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Top viral videos of 2010

December 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A pub full of beer-hardened British Soccer fans singing a love song – doesn’t get any better than that!

The British online brand magazine Popsop has issued their top ten ‘contagious’ videos of the year. (You can see them all here).  A great selection because it showcases a number of videos that didn’t get a lot of media attention here in North America. Near, or at the top of every list this year is the ubiquitous Old Spice ‘Smell like a man’ series. Another great one to watch is Levis’ ‘The guy who walks across America.’ Check out the ‘making of‘ video as well – they put a lot of time and effort into this video.

But hands down my favorite is ‘The Puma Hardchorus’. I’m a sucker for singing soccer hooligans. The video is simple, the juxtaposition of these rugged soccer fans singing this delicate love song is wonderful and there’s actually a bit of harmony in that song. Nicely done Puma!

Filed Under: Viral Video, YouTube Video Tagged With:

The power of video. A story told well can reach a broad audience.

December 23, 2010 By 1 Comment

“Rosling believes that making information more accessible has the potential to change the quality of the information itself.” – Business Week Online

Doctor and health researcher Hans Rosling has spent the last few decades of his career making statistical analysis more engaging. In this recent video (an excerpt from a BBC series – The Joy of Stats) Rosling employs animation to demonstrate how the overall health and wealth of everyone on earth has advanced over the past 200 years and more importantly, how developing nations appear to be catching up to the more prosperous western nations. While I can’t comment on whether the oversimplification of such a complex issue as global health is a good or bad thing, I am impressed with the effectiveness of Rosling’s presentation. Almost any message – corporate, educational, or otherwise can benefit from a healthy dose of ‘show me don’t tell me.’ Risling employs a compelling mix of enthusiasm and animation to highlight the important points of his message. At two million YouTube views (remember this isn’t Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber), this video clearly demonstrates that a story told well can reach a broad audience.

I’d also like to believe that the story being told is both positive and hopeful.


Filed Under: General, Video and Education, Video and Government, YouTube Video Tagged With: , , ,

The implications of Yogi Bear’s shocking death

December 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

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Warner Brothers has to be impressed, very angry and a little nervous, most likely in that order.

Edmund Earle, a recent animation graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design, developed his own ‘alternate ending’ to the current Yogi Bear movie based on the ending of the movie ‘The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.’ Earle’s video is impressive (especially considering he did it himself) and will no doubt help to launch a successful animation career.  Earle refers to the video as a parody hoping to fall into ‘fair use‘ protection and avoid litigation. YouTube, like Hollywood is rife with ‘Parody’, ‘Inspiration’ ,’Homage’ , and people otherwise copying the style, themes or ideas of others.

This issue isn’t new but because the video is so well done, I believe it could start a much larger debate over ‘fair use.’ The simple claim would be that Earle is not directly making money off of a copyrighted brand, it was intended as a ‘parody,’ so – no harm no foul. WB on the other hand could claim harm and they might have a point. This video might also generate a huge amount of buzz for a movie that is still in theaters. (Wouldn’t it be brilliant if WB was actually behind this as a publicity stunt…)

Regardless of the legal issues or what side of the ‘fair use’ argument you happen to fall on, the implications of this video are significant to your company:

1. How much control do you have over your brand?
Is it okay for anyone to do anything they want with your brand, your copyrighted material and your intellectual property as long as they call it a parody? Most industry observers concede that social media is causing companies to lose control of their brands.

2. How should you react when this happens?
The easy and correct answer is – it depends. How much harm was caused? What are the short and long term implications? Will reacting or not reacting cause greater harm in the future? What are the PR implications to how you react? Do you scream like a petulant child or do you embrace (and therefore co-opt) the transgressor?

3. How does this ‘new reality’ affect your business and your brand in the future?
I believe this is the important consideration in this matter – the question all companies should be considering right now.  A few years ago the technology didn’t exist to allow one talented individual to develop and share something like this. Today it does. All bets are off. This is going to happen again and again, in many different ways with many different consequences.  Companies may or may not be protected by the law (just ask the recording industry), so what should you do to anticipate and embrace this change? Do you build this new reality into your future brand and business planning or do you fight kicking and screaming? Should WB start hiring more lawyers or should they be encouraging animators to develop alternate endings to some of their movies – like this one, while they are still in theaters?

Should you be steadfastly protecting your brand or sharing it with the masses?

Filed Under: General, Marketing with Video, The Effect of Video on Your Brand, YouTube Video Tagged With: , ,