Tag Archives: Video

Your Viral Video Shouldn’t Be a Commercial (Celebrity Apprentice Lesson)

Perhaps you watched Celebrity Apprentice last night, where the b-listers teamed up to create a “viral” video for O-Cedar’s ProMist Spray Mop.

Note that I put “viral” in quotes since it’s not a viral video unless it goes viral. For that matter, let’s call it what it is: try-ral. It’s trying. It may go viral, but it’s not.

This isn’t the first time Celebrity Apprentice has tasked the (has-been but charming) celebrities to create a “viral” video. But here’s my favorite quote from NJ.com on the coverage and the decision made in the boardroom after the competition:

The execs didn’t get the women’s “number” concept initially but liked the entertainment aspect of the video. They liked the men’s slogan… and thought the concept was clear and highlighted the mop’s selling points, although the video was a bit too much like a traditional commercial. The men win.

Did you notice anything there? The video was a bit too much like a traditional commercial, but… by the way… it won.

At the risk of stating the obvious, please don’t learn from this. They didn’t win despite the video being too commercial. They won because the women’s video was entertaining but not purposeful. That’s not good either. But if your “viral” video is a commercial, prepare to spend your media dollars to get it seen as prerolls. We almost never share commercials… we sometimes send entertaining videos that happen to pitch a brand.

Do not expect people to share your commercial. Please.

What’s Driving Yahoo Growth in Online Video?

Yahoo showed a fairly large increase in last month’s online-video viewing. How? I’ll give you a hint: it’s news.

Since most of the monthly comScore data is predictable, the blogs have jumped on this… Search Engine Watch called it “colassel as a giant squid,” and TubeFilter called it “massive.”

While 20% growth on a low base isn’t perhaps “colossal” or “massive,” it is impressive for Yahoo. Yahoo always fancied itself as a portal, hence its loss of audience to search-engine giant Google. In early 2000s I would have expected Yahoo to be the rightful owner of the online-video battle. But it hasn’t captured online video despite many attempts.

Now Yahoo has bumped Vevo out for the #3 position last month. Sure, the audience bar chart shows a steep cliff after Google sites (YouTube). YouTube streamed about 50% of the 40 billion video views in February (and has about 3x the viewers of its nearest competitors). But Yahoo’s growth still warrants some exploration.

Abc yahoo2 200x160

So what’s going on with Yahoo? Pick below:

a. Yahoo could be doing a better job of convincing its 177 million unique monthly viewers to consume video.

b. Yahoo announced a slate of new comedy programs, and launched the Screen, although these unlikely impacted last month.

c. Yahoo and ABC News partnered in October 2011. That deal accounts for almost half of the news videos watched by U.S. Internet viewers in February… that puts the ABC/Yahoo duo above MSNBC and CNN.

(Hint: pick c, or abc).

News is the new viral, kids.

 

Best Cartoon About Viral Video

Meet Tom Fishburne. He’s a former marketer that got wise and is pursuing his passion. Much like someone we know, who eventually sold out to corporate America again. I met Tom when he spoke at J&J and he looks like the kid in Sixth Sense.

This cartoon is brilliant because it reflects the naive hope that a viral-intended video will certainly go viral… and drive sales. If you haven’t heard this blather you may not find it as funny as me.

I wish I had it to include in Beyond Viral.

Nalts005

 

“Am I Pretty or Ugly” Girl Pretends to Be 21-Year-Old Artist

Sophie Roessler’s “Am  I Pretty or Ugly” video caught some media attention and a quarter of a million views.

So what did the tween do? Like anyone else, she pretended to be a 21-year-old artist who knows all about the “struggles a girl transitioning into womanhood must go through.

Roessler claimed the video “acted as a social experiment as well as commentary on this disturbing trend, and has recently gained a lot of media attention, from jezebel.com to Good Morning America.”

Whatver, Sophie. You’re pretty. A pretty good tween liar.

How Many People Are Watching Online Video in 2012?

comScore reports that 181 million U.S. Internet users watched nearly 40 billion videos of online video content in January. YouTube ranks first with 152 million views, and the rest of the pack (Sony’s VEVO, Yahoo, Viacom, Facebook) attracted about 45 to 52 million viewers (about one third of the Google-owned leader).

Some interesting statistics from this month’s comScore report:
> 84.4 percent of the U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
> The duration of the average online content video was 6.1 minutes, while the average online video ad was forty seconds.
> Video ads accounted for 12.2 percent of all videos viewed, but just 0.9 percent of all minutes spent viewing video online.

YouTube viewers watched 18.6 billion videos in 2012’s first month, and that’s 4 per day per person (by my calculations, which haven’t been reviewed by Stalkerofnalts).

And how about ads? We viewed 5.6 billion video ads in January, with Hulu again leading with 1.4 billion ad views. The advertising networks (who stream ads on a variety of properties) ranked next, with Adap.tv at 652 million ad views, followed by BrightRoll Video Network with 598 million, Tremor Video with 580 million and Specific Media with 398 million.
Finally- YouTube channels? Warner and Vevo lead the pack, but Machinima and Maker Studios (aggregates of top YouTube channels) are third and fourth.

And here’s a photo of my niece and nephew.

Nephew and Niece of Nalts

Moms Reveal Sleep-Inducing Tricks

Try to watch this without getting sentimental. Go ahead and try.

Hats off to Philips Avent for this adorable video featuring mommy tricks to get babies to sleep. I reluctantly made it through the first 20 seconds for a totally heart-melting collection of sleepy babies. I only wish Sleepy Charlie was included.

Another smashing sponsored video by The Viral Factory (the folks behind my 2011 favorite Samsung Girl). Here’s the company’s collection of branded entertainment videos– but the view counts are understated because the videos go viral on client YouTube accounts.