Fast-forward to today and the UFC is one of the fastest-growing sports organizations in the world; yet with staunch opposition from certain politicians, lack of licensing in all 50 states (after nearly 20 years of existence, mixed martial arts is still illegal in New York State) and common public misconceptions, the sport itself is still very niche. The majority of events air only on pay-per-view, and unlike in the case of major sports organizations, such as the NFL, NBA and UEFA, fans rarely have the opportunity to see an event live if they live outside Las Vegas.

Despite all those hurdles, the UFC has grown into a billion-dollar organization with a passionate worldwide fan base. (The UFC has hosted events outside the United States, in Canada, Japan, Brazil, England, Ireland, Germany, Australia and Sweden.) What exactly is fueling all that growth? The UFC’s downright mastery of content marketing. From its outspoken, shoot-from-the-hip president, Dana White, to a companion reality show, the company has wholly embraced content for the long haul.

Round 1

The sport, properly known as mixed martial arts, had tumultuous beginnings. While the first official event, in which 180-pound Brazilian Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ace Royce Gracie forced all his opponents into submission, was considered a success (there were more than 80,000 purchases of the $14.95 pay-per-view), the creators of the UFC never intended to establish a series of events, much less a sport. To have any kind of future, the UFC had to evolve the sport itself. It distanced its brand from what Senator John McCain called “human cockfighting” by introducing weight classes, time limits, four-ounce gloves (instead of bare fists) and stricter rules that would govern the sport.

By 2000, sanctioning had taken its toll and the Ultimate Fighting Championship was on the brink of bankruptcy. In January 2001, Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, along with Dana White, purchased the UFC for $2 million. The Fertittas and White set out to turn the UFC around, namely by securing big-name sponsors and getting them sanctioned in Nevada, where the Fertittas were executives at Station Casinos. Within ten years, the UFC would be worth 100 times their investment.

As “Reality” As It Gets

As it turns out, the road to recovery was long. As recently as 2004, the UFC was still incurring losses ($34 million, to be exact). Only then did the UFC embrace content marketing in earnest. In 2005, the UFC fronted $10 million of the production costs to create a reality show on Spike TV titled The Ultimate Fighter, in which 16 fighters (eight divided between two weight classes) lived together in a house, trained together and competed against each other for a coveted six-figure contract to fight in the UFC. The popularity of reality TV and the rare look inside mixed martial arts proved a formula for success, even being credited by White as having saved the UFC. The show now is in its 15th season—also its first “live” season, meaning that fights are shown in real time, every Friday night. It also produced a web-only season in Brazil with notable Brazilian coaches and Ultimate Fighting Championship veterans Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva. The reality franchise has since moved to the FX channel as part of the UFC’s recent deal with Fox.

Giving audiences a look behind the scenes is what has made social media and content marketing so successful for brands, particularly sports brands. The Ultimate Fighter allowed passionate mixed-martial-arts fans to get to know the fighters on a deeper level (for better or worse). The UFC has embraced its fans’ desire for “all access” while building excitement about upcoming events by creating a series of video blogs featuring Dana White. The series has produced more than 75 videos, creating nearly 24 hours of free content for little cost (the videos are made with a consumer-based camera with limited editing). All the videos are featured on the UFC’s branded channel, which has been viewed more than 323 million times and boasts more than 373,000 subscribers.

Language in the video below is NSFW.

Long Form Content

Each fight in the octagon features two fighters – two men or women with their own stories, own families, and own reasons for fans to root for them. Leading up to each major card, the UFC produces a show titled UFC Primetime which documents the two main-event fighters during their training camp and creates a three-episode series that creates a deeper understanding of who the fighters really are. This type of long-form content has been extremely successful for the UFC, essentially creating a 90-minute advertisement (available on the FX channel and on the UFC’s YouTube channel) for the fight. When a fan has invested that much time getting to know the fighters, it’s hard to not know how the story ends. If they don’t buy the pay-per-view, it’s like turning off the movie right at the climax.

Leading the Twitter Scorecards

Social media has been a game changer for sports, of course, but many organizations are still leery of their players’ using the platforms. Meanwhile, White has created an incentive-based social-media program that, every quarter, monetarily rewards fighters who made the most of social media. The award categories so far are Most Followers, Highest Percentage of Growth in Followers and Most Creative.

The UFC’s own Twitter account boasts 613,000 followers, but that’s nothing compared with White’s 2,000,000-plus. White is extremely active on Twitter and is known for spending time responding individually to fans and foes alike (tweet him this article!). One video blog featured White tweeting a special cell phone number that followers could call to give their predictions for the fights that night. When White talks about the importance of creating a dialogue through social media, he means it. His approach is unique, controversial, endearing, memorable and strictly for the fans.

Fights on Facebook

The UFC is making all the right moves on Facebook. Besides regularly publishing videos, pictures, articles and more to 8 million–plus fans, the UFC is determined to squeeze every bit of functionality out of Facebook. It has made social-media history by streaming preliminary fights (those not shown on the live card, even on pay-per-view) free (though at a steep cost to the UFC), directly on its Facebook page, in full high definition. The approach has secured hundreds of thousands of additional likes and created an entire other marketing avenue for its matches.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship has embraced content marketing wholeheartedly, enabling fans worldwide to embrace a brand through a constant stream of content and social-media access. As the UFC continues to grow as a media empire, the sport in general will follow suit. It’s only by granting this sort of in-depth access to content and people that the UFC has been able to nip at the heels of larger sports organizations. It’s also forcing boxing into near obscurity (can you name one professional boxer?).

Are you a fan of mixed martial arts and the UFC? What do you think of its content marketing and social-media efforts? What are other sports organizations doing to keep up?

But since we’ve focused this blog on topics that educate our readers, we’ve spent less time sharing the great work we’ve found with all of you. Last September we decided to feature 10 brands that impressed us with their content marketing and brand storytelling efforts. But as we see more brands embracing post-advertising, we realized that we should start doing our list more often.

So without further ado, here’s our Spring edition of Ten Brands Doing Post-Advertising Right. We’ve included the team member who nominated the idea and penned the description.

SMART Argentina

Jon Thomas

As audiences, we’re fine-tuned to tune out what we deem advertising. Brands have fought back by holding us hostage with pre-roll ads and DVR-busting hidden bits of show content between commercials. But to truly be remembered, brands have to create content that’s entertaining, useful and worth sharing. SMART Argentina used Twitter recently for what is being considered the first Twitter commercial. No, it didn’t buy a tweet from Kim Kardashian. SMART sent us back to our days of AOL chat rooms (A/S/L?) and used 140-character ASCII art to create an animated video (of sorts). Simply head to the @SMARTarg Twitter page and scroll down to watch the commercial unfold. Lesson learned: If you want audiences to share your content, create something nobody else has created.

Shwood

Karen Nagy

The story of Shwood’s handcrafted wooden eyewear collection began with innovation and creativity, and the brand pays homage to its brand story through its “Experiment With Nature” blog. By profiling the Shwood team plus other Portland, Oregon, experimental artists, craftspeople and musicians in Portland, Oregon, Shwood’s hometown, the blog honors the brand’s Pacific Northwest identity and creativity.

Shwood’s latest initiative, “This Is Oregon”, is an interactive photo project that showcases photographs, 360-degree panoramas and Google Maps of 10 stunning locations within a 90-minute drive from Portland. An Instagram contest encourages Oregonians to get out and explore their great state and tag photos with #thisisoregon for a chance to win Shwood sunglasses and other cool schwag.

Virgin Mobile

Katie Edmondson

Mobile-phone providers are often guilty of indistinguishable television ads that fail to resonate with young people, falling into “Wait, was that for AT&T or Sprint?” territory. But Virgin Mobile is doing things differently with a notable online property called Virgin Mobile Live. The blog claims to be “actively stalking your cultural obsessions” with live-streaming music, photo memes and “top” lists of fun and interesting content from around the web. This is a clear play for the elusive and cynical millennial audience, which seeks inspiration online but isn’t quick to trust brands. The design and content of the site are spot-on, as is Abby Braden, the site’s irreverent DJ host. Overall it’s a successful foray into the shark-infested hipster blogosphere.

Deschutes Brewery

Luke Dringoli

Deschutes, a small craft brewery based in Bend, Oregon, has been brewing up something different of late: a brilliant digital-branding approach that emphasizes the can-do carpe diem–ism of millennial drinkers and weaving a narrative perfectly aligned with their roots, spirit and products. Their slick site encapsulates the woodsy beauty of the brand’s home state while embodying the company’s bold brews in equally bold copy (“Not for the faint of hop”), typography and content. Speaking of content: direct your eyes below, to the brilliantly executed Landmarks (“A Deschutes Brewery Film”). The four-and-a-half-minute film documents a spur-of-the-moment road trip by a young couple to locations around Oregon that give Deschutes’s beers their names—like Mirror Pond Pale Ale, Green Lakes Organic Ale and Black Butte Porter.

Besides the usual social channels—Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, used well to offer fans near and far an intimate look behind the scenes at the brewery and on the road—the brand’s Bravely Done Blog provides a well-maintained study of “independence in art, music, beer, life.” Lastly, the craft brewery executes an impressive social-to-local events program. Dubbed “Base Camp for Beer Fanatics,” the effort aims to celebrate one of the company’s most popular brews with in-depth events for beer aficionados across the country. Meanwhile, Woody (an enormous wooden keg on wheels) makes the brand’s presence known at beer events all over. It’s all carefully documented on Deschutes’s social platforms.

Now, this is the kind of beer branding we here at Post-Ad will toast to: work that represents not only the spirit of the brand and what it stands for but where it’s from, who’s behind the scenes and what’s happening next—neatly, succinctly and with real passion and personality. In particular, the brand’s long-form Landmarks video should serve as a case study for how to humanize and localize products and put them into context in four and a half minutes.

Kraft Macaroni & Cheese

Katie Edmondson

Kraft Mac and Cheese may seem like just another CPG brand, but it is using social media in innovative ways with a tongue-in-cheek attitude. Take Kraft’s “Old Birds, New Tweets” stunt, for which it recruited two eighty-somethings to take over its Twitter account for a few days. In doing so, Kraft entertained the masses (because old people are funny) and also positioned itself as an authority in social media (i.e., this is a fun change for us because we usually have super-savvy young people running our Twitter). When several thousand Facebook fans liked one of its posts, Kraft created a musical video to thank them. The “Likeappella” makes a unique long-form video, and it’s another way that Kraft is asserting itself as a presence in the social-media world.

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

Adam Uhrynowski

Pay no attention to the Nielsen ratings: the late-night host winning the much coveted 18-to-49-year-old demographic on the Internet isn’t known for his giant chin or the gap between his teeth. Jimmy Fallon has figured out that attracting young viewers means creating and producing hilarious and hip viral videos. From creating Jersey Shore parodies to rapping with Justin Timberlake (our fave) to getting President Obama to slow jam the news, Fallon’s team develops content that people want to watch over and over. While Jimmy Kimmel has created memorable videos (I’m F**King Matt Damon; I Ate My Kid’s Halloween Candy) and Conan O’Brien’s TeamCoCo has been prolific, no late-night host can match the news-making viral videos of Jimmy Fallon and Co.

Dove Australia

Jon Thomas

As a Facebook user in his early (and I stress early) 30s, I’d love to meet the Facebook folks who wrote the algorithm for ad-display criteria. Reason being, if I paid much attention to those ads, I’d be convinced that I was in desperate need of a second M.B.A., a weight-loss program and yet another credit card. While the ads are not overly negative, the knowledge that for some reason these ads are targeting me makes me feel, well, not so hot.

Enter Dove, Australia. I’m not in its target market, but I still love its recent Facebook makeover campaign. Their Facebook app allows users to take advantage of Dove’s Facebook media buy to replace standard ads (Muffin top? Jelly roll?) with Dove’s feel-good messages about women’s bodies. I may even use it, because, hey, anything’s better than being told I’m a perfect fit for a study on gout.

Absolut Vodka

Eric Anderson

Futuristic holograms, space-age fashion, racing robot greyhounds and, of course, vodka come together to form Absolut’s campaign to promote its newest mixed drink, Greyhound. Teaming up with house-music group Swedish House Mafia, the always culturally hip vodka company has created the first song and video inspired by an Absolut cocktail. The new grapefruit-flavored drink makes a small appearance in the video, but Absolut has managed to create a wildly mesmerizing and one-of-a-kind video that will draw consumers to its brand.

This is not the first time that Absolut Vodka has collaborated with artists to create unique and engaging content (you may remember the short film I’m Here by Spike Jonze in 2010). Its latest creative venture is part of what it’s calling multidimensional cocktail experiences. At the end of the video, Absolut provides a link to its site, where you can actually remix the song yourself via its Facebook app or check out some more mixed drinks.

Coca-Cola

Jon Thomas

Coca-Cola earned its way onto this list even without creating an ad. Instead, Coke has won our hearts by creating a video (split into two YouTube videos) chronicling how it will approach media in the coming years. Jonathan Mildenhall, VP of global advertising strategy and creative excellence at The Coca-Cola Company, narrates the video using language so familiar to our culture at Story Worldwide that we’re convinced he’s a loyal Post-Advertising reader! The video’s visuals are not to be overshadowed either. The hand-drawn storyboard is amazing.

Whole Foods

Luke Dringoli

The Austin, Texas–based Whole Foods Market, now a worldwide chain of organically inclined, eco-conscious markets, has lately made strides in getting its brand across through new and emerging social media. With admirable transparency, Whole Foods has drummed up 40,000+ followers on the burgeoning social photo platform Instagram. The brand celebrated Earth Month in April with a multilayered Instagram photo contest, artfully emphasizing the company’s Green Mission with a new challenge every week.

Building on the success of fun nonbranded activities like #PHOTOADAY and #warbywalk, eyewear maker Warby Parker’s Instagram-based New York City photo hunt, Whole Foods asked its audience of amateur photographers to explore the themes of recycling and reusing, “Earth-friendly” food, sustainable transportation and the overall protection of our planet. Going beyond promotions, Whole Foods is candid in its comments and responses and seems to frequently hand the keys over to employees who are passionate about what they do. One example involves an enthusiastic beer-department employee sharing a few of his/her favorite products on Instagram. When the employee posted a photo of Ranger India Pale Ale, a canned brew by New Belgium Brewery—also an avid Instagram-ing brand—the brewery responded to the photo and a lovefest was had:

In addition, Whole Foods is also an early adopter of the social-bookmarking platform Pinterest, most recently calling on its nearly 30,000 followers via its 900,000 Facebook fans for “Pins for Mom”, a contest that encourages sharing of the brand’s recipe content with one’s mother. It’s a promotion that’s low on cost (three $100 gift cards are to be given away) and high on engagement. Elsewhere, WFM does good work with localized social media for stores in larger markets. For instance, Whole Foods Market NYC posts about new items, sales and events specific to its locations, making the post content more compelling and the responses from community managers more helpful.

Who would you nominate?

So when it comes to advertising, it’s almost laughable to think that audiences would ever have the time for long-form content—no less long-form branded content. Maybe a 30-second spot could slip by, but audiences would never find 20 minutes to watch a sponsored video and then spend another 10 sharing it with their networks, simply because they loved it, right?

Who has the time?

Nobody, it would seem. Not that we ever really did, but still, just a few decades ago, it was difficult to avoid interruptive marketing. We couldn’t fast-forward over television commercials. We couldn’t opt to “skip this ad.” We couldn’t pay for commercial-free radio. We couldn’t see that it was a telemarketer calling us during dinnertime. But now it’s easy to ignore marketers, so much that we have little, if any, patience for marketers when we’re exposed to advertising.

In the post-advertising age, this is what we call the Free-Time Paradox.

If you look at the graphic below, the yellow dot is the audience being battered by “messaging” and conversion efforts. Over time, as a result, they’ve put up their blinders and gone into defense mode. They certainly don’t have 30 seconds for an interruption.

However, when audiences are exposed to content that is valuable, entertaining, emotive and simply enjoyable—even if it’s branded—they miraculously have 30 minutes to watch and then share the content with their own audiences. And, as Mark Scaefer remarked at our recent Post-Advertising Summit, “we are an audience of audiences.”

So, in the image above, the audience not only accepts the message, but spreads message—often without prompting, and on their own accord.

Truth is Stranger than Fiction

According to a recent study by Time Warner’s Time Inc. and Boston’s Innerscope Research, audiences in their twenties switch media venues about 27 times per nonworking hour. Meaning, in essence, that one of the most valuable demos—twentysomethings—is also one of the most elusive and distracted.

This seems to be a perfect formula for the failure of long-form content: Marketing to audiences seemingly without attention spans, who have little free time and an aversion to branded content.

But long-form content, when done effectively, is thriving. Here are a few examples:

Nike Fuelband
Whether it’s brilliant foresight or dumb luck, Nike hired filmmaker Casey Neistat to “create a movie about what it means to #makeitcount.” #Makeitcount is the hashtag used for their Nike Fuelband campaign. Instead of making a run-of-the-mill brand flick, Casey and his buddy Max spent the film’s entire budget to travel the world. The trip lasted them 10 days, and the resulting video (almost five minutes long), published a little more than a week ago, has amassed nearly 4 million views.

Chipotle
Forgoing a spot on the Super Bowl, Chipotle opted for the more cost-efficient 2012 Grammy Awards to premiere their first national TV ad—sorry, “short film.” Clocking in at over two minutes, the placement “depicts the life of a farmer as he slowly turns his family farm into an industrial animal factory before seeing the errors of his ways and opting for a more sustainable future,” according to the YouTube description. Two-minute commercials are rare, but the spot was so successful that it even upstaged some Grammy performances that night.

HBO Sports 24×7
As a sports fan, one phenomenon I’ve seen in the last few years has been the mini-documentaries leading up to a sporting event. HBO Sports’ 24×7 series has chronicled the lead-up to a number of high profile boxing matches, including the likes of Manny Pacquaio and Floyd Mayweather (though not against each other). The UFC has begun a similar version entitled UFC Primetime. The episodes feature behind-the-scenes footage of the fighters training for the bout, as well as interviews and storylines that create a deeper understanding of who these athletes really are. While entertaining, there’s no doubt about it: these are long-form advertisements—teasers, if you will—for pay-per-view events that complete the story.

KONY 2012
The new poster child for branded viral content, we wrote extensively about the KONY video last month. While the nonprofit is not without its detractors, the video, clocking in at nearly 30 minutes, boasts over 87 million views to date. The filmmakers, Invisible Children, used compelling storytelling techniques to weave a narrative around their brand story. They encouraged audiences to view, share and act.

Breaking the Barrier

Reaching modern audiences isn’t as simple as buying a Yellow Pages ad or sending door-to-door salesmen around the neighborhood. We all know that. However, that’s exactly why valuable brand content is so critical. Only by producing great content can the Free-Time Paradox work to a brand’s advantage.

Sure, long-form branded content isn’t cheap or easy to create, but it can tell a rich, impactful story that’ll pay dividends short-form blips can’t touch. It may seem as though audiences have less time and patience for marketing, but stories are powerful enough to break through those barriers. Consumers may not have 30 seconds for an ad, but they do have 30 minutes for a great story.

With brand-run film production houses up and running (get a load of BMW Films or Lexus L Studio) and episodic, story-rooted content on the rise, the future of media consumption looks long, involved and invested.

What other long-form branded content examples have you seen and shared?

Monday, March 5^th saw the launch of the most successful viral marketing campaign in history, branded or otherwise. Nonprofit organization Invisible Children published their KONY 2012 campaign video, taking the social media world by storm. On the day it was launched, the video was practically unavoidable. It seemed nearly everyone posted it on every type of page and platform. With over 100 million views on YouTube and Vimeo combined in only one week, the video has reached iconic status as the most viral video of all time.

While the video has since sparked a powder keg of intense political debate, there’s another side of this moment that shouldn’t get lost in the arguments: Agree or disagree with the message, no one can argue that the marketing of the campaign is anything but outrageously successful. To help isolate lessons from the campaign that can benefit anyone trying to tell a story in social media, we spoke with Pat Walsh, co-founder and CMO of StayClassy.org, the social fundraising platform behind Invisible Children, for his insight on the campaign’s virality.

Here are five lessons that brands can take away from Invisible Children’s monumental social media campaign:

1. Stories Definitely Matter

With the video’s success, predictably, came significant criticism, but there’s no questioning the primary lesson learned from the San Diego-based nonprofit’s experiment in social activism: Everyone (like every brand) has a story, and those who tell it best, win.

Invisible Children were able to turn their eight-year mission into a compelling story that pulled at the heartstrings of millions. They told the story in a way that nearly everyone watching the video could understand, regardless of age or knowledge. Some have argued that it was too naive, oversimplifying a complex problem. However, if Invisible Children were going to create a video that could both keep the audience’s attention and spark a worldwide movement, the story had to be gripping and easy to understand to be effective

2. Don’t try this at home

The knee-jerk reaction of most anyone who yearns for viral success is to try and replicate the idea. But this is no nyan cat. This video has been nearly a decade in the making, and the depth (and 30 minute length) of the story makes it difficult to replicate with any amount of success. “I have no doubt that the success of the video (seen by more people than any single TV show this week) will lead many organizations astray in the naive belief that they can emulate this one,” said Seth Godin. “If a non-profit board decides to spend precious resources on a video hoping it will change the world in three days, I think they’re misguided.”

However, that’s not to say that brands, particularly nonprofits, have no chance at creating a groundswell that effects change. “One of the greatest effects of KONY2012 is that it’s inspired people to get involved and champion the causes they’re passionate about – whether that’s removing a 3rd world warlord or supporting something more personal to them,” explains Pat Walsh, co-founder and CMO of StayClassy.org. “Hopefully the long-lasting momentum of this campaign will continue to drive young leaders to advocate on behalf of social and humanitarian injustices at every level throughout the world.”

3. Define clear goals

Invisible Children’s success put them under the microscope. Alongside their success, Invisible Children has faced harsh criticism in the last week over a wide range of issues, one of which questioned the effectiveness of the video.

While the video ends with a clear call to action to order action kits (at $30 a piece, or free with a recurring donation), Invisible Children has openly acknowledged that their overarching goal as a nonprofit (and the goal of the Kony 2012 video) is to raise awareness, and no one can argue that the video hasn’t accomplished that. Opponents, however, have said that regardless of video views, this is pointless “slacktivism.” Viewers watch, share, and go back to their lives having felt as though they were social activists for a minute. But the content itself shouldn’t bear the burden of ROI. You can quibble about how much money it did or didn’t bring in (they have run out of $30 kits), but that’s not the point. The point is that a vast majority of the globe now knows about this issue and, most importantly, knows who Joseph Kony is. Invisible Children set out to make him famous, largely fueled by this video, and that’s exactly what was achieved.

4. Give your audience clear calls to action

Creating compelling content can be very effective, but if you don’t give your audience a clear call to action at the end, your audience’s journey with your brand may end right there. Around the 22-minute mark, the narrator (co-founder Jason Russel) proclaims, “We know what to do. Here it is. Ready?” The final seven minutes lays out Invisible Children’s goals and, specifically, what they want the audience to do:

1. Order an action kit
2. Donate a few dollars a month
3. Reach out to culture-makers and politicians to show that you care
4. On April 20^th, paint your town or city with the posters and stickers in the action kit

Not everybody is willing or able to be deeply involved in an issue, but if you give your audience easy ways to begin their involvement with the project, they might find themselves becoming more passionate than they thought they were.

But sometimes asking isn’t enough. You have to make it very easy for them to do what you’re asking. If you want them to share your infographic with their social networks, make sure there are social sharing buttons nearby. If you want them to donate, show them exactly where they need to go to donate and even ask for a specific amount. The KONY2012 site makes it easy for people to tweet at the culture- and policy-makers with the click of a mouse (along with a pre-written tweet, which provides a thank-you if they’ve already tweeted).

But will this viral spread translate to real-world in time for the declared group action date of April 20? “I think it already has,” Walsh says. “Invisible Children has brought an elevated level of awareness and a new call to action to a long-standing silent war. As a result of the campaign, media organizations like NBC Nightly News are sending teams to Africa to further investigate and build awareness around the issues. Politicians are coming out in strong support of taking action. Invisible Children’s awareness tactics have led to tangible action in the past, and I think this latest campaign has the momentum to make their largest impact yet.”

5. Ensure that your audience sees themselves in your story

When your audience can see themselves in your story, the burden of persuading them disappears. The Kony video had a variety of characters that made it easily relatable to viewers of all ages. When we saw Jason’s son, we saw our own sons and/or daughters. When college-aged kids (the primary target audience) saw the video, they saw the hundreds of other kids who look just like them painting the streets with Kony posters.

Of course, you can’t do this for every audience. This video had a negative reaction from those in the areas of Uganda where Joseph Kony’s reign was the worst. That’s an understandable reaction who those who have lived through true suffering, but to be fair, they weren’t the target audience. Invisible Children targeted an audience that could immediately respond to their call of action to share, reach out, and donate. Judging by the rapid sharing of the video, it obviously resonated with the audiences they targeted.

Through all of this, it can’t be forgotten that global storytelling has a long tail. If Rebecca Black is still getting work, then we can expect that Invisible Children’s message will be around well into 2013 and beyond. It’s this widespread success and awareness that may motivate politicians to act. It’s not perfect, but the story is simply too effective to ignore.

For anyone trying to tell a story, the main lesson to be gained from the Kony campaign is to make sure your story is compelling for your target audience. Your brand may not create the next viral sensation, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have your own story to tell—you simply need to determine how to tell it in a way that captivates and compels audiences to share.

Why do you think the Kony 2012 video went viral so quickly? What else can be learned?

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HAVE YOU REGISTERED FOR THE POST-ADVERTISING SUMMIT YET?

We’ll be peering into the future of all things content marketing, advertising, journalism and social media at our Post-Advertising Summit, March 29th in New York City. We’ll pull back the curtain and teach attendees how to truly unearth their brand’s story. Speakers including Simon Dumenco (AdAge), Shira Lazar (What’s Trending), Joe Pulizzi (Content Marketing Institute) and more will be on hand to share their expertise. In order to get the best price, reserve your seat at the Summit table today! Use code “PABLOG” for $100 off!

Viral videos seem so easy to make. I mean, even Rachel Black made one! However, the reality is that virality is ever-elusive. There’s no single equation. You can’t buy it anywhere. No internet marketer/video editor, no matter what they tell you, has the one formula to guarantee viral success. It’s not like six pack abs—those are sought after but there’s a clear formula. Eat well. Exercise often. That’s it. That’s the formula. You heard it here first. Just look at my abs as proof (please don’t).

But it is possible to create a video that goes “viral” (however you want to define “viral”). We may not be able to unearth the scrolls that house the secret formula, but we’re going to dig deep into why some videos have found success, and why audiences were so compelled to share. Here are 8 traits we found in some of the most successful viral videos.

Note: This isn’t comprehensive, nor exclusive. Also, just having any one or two of these traits doesn’t guarantee success.

1. Extremely Funny

Arguably the most common aspect of a viral video is humor. Audiences love to share videos that will make other people laugh. It’s human nature. But being funny isn’t easy, and many people have failed at this. If you put the effort into it though, it can be a huge benefit for your brand, like this video from John St., a Canadian advertising agency.

The flipside, and a legitimate concern for brands taking a shot at viral success, is that a video can unintentionally be funny, ending up as the butt of the joke. Rebecca Black uploaded her music video in hopes of pop stardom, but it reached viral status when the lyrics of the song were carefully dissected. “Fun, fun, fun, fun. Looking forward to the weekend!” Though it’s very arguable that it’s the best thing that has ever happened to her.

2. Something We Can All Relate To

When the content of videos appeal to a wider audience, the likelihood is much greater that someone is going to share the video throughout their social networks. A recent viral success, Sh*t Nobody Says is a prime example. A spinoff of the viral meme Sh*t Girls Say (which falls in both this and the previous category), this version found a topic that we can all relate to instead of the niche crowds the other spinoffs targeted (not that those don’t have value). Well written and acted, Sh*t Nobody Says spread like wildfire. I mean, does anyone understand taxes?

A subcategory of this would be “Something Useful.” There have been a number of videos that have seen viral success within their targeted communities by creating a video that the audience not only could relate to, but also found useful and shared with others that would appreciate the video. One such example is Janssen-Cilag’s (client) Living with ADHD video. The video wasn’t intended to reach millions (the audience is parents with children who have ADHD), but is considered one of Europe’s most successful pharma videos. Brands creating valuable content that audiences can use is a great way to encourage audiences to not only share but come back for more.

3. Exposing the Truth

One aspect of viral video success that seems to go under the radar is exposing the truth. Ever notice those crazy before and after weight loss pictures (specifically those you see as featured videos on YouTube)? Ever wonder if they’re real? Or if not, where the pictures come from? I came across a video that exposed how these body transformations happen, and this guy did it in 5 hours. Three days and over three million views later, the video was viral.

Of course, as Dominos will tell you, you can come out on the wrong end of a viral video exposing a sad truth. Luckily they were able to rebound with a quite effective ad campaign, but they were forced up against the ropes for a while.

4. Emotional

One of the best angles for brands to take is to weave an effective story into a video that draws emotion from the audience or targets a pain point they can relate to. A recent branded viral video (and a personal favorite of mine) came from the David Cornfield Melanoma Fund. Well written (you’ll notice it’s funny in the beginning to get/keep your attention, but gets serious at the right time) and well produced, the young nonprofit (founded in 2007) has had the English version of their video viewed over 5 million times. They also have Spanish, French and Russian subtitled versions.

Brands take note: The video includes real stories, and stories are powerful and inherently want to be shared.

5. Completely Unexpected

2010 saw one video go viral that had everyone saying, “What, what sound just came out of that man’s mouth?” The homeless man with the golden voice appeared on YouTube courtesy of a reporter from the Columbus Dispatch, and immediately Ted Williams’ life had completely changed. Nobody driving through that intersection would ever expect Williams’ voice to sound like that, and the sidewalk story in the latter half of the video helped create a piece of viral history.

6. Something You’ve Never Seen Before

Creativity is key when producing a video in hopes of viral marketing success. LA-based musical quartet OK Go are the poster children for creating videos with content so unique and amazing audiences are compelled to share it. They were so successful that we wrote a post outlining some of their secrets to success. In reaction to that post, the OK Go twitter account gave me this reply:

Here’s their latest video for their song “Needing/Getting” in which they partnered with Chevy (another way to leverage viral success). Over 7 million views in three days (thus far). I think they’ve got this viral thing down.

Brands like Old Spice have found success by creating sharable content unlike anything anyone has ever seen, although it’s difficult for me to categorize a national ad as a viral hit.

7. Interactive

Some brands utilized the interactive capabilities of YouTube to gain viral success. Both TippEx and Hell Pizza created a “Choose Your Own Adventure” series that garnered millions of views. TippEx put the fate of an unsuspecting bear in the hands of the viewer in their Hunter Shoots a Bear series. Hell Pizza painted an accurate picture of the inevitable 2012 apocalypse in their series where the viewer has to help a delivery man deliver a pizza to a woman trapped on top of a shipping crate surrounded by zombies. I mean, who hasn’t had that happen?

8. Right place, right time

These are the ones you can never predict, and it’s rare for a brand to take advantage of situations like this because the situations themselves are rare and inherently unpredictable. Videos like Charlie Bit My Finger and David after Dentist are organic. When the person behind the camera hit record, they didn’t know what they were going to get. While this is a commonality found in many viral videos, it’s not one any brand should bank on. Oh, and here’s Charlie and Harry for your viewing pleasure.

What shouldn’t go unrecognized is the inherent risk in creating viral videos. Many successful viral videos required a large investment in time and money to create something that is not guaranteed to go viral. Few brands are willing to take this risk, but there’s no way to ever guarantee success.

What are some great examples of branded viral video success? What traits did we miss? Let us know in the comments.

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HAVE YOU REGISTERED FOR THE POST-ADVERTISING SUMMIT YET?

We’ll be peering into the future of all things content marketing, advertising, journalism and social media at our Post-Advertising Summit, March 29th in New York City. We’ll stop talking and start DOING with workshops that put pen to paper and truly create a piece of valuable content. Speakers including Simon Dumenco (AdAge), Shira Lazar (What’s Trending), Joe Pulizzi (Content Marketing Institute) and more. In order to get the best price, reserve your seat at the Summit table today!

As difficult as it is to create viral media, it’s even harder when it’s branded. Audiences typically wouldn’t dare be caught propagating viral content produced by a brand. It’s sort of like inviting your parents to your party: They may be perfectly fine people with a great sense of humor, but just the fact that they’re, well, parents makes them inherently uncool. So what’s a brand to do?

Most viral content wasn’t created to be that way. I surely hope David’s dad didn’t think of YouTube views when the dentist turned up the nitrous oxide or Charlie as he bit his brother’s finger. Most content that garners viral success comes from such humble beginnings, but does that mean it’s impossible for brands to create content that can spread like this?

No.

Three Secrets to Viral Marketing Success

While few brands can claim they’ve achieved viral success on purpose, multiple times, an LA-based musical quartet OK Go can. OK Go is very well known, and it’s not because of their music—it’s because of their music videos, which have been viewed more than 100,000,000 times. Below are some lessons that can be learned from OK Go.

1. You Might Fail. Actually, You Probably Will Fail.

When OK Go presented their music video for “Here it Goes Again” to the Capitol Records’ head of digital marketing, he told them that if the video ever got out, they’d sink. It was a very real risk. There was no guarantee that the audience would find the video funny or entertaining and would pass it along to friends. OK Go’s video broke every pre-conceived notion of music videos, all the way down to its $5,000 price tag. However, the video was shared and spread with more than 50 million views. (Note: It has since been removed and reposted under the EMI brand with fewer hits.)

Lesson for Brands:

You’re not going to create content without the risk of it not going viral. That’s not to say you shouldn’t expect positive results, but be prepared to take a few swings before you hit a homerun. Every brand wants a plan to create viral marketing, but once you set that as a goal, you are destined to fail.

2. Create Wildly Entertaining Content.

Each one of OK Go’s videos keep the audience’s eyes glued to their screen. In their second video for “This Too Shall Pass” they constructed an intricate and massive Rube Goldberg Machine, in a two-story warehouse, which operated all song long. No matter who you are, it’s probably the biggest Rube Goldberg Machine you’ve ever seen.

Cost: $30,000.
Views: 31,000,000+.

Lesson for Brands:

Whether you’re watching them dance unexceptionally on eight treadmills or watching marbles collide with each other to the beat, their content is enjoyable. No matter what your content is, even if it is traditionally boring, find ways to make it entertaining to your audience, like hiring Richard Simmons and dressing your staff in 80′s workout clothes. Care about them first. What will resonate? What will cause them to proactively share your content?

3. Create Content That Can’t Be Found Anywhere

The content certainly entertains, but it’s the uniqueness of each video that truly drives virality. In their third video, “White Knuckles,” the band hired 50 dogs and trainers for a three-minute 36-second choreographed cup stacking/puppy fest. It’s obvious how much planning was necessary, and there’s no question that every one of these videos was painstaking and difficult. But the result is something you can’t find anywhere else. If you want to see a video like this, you can only search for an OK Go music video. Not to mention, the videos are so amazing that the behind-the-scenes and making-of clips received hundreds of thousands of views on their own.

Lesson for Brands:

Think about this the next time you repurpose existing content hoping for viral success. Be prepared to commit time and energy to come up with a unique idea. Your Old Spice parody will never create as much buzz as the original. It’s the same mistake the Columbus Dispatch made when it failed to harness Ted Williams’s viral wave (the homeless man with the radio voice). eBooks, webinars and blog posts are great, but there are so many already out there. If you hope to find success in branded viral marketing, you need to reach further than anyone else has.

Ultimately, brands need to move away from the idea of viral in and of itself. I even feel a little dirty having talked about it, like I’ve been writing about get-rich-quick schemes or how to lose weight without ever working out. Your goal shouldn’t be to create the next viral sensation. It should be to create useful, entertaining and relevant content that your audience will enjoy and proactively pass along to their other audiences, expanding the reach and exposure of your brand.

What branded viral marketing successes have you seen? What are some more elements of a successful viral marketing campaign?

So when we see campaigns based on crowdsourcing—basically turning the effort over to the general population at a cheaper price—it makes us wonder if what we do is worth it. After all, some of these public-created campaigns are good. Really good. Inspired even. But, of course, there’s the risk that the public can derail your entire campaign and ruin the years of brand cred your company spent millions of dollars creating. In light of that ominous thought, here are five crowdsourced campaigns, creations and ideas that are truly remarkable.

Harley-Davidson “No Cages”

Harley’s first foray into crowdsourced advertising began with this concept by Whit Hiler, brought to life in the video above. Advertising partner and crowdsourcing shop Victors & Spoils put the creative brief online and opened it up to the masses. The company picked Hiler’s idea and helped refine it. It seems crowdsourced advertising is something Harley-Davidson is considering for more campaigns. Harley CMO Mark-Hans Richer said, “We are uniquely able to use crowdsourcing for all of our major creative because of the passion and advocacy of a broad customer base all over the world. This process has helped to liberate the creativity of our most passionate of fans.”

Murakami

Sometimes the crowdsourcing of advertising is unintentional, as was the case with this billboard for a Murakami exhibit at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. Graffiti artists AUGER and REVOK tagged the billboard, which was taken down two days later. However, the “modification” received a fair amount of press thus bringing more attention to the exhibit. Furthermore, Murakami himself enjoyed the graffiti so much that he had the billboard taken down and shipped to his studio in Japan.

(Photo Credit: Ribbon Controller)

The Vaccines “Wetsuit”

It’s been years (or, more accurately, decades) since MTV regularly played music videos on its channel. Without that outlet, bands and record companies have steered away from creating expensive videos and put their efforts toward more traditional publicity routes such as touring, YouTube and grassroots endeavors. But The Vaccines turned to crowdsourcing and the über-popular mobile photo-sharing app Instagram to create its latest inexpensive music video. The band asked fans to take photos at music festivals and tag them with #vaccinesvideo. After receiving nearly 3,000 submissions, the band created the video above, almost entirely made from Instagram photos.

The Icelandic Constitution

How can a country where most of the population believes in elves use such 21st-century channels as social media and crowdsourcing to create a new constitution? And yet Iceland did just that, using Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and Twitter to lead a discussion about the country’s future. Taking comments and suggestions from those sites, a group of 25 ordinary citizens consolidated the ideas and presented a draft of the constitution to Iceland’s parliament, which will be reviewed on October 1st.

(Photo Credit: Chris 73)

Microsoft “NUAds”

Well, isn’t this a kick in the NUAds! Microsoft is making advertising (more) social using its Kinect interface for Xbox 360 and harnessing the power of crowds. Users will now be able to use voice and motion to interact with ads on the console, in videos or embedded in games. The crowdsourcing comes into play as this technology allows users to Tweet about certain ads (by saying “Xbox tweet”) or learning more about the ads (by saying “Xbox more”). The use of gamers’ photos and voices can be added into these ads—allowing them to become spokespeople for these brands.

Crowdsourcing is positioned to become a cheap and effective way to promote brands. And, while there are risks involved, careful monitoring and planning can often lead to successful results. And who knows? It may even restructure an entire country and its elven brethren.

What do you think about crowdsourcing? Too risky? Too lazy? Or does it put brand messages in the mouths of the right people?

(Lead Photo)

This post originally appeared in our August issue of “Live Report from the Future of Marketing,” our monthly Post-Advertising newsletter. Subscribe for free here.

Most marketing agencies approach their content with the standard brush. They take a look at the latest tools and trends, and pull together a few tips here and there. That subtle approach is not necessarily a bad thing, but in this difficult economy, that’s no longer good enough. Desperate times call for bold strokes. That’s why we at Story Worldwide have decided to put our money where our mouth is — we’re not only outlining five key ideas for the future of content marketing, we’re currently investing in them.

1. Big brands need editorial councils

Content is the only thing that attracts and truly motivates consumers in this opt-in world. It’s required to start and sustain all conversations in social media. But managing ongoing multichannel content production is complex, combining best practices from traditional publishing companies, marketing consultancies and digital agencies. Not to mention, not everyone is truly a natural storyteller. Real storytelling requires different skills and experience than traditional advertising. It requires a mastery of narrative techniques. Metaphors. Archetypes. Character. Story arcs. It also requires a committing to being ‘always on,’ producing content and managing the resulting conversations on an ongoing continual basis.

Brands that truly strive for effective multichannel content, particularly if it spans borders, languages, and traditions, must establish what we call an Editorial Council. They produce an Editorial Strategy and an Editorial Calendar. All content proceeds from there. The brand feeds the Editorial Council; the Editorial Council creates the Editorial Strategy and the Editorial Calendar, which guide all executions. At Story we’ve seen this work to great success with Lexus, and as big brands begin to embrace content more wholeheartedly, we expect to see it become far more commonplace.

2. Make every employee a content producer

Often brands that create content, especially blogs, have dedicated authors. They’re usually a select few individuals, often in the marketing department (and strangely removed from much of the brand’s day-to-day operations), who gather and produce the content. But we’ve shifted to a place where valuable content lives in every nook and cranny of your brand and business. You’ve got talented team members churning out valuable and unique products, yet their expertise and knowledge is restricted to their cubicle or personal blog.

Leverage the most valuable assets within your company – your employees – and encourage and empower them to share their expertise, turning it into a truly unique piece of content. They don’t have to write the final version (that’s where the real writers come in), but they can be a source of content that no marketing department can ever unearth on their own.

Consider creating a blog post, a how-to series, an eBook, or simply interview them and upload it as a podcast or a Q&A on your blog. At Story, we not only help produce such content for companies like Toasted Head wines, but we’ve also begun producing a series of 16 eBooks (one is available now) written by our talented game developers, writers, designers, and more.

3. Feed your community with fresh content

Simply maintaining a stream of content for your community, whether it’s on a blog or on Facebook, is not enough. In order to effectively engage audiences, brands must constantly produce unique content to keep their audience’s attention piqued. Otherwise, like produce, your community will spoil.

We’re not just talking about the difference between infrequent and frequent content. Simply posting content frequently doesn’t mean it’s “fresh,” in this case. I can eat a fresh grapefruit every day for breakfast but after a while, no matter how juicy it is, I’m going to get sick of it. We’re suggesting that on top of frequently posting content, in order to properly cultivate a community, you MUST continually innovate – create many different types of content, including unique content (think games, live event coverage, innovating upon user-generated content) that can ONLY be found within your community. We go much more in depth here.

4. Be willing to leave your home base

A common strategy for most brands is to create individual  pieces of content that pull the user back to the brand’s home base. This content spreads across paid and owned — from Google PPC to eBooks to social media accounts — with the basic idea that you should reach audiences where they are and bring them back to your brand site (home base) where they can learn more, print a coupon to purchase your product or fill out a contact form to inquire about your services.

It’s a standard strategy and we’re not suggesting you ditch your home base completely (particularly for SEO purposes), but moving forward your brand needs to have more respect for both your individual content pieces and the audiences you’re trying to reach. View each piece of content as a brand advocate in and of itself. Design them in a way that carries your brand objectives and brand values with links to the places you want to take consumers. It’s not reasonable to think that an advocate of your brand actually wants to spend time on your brand’s site. What’s reasonable is to think that your brand advocates will help a great piece of content spread. Experiences are now between the person and the useful content, so focusing more on creating that spreadable content and less on how to get them back to your site will pay dividends.

5. Allow digital content marketing to drive offline behavior

“Involve the fans” is the sine qua non of digital marketing today. But to date, these participation opportunities have been strictly limited. Bringing them into your community is always important, but what happens when they get there? Are your goals loftier than just engagement? Particularly if your product or service is tangible, can you really use digital to move the analog needle? And can generating productive online-to-offline behavior really lower traditional ad spending?

Yes, believe it or not, digital content marketing is not restricted to just driving online behavior (becoming a fan, signing up for a newsletter, sharing a post, or e-commerce). You can drive offline behavior through digital by involving advocates materially in the creation of content, and curating the digital communities that form around it. We’ve seen this happen first hand with our client WGNA and their How I Met Your Mother Superfan community. WGNA features “Superfans” in TV spots, tweeters show up in crawls during shows, and fans program the lineup for episode marathons (primarily achieved through Facebook and YouTube). In exchange, WGNA has been able to leverage the show’s existing online fan base to drive audience, positioning WGNA well for the long-term transition from lean-back-TV to online-interactive experience. Not to mention, it means they can continue to reduce their stake in budget-intensive traditional advertising and move a portion of it towards post-advertising while banking the rest.

(We believe in this last one so much that we’ll be hosting a session at Content Marketing World about this very topic.)

These are five of our big ideas that are brewing at Post-Advertising. Do you think we’re on-point or off-base? What big ideas do YOU have?

Luckily, they don’t always get away with it. We consumers don’t like to be deceived or manipulated, so we use our voice to speak out, causing an uproar that can ultimately damage a brand image — especially when, as in the following examples, the brand’s new feel-good message is so hypocritical in comparison to its day-to-day operations that it becomes an outright joke.

1. Road to Nowhere

In an effort to revitalize a brand that was running on empty with American auto buyers, Chrysler put the pedal to the metal with an epic two-minute Super Bowl commercial that featured a similarly resurgent Eminem and a heartstring-tugging message that encouraged consumers to reconsider buying from Detroit. But consumers were also quick to point out that maybe a debt-riddled company running on taxpayer handouts shouldn’t be blowing $9 million on a Super Bowl spot—especially as it was shutting down plants in Michigan in favor of cheaper labor in Mexico. And this wasn’t the company’s first offense: In 2008, Chrysler ran an ad campaign called “If you can dream it, we can build it” to realign the company with its core standards (quality, safety, technology, connectivity, and environmental responsibility) and interest customers in its new hybrid vehicles. But it also left the decision on selling hybrids up to individual dealerships—who overwhelmingly voted against investing money in training and new tools, and rejected the innovation.

2. Chicken Burrito—Hold the Benefits

Chipotle told the world it was part of the crusade for farmworker justice — although that may not apply to its own. A fast-food company that prides itself on offering “food with integrity” that is environmentally friendly and socially just, Chipotle in 2009 helped promoted Food Inc., a film that explores the negative effects of America’s industrialized food system and encourages consumers to become more socially and environmentally conscious. Unfortunately for Chipotle, their tomato farmers in Florida’s Immokalee area spoke up, pointing out that they were subjected to some of the poorest labor standards in the US.

3. Oil’s Well the Ends Well

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award was meant to help make Shell look greener as it battled a reputation of endangering the environment. The world’s third-largest oil company donated 750,000 pounds to the British Natural History Museum to sponsor their international showcase of the best nature photography from 2007-2008, while its business remained rooted in oil and gas production, one of the greatest causes of climate change. The public outrage was so extensive, supporting an anti-brand traveling show called Shell’s Wild Lie, that the effort was discontinued after two years.

4. Making Green from Greenwashing

The Royal Bank of Scotland sponsored Climate Week in the UK, which sought to raise awareness and publicize methods of fighting climate change. Unfortunately, RBS proved it will sponsor just about anything — 7 billion pounds to climate-change-exacerbating coal companies included. Scottish students voted it the winner of the Greenwash Coup of the Year Award for claiming to support the environment while actively contributing to climate change.

5. Rubbing Sugar in the Wound

Oh, KFC, how we love to scratch our heads over your apparent insanity. The same company that brought obesity-fearing Americans the Double Down sandwich (boasting deep-fried chicken patties in place of bread, bacon, and cheese) and the Buckets for the Cure campaign (raising money for breast cancer research through the sale of fattening fried breasts) has now done something uniquely new to baffle the world. It’s a simple concept: Buy a $2.99 Mega Jug of soda—boasting a whopping 56 spoonfuls of sugar and 800 calories—and KFC will donate a dollar of said purchase to fund research to try to cure juvenile diabetes (brilliant scientific conclusion #1: don’t drink a half gallon of sugary soda). Yes, we’re aware that type 1 and type 2 diabetes are two different diseases, but still: Nobody thought this was a bad idea?

6. Freedom or Fifty Cents Off? You Choose!

Groupon’s Super Bowl ad, like many, used humor to get its main point across: that Groupon uses strength in numbers to offer great discounts on things consumers want. But consumers also want to help the less fortunate and oppressed populations on the world, and using Tibet’s decades-long struggle for freedom as a punchline wasn’t just in poor taste—it was especially hypocritical for a company that began its life as a website called The Point, which utilized public votes to generate publicity and funding for worthy non-profit causes.

7. What’s German for Blatant Racism?

Admittedly, this Unicef ad ran in Germany, which doesn’t have the same history of racially-based enslavement and discrimination that we have in the United States (although history would certainly suggest that racial tolerance has not always been high on their priority list). But using children painted in blackface in an attempt to generate respect and compassion for underprivileged people in Africa might not have been the wisest choice…

8. A Shot in the Dark

This one is more of a silly (or scary) nonsensical connection: a Montana Radio Shack offering a free gun (or pizza!) with purchase of a Dish Network system. But think about it as a franchise owner: Rather than handing out guns as burglary protection, wouldn’t the owner prefer, I dunno, to sell a home security system? Or just let the robbery happen and then have customers coming in needing to replace an entire home of stolen electronics?

Have any others ruffled your feathers that we forgot to mention? Let us know below!

Images: Denver Fair Food, A World to Win, Flashmunki Photography, Unicef, and Selfish Giving

The campaign is about how childhood is supposed to be one of the happiest and safest times in life, yet for many Irish children who contact Childline, this is simply not the case. If this video is any indication, that would be an understatement.

The spot in its entirety is moving, to say the least. My heart broke for the boy who was obviously helpless — a prisoner of abuse in his own household. The content had spread virally to me, and with over 500,000 views, it’s obviously a success from an awareness perspective. None of their other three videos have topped the 10,000 view mark.

But is it effective from a branded storytelling perspective? If so, what makes it effective? Is it enough to just pull at your heartstrings? Does the boy’s message cut through the powerful visual story?

This is one of those questions that I’m not sure I have the answer for. Ultimately, branded content has to nudge a reader to an action, whether it’s to buy a product or donate money to their nonprofit. Is this video effective brand storytelling? Let me know what you think in the comments.

For a behind-the-scenes look at the making of this video, check out this AdWeek post.

When we feel like we are the target of marketing, our arms fold and we close ourselves off to the message. But when we listen to a story, we open up, lean forward, and listen. No one has 30 seconds to be marketed to, but everyone has 30 minutes to hear a great story.

The power of brand storytelling doesn’t end with acceptance of the message or even the seeking out of specific branded content. The power resides in how far a message can spread, for free, via fans. When audiences find content entertaining, useful, or both, they’ll add, syndicate, and share their own content (comments, links, ratings, and new versions). This is the power of WOM — it creates a talkable brand.

Aside from my presentation at the School of WOM, I was able to sit in on a few other sessions and learn a little more about what makes WOM truly effective. Here are a few tips I picked up along the #WOMMA way.

1. Create messaging that will foster user-generated content

While it can be useful in its own right, it’s not enough to give your audience content that’s purely for consumption. Talkable marketing movements have the added element of motivating fans to create their own content. Of course, UGC offers some risk, particularly if it’s done in parody, but you must risk to reap rewards. Warby Parker Eyewear has received well over 1,000 pictures of their fans wearing a pair of their glasses and posted them on their Facebook Page. The walls of sandwich maker Which Wich are adorned by art drawn on their sandwich bags. Often this UGC can have greater impact and reach than any content coming directly from the brand.

2. Give them an opportunity to participate in something big

Audiences love to be a part of the production. Encouraging them to to answer a question on your Facebook wall is one thing. Encouraging them to like your post to be part of the Guiness Book of World Records? That’s another, and that’s exactly what Oreo set out to do. Even though they held the record for only a short time before being upstaged by Lil’ Wayne, they still made a mark and got their fans to engage and spread the word. For good measure, the Oreo team sent a few packages of Oreos to Lil’ Wayne to celebrate.

3. Embrace your superfans

It’s easy to call oneself a fan. I’m a Red Sox fan. I even have the Boston “B” tattooed on my upper back. However, I’m not a superfan. Not if I’m up against this guy. Or this guy. Superfans are the evangelists, spreading the word about their favorite brand, creating endless amounts of free marketing. It may sound controversial, but they shouldn’t be treated like everyone else, simply because they’re not like everyone else. WGN America (client) is rewarding the superfans of How I Met Your Mother with their “Summer of the SuperFan” campaign. They brought four chosen superfans to New York for a roundtable discussion and promo shoot at McGee’s pub (the inspiration for the show’s fictional McLaren’s Pub), and will feature the videos on their Facebook and YouTube pages.

What are some great marketing campaigns you’ve seen that have created talkability? Have you ever participated, contributed content, or been embraced as a superfan? The comments are yours…

Image via Flickr

Find one of these special machines, select the beverage you want to gift, enter the recipient’s name and cell-phone number, and write a personal text message (you can even record a personalized video if you want). Moments later, your friend’s phone will buzz with a unique code redeemable for a free drink at any other social machines.

Pepsi’s experiment is demonstrative of the incredible opportunities in the Consumer Packaged Goods industry to create brand-consumer experiences that stretch beyond smartphones and computers. This social vending is still in phase 1, but PepsiCo plans on integrating online social networks as the concept evolves. The social vending thing might not be perfected just yet, but, for now, it’s a positive step toward creating engaging branded experiences that consumers are eager to drink in. And THAT’S refreshing.

PHOTO CREDIT: PepsiCoVideo /YouTube.com

(via Creativity Online)

This post originally appeared in our April issue of “Live Report from the Future of Marketing,” our monthly Post-Advertising newsletter. Subscribe for free here.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and…Mashable?

In early February, albeit relatively quietly, the top website for news in social and digital media introduced Mashable Follow – a “social layer” that is the first big move in Mashable’s journey towards becoming a “true news community.”

This seemed to be a long time coming. As the scope of the Mashable blog has increased alongside the popularity and mainstream coverage of social media, Mashable has battled with a signal-to-noise problem. They simply provide so much content — over 40 stories each day — that it’s becoming more and more difficult for readers to find the content they want when they want it without constantly checking the site and clicking through topic tabs.

Carefully named a “layer” and not a “platform,” Mashable Follow allows readers to log in via Facebook or Twitter, set up their own profile page, and through following people and topics of interest, curate their own content and turn Mashable into their own personal social and digital media news stream. Some of the Top Topics include Facebook, Twitter, Google, Apple, Social Media, YouTube and Foursquare. Users can even earn badges, adding a neat gaming element more common in geolocation apps like Foursquare and Gowalla.

Here’s a brief description of Follow:

We’ve said before that when appropriate, brands need to become publishers. They can’t simply sit idly by as their competitors create valuable content to satisfy audiences yearning to interact and engage. However, when a brand is already a publisher, what’s the next step in engaging audiences? Mashable is laying the foundation for more publishers, and brands turned publishers, to create a deeper level of engagement and customization. It allows the brand to own the channel while its audiences/users can curate the content in a way they prefer, thus making it easier to find and share the content that they’re interested in.

Creating such a robust and personalized owned media channel ultimately empowers audiences to increase a brand’s earned media. This is a feature that I’m sure news outlets have coveted. But only Mashable, with their 3,400,000+ followers across social platforms and 12,000,000+ monthly visitors, has a sample size big enough to see if this idea floats.

Not quite a social network, not your common media news site, Mashable is now a unique dichotomy. The intriguing question is, what’s next? We’ve never seen a publisher move to a platform quite like this. Is this just the tip of the iceberg for publishers? Is Mashable just the first of many on the horizon to gain an audience through content and then turn that audience into a social network?

While this is video is a nice bit of work on its own, it’s also a great call to the creative world to put their talents to good use and match them to non-profits in need. The top five will join advertising elites and non-profit heads at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity where they’ll have the opportunity to showcase their work. The benefits to all are obvious: The neediest non-profits get the most clever and effective marketing campaigns, while struggling creatives get the chance to sit down with industry leaders and show off their chops.

From producing their own original content to hosting creative summits such as this, YouTube is becoming a content engine in its own right. Not to mention a major contributor to the meritocratic future of advertising.

PHOTO CREDIT: Good Work /YouTube.com

Mad Men

As the fellas at Cake explain, what worked way back when won’t work in today’s ad world. Now that consumers have unprecedented control over the media that gets into their lives, brands have to listen and interact with the audience to find out “what will make people’s lives just a little bit better.” It’s the essence of effective content marketing.

So what’s in it for the brands? Well, today the brand-consumer relationship is mutually beneficial: Brands give people something they want, and, in turn, are rewarded as people let them in and then spread the news. That’s just how it works in the post-advertising age.

PHOTO CREDIT: CakeGroup /youtube.com

(Via Gawker)

Get it? Sure you do. Because Verizon trumpets its “largest and most reliable network,” and everyone knows AT&T’s service sucks. But because the public has to make that single connection, they feel like they’re in on a private joke. So to prove that they get it, they’re desperate to tell and retell the story. It would seem to be spreading as quickly as Verizon’s network.

Like everyone else, Verizon knew AT&T’s less-than-stellar reputation all along. So when it first adopted the iPhone, getting consumers on board with the new network was easy. But now that the Verizon iPhone has been out there for a little while, it has to work a little harder to nurture engagement and grow its consumer base. The obvious answer? Create great content.

By taking a shot at the competition, Verizon provoked people to talk in the online world with not just an ad, but a story they can’t wait to share — over and over and over again. Get the message?

IMAGE CREDIT: VerizonWireless /YouTube.com

(via TechCrunch)

Chobani, one of the most popular greek yogurt brands, has embraced digital storytelling by embarking on its first ever national advertising campaign. Launched on Valentine’s Day, Chobani’s Real Love campaign leverages the brand’s passionate customer-base with television spots, out-of-home placements, and social media, all featuring “real stories from real Chobani lovers.”

In their “Cho Theft” commercial, Stephanie Lane, a real Chobani lover from Richmond, VA, has her Chobani yogurt stolen from the refrigerator at work — surely something we can all relate to. The spot goes on to show how she now hides her daily treat from nefarious coworkers.

Stephen Wright, another Chobani lover and Eli Manning look-alike, was featured in Chobani’s  “Cho Bike” commercial, which documented his early-morning 80-mile bike ride to the Chobani factory. They even created a cute “behind-the-scenes” look at the making of their videos, which shows just how real — and nervous — the stars of the commercial are.

Chobani’s billboards even add some social flair by featuring actual tweets from fans, including the Chobani lover’s own Twitter handle.

Where the campaign gets truly post advertising is on the brand’s Facebook page where fans can share their “Chobani love story” via videos, images, and text. On their Real Love tab they share that week’s most beloved fan submissions from across the globe (the photo to the right is one of my favorites).

User submissions can be as simple as a photo from your webcam or as creative as a video of a man singing opera about being “King of Chobani.” Other users can then vote on the images and the most “liked” story gets a free case of Chobani, which the winner can customize with their favorite flavors.

Though utilizing user-generated content (UGC) isn’t a new idea, Chobani’s efforts stand out because they’re finding innovative ways to reward the real people that share a real love for Chobani. These are the folks who are  most likely to become brand evangelists (if they aren’t already). Each week’s Real Love Story winner is featured as part of the brand’s profile picture on Facebook, while a select few get to recreate their love stories by starring in Chobani’s nationally televised ads. Maybe it’s just me, but that sounds cooler than having a pallet full of Wheat Thins dropped off at your doorstep.

For consumers, the most trusted brand marketing comes in the form of recommendations from people we know. It’s been that way since we stepped foot in school and started wearing what the popular kids were wearing. However, according to Nielsen, the second most trusted form of advertising is a recommendation online from a complete stranger. We trust a complete stranger before we trust what a brand is saying on their own website.

By giving a confessional platform to yogurt fans to demonstrate the emotional connection between consumer and brand, Chobani is providing social proof — the most powerful form of advertising available. This could have flopped if Chobani’s fans weren’t as passionate or didn’t get as involved as they have so far. The brand took a risk and it appears to be paying off.

We believe that people can have emotional connections with brands by leveraging digital storytelling. If you’re in the UK, consider stopping by our London (Primrose Hill) office on March 24th for our free seminar on Social Media for FMCG. Learn more about the seminar here.

Then there are those stories that are so powerful that they leave you wondering how your writing could possibly do them justice. Almost as if the reward you got from reading the story was more than the value you could provide in the words you put to paper (or keyboard, in this case). For me, this was one of those stories.

In early 2011 a group of BBH New York interns, Rosemary Melchior, Robert Weeks and Willy Wang, were challenged with creating a project that did something good. In addition to doing something good, they were told they had do it “famously.” They decided was that “famously” simply meant, “make people listen.”

Their response to the challenge was Underheard in New York, an initiative to help homeless residents in New York City speak for themselves. With the help of the NYC Rescue Mission, four homeless men were selected as participants in the project. There was Danny (@putodanny), a former security guard of Puerto Rican descent, Derrick, (@awitness2011) a former intake coordinator and lifelong New York resident, Albert (@albert814), a 1992 immigrant from the Dominican Republic and former welder and chef hopeful, and Carlos (@jessie550), who for 26 years was a paralegal until injured in a car accident by a drunk driver. The project’s mission was to use social media to  increase the interaction between homeless people and the community around them.

The men were set up with Twitter accounts and given prepaid cell phones for the month with access to unlimited texts and Twitter. As of now, the project has chronicled 22 days of their journey together, with pictures and videos of the men and their stories on their blog, with identities on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

As I read through the blog from day one, I found myself engrossed in their stories. I am not sure what my personal expectations were, but they didn’t match what I read. Maybe I expected endless journeys in search of suitable sleeping arrangements. Maybe I expected alcohol and drug abuse. Maybe I expected men with no real grasp on reality or a plan on how to rejoin society. Yeah, I wasn’t close.

Albert can’t go back to his job as a welder because of his vision problems, but he’s got his eyes set on being a chef. He’s taking a cooking class (remember, English is his second language) but it’s hard to find a safe place to study. As if that wasn’t difficult enough, he was recently fined hundreds of dollars for using a student metro card he picked up on the street, obviously lost or discarded.

Carlos is working to start his own credit collection agency. However he walks 70 blocks – 2.5 hours each way – to get to the library so he can use the Internet for a whopping 45 minutes. He can’t afford a Metro Card and the library is the only place he can use a computer with free Internet access.

Danny’s story was particularly moving. He’s appealed to his 3,000+ followers to help him find his daughter, Sarah Monique Rivera, whom he hadn’t seen in ten years. Well, on day 23, he received the call he’s been waiting for:

UPDATE: Danny and his daughter have been reunited in person. You can watch the emotional video here (contains a pre-roll ad, of course).

Homelessness is not a new problem, nor will this be the first time that it has been documented. However this seems to be the first time anyone has used the power of digital storytelling to not only keep audiences engaged and updated on a daily basis, but to offer them a way to help the homeless in real time as well.

What will happen after this project concludes unknown. “I think for us the project is over when it’s over, unfortunately. But hopefully the project has a lifecycle beyond what we’re doing. Maybe another organization will adopt our strategies, raise awareness” said founder Robert Weeks in a recent Mashable article.

Most of us pass by the homeless and see them as nameless, faceless people. We may feel for them, but these feelings are probably fleeting. If I asked you how many homeless people you know by name, what would your answer be? Now that I’ve been following Underheard in New York, my answer would be four.

If this isn’t one of the best examples of post-advertising in action, then I’ve totally missed the point. These men are real to me now. Their stories, disseminated across social media channels, have connected them to me as well as thousands others and the help is already coming in. Danny has been contacted by a copywriter in Milwaukee about helping him write his life story.

Carlos’ commute may get much shorter as one individual is trying to arrange space and Internet access for Carlos in his NY office.

It’s clear that a supportive community is growing around the project, spreading awareness about the realities of homelessness and creating genuine relationships. These bright interns are proving how powerful digital and social media channels can be in helping important stories spread.

“We start with 100 percent USDA-inspected beef. Then we simmer it in our proprietary blend of seasonings and spices,” wrote Greg Creed, president and chief concept officer at Taco Bell Corp. But, as Stephen Colbert pointed out, these are more non-traditional “spices,” such as isolated oat product.

While most of us know that strip mall cuisine is far from healthy, Taco Bell misled consumers into thinking its principal ingredient was something it wasn’t.Thats gross and disappointing. But you have to hand it to them from a PR perspective —the faux-Mex chain didn’t wait to respond.

Unlike other fast-food companies, some of which have senselessly delayed damage control in the wake of negative press, Taco Bell struck back immediately on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, as well as with a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, USA Today, and other papers, trying to gain the upper hand. Acting aggressively and confidently in such public spaces, Taco Bell has successfully parried much of the negative news.

While a brand can’t get around a poor product, Taco Bell’s take-charge attitude in addressing the issue is serving it well with its target consumer. Fans are interacting with them, liking or commenting on posts and videos. The public forum certainly hears from both sides, but at least the company is attempting transparency instead of backtracking and covering things up.

And ultimately, do the Taco Bell fourth-mealers — all those 19-year-olds at the 4 a.m. drive-throughs — care what’s in the other 65%? Probably not.

(Via Advertising Age. Read more at Gizmodo or Mashable.)

PHOTO CREDIT: Steven Depolo /flickr.com

We all know about his meteoric rise and subsequent fall, but what we really want to know is, what happened to the video that made him famous?

The original video, uploaded by a user named “Ritchey,” got nearly 20 million views in less than a week. But now that video is nowhere to be found. A YouTube search for “Ted Williams Homeless” turns up plenty of videos of the homeless man with the golden voice, including one from Russia Today which has over 9 million views, but nothing from “Ritchey.”

So where did the original video go?

According to an article posted on CNET, the Columbus Dispatch had the viral YouTube version of their video —which prominently featured Dispatch branding— removed, citing copyright infringement. They still host a page dedicated to the story on their site, and they re-uploaded the video to YouTube with even more Dispatch branding in conjunction with the Associated Press.

To their dismay, they couldn’t harness the buzz around the original video. The updated version of the video shows up well below the fold in a YouTube search for “Ted Williams Homeless” and nowhere on a Google search for “YouTube Ted Williams.” However, the CNET article that originally reported the removal does show up in a search for that term. All the momentum and exposure that The Dispatch was getting for breaking their story had flatlined, and it was their own doing.

Authenticity and Owning Your Channel

While it’s within The Dispatch’s rights to reclaim copyrighted content, it feels strange and inauthentic. I have never seen someone call a “take-back” on a viral video. What if Lady Gaga told Greyson Chance he needed to remove his video of his incredible Paparazzi cover, which enjoys over 36 million views on YouTube, because he didn’t have the rights for the lyrics? Could you have imagined the backlash?

The Columbus Dispatch has issued a response to what some had claimed was a “stealing of their own content.” Benjamin Marrison explains that “The Dispatch asked YouTube to remove the video and direct those who wanted to see it to Dispatch.com. It’s copyrighted material, and news organizations must protect their copyrights. It took YouTube three days to act on our request, and then it removed the video without posting a link to the original video, as requested.”

Marrison goes on to say that The Dispatch has learned a lesson in social media, but never reveals what that lesson is. I can only hope that they have realized that you have to own your content, and even more importantly, your own channels. If you don’t, someone else will. It’s baffling that The Dispatch doesn’t have a branded YouTube channel to spread their content. If you value web traffic and banner ad revenue more than you value you’re content, you’ll never be able to ride a viral wave such as this one. So when the Ted Williams wave took off, The Dispatch wasn’t even on their surfboard.

(Image: AP Photo/NBC, Peter Kramer)

Not that we don’t already know enough about the lives of YouTube celebs such as iJustine and ShayCarl. According to the show’s description, however, the Partners Project “will give you a behind the scenes and intimate look at your favorite YouTube stars who are pioneering this cultural phenomena.” Bravo! YouTube is finally stepping up and taking ownership of their greatest assets. Next stop: profitability. Right?

You can expect a new “Pro Tip” video posted every Tuesday that will share advice about how to become a YouTube sensation from people like iJustine about how to hone your video-making skillz, build a YouTube fan-base, promote your videos, engage your audience etc. Every Thursdays they’ll post a new 8-10 minute interview about various aspects of video production with these same YouTube celebs, like “MysteryGuitarMan” who has 1.6 million subscribers on his channel.

The show is hosted by Shira Lazar, a digital reporter who covers all things viral on her CBSNews.com blog, “On the Scene.” Television producers Next New Networks—no strangers to YouTube success—will distribute the show.

By curating better material and offering insights into this emerging community from the content creators themselves, the Partners Project solidifies YouTube’s efforts in carving out a niche in the media landscape. As Lazar recently told The NY Times “People are creating careers on YouTube. This community needs someone telling their stories.”

What do the folks at home think of YouTube’s content push? Is this a step toward profitability for video purveyor?

Photo credit: Shira Lazar and Damon Berger, Executive Producers

Up until now, YouTube has operated under the belief that it’s more valuable to aggregate and distribute content than produce it. Since Google’s $1.65 billion purchase of YouTube back in 2006, they’ve attempted to improve the quality of the videos they host in order to increase viewership and advertising from those views. YouTube’s move to create content would help distinguish it from Hulu and Netflix by doing more than just regurgitating TV in a new medium. And now that Google TV, the new web-meets-TV project, has been blocked by all major TV networks from accessing their online videos, it may need to rely more than ever on successful YouTube content to stay afloat. Creating original programming could be one solution to help overcome this current showdown between old and new media.

And who better to create that programming than the people that already do YouTube the best? Next New Networks, a New York start-up, attracted their attention after producing two of YouTube’s top 10 videos of 2010 — including the number one viral hit, Bed Intruder, created by masters of viral culture The Gregory Brothers. The video became an overnight success, debuting in Billboard’s Hot 100 chart back in August and propelling Antoine Dodson into the spotlight—in the process turning him into an unexpected web superstar.

In an effort to crank out similar stand-alone hits in addition to consistent, programmed series over 12 networks, NNN launched the Next New Creators Program last December to support top emerging creators like The Gregory Brothers. The program currently boasts 65 independent filmmakers, whose work represents more than 50% of the network’s viewership. NNN’s mission is “redefining entertainment by championing the next generation of show creators, helping build their audiences, capabilities, and paths to revenue.” With over 1.2 billion views so far this year, they must be doing something right.

While YouTube has established itself as an important distribution platform for video sharing, partnering with NNN would help YouTube make the transition to publisher and producer. Their recent lifting of the 15-minute time limit on video uploads for many creators also gives them the capability to host longer and more compelling content to firmly cement their title as the most popular Internet broadcast station.

YouTube has made it easy for anyone to be a video publisher, but we all know that it takes great content to win. So if their new approach renders consumer publishing more lucrative and leads to clean, quality videos that people actually want to watch, what’s not to love?

This one has gone beyond viral. The footage from the event has already been converted into a three-minute commercial and on October 29^th, two days after the spectacle, it was aired simultaneously at 10:15pm on 86 British TV channels. An estimated one in six people in the UK have seen it.

This isn’t the first time T-Mobile has assembled a flash mob (see the dance routine at Liverpool Street Station and mass sing-along in Trafalgar Square). And while this angle is clearly T-Mobile’s spin on Improv Everywhere’s Welcome Back prank, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Just look at the smiles on those faces:

Flash mobs are great because they’re fairly cheap and can showcase a variety of talent. Plus, they produce the kind of feel-good advertising that hits consumers on an emotional level — whether they see it live or come across it later.

But is there a danger of this kind of gimmick getting played out? If more and more brands are sponsoring public performances of their own, the novelty wears off. Of course, everyone wants to create something that will go viral, but brands are quick to use and overuse an idea until consumers become jaded and it’s beaten into the ground.

Consumers are often finicky and suspicious, and when they don’t like something, they let the world know. Then, a campaign will cause the exact opposite sort of buzz than it had hoped to generate, and everyone’s left sitting around scratching their heads wondering, “Gee, why that didn’t work?” The T-Mobile performance, on the other hand, demonstrates that it’s quality of content, not necessarily the particular tactic, that leads to positive feedback and a successful campaign.

PHOTO CREDIT: Life’s for Sharing /flickr.com

Introducing Storify, a nifty new way to curate online content. This tool makes it easier for journalists and bloggers to collect the best tweets, photos, and videos to tell compelling stories. Users just drag ‘n’ drop elements from the social web and supply their own text to give each piece additional context. Then they can inform those originally quoted, embed the new content collection on blogs and spread it through social networks. When you “Storify” something, you’re letting real-time conversation speak for itself.

There are many curation-based services at our fingertips, but what separates Storify is that it draws from multiple social-media sources to create a broader narrative. Furthermore, the content used doesn’t lose its interactivity once pulled in: Readers can view Flickr photos, access Facebook accounts, and reply to tweets directly. While the company has its roots in journalism, this tool can be used personally (for digital scrapbooks) and even by brands looking to document and publish their consumers’ online conversations, capturing what the audience is saying and transforming that dialog into its own social environment.

Want more information? Watch the introductory video on Vimeo.

Image via Burt Herman and Storify.

Janssen-Cilang Ltd engaged different groups of doctors, patients, parents, and teachers who have been affected in some way by ADHD in order to explain and clarify the disorder (which is often regarded as an excuse for bad behavior from kids who just need more discipline). Full disclosure: the video execution is the work of none other than, well, us — Story Worldwide. Please pardon the self-promotion. It’s just too post advertising not to publish it here.

This film educates the public and helps people understand what it’s like to live with the condition. It has also gotten them talking. People have weighed in on all sides — from the disbelievers to those who have grown up with ADHD. While there may be no consensus yet, at least it’s sparked the conversation.

Many pharma companies’ social-media attempts have been criticized because they haven’t encouraged much discussion. However, while comments on “ADHD: A Day in the Life” are reviewed and screened for those mentioning specific medications, the YouTube channel allows those from both ends to broadcast their opinions. The heated debate has received worldwide attention and gotten the video re-posted on plenty of pharmaceutical blogs.

Stories that don’t allow conversations to develop are less likely to spread, plain and simple. And there are always at least two sides to every one. Best to let them all be heard.

He’s right — what if our DNA got all distracted by branding considerations and neglected to tell the real and compelling story of our genetic code? A big mess, that’s what. We’d just be walking billboards for the letters “A,” “T,” “G,” and “C.” Or something like that.

Can’t say it much better than this:

Image via “Little Big Things” YouTube Channel

This is an extension of “Where’s the Party?” — Carlsberg’s 2009 campaign, which used a website and an app to help people coordinate with friends and find summer parties. This newest execution tells them what to do once they get there. Especially with regards to how to be popular with the ladies. This year’s campaign advises confused and flustered party people on the best music, dance move, dress code, and flirting tactics to land the girl.

The four videos star a British professor type reporting on Carlsberg-branded scientific (or so they claim) experiments, which used high-tech gadgets (sweat meters, eye-movement trackers, etc.) to determine the female response to different party behaviors.  Let’s view the results, shall we?

While the vignettes themselves serve as great stand-alone creative — witty and a cute blend of modern technology and retro, low-tech content — the campaign also scores by touching on two very relatable male insecurities: proper party behavior and the delicate art of picking up chicks. They aren’t foolin’ about the science, neither: Carlsberg conducted behavioral research on approximately 1,000 nightlife lovers to reveal their party habits and released video reports on their findings about a week ago. The brand plans to use this quantitative information in future executions.

2010’s campaign is a fitting follow-up to 2009’s, seamlessly integrating both executions. It further serves to reinforce the brand’s personality as young, fun, and carefree. Plus, by conducting and recording consumer interviews, it gained valuable insight on its audience, which it shares across platforms that welcome feedback and additional user-generated content. And let’s not forget the videos are pretty funny.

Good luck, boys. Even with these tips, there’s no guarantee we’ll be impressed. But think of it this way: If all else fails, at least you’ll be drunk.

photo via tv6.se

The company used YouTube as a host for its creative campaign, and worked within its familiar architecture to develop an uncommon experience. Visiting the page (cleverly disguised as a singular, standard YouTube video) brings you to a desperate scene with a hunter, a rifle, and a wandering bear. Where does the office staple (whiteout) come into play? The hunter confronts the camera, whining that he’d rather do anything but shoot the bear. He then uses The Tipp-Ex® Mini “Pocket Mouse” to change his story (it’s pulled straight out of a dummy ad on the right side of the page), and implores you to write your own.

Thoughts of Burger King’s “Subservient Chicken” and Old Spice’s video response “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaigns come to mind here. Like BK’s famously submissive chicken, you can command the hunter to kiss the bear, dance with the bear, drink with the bear, and do just about anything with the bear…and I mean anything.

If you’re lacking creativity, command the hunter to shoot the bear — you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Like Burger King, the page has a somewhat limited amount of trigger requests; over 40 commands (but fewer than 60) that have been pre-recorded. This means that if you ask the hunter to “frost a cake with” or “sedate” the bear, you’ll get a quirky “Error” screen that’s almost as entertaining as the other responses.

You may be wondering if the message gets lost amidst all this funny business. While it’s a dangerous pit-fall for some interactive advertising (e.g. unrelated games on brand websites), it’s certainly not a problem here. Buzzman, the French agency behind the viral, has smartly skirted this issue. While you are commanding the hunter and mischievous bear around the woods, you’re reminded that the Tipp-Ex® Mini Pocket Mouse Correction tape allows you to simply “White and rewrite.” The user experience isn’t interrupted with this message, however. Rather it’s a simple and subtle reminder throughout the process. Perhaps that’s why it has amassed over 4 million views in less than a week?

While we can all agree that this is an odd project to test these waters with, the result is wildly entertaining — and not something to write off — or, over. Bravo, Bic!

It means that riding the wave of an internet meme could become a technique that we might be seeing more of in the digital realm.

Instead of coming up with something new and creative on their own, Microsoft opted to using the borrowed authority that Vasquez brings. This is nothing new, we see brands using celebrities all the time and after all, Vasquez is a bit of an internet celebrity in his own right.

But it’s a cheap trick, and one that will only garner the attention of the masses for a fleeting moment. And for that, we don’t see this commercial as being “so bright and so vivid.”

Aside from that, godspeed Hungrybear9562! You deserve a paycheck.

Ah, satire in the age of instant communication. One big box brand doesn’t quite get the joke.

As good as social media’s been for Best Buy (see: @Twelpforce, a continued success), they’re fast finding out how real things can get when their internal policies don’t line up with their ostensibly progressive, tech-conscious reputation. We’re talking about an employee of theirs, who since being pressured into quitting his job over a couple measly, unbranded YouTube videos, has hit back with a new video roasting the retailer in a similarly anonymous fashion. If consumers can control brands these days, then employees can bring them to their knees.

Brian Maupin, the now-former Best Buy employee in question made a number of mostly harmless tech-related YouTube videos during his tenure—all credited to Tiny Watch Productions. “iPhone4 vs. HTC Evo,” the most popular of his video rants, is a profanity-laden clip about customers hopelessly biased towards Apple’s smartphone. It’s racked up nearly 6 million views. And it, mind you, contains no trace of Best Buy or his employment at one of their stores. Here, just watch (kids: earmuffs):

In a move that’s became a a PR disaster, Best Buy traced his name to the account and more or less fired him. Bad move on their part. They should have found a way to capitalize on the content and leveraged their employee’s newfound audience. Or just kept quiet. Instead, they inspired Maupin to produce this:

Does this mean employees should consider themselves constantly “on the clock,” as far as social media is concerned? Of course not. Consider this a case study on the new age of highly advanced, hyper-connected employees. TweetFired shows that while Best Buy has a handle on new media, they’re too quick to overreact to potentially troublesome internal-turned-external social media problems. Being overly cautious (read: fascist) can certainly have its consequences. In this horizontal media landscape, intolerant, ham-fisted rule like this brings about it’s own destruction.

In the end, though, how popular will Brian’s video revenge really be? (Over the course of just seven days, it has accumulated 54,000 plays.) Is this a palpable blow to the store’s reputation? What should Best Buy do to save face?

No set of eyes see things in the same light. To celebrate this idea, a Philips microsite brought on five world-class directors to help tell its story. The result is five vastly different films bridging many genres. But here’s the real plot twist: an accompanying contest turns the heat on the audience, asking them to take this concept one step further. Lights, camera, action!

Partnering with Ridley Scott Associates, the Parallel Lines project opens with the disclaimer, “There are millions of ways to tell a story. There’s only one way to watch one.” Which is to say, on a Philips TV. As part of a promotion for their Cinema Proportion TVs, the shorts are stretched widescreen. Much like a recent Absolut execution, Philips hopes to mimic the big-screen experience.

But now, Phillips has invited the audience to produce and publish their own ideas. “Tell it your way” is where this action lives. Each submission will go through the rounds until August—and the winner will be chosen by Ridley Scott himself.

This move to put the audience in the director’s chair demonstrates that more and more companies are coming to understand that consumer control over content can be beneficial for everyone. As compelling storytellers and publishers, users’ viewpoints can and should be at the fore. We say let the consumer personalize the story.

So what kind of story will you tell? We’ll be watching…

Here’s one for the beauty book: a 16-year-old blogger helped a design-your-own shoe company, Shoes of Prey, triple its web traffic and achieve its best day yet. This came after she posted a nine-minute video to YouTube to explain the site’s value, promote shoes she designed herself, and encourage subscribers to comment. One out of the 93,581 that responded won free footwear.

New-media stars that are brand relevant and trustworthy to consumers—juicystar07, AllThatGlitters21, or other web-grown celebs—can work their magic quickly; the teen’s bump drove 200,000 visits in a single day. Traditional marketing usually can’t accomplish such growth in months.

Endorsements like this translate as natural extensions of the user’s personality. As such, the paired-up relationship between brand and curious customer begins most organically. And with the kind of hits generated (in this example, at least), we’re talking some serious brand exposure—sans interruption. Sure, the YouTube personality may still get paid off in the end, but their faithful, grassroots fanbase and earnest approach to conversation (instigated, mind you, on the brand’s behalf) are to die for. So what are you waiting for? Step to it!

(via PSFK)

Last month, YouTube user Normative examined remix culture arguing that such mash-ups have become a way for different social circles to interpret work. Greater than what one person can do alone, he theorizes it’s changed the rules of interaction in a digital age.

If this is embraced, will brands better relate to various niches and social groups? Can they let consumers personalize existing brand messages?

Brands surrendering control allows consumers to make content more relevant to them. Whether this means “elfing” themselves or just splicing commercials, let ’em at the turntables. It doesn’t hurt to mix things up.

These are just a couple of a growing number of brands kickin’ up its YouTube usage. In both cases, dedicated pages entrap their audiences—here b-ball fans and driving enthusiasts—with exclusive, interactive content.

The Mercedes Benz channel hosts a string of videos for the speed-o-holic. Clocking in at three minutes, the Tunnel spot (featuring Formula One racing champ Michael Schumacher) is a high-octane tour-de-force in its own right. But what separates it from the pack is a call to interact further with a series of SLS AMG YouTube experiments at the end of the program. Each video gives the user a number of choices with branching story paths, personalizing the experience.

Here, give it a shot:

Wanna get under the hood? Run the engine online. Want info on the ride itself? Take a virtual test drive. The viewer experiences a customized story according to his interests.

Consumer also take control in an Adidas YouTube account. NBA hotshot Dwight Howard gets in the game to promote TS Supernatural sneakers.

With your arrow keys, view slam-dunks from different angles or click to make Howard jump higher. Sharing the featured video (to boost view count) unlocks even more exclusive footage.

In these two examples, users push on because they’re genuinely engaged, not because it’s forced upon them. And that’s always a win—for brand and consumer.

It’s tool time! Craftsman’s busted into original content with a string of gritty videos hoping they’ll go viral. And the brand’s showing its products some really tough love—we’re talking smashing windows, kicking toolboxes, and chucking drills. Things are about to get rough!

The clips are well done, and Craftsman tries to get people talking about its tools with the sharing button and YouTube’s comment box. It even wants viewers to suggest ideas for future ideas—although it’s a little hidden in the microsite. However, the brand could do a better job monitoring the conversation by addressing questions and skepticism. In fact, many have challenged the videos:

Taofledermaus: “‘Do Not Attempt’…my drill would actually be damaged if I tried to replicate this. I have a Craftsman cordless 19.2-volt drill and I like it but I hate deceptive videos.”

Paldromanium: “I’m pretty sure my generic sledgehamer from, like, 1981 would take this abuse…or any hammer, really.”

These are valid criticisms that deserve a response. Brands carrying out digital campaigns have a responsibility to actively engage with the participants—and not half-ass it.

Although frankly, I’d be nervous questioning Craftsman on this. Those guys have the tools—and I’ve seen what they can do with a hammer.

Loud, gimmicky, and crassly expensive, Super Bowl commercials have long epitomised old-school advertising. But there are signs that things are beginning to change.

Take Budweiser. A couple of weeks before the big event, it uploaded three different commercials to its Facebook page. The brand then asked people to choose their favourite, promising to air whichever received the most votes.

Simple yet effective, this word-of-mouth strategy helped Budweiser attract 150,000 new Facebook friends—150,000 people it can learn from, market to, and use as brand ambassadors for years to come.

Like Budweiser, Google went crowdsourcing for help with this year’s ad. More specifically, it browsed its own YouTube channel to find its most popular Search Story. Parisian Love was in the lead, so it decided to run it—completely unaltered—at the Super Bowl.

Around 8 million hits later, it’s looking like one hell of a decision. The ad even inspired a few unofficial follow-ups, including this one based on the trials and tribulations of Tiger Woods. You can be sure Messrs Page and Brin won’t mind a bit; the end result is still great talkability for the brand.

And let’s not forget how Pepsi went all in, putting its entire $20m Super Bowl budget into a social media campaign. (We’ll be keeping an eye on it.)

So what can we expect from next year’s Super Bowl ads? We predict more of the same. That’s because brands are becoming increasingly aware that shouting slogans doesn’t work anymore. Instead, they need to invite customers in, listen to what they have to say, and allow conversations to start organically. It’s a brave approach—and one that still intimidates some of the biggest brands in the world—but done well, it will inspire brand loyalty in a way that traditional TV advertising never can.

While searching for the latest music video from UK-based trip-hop vets Massive Attack, I came upon a more interactive experience than you’d typically expect. While most artists share content on outlets like YouTube and Vimeo, the “Splitting the Atom” video is based on a dedicated Tweatre (we didn’t make this up)—a Twitter-enabled, content-rich microsite that encourages viewers to share their reactions through tweets.

“Just started watching the new Massive Attack films from ‘Heligoland’, http://bit.ly/9gtAl9″

Reactions to the video appear next to it and each includes text boxes encouraging additional tweets—at little effort. But besides the official video, directed by Edouard Salier, there are six supplemental installments—including an alternate clip of the single—to introduce fans to the new release. (Watch the video here.)

This concept certainly enlivens the traditional music video. The rich experience drums up deeper discussion on the single, the album, and the group itself. And not only is Massive Attack’s Tweatre music to our ears, it’s gotta be music to theirs.

With just a tweet and a Facebook update, Coca Cola began a global, viral push. The campaign is particularly significant because it lacks traditional media promotion.

If you skipped the viewing, this “Happiness Machine” video on YouTube observes a Coke machine that was actually placed in the cafeteria of a Queens, New York, college. It spits out free soda, and the students are all smiles, sharing their drinks with classmates. Then things get weird as the device starts dispensing flowers, pizza, a party sub, and a balloon animal. It’s all part of the brand’s “Open Happiness” initiative. The best part? The reactions are authentic; they aren’t scripted. In short, it’s entertaining and has universal appeal.

Two weeks and more than one million views later, the video’s virality shows another brand becoming successful storytellers.

Build great content and they will come. They’ll even spread the smiles.

Hey nerds: wanna go to Yale next year? Consider yourself warned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGn3-RW8Ajk&feature=player_embedded

As you can see by the promo video, in the minds of admissions offices, it’s Ivy League Musical, 2010. For 15 minutes, enthusiastic students harmonize over the glories of their university. And oh, how wonderful life is up there! They have game rooms! Food! And students don’t have to go outside to get to the library!

The YouTube video’s so geeky, it’s almost good and was bound to quickly go viral. But did Yale’s admission’s office really need to attach this over-the-top image to its already well-known brand? What was wrong with the university’s established serious stereotype? The quality of a Yale education and the institutions rigorous tradition should speak for the school itself.

Oh, the kids these days…

Harvard, we’re waiting to see how you’ll retaliate.

How do you make people remember a 60-year-old chocolate bar? Reinvent it for a new decade. That’s what Nestlé’s doing for its Crunch bar. It got a makeover recently (crunchier rice, creamier chocolate) and received a very 2010-worthy new media treatment. Viral video! Celebrities! Extreme stunts! Facebook!

The campaign’s bread and butter? A series of viral videos featuring Olympic speed skating whiz kid Apolo Anton Ohno (Team Chocolate) and gymnast Shawn Johnson (Team Crispies). The two one-up each other in a series of escalating dares. The clips relationship to the candy bar may be a stretch, but they’re certainly worthy of passing on, netting hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube. Meanwhile, the Facebook-based Crunch Challenge uses the attention the videos are getting for a trivia game.

The webisodes at the campaign’s forefront feature the two stars competing all for the love of Crunch. While everyone can tell that these death-defying feats are staged, they still have received a lot of buzz. Several thousand comments later, the brand’s Facebook page is bustling with consumer activity. Whatever gets people talking, right?

The point is that the video is meant to tell a story and inspire conversation. If it’s a tall tale, don’t worry—just make it one worth sharing.

The breakup: it’s the worst. And now, the brand formally known as AOL faces even more heartache as it tries to rebrand itself after splitting from Time Warner. Get out the ice cream and tissues: it’s going to be a rocky ride.

Now called Aol., the brand is as much about cultivating a sense of creativity and uniqueness as it is about distancing the company from its long-held acronym. What makes it more difficult is that America Online represents for many the web’s infancy and those first-generation dial-up years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBFenDXjALQ&feature=player_embedded

The full facelift was revealed December 10th. And boy, did it go for broke. But that’s the way things are these days. Beside hotter, younger-looking models like Google, Yahoo, and YouTube, it looked like a grandmother. And it’s competitive out there.

Now that its look plants it as innovative, step two is walking the walk. Because no matter how hot a brand looks, nobody wants a tired ol’, used-up platform.

The vid that sparked the controversy is all over the web by now. (It’s also here, of course, below.) It was made by two people—an African-American man named Desi and a white woman named Wanda—who appear to be co-workers in a computer store. It’s hilarious and avoids any mean-spirited charges about HP’s intentions, but Desi concludes the show by asserting that “HP computers are racist.” He has a right to complain. He bought one for Christmas and then discovered it wouldn’t recognize its owner’s face.

The video was first posted on December 9th and basically languished for a couple of weeks before becoming a modest viral hit sometime around December 20th. Two days after that, it had racked up 370,000+ views and a couple thousand comments on YouTube.

HP responded on the 21st, which was fast and was absolutely the right thing to do in the real-time world of social media. The forum for their response was a section of the corporate blog, The Next Bench. Also a good choice. But the content of their response was worse than lame to our (admittedly content-sensitive) sensibilities. Instead of addressing the implications of the video directly, Frosty led with a weirdly side-stepping headline: “Customer Feedback is Important to Us.” Not exactly transparent, open and honest; not exactly facing the music.

The tone of the post beneath the lame headline was technocratic and defensive. In the very first paragraph, Frosty enthused about what a great company he works for. “On any given day,” he gushed, “I might collaborate with HP employees in regions ranging from Japan to India and Latin America to Europe.” Wonder why they left Africa out of Frosty’s tour of the continents? You could feel HP biting its corporate tongue to keep from telling us that some of their best friends (and employees) are black.

Following this bout of racial tin-earism, Frosty went on to speculate that the software’s failure to track dark faces was either bad lighting or faulty algorithms or both…or something else. He promised to work on it.

That same day, however, before HP could get to work on it, the news editor of Laptop Magazine, K. T. Bradford (@ktbradford) posted a piece charitably titled “HP Face Tracking Software Not Racist, Just Contrast Challenged.” Using multiple videos and solid logic, Bradford demonstrates the problem lies largely in the Backlight Correction settings of HP’s software. (Frosty deemed this “interesting” in a later Twitter exchange with Bradford.) More to the point, Bradford pinpointed the ways in which HP’s software problems actually do involve a degree of institutional racism. As Bradford put it:

“Though it’s obvious that the bias isn’t racial in nature
but instead based on lighting conditions and the camera’s ability to
distinguish between shadow and human face, this does bring up an interesting
question: when testing this software, how many of the involved project
members were dark-skinned? How many different lighting conditions were tested?
The software was likely developed by a third party, not HP, so this is probably
an issue on a number of webcams across several manufacturers. Perhaps this
incident is an indication that the software makers should involve a greater
pool of testers when designing these features.”

Peeling back Bradford’s charity toward HP, I think we’d all agree that this problem would never have existed if there were more blacks in HP senior management or middle management or on the development or QA teams that worked on the software. So the fact that HP’s software has special problems with black faces is, in fact, a reflection of a racial imbalance. If HP were a minority-owned company, I do not believe this problem would exist. (If you disagree, you’re probably white like me. So imagine for a moment a piece of facial recognition software that has extreme difficulty recognizing white faces. Hard to imagine, isn’t it?)

We understand that HP isn’t alone in having this kind of built-in bias problem. But life will be better for HP if it learns to acknowledge problems head-on and deal with them. The correct social-media-thing-to-do is (A) admit the problem straightforwardly, and then (B) do something about it.

HP has failed, initially, at Part A. We’re hoping it is, nevertheless, applying itself diligently to Part B.

Meanwhile, we’d advise Frosty to be more direct if he finds himself in similar predicaments in the future. (We’re sure he understands that some of the Twitter followers who were praising his approach are, like him, HP employees.)

In preparation for December’s Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, advocates for environmental awareness are broadcasting their message to the world’s leaders online. They fear that many of them don’t take the crisis as seriously as they should and aren’t planning enough to prevent global catastrophe. The upper limit of carbon dioxide we can safely have in our atmosphere is 350 PPM (that’s parts per million), and yet, as we all know, we’ve far surpassed that.

There have been many efforts for the cause. On October 15th, more than 13,000 representing 156 countries blogs and 18 million readers participated in Blog Action Day. Its mission was to change the flow of web conversation and create a global discussion about climate change. Together, they increased the number of posts on the issue by about 500%. Talk about empowering the public!

However, it doesn’t end there. Tomorrow, Saturday, October 24th, the world is following up the mission with the International Day of Climate Change. 350.org has called for people to organize at important places within their communities, somehow incorporate the number 350 into an activity, take a picture of the event, and upload it to its website. Then, it will send all of the images to world leaders and media sources.

350.org: Because the world needs to know

If the October 15th campaign is any indication, International Day of Climate Change will be another success — or at least get a rousing turnout. And how is it all accomplished? Why, the usual army of Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube.

One strong message with thousands of advocates has a powerful effect when you make that message easy to spread.

Social media can’t change the world, but it a tool to move the process along. Let’s hope the world’s leaders take the appropriate next step. And hey, maybe I’ll see you at the pumpkin carving tomorrow.

This could have been a perfectly respectable if not outdated political slam ad if not for the subliminal Paris Hilton/Britney Spears references early on in the spot. OK, McCain, we get it: Obama hates freedom and loves taxes. But he’s Britney and Paris? Until he flashes me his bald gennies while getting out of a limo, this bit doesn’t pass the smell test. Literally.