Modern Family. Best show on television. It’s saving ABC. I still adore The Office too. They’re both the #1 show on television.
And if Modern Family and the Office had sex, and gave birth to an online-video baby, this would be it.
Ladies and gents, please enjoy Jake & Amir (CollegeHumor) joining the Jonas, um, Gregory Brothers in this brilliant piece of comedy. The writing is so tight and funny, and the delivery is so wonderfully awkward and fantastic. I’m not quite happy with the crap they wrote for my vlog, but whatever.
In related “collab” news, it was nice to see DaveDays and “Key of Awesome’s” Mark Douglas playing guitar in the park. Shitty camera work by Ben Relles. Speaking of BarelyPolitical/NextNewNetworks, here’s its latest Batman video (Poison Ivy). Be the first to see it. At least Relles didn’t shoot it.
Credit to Poptart for tapping the two most-subscribed YouTube musicians: DaveDays and VenetianPrincess, and for taking over the homepage to promote the campaign (exhibit A). Let’s look objectively as possible at this campaign to see what worked and didn’t…
Interactive YouTube Banner Promotes Poptarts Via DaveDays & VenetianPrincess
The homepage takeover caught my attention first, even though I’m subscribed to both of these musicians and enjoy their work. Had Poptart not included them in the homepage ad, I probably wouldn’t have noticed the ad and certainly wouldn’t have looked further.
While the YouTube pop-tart channel isn’t seeing loads of views or positive ratings (see exhibit B below)…
Presumably designed to provide continuity and increase branding and engaging, Kellogg commissioned some more highly produced videos. These did not score as well (see comments, views, ratings and comment clouds)
…VenetianPrincess and DaveDays are getting a more positive reaction on the videos they create and distribute on their channel.
For instance, here’s the score on DaveDays video seen more than 750,000 times. Nearly 80 percent gave this video a “thumb’s up,” which is just slightly lower than recent ratings of his non-promotional videos.
Nearly 80 Percent Thumbs Up (for the DaveDays video).
What worked:
Kellogg did a great job tapping people who are already known on YouTube, and it certainly cost them less than getting stars.
The videos, as evidenced by views and ratings, were better received than ads.
The homepage takeover page helped drive views and brand engagement. It’s important to couple webstars with a media buy since neither alone is as effective.
What could it improve?
The biggest problem this campaign faces is that it’s completely dependent on the talent and their musicians. The notion of a “battle on taste” is devoid of any humor, or “reason to engage” with the brand or its channel. These two are capable of far funnier musical parodies (check out Dave’s Miley videos or Jody’s song parodies for proof). So presumably they were not given great direction or creative freedom.
I’m not sure the expense on the “play-by-play” transition videos was worthwhile, unless it cost a lot less to shoot than it appears. It might have been better to toss in another YouTuber, and have them figure out a more organic way to connect the videos and work in the branding. Those promotional videos got hosed on ratings and comments (see below):
Poptart's Videos, by Contrast, Got Low Views and Poor Ratings
How does a guy (Brett the Intern) with 778 subscribers solicit some of the top YouTubers to be in his collaboration? Persistence, patience and a pretty funny script.
