The 10 most innovative viral ads of 2009

Hi All. This year was a great year for viral marketing campaigns and indeed one of my clients, Satellite Broadband Ireland are sponsoring the 2010 Digital Media Awards and together with the girls from Ashville media and RAIC Productions, this viral campaign was produced and is one of my top 10 for 2009! Have a look, it contains some really interesting facts about social media and the explosion of it in recent months and check out the other top 10...

http://www.digitalmedia.ie/

"2009's crop of top viral video advertisements show us that people are willing to embrace a host of creative approaches on the social video Web, from beguiling mini-films, to user-generated advocacy, to YouTube celebrity endorsers, to elaborate commercial-grade productions. That's good news for creators. Regardless of the approach, the key for marketers is a solid understanding of what a brand is, who is the brand's audience, and what moves them. Strangely enough, this formula sounds like traditional advertising. This year's Top 10 is certainly a glimpse of how the viral video ad business is evolving, and as marketers, what we can learn from that evolution." - Josh Warner, Feed Company


1. Inspired Bicycles
Advertiser: Inspired Bicycles
Ad Agency: N/A
Why it works: Inspired Bicycles' team rider Danny MacAskill scales fences in and around Edinburgh, Scotland. The video is as mesmerizing as its hypnotic soundtrack from music group Band of Horses. It's a solid example of how a brand pursuing a niche market - mountain bike trailblazers - can reach the masses with a brilliant viral video execution.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z19zFlPah-o

2. SIGNS
Advertiser: Schweppes
Ad Agency: Publicis Mojo and @RadicalMedia
Why it works: A love story with few words, Signs compels you to watch until its poignant end. It conclusively dispels the myth that viral video executions must be short and gimmicky to grab your attention.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy0HNWto0UY

3. Piano Stairs
Advertiser: Volkswagen
Ad Agency: DDB Stockholm
Why it works: "Take the stairs instead of the escalator and feel better" is something we hear but didn't often see until this sly video from Volkswagen appeared on the Web. It's part of an inspiring campaign, The Fun Theory, that encourages people to come up with fun ways to "do good." The video itself did well indeed, imbuing Volkswagen with a fun new ethos and racking up millions of views in the process.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw

4. BooneOakley.com
Advertiser: Boone Oakley
Ad Agency: Boone Oakley
Why it works: Boone Oakley, an ad agency from Charlotte, North Carolina, uses an interactive YouTube video to tell its story and showcase client work. Audacious and attention-getting, it puts the young company on the short list of ad agencies who get it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Elo7WeIydh8

5. Hosting Your Party
Advertiser: Microsoft
Ad Agency: N/A
Why it works: This is the ultimate anti-viral: a video that generates millions of views simply because of how profoundly it misses the mark. Comments have been disabled, but all you have to do is talk to someone you know who's watched it to know why it was so generously passed around.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cX4t5-YpHQ

6. YouTube HD Camera Trick Challenge
Advertiser: Samsung
Ad Agency: Viral Factory
Why it works: One cunning way to get people talking about and sharing your video is to make them wonder how you shot it in the first place. Samsung went to great lengths to protect the "trick" in the video for their new HD camera phone, which got tech geeks riled up to try solving the puzzle. Geeks happen to be the audience most likely to buy the HD new camera phone, which is why this video makes our Top 10.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX8iVo5vc8o

7. United Breaks Guitars
Advertiser: Dave Carroll
Ad Agency: N/A
Why it works: A traumatic experience for one flyer becomes a public relations disaster for United Airlines, when musician Dave Carroll uses a YouTube video to vent frustrations after his guitar is damaged at Chicago O'Hare airport. The takeaway: Viral video is a wonderful tool for consumer advocacy because chances are you're not the only one who is upset. In this case, United was inundated with additional complaints after United Breaks Guitars.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

8. All the Single Babies
Advertiser: singlebabies.com
Ad Agency: User Generated
Why it works: The huge popularity of this video, a baby dancing to a Beyonce song, is channeling ad revenue and donations into his college fund. This quick reaction to a YouTube hit shows us the toddler's dad has moves of his own - something sluggish advertisers can learn from.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikTxfIDYx6Q

9. Guy Catches Laptop with His Butt
Advertiser: MSI Computers
Ad Agency: N/A
Why it works: In much the way Airplane parodies disaster films, this cheeseball video spoofs last year's viral video hit Ray-Ban's Guy Catches Glasses with Face. The inside joke is why we picked the video for this year's Top 10. If you're not on the web, you don't get it. But for the millions who saw Ray-Ban's video, it's a wink and a nod, and an ironic sign that the viral video medium is maturing (or not).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEoyAGK-VAU

10. JK Wedding Dance
Advertiser: Jill Peterson and Kevin Heinz
Ad Agency: N/A
Why it works: A couple's wedding entourage dances down the aisle to Chris Brown's song "Forever," springboarding this video into viral history (at least for '09). Instead of stripping the video of its music - something copyright owners are permitted to do on YouTube - Sony used its popularity to sell more Chris Brown albums.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0



Source: Marc Zacharoff, Art Director at Dedicate

Twitter Trends - Is it Worth Following? Can it Improve Your Business?

Ok, so its Orla Thornton here! I must apologise for my gap since this and the last post! The last time I posted, we spoke about Twitter, the new social networking phenomenon that everyone is raving about at the minute.

I had mentioned that I was going to ask my class of mature students at AIT who was using it. So, the results. Out of a class of 25 only 1 person was using it, and that was just to see what all of the talk was about! So is it really the new must have tool that we, as business owners should all be using?

Well the frank answer is that it all depends on what you put into it and what you want to get out of it. You have to ask yourself, what are my reasons for starting a Twitter site for my business, what do I want to achieve? Do I want to increase my sales or to I want to engage with my consumer?

So how can you use Twitter for your business. Here is a quick snapshot look into the Twitter trends and terms you need to know.

Celebrity Twitter Streams
While Twitter is primarily used as a self-promotional tool, a large part of the service's appeal is the voyeurism it offers. Through Twitter, celebrities are taking PR initiatives into their own hands, using their tweets to directly reach out to their fans who love following their favorite public figures with such intimacy. Of course there is always the chance you're following a fake, but the blog Valebrity verifies the genuine high-profile users.

Twitter Branding
Want to check out how the competition is using Twitter? A new directory of tweeting brands, Twitter Tracker, compiles real-time updates from companies using the service, such as Whole Foods, JetBlue, and Starbucks.
TweetUps: A TweetUp is an impromptu gathering of fellow Twitter users, many of whom have previously never met in person. These events are usually publicized in the feed of a Twitter user who has an exceptionally large number of followers.

Twitter Slang
Much of the Twitter lexicon originates in gaming terms, like pwned (which we wrote about in New Slang, w00t (it's like a cheer - woot woot! But those "o"s are zeros!), and FTW (for the win), all of which users often use to punctuate their tweets (e.g., "@twitterfriend I just dominated that run. W00t!").

Hashtags
A commonly used character of the 140 permitted in each tweet is the number sign, or the "hashtag." A hashtag is placed before a word in a tweet so that it can be tracked as a trend - Twitter trends change almost daily. For example, when candy company Skittles recently incorporated Twitter users into its online marketing, under the Trend dropdown menu on the Twitter homepage, #skittles was listed. Noted fantasy author Neil Gaiman has a large Twitter following, and after he tweeted about his 33,333rd fan ushering in the "Armageddon," within hours, Armageddon was one of the highest ranking trends. The power of Twitter!

So are you still confused?
Look at the following corporate twitter accounts worth following and their case studies might explain it in real practical terms for you.


Corporate Twitter Accounts Worth Following

@ Palm Inc - Palm has taken the inventive step of using Twitter to break news to its customer base. It also uses the account to respond to customer queries.

@ Dell Outlet - Dell's Outlet twitter feed has more than 100,000 followers, and rightly so. It lets users know about incredible and often very brief deals. Not a bad idea when you have stock you need to get rid of fast in these times!

@ Starbucks - Starbucks uses its account to receive customer feedback, give information about new products and quickly answers questions.

@ Southwest Ait - Southwest Airlines, an American airline answers a customers questions and gives a glimpse into the lives of Southwest Employees.

There are million more examples that I could point out to you but take a look yourself and you wont loose anything if you try it out. However make sure you have a purpose in starting to Tweat, there is no point in starting an account to rabbit on about useless information. If it is going to benefit your consumer, it has to be useful!

Good luck Tweating...

Posted by Orla Thornton
Thornton MPR - Marketing & Public Relations
Marketing & Public Relations in Mullingar, the Midlands, Ireland and across the World!
www.thorntonmpr.ie