Becky, a Ford Fusion Hybrid owner, while she's behind the wheel. "It's got plenty of pickup," she tells us in a tight shot, before the action cuts to the car making a right turn. That's it, though. The camera goes back to the driver and we don't see the car again. We just hear and see Becky.

Social Media Effect: The overall viewer numbers are hardly impressive, but once this campaign hits the airwaves (scheduled for Oct. 12) that could change. This is a campaign designed for the Web, with quick-hit 15-second testimonials—the kind of content better suited for a Web browser than the TV screen. Ford's idea to use real people for unscripted reviews of its cars is part of a new trend in the automotive industry, in which it's trying to initiate a conversation with the public about the cars it makes, rather than bombarding them with messages to "Buy! Buy! Finance!" Volkswagen in the U.K. did this very same thing this summer for the Tiguan.. [Full disclosure: We helped with the social media implementation of that campaign.] Expect to see more people-powered campaigns from the automotive industry.

Take Out/TakeAway: Is this what the crisis in the auto industry has come to? Quick-hit testimonials of "actual" drivers where they take center stage? What happened to all those slickly produced spots where the car is the star? Ford, on its blog, says it asked Ford customers to share what they like most about the new models for its "One More Reason" campaign. They end up talking about things you might not expect to hear: interior lighting, the voice-command stereo system, and the hands-free gas cap. There's no talk of MPG or engine size or financing terms. It's all about the cars' features.

***

Radar DDB UK provides social media strategy and insight for major brands.

Freebord's Human Tetris

Matthew Yeomans — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:15:59 +0000

What do you get when you take 36 skaters fitted with crash helmets that emit funky colors and send them careening down a San Francisco street at night? A viral video that may just yet put the "freebord" on a foothold to knock off the mighty skateboard. Dubious? Check out this video first.

Title: 36 Skaters Make Downhill Neon Video Game w/ Freebords

Stats: Uploaded on Sept. 21, the video has amassed more than 480,000 viewings, plus 597 comments and another 3 video comments.

What you see: Under cover of darkness, "freebord" skaters take off one by one down a car-free slope in a leafy San Francisco neighborhood. We get a top-down perspective as the tubing connected to the skaters' helmets is illuminated. The effect created is that of brightly colored puzzle pieces cascading from above. At the bottom of the hill, the skaters stop and the pieces collect, Tetris-style, to form a cube of bright colors and shapes. The skaters set off again, and the cube dissolves.

Take Out/TakeAway: Months ago, Samsung created a YouTube stir by fitting sheep with light-emitting diodes to promote its new LED line of high-definition televisions. Choreographing a pack of skaters appears an easier trick for Freebord Inc., a California startup that has pioneered the six-wheel street board that moves more like a snowboard than a skateboard.

Social Media Effect: The "freebord" was developed in the late 1990s. And, while it has its devotees, it hasn't taken off quite as quickly as the snowboard or its predecessor, the skateboard. But the California company has a YouTube channel and a small following. This video is by far its biggest viral video hit. Fans appreciate the finished product. "They? must've done that really late at night when there's nobody on the streets. Very cool! Loved it!," commenter “garfieldgurl" gushes.

***

Radar DDB UK provides social media strategy and insight for major brands.

The Debtors Are Coming!

Bernhard Warner — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:10:26 +0000

Before new federal consumer protections come into place later this year, credit card issuers have been tweaking terms and increasing rates. While most of us grumble in private, a California woman, Ann Minch, better known by her YouTube handle "Rockerchic4God," tells Bank of America (BAC) "You are evil thieving bastards!" in response to their decision to more than double her credit card interest rate over night. She vows to stage a "debtors revolt." Yes, this revolution will be aired ... on YouTube.

Title: DEBTORS REVOLT BEGINS NOW!

Stats: Uploaded on Sept. 8, the video has amassed more than 380,000 viewings, plus 5,749 comments and another 26 video comments.

What you see: Ann Minch sits before a single camera, her back to a case of miniature vintage cars behind glass. Over the next 4 minutes and 28 seconds, Minch tells us Bank of America jacked up the interest rate on her credit card to 30 percent APR. (Or is it closer to 23 percent? Never mind.) She puts the bank and former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay on notice. (She sweetly corrects this in a later version to say that she meant Ken Lewis, BoA CEO; "both crooks, so easy to confuse!") "I'm staging a debtors’ revolt right here, right now and thereby refuse to pay you one more red cent on your 30 percent credit card account," she declares.

Take Out/TakeAway: If Fox News has taught us anything, it is that populist revolts against giant, heartless institutions are a quick way to find out how many angry Americans are in your viewing audience. Minch has much smaller pull; she has a YouTube channel on which she explains, "I am interested in current national and world affairs and how all of it correlates directly with end-time prophecy." Minch did appear the other day on Fox News with Shepard Smith, but it may be her YouTube channel that brings her the most visibility. Thanks to the YouTube revolt, Bank of America relented in the end. The terms of the settlement are not known, but Fox News' Smith says "She won!"

Social Media Effect:This is a revolt built for YouTube. The responses to Minch’s appeal flowing in are both supportive and desperate, giving birth to an active forum on which consumers rip into all credit card issuers for hidden fees and other injustices. While BoA is the target of most of the consumer wrath in the comments' section, it's not alone; Wachovia and others, too, get hammered.

***

Radar DDB UK provides social media strategy and insight for major brands.

Wii May Need Backup

Matthew Yeomans — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:51:13 +0000

Drug enforcement agents in Lakeland, Fla. burst into the home of a suspected drug dealer, guns drawn, ready for anything. What do they find? A Nintendo Wii and a jumbo-screen TV. Bowling, anyone?

Title: Raw Video: Officers Play Wii During Raid

Stats: Uploaded on Sept. 22, the video has amassed more than 5,200 viewings in under 24 hours, plus 135 comments. The chatter continues elsewhere online. The story has been picked up by over 350 bloggers, not to mention the mainstream press.

What you see: This video, furnished by the Associated Press, shows sheriff's officers from Polk County, Fla., busting into the home of a suspected drug dealer. It appears their target was not home at the time, but his high-tech booty was on display— a big-screen TV and Nintendo Wii. Naturally, the crack drug enforcement unit started to bowl a few rounds. The AP says they were at it for over an hour. At one point, near the end of the video, a female officer jumps up and down, hands raised. She bowled a double! Ah, the nation's finest. Turns out the suspect had a wireless camera hooked up to his computer surveiling the joint, catching the cops in action. Busted!

Take Out/TakeAway: Score another marketing victory for the Nintendo Wii. And for the Polk County Sheriff's Office? As CBS's "Crimesider" puts it, they're "pinheads!" This story is bound to enter the growing lore around the best-selling video game console. Police reportedly found a cache of drugs and stolen property worth over $30,000. This raid will go down in history, though, as the "Wii bust."

Social Media Effect: Bloggers are really enjoying this one. Among the creative headlines we've seen: "To Protect and Serve and High-Score" and "Drug task force members get aWii bit carried away". As one commenter deadpans, "Bad judgement [sic] indeed. Wii Golf and tennis take much more skill."

***

Radar DDB UK provides social media strategy and insight for major brands.

Presented By:

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:51:13 +0000

VisitDenmark’s Sexy Single Mom

Matthew Yeomans — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:08:47 +0000

In this viral video, courtesy of the Danish tourism authority, a young blonde actress recounts a sexual encounter with a stranger. Does this ad make you want to visit Denmark and get in on the action, or is it a total turn-off?

Title: Danish Mother seeking ...

Stats: 800,000 views

What you see: A young attractive mother from Denmark records a video diary dedicated to the mystery man—a tourist—whom she met one night one-and-a-half years ago while he was visiting her country. The young child she is holding— baby August—is the offspring the tourist doesn't know exists. She tells the YouTube audience: "I'm doing this video because I'm trying to find August's father, so if you're out there and see this, this is for you. We met one night a year ago when you were on vacation here in Denmark, and we met at the custom house bar. I was on my way home and I think you had lost your friends and then we decided to go down to the water to have a drink, and yeah, it's really embarrassing, but it's more or less what I remember."

Take Out/TakeAway: This is straight from the school of "what were they thinking?" advertising. It turns out that this video is a viral created for VisitDenmark, the European nation's tourism authority. It was to supposed to tell "a nice and sweet story about a grown-up woman who lives in a free society and accepts the consequences of her actions," but was quickly removed from YouTube following scores of complaints, according to a story in the UK's Daily Telegraph. Critics complain (and not without reason) that the ad merely promoted the idea that young Danish girls are easy.

Social Media Effect: As regular readers of this column know, YouTube videos never die even when they've been removed following complaints. Today, one copy of the original advert is on YouTube's most viewed list, and another 54 versions and video responses to the original exist on YouTube. Even if they all get removed, you can still view the video on news sites like this one. The YouTube audience is confused about whether the video is real or not. "What a weird way to advertise Denmark," writes one commenter.

***

Radar DDB UK provides social media strategy and insight for major brands.

Halo Mans the Trenches

Matthew Yeomans — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:23:06 +0000

This trailer for a new war-themed Halo video game is fast-moving and violent. Does the trailer make the game seem disturbing or does it make you want to play along?

Title: Halo ODST—Live Action Trailer

Stats: 649,287 views

What you see: This is a very slick live-action trailer showing a rookie solider from ODST (that's Orbital Drop Shock Troopers) going through training and embarking on his treacherous first mission in the city of New Mombassa. The character cheats certain death then ages some 10 years before our eyes and transforms into a leader. He pulls on his helmet and heads off on the next mission.

Take Out/TakeAway: The big-budget trailer, slick cinematography, and haunting soundtrack all suggest a trailer for a movie, but Halo ODST is an XBox 360 video game—and a quick fix one at that. Ironically, the idea for the game (a prequel to the blockbuster Halo series) arose from the ashes of Peter Jackson's failed Halo Chronicles feature project. Halo game creator Bungie has assembled an animation team to create a game to accompany the movie and so gave the go-ahead for ODST, which was created in just 14 months.

Social Media Effect: Halo ODST isn't released until late September, but expectations on social media forums and YouTube have already hit fever pitch as the viewing figures for this version of the trailer show. There's even an extended version that has been released on Gametrailers.com that has generated another 200,000 views. It might just be that this trailer is too successful for its own good. As one commenter says (echoing the thoughts of numerous others): “All of these live action commercials make me believe the halo movie will be better than the games themselves.”

***

Radar DDB UK provides social media strategy and insight for major brands.

Chevron Posts Murky Tapes

Matthew Yeomans — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:30:09 +0000

Big Oil company Chevron (CVX) posted this video, which it says shows evidence of bribery and judicial misconduct in the environmental case it’s currently facing. Is there enough here to vilify the judge or does the whole thing seem suspicious?

Title: Judge Nunez Misconduct Overview—Chevron Ecuador Lawsuit

Stats: 7,314 views

What you see: Did Ecuadorean judge Juan Nunez—charged with ruling on a decades-old, multibillion dollar landmark environmental case against Texaco (now Chevron)—agree to a bribe and also prejudge the Big Oil giant as guilty? That's what Chevron is alleging in this 20-minute long undercover expose—released only on YouTube—that they say came into their possession just recently … and just three months before Nunez was set to rule on the culpability of Chevron in what all sides agree was a major environmental catastrophe. Texaco stands accused of reckless oil exploration in the Ecuadorean Amazon that resulted in many people getting sick from crude oil spills and waste water seeping into the rivers—decades after the original spills, children living in the area grew up with pustulating boils all over their bodies. Texaco has always claimed that it abided by Ecuadorean law and that the environmental mess was the fault of Ecuador's state oil company Petroecuador. Now in this grainy, 60-minutes-style secret-camera footage, the presiding judge is portrayed as already having passed judgment on Chevron—a charge he has denied telling U.S. media outlets that the video has been edited to portray him in a bad light.

Take Out/TakeAway: Where to start with this one? Chevron is on the hook for nearly $27 billion in environmental damages from this case, which has bounced back and forth between U.S. and Ecuadorean courts for over 15 years. Depending on your point of view, this new material either shows a conspiracy by the Ecuadorean judiciary to stick it to a U.S. corporation (Chevron's point of view) or, to quote the New York activist lawyer representing the Ecuadorean plaintiffs it "reeks of a Nixon-style dirty-tricks operation and Chevron's fingerprints are all over it." The lawyer and opponents of the oil company note that one of the people seen coaxing the judge in the video has "worked for [Chevron] as a logistics contractor," according to Time.com.

Social Media Effect: Chevron (and Texaco before it) has spent most of the last decade defending its position through public relations-driven stories in the mainstream media. But with the birth of social media (especially video-driven story-telling), Chevron has been one of the first companies to tell its own story independent of traditional media. (Just months ago, it hired a former CNN reporter to produce an "independent" TV documentary into the case). Simply put, the company's approach raises huge questions over what we judge as "newsworthy" in the new media world, and makes a better argument than any journalist could ever make in defense of independent investigative journalism.

***

Building Buzz with Lego

Bernhard Warner — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:15:15 +0000

Usually building something with Legos takes forever, but the creative process is fast-forwarded in this stop-motion video. Though the video isn’t meant to advertise the toy, it is an artistic homage of sorts.

Title: Lego 8-Bit Trip

Stats: 734,820 views

What you see: Perhaps the ultimate homage to the 8-bit computer games that some of us (of a certain age) grew up on and still adore. This meticulous stop-motion video involving Lego bricks took 1,500 hours to bring to life and offers up the artists' reincarnation of classics like Pac-Man, Super Mario Brothers, and Tetris.

Take Out/TakeAway: Stop-motion video creations have been en vogue online for a while now. Combine that digital storytelling with iconic video games and you've got content that a multitude of tech and gadget blogs will be lining up to write about. Twitter is pretty keen on it as well.

Social Media Effect: Big companies often shudder at the thought of what the public will do with their brands in social media conversation. However, Lego has emerged as one of the iconic brands on the Web with a generation that grew up building the bricks paying tribute to them through a series of creative memes (check out this create-your-own Lego avatar). This latest viral video does wonders for the brand without Lego ever being part of the project.

***

Radar DDB UK provides social media strategy and insight for major brands.

Micro-Star International's Laptop Wedgie

Bernhard Warner — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:57:50 +0000

Thanks to the success of Apple's (AAPL) MacBook Air and the rise of netbook computers, the market for super-slim laptops is one of the most cutthroat in the whole of the consumer electronics sector. Can the lesser-known Taiwanese-based PC manufacturer Micro-Star International (better known for making computer components like motherboards) crack the market with its MSI X-Slim laptop? Not convinced? What if it's devised a viral video that suggests it's slim enough to fling the laptop across a backyard in a game of catch that involves butt-cheek-clenching men in tights?

Title: "Guy Catches Laptop With His Butt"

Stats: Uploaded on Aug. 10, the video has already amassed more than 1.3 million viewings in its first week and well over 2,500 comments.

What you see: Well, men in tights for starters. For 98 seconds, two men (joined later by a third) play catch with the new MSI X-Slim laptop. In a series of acrobatic moves, a blond-haired man catches the airborne laptop by clenching together his butt cheeks, or so the dodgy trick effects claim. At the end, the man walks away with a limp as his pals congratulate one other for their stunts.

Take Out/TakeAway: When was the last time you saw a computer ad that only shows the device being thrown around like a Frisbee? We never even see it turned on to get a glimpse of the software it's packing or the size of the hard drive. Instead, we get this cringe-worthy message that the laptop is thin enough to catch in your butt crack. From 20 yards away.

Social Media Effect: If the hardly-known Micro-Star International (MSI) wanted to make a big splash it certainly has done so here in the buzz-building department. Over 300 blog posts and 1 million views in a week are pretty impressive results, even for a tech brand. But the discussion among YouTube viewers is not about the merits of the product, but rather about the cheesy effects used in the video, and some off-color speculation about what else these guys catch. Don't expect to see this video made into a 30-second spot for the back-to-school shopping blitz.

***

Radar DDB UK provides social media strategy and insight for major brands.

A Bic Lighter for James Bond

Chadwick Matlin — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:59:45 +0000

"Flick your Bic" has been the rallying slogan for the iconic lighter brand over the past four decades, helping it to outsell all rivals in the United States in that span. It's cheap. It's durable. It does the job. Has it finally met its match against master tinkerer and YouTube star Kip Kadersha? MacGyver-like, Kadersha can seemingly hack any household product into a domestic defense system or into an elaborate prank to play on friends. Can Kadersha create a laser lighter out of a 99-cent Bic?

Title: Cheapy Laser Lighter Burner!

Stats: Uploaded a little over a week ago, the video has already amassed more than 704,462 viewings and 3,349 comments. Kadersha's fans are legion; there are more than 145,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel.

What you see: Kadersha starts with a simple blue plastic Bic lighter. Over the next 2 minutes and 20 seconds, he guts it, draws out the butane, installs a few cheap laser components, loads it with battery cells, and, voilà, he's created a "cheapy laser lighter burner!" Just don't point it at yourself or any living thing, he advises, as a hot blue light darts around the screen.

Take Out/TakeAway: Société Bic, the French firm that invented and markets the Bic lighter, has been a retail powerhouse in America since the 1960s, selling cheap ballpoint pens, razors, and lighters by the billions. The company has survived these hacks before. Famously, lock pickers revealed how to crack open a Kryponite U-lock with the hollow part of a Bic pen, creating one of the first viral videos of its day. Kryptonite wasn't pleased, but Bic survived the controversy just fine, reinforcing the notion that its products may be cheap but are also versatile and handy in a pinch.

Social Media Effect: Before the YouTube era, Kadersha's tutorials would have been relegated to weekend hobbyist conventions or maybe the odd late-night TV talk-show appearance. With his YouTube channel, "KipKay" (his YouTube handle) has a thriving and loyal fan following. Glance at the comments section, and you can guess the demographic right away. Lesterjames007 writes, "i have a broken psp .and what i want to do is to get the lcd which is still ok.and modify it so it can serve as a 2nd monitor for my pc ... can you help me with this project?"

***

Radar DDB UK provides social media strategy and insight for major brands.

Skateboard Tricks in Nike Kicks

Bernhard Warner — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:12:02 +0000

Looking to score a hit online, Nike (NKE) a few days ago posted an extended TV spot to YouTube. Nothing new there. It even includes blinked-and-you-missed-them cameos by mega-priced superstar-endorsers Kobe Bryant and Ice Cube. But the real star of this video is Paul Rodriguez Jr. Don't know who that is? Then you're clearly no fan of skateboarding, dude. The skater faithful, though, have responded. Makes you wonder: Will YouTube, and not TV, determine the next generation of celebrity endorsers?

Title: "Nike SB - Today Was a Good Day - Extended Version"

Stats: Posted on July 29, this video has collected over 160,000 views and 614 text messages.

What you see: Twenty-four-year-old Paul Rodriguez Jr. (yes, he's the son of the comedian Paul Rodriguez) is a pro skater and aspiring actor, though he's better known for making virtual appearances in video games than anything you may have seen on the tube or on the big screen. Never mind that. In this two-minute-21-second video, Rodriguez zips around the streets of Los Angeles on his trusty board, pulling off a series of tricks while the Ice Cube track "Today Was a Good Day" plays on in the background as the soundtrack. How good a day? It's all fine until Rodriguez has a run-in with Ice Cube at the very end.

Take Out/TakeAway: In April, we wrote about Danny MacAskill, a young Scottish man who performs a series of amazing tricks on his stunt bicycle, a video that went on to record nearly 9 million viewings in a little over three months' time. Danny was riding on behalf of a relatively unknown Scottish bicycle maker, Inspired Bicycles. It's a video that goes down as one of the most popular this year, turning Danny and the Inspired Bicycles brand into overnight stars. Nike is a better-known name, of course. But judging by its online fan base, Nike SB (that's short for skateboarding) can hardly compete with Danny and his stunts. Can Rodriguez create some much-needed buzz for the mighty Nike then?

Social Media Effect: Rodriguez is the ideal celebrity endorser for the YouTube era. He's handsome, athletic, and he's got celebrity in his blood. But the YouTube faithful are a tough crowd. They barely hesitate when there's an open comment field. So far, they approve of Rodriguez and his stunts. As one commenter writes: "Legit best skate commercial yet! so steezy i mean buttery steeze prod." In skater-talk, that's high praise. Just don't ask us to translate.

***

Radar DDB UK provides social media strategy and insight for major brands.

Modern Warfare, Now in HD

Matthew Yeomans — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:51:08 +0000

Cutting-edge graphics are a surefire way for game developers to generate buzz about upcoming products. As a result, industry members have long battled to produce the sharpest videos for their consumers. With this viral video, developer Infinity Ward showcases violent, high-definition gameplay from upcoming release Modern Warfare 2 at social media sites across the Web.

Stats: 1,112,074 views since July 27

What you see: A GI/grunt hits the streets of downtown Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on a mission to kill as many bad guys as possible. Carnage abounds and the kill rate only escalates when an AC-130 starts laying tracer rounds down. The video lasts just 1 minute, 22 seconds, but the graphics and details are shock-and-awe-inspiring.

Take Out/TakeAway: Remember Tron, the movie about a video arcade owner/hacker who finds himself trapped inside the mainframe of a computer battling the evil Master Control? Back in 1982 this was the first movie to use computer-generated graphics and helped pave the way for a new generation of interactive and graphic-rich video games. Fast forward to 2009 and the trailer for the much-anticipated Tron Legacy sequel is posted online, generating 161,139 views in just five days. Not bad, until you consider that the trailer for Modern Warfare 2—a video game—received seven times more views in just two days.

Social Media Effect: Is it any wonder the movie business feels threatened by gamers? The selling point of this new game is that it allows multiplayer action, all viewed in HD, and it's creating huge buzz in social media circles. It also helps that, aside from the YouTube clip, Infinity Ward, the maker of the game, has "seeded" this trailer on hundreds of other video sites, Facebook pages, and gaming forums. Oh, and Robert Bowling, the company’s head of communications, has 36,000 Twitter followers.

***

Radar DDB UK provides social media strategy and insight for major brands.

Sprite, All Sexed Up

Bernhard Warner — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 17:50:25 +0000

Nearly every soft-drink brand has a collection of racy "banned" ads on YouTube. Usually, they are posted by fans with little opposition from the brands. Why is that? As Adweek's AdFreak blog reveals, the dirty little secret of "banned" ads is that most "were never banned at all." The brands themselves probably killed them internally. And if the verboten vids are to ever make it on to YouTube one day, meh, it's no biggie. The extra attention is good for the brand, goes the thinking. Right? Then why doesn't somebody want us to see a new Sprite video that's got the blogosphere buzzing? It's been pulled from video-sharing sites left and right. But we have a version here. (For now.) ***Warning: This video contains graphic material.***

Title: Banned German Sprite Ad—BJ!!!

Stats: The video was pulled from YouTube before we could see the viewer figures. But Viral Video Chart says it had tracked more than 407,000 viewings in the time since the video first appeared July 18; it was pulled from YouTube on July 20.

What you see: This video leaves nothing to the imagination. A young naked couple (strategically shot but still squarely in the "NSFW" category) are in the kitchen enjoying each other's company, as the initials "BJ" suggest. She backs away from her man, then leans in again. Moments later she's soaked in a jet of bubbly Sprite. "Behfolgen sie irhen durst," reads the tag line hovering alongside a sweaty can of Sprite. Yep, that's German for "Obey your thirst," Sprite's long running slogan. And what do you see if you go to YouTube looking for this same video? The video has been removed due to a trademark claim by a third party, we're told.

Take Out/TakeAway: The controversy has only just begun with this video. The sudden and comprehensive take-down of the video suggests somebody in charge of Sprite's reputation really doesn't want us to see this one. No doubt, the sexually charged content is so blatant that it would never get past the advertising standards censors even in the most permissive countries. This, of course, leads to questions about whether it's a fake. Cue even more interest. The New York Press says that it is not a sanctioned Sprite ad. It's a spec ad that was never meant to air, it reports.

Social Media Effect:: Whether or not this video was ever intended for the public is now a moot point. It's been viewed (if you include blogs and the trade press) probably a half-million times in just a few days, and more than 220 blogs are swapping the link around, creating a real headache for a brand looking to rid the Net of the offending video. As of press time, Sprite nor its parent company, the Coca-Cola Co., had released a statement about the supposed "spec ad" nor an explanation for the takedowns. Even so, there will be no way to keep the lid on this "banned ad".

***

Radar DDB UK provides social media strategy and insight for major brands.

How LeBron Shamed Nike

Matthew Yeomans — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:13:57 +0000

LeBron James is known for putting the ball in the basket. Now, so is Jordan Crawford. Who’s that, you might ask? In short, he is Nike’s (NKE) worst nightmare—a young kid who apparently made LeBron look so bad on court that the corporate sponsor has suppressed all footage of the event. Is this fair play, or does hearing Crawford’s story make you want to call Nike’s foul?

Title: Jordan Crawford talks about dunk vs. LeBron James

Stats: 233,276 views

What you see: Or what you don't see to be more exact. This video features an after-the-event interview with Jordan Crawford, the Xavier student who last week dunked against LeBron James during a pickup game at the NBA star's Nike Skills Academy event in Akron, Ohio. LeBron dunked by a college kid? This is hardly a major news event except for the fact that Nike is alleged to have confiscated all video footage of the dunk, supposedly to save LeBron's blushes at being skooled by a school kid. One of the videographers who had his footage confiscated returned the next day to get this interview with Crawford in which he tells us how he was "geeked about" dunking on LeBron and how it's the first thing he's going to be telling his friends when he gets back to school.

Take Out/TakeAway: This is just one of more than 300 videos posted in the last week on YouTube that offer commentary on the videos that were confiscated. Some are clips from TV sports news shows lambasting Nike and LeBron, others are spoofs claiming to be the real video footage, and others are compilations of NBA pros dunking on LeBron. If LeBron and Nike really wanted to control conversation about this minor, minor event, then it got far more than it bargained for.

Social Media Effect: Brands, politicians, sports figures, and celebrities all know that every public event (and quite a few that are private) will somehow end up on YouTube. Just ask George Allen. In this case, it is the medium/platform of YouTube and the ability it offers anyone to offer his side of the story, rather than the video itself, that has created embarrassment for Nike. The sooner it turns this around and launches some sort of "Dunk on LeBron" competition, the sooner this controversy will disappear.

***

Radar DDB UK provides social media strategy and insight for major brands.

Microsoft’s Nauseating Ad

Bernhard Warner — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:44:58 +0000

Microsoft (MSFT) has posted to its YouTube channel (yes, even Microsoft has a YouTube channel), four mock public-service announcements to get the Web community to start buzzing again about its latest browser, Internet Explorer 8. The "Browse Better" videos are humorous enough, touching on how to best share cuddly cat pics and speed up page downloads. But there's one they don't want you to see. We have it here.

Title: O M G I G P Internet Explorer 8 Puke Vomit Girl

Stats: There are a half-dozen versions of this ad now circulating on YouTube, even though Microsoft itself has pulled the original version. This one has attracted over 803,000 views and 799 text comments since it was posted to YouTube on June 26.

What you see: A sweet-enough-looking couple are at the breakfast table. After a moment, the man steps up from the table and away from his laptop and hands off the computer to his wife. After a few moments of surfing around, she gets a queasy feeling and begins to—how can we put this delicately?—projectile vomit. Amid this scene of domestic turmoil, in steps Dean Cain of Superman fame to inform us that Internet Explorer 8, the latest browser from Microsoft, has "in-private" browsing that can hide your Web-surfing tracks and prevent your spouse from finding those really oddball fetish sites that can ruin a breakfast.

Take Out/TakeAway: Microsoft still has the lead in the browsing war, but it's long been accused of doing little to improve on IE's features while challengers like Mozilla's Firefox continue to innovate. To show the Web community that it still is capable of building a cool browser with all the must-have features, it's unveiled IE 8, along with a series of ads starring Dean Cain to amuse and intrigue the Web community. Apparently, it felt it went too far in crafting a video that shows projectile vomiting and fetish sites that involve hairy women.

Social Media Effect: It's hard to shock the Web community. Or so you thought. Microsoft's decision to run the vomiting couple ad is questionable regardless of where the video is to run. Among the user comments on YouTube, there are some frank questions that usually go something like—Gross! Could Microsoft really be behind this ad? But as Chris Matyszczyk's column on CNet points out, it's the most popular in the series of "Browse Better" ads. That's not surprising. Shock value usually generates more chatter. But judging by YouTube user comments, it's hardly winning over the Web community. As one outraged commenter writes: "how offensive! who the hell is your audience?"

***

Radar DDB UK provides social media strategy and insight for major brands.

United Made Musician Cry

Matthew Yeomans — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:20:32 +0000

Airline workers who deal with baggage handle plenty of precious stuff every day. Every once and a while, they might be a bit too rough with a bag that should be labeled “fragile”—resulting in damaged property and angry customers. United Airlines is surely regretting that one of its latest victims is a musician who has decided to tell the whole YouTube world about how the airline mishandled his guitar.

Title: United Breaks Guitars

Stats: 502,418 views

What you see: Canadian alt-folk duo Sons of Maxwell were touring the United States when singer Dave Carroll's Taylor guitar was thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. As he writes on YouTube, "I discovered later that the $3,500 guitar was severely damaged. They didn't deny the experience occurred but for nine months the various people I communicated with put the responsibility for dealing with the damage on everyone other than themselves and finally said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss." So Carroll vowed to make three songs and videos that document his experiences and protest United. This is the first.

Take Out/TakeAway: There is a double brand effect in play here—a takedown of United Airlines and a paean to Taylor guitars. (Maxwell makes a point of saying "No Taylor guitars were harmed in the making of this video.")

Social Media Effect: Brands beware: disgruntled customers with large MySpace or Facebook followings, such as those who belong to bands, can be a social-media nightmare … especially if they can express themselves with a dose of creativity. This is Jeff Jarvis vs. Dell Computers translated into the YouTube genre. The number of views and comments posted in just three days—e.g., "My Brother worked for United as a baggage Handler and on the first day He watched othe Handlers open bags and steal the contents. He quit within the hour! Scum Bums!"—tells a greater story than one protest song. Unlike Dell, United issued an apology within days.

***

Radar DDB UK provides social media strategy and insight for major brands.

Evian’s Roller-Skating Babes

Matthew Yeomans — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:06:02 +0000

When a baby takes his first step, it’s a proud moment for the parents. But they’d probably be even more impressed if their kid mastered the art of roller-skating while still in diapers. That’s what happens in this ad for Evian bottled water, in which babies skate around a park. Does watching all of this exercise make you thirsty for a bottle of Evian or encourage you to stick to tap water?

Title: Evian Roller Babies

Stats: 1,144,244 views

What you see: You can just see the creative director thinking this one up: "Mmm ... what would make the perfect viral? ... I know, babies on rollerskates performing tricks. C'est magnifique!" And that's just what you get in this Evian Live Young advert that launched July 1 and is being heavily promoted via paid advertising on YouTube's home page.

Take Out/TakeAway: OK, so cute babies and adventure sports may be superpopular on YouTube, but no one said you had to combine the two. Throw in CGI special effects to make the tots do jumps and twirls, and you get an advertising campaign that perhaps is trying a little too hard to be cute and funny. What it's got to do with bottled water is anyone's guess.

Social Media Effect: Advertising agencies have realized that they can get far more traction online for their campaigns if they also tell the "backstory" with tools like a behind-the-scenes microsite, a making-of-the-ad video, and what we call a satellite strategy of creating new audiences on Facebook and other social networks. Evian Live Young has all of these social media "talkability" weapons at its disposal (it's even created Facebook profiles for the babies), but social media aren’t just about creating a good gimmick—they’re about having good content to spark a conversation. From what we can see, none of these babies can talk.

***

Radar DDB UK provides social media strategy and insight for major brands.

A Disney Princess Bride-to-Be

Matthew Yeomans — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:30:16 +0000

Disney is perhaps best known on YouTube for clever fan mash-ups and Hannah Montana videos. Riding this wave, Disney's theme parks division figures a little impromptu singing and dancing on its well-groomed Main Street, U.S.A., will create yet another "magical moment." But winning over YouTube critics takes more than a happy song as Disney learns.

Title: Disneyland Musical Marriage Proposal

Stats: Appearing on June 8, this video has attracted more than 265,000 viewers and over 3,600 text responses.

What you see: A couple are walking along a crowded street in a Disney-designed downtown when the man steps forward, whips out a megaphone, and asks his girlfriend to marry him. She just shrieks and holds her hand over her mouth as he goes into a full song-and-dance routine of wedded bliss. She says very little—just an "Oh my God"—and seals the proposal with a kiss. A happy ending. The crowd cheers.

Take Out/TakeAway: T-Mobile drafted the blueprint for viral videos with its flash-mob dance routines set in London earlier this year. The number of copycats that have followed would suggest this take-the-crowd-by-surprise element will be a common feature of ad campaigns going forward, at least until the next big-buzz idea succeeds it. Evidently, Disney didn't get the memo, with a very obviously staged dance routine and marriage proposal.

Social Media Effect: Talkability is key to any viral video. And Disney sure has accomplished that, generating an active back-and-forth dialogue between fans and detractors of the "Marriage Proposal" video. The more critical YouTuber is vicious in his criticism, as one viewer writes, "asking her to marry him after ONE year? wow. idiot." But there are romantics, too, who are more forgiving. "They probably practiced it with somebody else but I dont think it was fake," another viewer comments. But the genie is out of the bottle. The fakery charge has been leveled.

***

Radar DDB UK provides social media strategy and insight for major brands.

Paramount’s Premature Promo?

Matthew Yeomans — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:03:30 +0000

The most popular genre of YouTube videos these days is, not surprisingly, trailers for summer and autumn Hollywood blockbusters, (usually the kind involving the imminent invasion of Earth or some other kind of sci-fi menace). The trailers for Transformers 2 and 2012 alone have amassed more than 9 million viewings so far. The competition for eyeballs is so fierce that Paramount Pictures has even decided to start plugging now the release of its big summer sci-fi adventure flick The Last Airbender, a full year ahead of its big-screen debut. Too soon? You be the judge.

Stats: Paramount posted this video on June 22, registering more than 237,000 viewings and nearly 2,300 text comments in the first four days. Other fans of the Last Airbender story have posted their own "teaser" vids, bringing the total number of viewers closer to 1 million.

What you see: "He is the last of his kind, all that remains of a once powerful nation," the solemn voice-over informs us, while in a ring appears a robed samurai busting some impressive moves. Cue ominous music as the narrator informs us some unnamed baddies are bent on destroying this young shaven-head hero. The camera pulls back, and the perspective shifts to the sea where a menacing armada bombards the screen with flaming artillery.

Takeout/take-away: The official big-screen debut for The Last Airbender in the United States is not until Independence Day weekend, 2010. But Hollywood is a firm believer in the axiom: It's never too early to start building buzz. It doesn't even matter if the crew is still in post-production, evidently.

Social-media effect: Producers of sci-fi adventure flicks have to feed the YouTube beast well before the final edits are made. That much is beyond dispute. But at some point you'd wonder if teaser trailers posted online a full 13 months before the movie hits theaters is a good strategy? How do you keep interest high then over the long autumn, winter, and spring? By producing trailer after trailer? Hollywood will watch this strategy closely to see at what point trailer fatigue sets in or whether it needs to build interest even earlier in its expensive summer blockbusters.

***

Radar DDB UK provides social media strategy and insight for major brands.

Bacardi’s Designated Driver

Bernhard Warner — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:12:51 +0000

Earlier this decade, Formula One driver Michael Schumacher was branded the world's first "billionaire athlete." (If Tiger Woods hasn't yet caught him earningswise, he soon will.) Now retired, Schumacher still plays the role of celebrity pitchman for various advertisers, including for liquor brand Bacardi on its campaign to remind consumers not to drink and drive. It's an expensive investment for Bacardi. Is the message catching on?

Title: As seen on Top Gear - Schumacher Drink Drive Simulation

Stats: Not very impressive—just 4,330 viewings since it was posted to Bacardi's YouTube channel on June 21, generating just one text comment.

What you see: This is not our typical public service announcement lecturing us not to drink and drive. It shows the seven-time Formula One champion taking a black sports car through its paces, speeding around a race track. We're informed that Schumacher never drinks and drives, but if he did here's what kind of impairments he'd encounter. For starters, we're informed that after one drink, a driver is more easily distracted and his eyesight is impaired. To simulate these effects, Schumacher is required to speed around the track with a trio of suited men singing alongside him and with mud splattered on his windshield. Of course, Schumacher makes it around the course intact. Schumacher then tells us he doesn't drink and drive. "Why would you?" he wonders.

Take Out/TakeAway: Bacardi signed on Schumacher a year ago to bring some firepower to its don't-drink-and-drive message. His pay has not been disclosed, so it's hard to calculate precisely how the investment is paying off. But, judging by the anemic viewer numbers all his Bacardi videos are getting on YouTube, they could have found somebody a bit cheaper and generated more or less the same results. This is now the fifth Schumacher drive-safely video posted to Bacardi's YouTube channel, generating a combined 7,000 viewings. Not exactly poll-position numbers.

Social Media Effect: So if Schumacher is not attracting the eyeballs for Bacardi, what is? The answer: mojitos. Bacardi mojitos ads have been a YouTube hit for the past two years as fans flock to the site for tips on how to whip up the popular cocktail or to admire the butt-shaking choreography. Sex sells. Famous race car drivers, not so much.

***

Radar DDB UK provides social media strategy and insight for major brands.

Archives

Toshiba's Floating Furniture

Cadbury Swaps Bunnies for Dogs

Michael Phelps Misses

Trident's Song and Dance

Motorola Ad Slams the iPhone

Ford’s New Focus

Freebord's Human Tetris

The Debtors Are Coming!

Wii May Need Backup

Presented By:

VisitDenmark’s Sexy Single Mom

Halo Mans the Trenches

Chevron Posts Murky Tapes

Building Buzz with Lego

Micro-Star International's Laptop Wedgie

A Bic Lighter for James Bond

Skateboard Tricks in Nike Kicks

Modern Warfare, Now in HD

Sprite, All Sexed Up

How LeBron Shamed Nike

Microsoft’s Nauseating Ad

United Made Musician Cry

Evian’s Roller-Skating Babes

A Disney Princess Bride-to-Be

Paramount’s Premature Promo?

Bacardi’s Designated Driver