Rhett and Link, comedic video amateurs, are mountaineering above the overhang of “The Great Cliff of New-Media Sponsored Advertising.” They’re harnessed to each other with a taut rope, knotted with creativity. The friends swing effortlessly to the next hold in a pendulum traverse. Rhett knows the objective danger as he firmly grabs his nub, and Link’s total attention is committed to spotting him. Their eyes lock, then gaze slowly down upon the falling spree at the mountain’s base. It would be a perilous drop to their death (is that ZeFrank’s skeleton?). But they both smile, knowing full well that they’ll live to see another climb.
[Editorial addition 6/20 9 pm EST: Rhett and Link have an insightful comment below] In their latest celebration of corporate sponsorship, the singing and acting duo present this hysterical video called “The Buffet Song.” It’s a song parody about all-you-can-eat buffets. Now there’s *every reason* I should have known this was a sponsored video:
It was clear on the video’s description and it was a reply to a video about the Alka Seltza tour.
I received this from them via e-mail, and it was explained as a video that it’s part of their of “Great American Road Trip Series” sponsored by Alka Seltzer.
Heck I even last week agreed via e-mail to meet them in Philly (Pat and Gino’s Cheesesteaks) for a video that they said was part of some Alka Seltzer series. They wrote, “It’s part of our Alka Seltzer road trip gig…. We’re still developing the angle so if you’re interested, you can weigh in as we develop it.” I took that as a fun challenge, and began soliciting others to collaborate. See- sometimes it’s not all about the money. Maybe they’ll have free samples.
But then, like, Yipes, Scoob… I opened this video above, and all of that awareness vanished — just like those pain pangs of overindulgence when met by a delciously effervescent glass of heartburn and indigestion medication.
In fact, I’d like to take you sequentially through my experience, which is something I can’t stand in a conversation. I’m always telling my wife, “you’re burying the lead again, Jo… I don’t need to know about how much change the post office gave you before the freak you saw on the way out. Just tell me about the freak.” But now I digress…
To read about my sequential experience wrapping my small brain around this video campaign, click MORE (bottom left corner of this blog – right above the “share” link”). Trust me, it’s worth it.
How’d you like to be the programmer that gets a call before 9 a.m. Pacific time, and someone’s yelling about how the YouTube homepage isn’t loading correctly? Your hangover swells as you hear the barking shrill of a panicked voice say something about the logo missing.
Would you kinda feel like the guy in a television station’s master control box that accidentally loads the wrong show tape? Or the one during the live pledge drive that activates the wrong mike so instead of the host we hear the lav mike from the bathroom? What? Not that I’d know.
How can the world’s largest video sharing site go down even briefly? What’s the lost advertising revenue associated with an hour of YouTube down time? It’s got to cost more than the hourly wage of some teenager in India. I’m guessing this techno error cost more than the free snacks in the Google complex today.
All they can hope is that visitors think the problem is on their end or their browser… and that nobody grabs a screen shot of the site — absent its logo — and blogs about it so it lives for eternity.
Naked cheese video. See explanation below. This explanation will be deleted in 24 hours.
A PROFOUND apology to WillVideoForFood readers. The idea of a pure cheese video was spawned from this post about 3 rules of viral video. I got a “dare you to make a video about cheese” note from a regular WVFF contributor who wasn’t aware of the full thread (see it here)… which called for a coordinated cheese-only video campaign.
I was tickled by the simple challenge of posting a vide simply showing a piece of cheese being opened. But if there’s one thing funnier than a random video about cheese… it’s a bunch of them.
So although I’ve inadvertently jumped the gun on the campaign, we must continue this cause. It’s our duty. I could easily take this video down if people need more time. But it will only take a minute for you to upload your cheese video, and 99% of people won’t know about the time lag.
PLEASE? And post it below. This text will be deleted shortly.
The YouTuber who has attended every YouTube gathering since 2002, TheMighyThor1212, was surprised to be joined by two other people at the weekend’s Boston YouTube gathering. Joe, aka MysteryGuitarMan, attended and took some photos. A Ben Franklin lookalike was the third attendee, although he said he planned to be at the venue before he was aware of a YouTube meetup.
“It was a fun time for all three of us,” said TheMightyThor1212, who requested his real name not be used. “I was stoked how much I had in common with the Ben Franklin guy. We both have glasses, opposable thumbs, and an uncanny appreciation for technology.”
Later that evening, MysteryGuitarMan returned home because he’s not allowed out past 10:30. TheMightyThor1212 and Ben Franklin guy went for some drinks at the Lighthouse Bar.
“It was a little weird because I came out of character after four Scotch and Cokes,” said David Scheyd, who earns $14 an hour playing Ben Franklin on weekends. “But that MightyThor dude never took off his shades or told me his real name. And he maintained he’s the son of the Elder Goddess Gaea, is the protector of Midgard, and has a natural affinity for Earth.”
Now the Wall Street Journal is doing a story on the blunder, and you have employees, stockholders, media and customers watching your every move. Do you:
Blame it on Saatchi & Saatchi to absolve your precious J.C. Penney name. Then maybe they’ll blame the event on their production company (Epoch Films) to protect the Saatchi name. The production company will say nothing because it either implicates itself, Saatchi or J.C. Penneys.
Decline comment. Hope it blows over.
Take responsibility, indicate that the parody of its commercial was in poor judgement, and announce that the company is not yet clear as to whether anyone — in the company, its agency or production company — was knowledgable and responsible for creating or publicizing the spoof. Affirm that an investigation is underway, and that humor about teenage sex is inconsistent with J.C. Penney’s values and the company regrets the fake advertisement.
Buy a new suit at Sears and start interviewing.
I’ll give you a hint. Choice number one is wrong. But that’s what happened, of course.
Interesting story about a wife that is in court for bitching about him on YouTube.
Tricia Walsh-Smith, 49, is fighting a claim by her estranged husband, Philip Smith, that she engaged in “spousal abuse” by making the videos, which she says have been viewed more than four million times.
She says he was planning to leave her penniless, and that she discovered 77-year-old Mr Smith hoarding the impotence drug Viagra even though they never had sex.
Her videos are pulled down, but a few maverick copies are still available. I like this one from 2 months ago: Jump to 2:45 for a fun commentary by Michael Buckley.
For years I’ve written countless words about “do this” and “don’t do this” related to online video creation. Some of this applies to amateurs or pros, and some to advertisers and brands. Today’s advice pertains to three “Golden Rules”, and it’s important for all of us- but especially creators.
Let’s look at the Three Biggest Mistakes made by online video creators (and that does include “viral campaigns”):
Emphasizing quality over cost.
Believing good content will get seen.
Caring about what the audience thinks.
Now you skeptics just mentally formulated the three following counterpoints while reading the Big 3 Mistakes above. I’m right, aren’t I?
Higher production value generally means the content is better
The social aspect of the web means good stuff rises and bad stuff dies
The most savvy creators listens to audiences and predicts them, thus creating content that’s more popular.
The good news is that your counterpoints are indeed accurate. The bad news is that if you live by them, you’re going to be broke, frustrated and unsatisfied in your work. I promise. And a promise is a promise. So today, Uncle Nalts will serve up the 3 Golden Rules that shall guide you on your path to online-video sustainability. They’re subject to change as the market matures, but who cares? If you succeed you’ll find your own reasons to explain it. And if you fail, you won’t soon return to this post because it will piss you off.
Golden Rule #1: At all costs, manage costs. There STILL isn’t a safe online-video monetization model (advertising, purchase, rent) for the majority of video content online. This is actually good news for amateurs like me, because we’ll sustain while better creators come and go — studios simply can’t justify a team of writers, producers, directors, actors, editors on the hopes of finding an audience (that day will come perhaps). I certainly am not the best video creator, but I’m probably one of the most profitable. I write, shoot, edit, and act… So I don’t have costs beyond my excesive time (which I justify by joy, not an hourly wage) and the nominal amount I spend on equipment and variable fees. Most of the people in my videos are acting for fun like I do, and occasionally I’ll pay them with bribes and gift cards.
Golden Rule #2: Good Content is Not Popular. It’s time you separate your notions of what’s good and what’s popular. You couldn’t have predicted 10 years ago that a cup of coffee would cost more than a gallon of gasoline — and that you’d bitch about gas prices while sucking down your overpriced moca frapolati venti with vanilla sprinkles. Good isn’t popular, and popular isn’t good. Does that mean you strive for popularity? Nope. That’s like trying to change the direction a boat is taking by hoping the wake shifts direction. But don’t lose hope here! Nalts doesn’t drop crap on your desk without telling you how to clean it. The lesson is that you’re responsible for getting your videos seen if you want your videos to be seen. I’ll bet you’ve been obsessing on what you do before you hit upload, and subconciously starving everything that happens after that (as if it’s beneath you). Don’t pimp and spam it (I know some video creators that should be Amway reps), but invest in some gentle efforts to get the video to a relevant audience. If the video is about cheese, did you remember to send it the cheese blogger? He’s got an audience of cheese lovers, and not much else to write about.
Golden Rule #3: Screw The Audience. I’m serious. This is really, really hard to do. There are times where you’re hypercharged by the feedback and audience interaction. It’s validating, it helps hone your storytelling, and it’s instant gratification. But almost no online-video creator is at risk of losing touch with their audience — the medium consumes them. Rather, most popular creators lose their steam because they focus on feeding the audience instead of instinct. What began as a fun outlet becomes an obligation. Experimentation becomes repetition of a formula that seems to work (Zipster08 and SMPFilms have, interestingly, spun off LocoMama and a Sparta the Cat channel the same week — these were recurring bits that grew and sustained much of their audiences, but fatigued others). By focusing on the audience above all, desperation and frustration sets in. The remedy for artistic sustainability is caring less. Get back to doing what’s fun and ignoring the “you’ve lost your edge” cold-prikly comments but also the “that’s the best video you’ve done” warm fuzzies. Every video creator I know (and I know a lot of you) pays too much attention to feedback, and I’m quite confident it’s the root cause of death spirals (including my own). For you advertisers, I’d adapt this rule as follows: don’t follow the formula because it’s already been done. The best judge of future viral failure is past viral success.
How’d I miss this? On Silicon Valley, Citi analyst Mark Mahaney is all, like, “Google can’t help but make money from the [YouTube] — even without figuring out a clever video advertising solution… YouTube may generate up to $500 million in net revenue for Google next year.”
Mark Cuban — that billionaire entrepreneur who thinks he’s ‘all that‘ — says “All YouTube has to do is put some of the money they use to subsidize the world’s bandwidth costs towards content providers and they change their future.”
And I’m all, like, whatever, Mark 1. You’re an analyst who has probably has watched like three YouTube videos in your life (and never even heard of the 8th most popular dude). And, Mark 2, you’re a friggin’ know-it-all who’s pimping HDNet and your statements are accepted as gospel by the little wanna be Silicon valley losers.
YouTube, despite the drama, won’t be sold or make Google’s 2009 earnings even mildly interesting.
But when you’re as big as Google you can make some long-term plays. And if nothing else, the search giant has a bargaining chip with anyone that wants to share video via the web, and around Cable television’s previous Wall of China. So I’m all, like, Suck it Marks.
Kevin "Nalts" Nalty is one of the most-viewed YouTube comedians with nearly 800 short online videos seen more than 74 million times. He also consults with top brands to help them engage in social media & video (check www.NaltsConsulting), and is chief strategical officer at Hitviews.com.
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Rhett and Link, comedic video amateurs, are mountaineering above the overhang of “The Great Cliff of New-Media Sponsored Advertising.” They’re harnessed to each other with a taut rope, knotted with creativity. The friends swing effortlessly to the next hold in a pendulum traverse. Rhett knows the objective danger as he firmly grabs his nub, and Link’s total attention is committed to spotting him. Their eyes lock, then gaze slowly down upon the falling spree at the mountain’s base. It would be a perilous drop to their death (is that ZeFrank’s skeleton?). But they both smile, knowing full well that they’ll live to see another climb.
How’d you like to be the programmer that gets a call before 9 a.m. Pacific time, and someone’s yelling about how the YouTube homepage isn’t loading correctly? Your hangover swells as you hear the barking shrill of a panicked voice say something about the logo missing.
For years I’ve written countless words about “do this” and “don’t do this” related to online video creation. Some of this applies to amateurs or pros, and some to advertisers and brands. Today’s advice pertains to three “Golden Rules”, and it’s important for all of us- but especially creators.
