Tag Archives: video

What does a package hear when it travels around the world?

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Well some people decided to find out and the results landed them some awards. See for yourself below:

Dictaphone Parcel from Lauri Warsta on Vimeo.

Animated short film, Royal College of Art, London, 2009
Dictaphone Parcel is an animation based on a sound recorded with a dictaphone travelling secretly inside a parcel. As the hidden recorder travels through the global mail system, from London to Helsinki, it captures the unexpected. We hear a mixture of abstract sounds, various types of transport and even discussions between the mail workers. The animation visualizes this journey by creating an imaginary documentary.

Dictaphone Parcel was awarded the Passion Pictures Prize in London, in February 2010.

See their website at http://www.cargocollective.com/lauriwarsta

Creative youtube campaign for Tipp-Ex

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This must’ve been a lot of dollars pumped into google’s account by Tipp-Ex but the production quality and the viral potential are one of the biggest youtube can give you. Mainly because it uses one big flash made by the advertiser to just play some videos inside it. This is I think the first time youtube went in that direction and even though there’s a bottom line here that it’s still just a clever commercial, it’s worth checking out.

And you can do that here

There were campaigns similar to that one before of course, but not on that level of complication. For example the show “Dexter” had a campaign in which every youtube clip had hot spots on it to click, and there was a crowd moving within which you had to spot the main character and click on him. If you did you were redirected to another movie and so on. But that was done using just the typical youtube API so it probably wasn’t as popular as this new thing will be.

The main reason for success here is being surprised – when the hunter reaches outside of the movie you know you’ve been tricked but still you want to go forward. (that’s not much of a spoiler so don’t get upset about it ;p) There’s still plenty of room for innovation in online advertising and thankfully every once in a while we see that someone has come up with a fresh idea. Sure this one can’t be done with just a few bucks in your pocket like the “Jumping into jeans” or “Coke and Mentos” memes but it has more of that “I’m gonna send it to all my friends” action attached to it. And that’s precisely how a good viral works.

Know any other good examples of creative (meaning different than just a video) youtube campaigns ?

First ever iPhone 4 music video

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It was pretty obvious that when the new iPhone came out with it’s 720p HD video someone would make a music video using just the phone. That someone is a one man band (and the guy who shot and edited it) called Flakjakt and the video came out pretty nice. So as I expected there will now be a stream of good quality (and bad quality) videos for bands, projects, short movies shot while drunk etc. This one was edited (in Final Cut, not the built in iMovie) and there are some color changes added, but overall it looks interesting and very retro like.

mobile creativity

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The new iphone is out and aside from the fact whether you like it or not it does bring one thing that is truly revolutionary. And it’s not the hires screen.

Think about it – having a 720p camera in your pocket and imovie to edit it on the go will break apple’s own division of mobile products being only for consuming media while computers being the tools to create.

This changes everything because the best camera is the one you have with you, and using free time (like on a bus) to edit it will result of more creative things done “in the moment”.

And higher quality plus having your tools with you all the time is the path towards better digital media and perhaps youtube 3.0

Exciting times since now all other phone makers will make a video editing app and the trend will spread.

Also expect more virals ;)

Viral video timeline

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viral-timeline

I’ve been thinking about the steps of the viral video before it reaches the final one of being viral and here’s what I came up with. This list is based on the observation I had with a few of my own videos that went viral and after making a few viral websites too.

1. Content

As usual it all starts with the content. It has to have a viral hook, which is something like a hook in a song – a catchy part that will get people “hooked”. So if you’re planning to go viral with a video it has to have at least one moment that others will want to share. It can be a funny moment, a scary one or just plain out of the ordinary. Take note that if you’re making a video about for example skateboarding, it’s rarely enough to be just good at it. If you’re good you will only reach a small niche. So there has to be something else for other people to want to watch your video. In such a case – a not-so-nice conversation with a cop, running away from cops, falling down, whatever. But remember it has to be addictive. It needs to be interesting enough not only for the viewer to send it out but also for the viewer to want to watch it again. Oh and as said before it’s best if it was around a minute in length.

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Types of viral videos

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typesofviral

A brief recognition of the types of viral videos floating around the web with selected, recent examples.

First type is the “Your face here” viral video, spread most recently (after the stupid dancing elves) by a swedish “our hero” campaign.
Now this is very well made and it shows that a lot of money was put into the production of this viral, and that’s one of the reasons it’s so successful – it seems “real” when you see your own face on all those pictures inside the video. The technology makes it believable and that counts! Here’s the link : Great swedish Viral

The other type is the funky “Whoa! They did a great job” type of regular ads, that don’t try to pretend they’re not an ad. Instead they are so creative and innovative + just plain “new” that people send them out and about anyway. Here’s the most recent “Google Chrome ad video” :

Yet another type is “we know it’s an Ad for a respectable company, but look how stupid it is” and here we have a winner in form of the MSI slim laptops and showing they’re so thin you can catch one with your butt. Most consumers will probably think : Hey , are they showing us where their laptops belong? But all in all it does spread anyway. Here’s a preview :

Then there are those “not yet used ideas” like the guys jumping into pants. The pants are not branded (yet, cause I’m sure the idea will be bought by some major jeans company sooner or later). They did it as a trick and to show their skills, but the marketing value of it is pretty big if used properly. Here’s the video:
Update : I’ve heard that the idea was made into a commercial later on. 5 million youtube views does account for something.

Then there’s the lipdub (just type lip dub in youtube search and you’ll get millions of videos) but that’s not really a comercial thing that much. There are also weird, funny and / or stupid songs videos. The proud winner in that category is microsoft songsmith – which went viral in seconds after the release of the video. The song is so terrible that it spreads unbelievably fast. Oh and they use a mac during the video ;)

Update: And finally, almost forgot about it, there’s the wacky science, represented by mentos + diet coke “experiments”. Don’t forget your lab coats for such videos, that makes them more believable. ;)

But truly anything can be viral, not necessarily commercial in value. Any more ideas?

Cool idea – youtube doubler mashup

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ytd
A pretty cool idea for mashing up youtube clips for some stunning results. Ideas can include adding spoken-word videos to instrumental music videos (dance music anyone?) and many, many others.
It’s clear that simple ideas are a great thing, and it’s odd that it took so long to create something like that. Thumbs up.
You can see it at : http://www.youtubedoubler.com/