So ends another year of Super Bowl fun and excitement, and congrats to the Green Bay Packers for a much deserved championship in 2011. I have embedded a few of the top and worst Super Bowl TV commercials of this year, and commented to provide some lessons for video creators.
Viewers seem to like Volkswagen’s “The Force” ad the best. It now has over 21 million views, and with good reason. Video production lesson: use kids to your advantage because viewers love seeing cute kids doing adorable things.
Bridgestone’s “Carma” ad has just over 1 million views on YouTube, but it’s still a lot of fun to watch. Video production lesson: Like kids, animals are very much loved by viewers of all walks of life. Combining a friendly animal with a funny gesture is genius.
Sex sells, but that doesn’t always mean it’s liked in a video. Go Daddy are known as being big Super Bowl spenders year in and year out, and usually do a pretty good job of matching their brand with sex, but in 2011 they failed with “The Contract” ad. Watch the 30 second spot below and see if you can tell me why. Video production lesson: using pretty woman in your videos certainly doesn’t hurt, but make sure you use them effectively to tell a worthwhile story.
Super Bowl commercials have been dominated by car companies over the years, and 2011 was no different. Chrysler had a brilliant one featuring Eminem called “Imported From Detroit” which told both Detroit’s and Chrysler’s stories together. Video production lesson: tap into viewer’s emotions and tell them a powerful yet simple story that they can tell to others to in turn inspire them.
The NFL did a spectacular job of promoting the sport of football, and most importantly celebrating their fans this past weekend with their campaign. It would be interesting to hear how much they spent on getting the rights to the content they used for their “Best Fans Ever” ad. Video production lesson: use objects and people in your video that viewers recognize. Giving viewers a frame of reference will help them remember what they saw, and motivate them to share your video with their friends and family.
It seems with every passing Super Bowl, viewers are getting more and more excited about seeing the new viral ads.
Until that special time comes again in 2012, it’s now your time to shine! Create better quality video entertainment by collaborating with our talented community, be sure to get a Spidvid profile and if you need any help at all just ask!
We are now officially one month into 2011, and the viral videos continue to get pumped out! Below are our favorite five, including one created by Spidvid community member’s Deron, Meghan, and Claudia featured on our video sharing partner’s site UnleashVideo. This one hasn’t gone viral yet but should very soon. Spread the word about the “Narrated Sex” video (as pictured above), and be part of our “viral seeding” team! Enjoy these, and if you have one to add then please share the link to the video in the comments below.
1. Narrated Sex – This is taking narrated sex to a whole new level.
2. Greatest Putt-Putt Shot of all Time - Not sure if this is fake or real, but either way it’s cool to see this unique hole in one. And the guy’s silly laughter is pretty funny too! The video now has over 2.3 million views, and was uploaded on January 21st.
3. Ted Williams – Homeless Man, Golden Voice - Inspiring viral videos are uplifting and emotionally charging to see. If you haven’t heard the Ted Williams story yet, then be sure to watch the video below.
4. Kobe Bryant Is “Black Mamba” - Nike are among the elite when it comes to creative TV ads. Black Mamba starring Los Angeles Laker superstar Kobe Bryant, is a masterful 30 second spot produced by filmmaking legend Robert Rodriguez who’s also the mastermind behind Sin City, and other popular movies.
5. Heavy Metal Penguin - Our list would be incomplete without having at least one animal video on the list. There is something very fun and cool about penguins! Check out the hyper-active penguin below, and don’t be shy to jump around a little yourself!
Again, if you have a favorite viral video from January please use the comment section below to share it!
There were so many great viral video hits in 2010 that it’s hard to choose just five. Hope you enjoy the selections (below), and if you have a favorite that isn’t on the list (which is likely) please share the video link with a comment below!
1. OK Go – White Knuckles
OK Go are perhaps the most creative band on the planet today. They have had many viral video hits over the past few months including their newest one, “White Knuckles”. A great use of dogs too, check it out below.
2. BP Spills Coffee
By now you probably know how BP deals with spills. UCB Comedy takes the oil spill story to the boardroom and shows us exactly what would happen if BP executives spilled their coffee, and how well coordinated they work together to clean up the spill. On YouTube the video got over 5.2 million views in just 9 days.
3. Angry Birds Peace Treaty
Are you a big fan of the game Angry Birds like me? When I saw this video I was a bit upset because I wanted to be the first video creator to create a viral Angry Bird video. I had purchased a few Angry Birds plush toys and I just got them this week! Be on the lookout for my Angry Birds Spidvid project later next month, subscribe to the projects feed if you haven’t already to collaborate with me on it. It has the potential to be a viral hit for sure! For now enjoy the peace treaty deal that the Angry Birds and Angry Pigs (sort of) make.
4. Tweet It – iPad vs iPhones (Michael Jackson “Beat It” Spoof)
With the runaway success that Twitter experienced in 2010 it would be wrong not to include a Twitter related video. So, if you like “Beat It” by Michael Jackson, and like Twitter, then you will likely enjoy this spoof called “Tweet It” check it out below.
5. Surprised Kitten
This video is actually from late 2009, but because we didn’t do a 2009 viral video list this video (unofficially) qualifies. Possibly the cutest kitten video ever created, and it now has almost 40 million views! Would love to see what this cat is up to for New Years tonight!
Looking forward to rapidly growing the Spidvid community, developing new collaborative production projects, and promoting videos that deserve more love, views, and attention. Thanks for an amazing 2010, and cheers to a remarkable 2011 to come!
I know it’s hard to believe (sarcasm), but there were a ton of amazing new viral videos released to watch in November. You have likely seen a few of these already, but hopefully a new video can entertain you below. We kick things off with a brave cat video, enjoy. And if you want to create some new viral video entertainment of your own but don’t have the talent to do it, then head over to Spidvid to collaborate and partner up with the talent you need on your team.
1. Cat vs Alligator
If you have a cute cat, chances are that you know he or she isn’t that brave. This is perhaps the bravest cat you will ever see, usually dogs are too intense for the average cat… but an alligator?!
2. Kobe and Kimmel Play Black Ops
We are used to seeing Kobe Bryant firing long 3-point shots in the NBA, but seeing him launch a rocket is much more fun and destructive.
3. Sesame Street: There’s An App For That
A few years ago Apple came out with their “there’s an app for that” ad campaign, and the messaging is still fresh in our minds to this day. If you like apps, Sesame Street, and music then this video is for you!
4. Angry Birds Peace Treaty
Speaking of apps, are you a big fan of the game Angry Birds like me? When I saw this video I was a bit upset because I wanted to be the first video creator to create a viral Angry Bird video. I have purchased a few Angry Birds plush toys and I will be getting them this month! Be on the lookout for my Angry Birds Spidvid project later this month, subscribe to the projects feed if you haven’t already to collaborate with me on it. It has the potential to be a viral hit and end up on our list for January. For now enjoy the peace treaty deal that the Angry Birds and Angry Pigs (sort of) make.
5. World’s Biggest Harry Potter Fan
My girlfriend has read all of the Harry Potter books and is a massive fan, but she can’t touch this guy. If anyone is a bigger Harry Potter fan please create your video and top this current champion.
Be sure to subscribe to our blog for December’s top viral videos, interesting video production posts along the way, and stay on top of new developments within Spidvid’s community as well. Get the Spidvid blog delivered to your inbox, or via RSS.
Today we have a guest blog article by our New York-based Spidvid community manager, Adam Klein. Adam will be writing an interesting article or two each month now going forward. Be sure to stay updated by subscribing to all our new Spidvid posts and articles, either by email or via RSS. Take it away Adam!
As a musician moving from mid-Missouri to Chicago back in 2001, there were several things I noticed right away about the local music scene and about how artists promoted their music. One in particular was that in every local bar and music venue I stumbled into, there were stacks of promo CDs and free mixes from Chicago-based bands, artists and DJs lining the walls along the exits. Promoters would also be crowding the doorway outside the club to greet you with more free CDs to take home, and in some cases, they were the exact same professionally recorded and packaged goods that were selling for $20 a pop in the chain-stores all across the country like Sam Goody, Tower Records, and Virgin Megastore, except with “For Promotional Use Only” stamped across the front. At the time, one of these local bands was OK Go, promoting the release of their 2002 self-titled debut album.
I’d never seen them live, let alone heard their music, but on countless occasions, saw the free promo CDs sitting amongst the piles at nearly every local music spot in Chicago. I picked up a copy or two at some point or another and perhaps listened to a few seconds of each song, but quickly dismissed them as nothing of interest. At the time, I didn’t really give them a chance because it wasn’t what I was into (perhaps it was closed-minded of me, but as a working DJ in several nightclubs around the city, I didn’t have the time or patience to listen to music that didn’t fit my musical agenda on the dancefloor). However, a little more than nine years later, I can honestly say that I’m a huge fan of theirs, and it’s a result from a different kind of promotional tool, their viral videos.
With almost 100 million video views on their YouTube channel, over half of those coming from 2006’s “Here It Goes Again”, this method of promotion has proven to be more effective (and likely less costly) as opposed to their 2001 promo CD-giveaway effort. Just last week they received over 1 million views in under 24 hours for their latest effort, “White Knuckles,” solidly placing them at the forefront of musicians using viral video to gain exposure and earn mainstream success.
Viral video is not only being used as a promotional tool, but also as a tool in musical creation and performance. The perfect example of this is the case of the Gregory Brothers, aka Schmoyoho aka Autotune The News. As a band, they’d been writing and performing long before the conception of Autotune the News. But it wasn’t until Autotune The News, that a larger audience was exposed to the unique quartet stylings of Michael, Andrew, Evan, and Sarah Gregory. Their following on YouTube has grown to over half a million subscribers, who then became the primary fan-base for their music, so when the “Bed Intruder Song” dropped, this community of loyal fans and followers across the Internet came together to help propel it into pop charts on iTunes and onto the Billboard Hot 100. The original video currently has over 27 million views on YouTube in less than 2 months time.
While the Gregory Brothers’ music utilizes original songs with remixed audio and video to create new songs and videos, the instrumentals often seem campy and quickly thrown together, almost sounding like a self-mockery in that they want us to believe that their music is all in the spirit of fun and goofiness (while they’re actually making serious statements on the true comedy of politics). However, there are some lesser-known, equally-exceptional musicians who’ve been using video for a while to create entire albums and perform live in front of thousands of people. Two such artists are Israeli-born Kutiman, and San Francisco’s DJ Mike Relm.
Kutiman is easily one of the most talented producers/remixers making music and videos today. Click play on the video below and you will begin to understand why.
His 2009 music video project, ThruYOU, was created by remixing online videos from dozens of instrumentalists into original audio and video compositions. As a musician myself, seeing it for the first time was an emotional experience, that someone could be so innovative, not only musically, but visually as well. The project was viewed over 1 million times in the first week, and has lead to this recent audio/video remix collaboration with Maroon 5.
Another viral video success story is that of DJ Mike Relm, who’s live shows use a mash-up of classic original productions, remixes, films and videos to create a one-of-a-kind audio and visual experience. Check out this performance from YouTube’s 2008 Live event.
Mike Relm’s innovative and captivating live shows have lead to a series of awesome tour opportunities and collaborations and music festival performances, as is documented in this hour-long video of Mike Relm’s Clown Alley, filmed in 2007-2008, featuring his groundbreaking video turntablist performance from his tour with Blue Man Group, as well as Coachella and Winter X-Games via radiofriedfilms.
By observing how these four artists, each in their own unique way have harnessed the power of online video to create innovative new art-forms and communication channels for increased exposure, we can only guess who the next great innovator will be or what their music will sound like. So, my friends, musicians and video creators of the Spidvid community, will you be next?Post up your music video project and get started on the next big success story today!
