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Dollar Shave Club – Video Review

March 22, 2012 by 2 Comments

 

Creating a successful viral video is like creating a hit record – it’s really, really difficult.

Michael Dubin, Co-founder and CEO of the The Dollar Shave Club is on his way to becoming the Victor Kiam of this generation. (A clever reference for the ‘over 40′ crowd…) The Dollar Shave Club launched with over $1,000,000 in funding from former Myspace CEO Mike Jones’s business incubator Science Inc. It has been reported that the video cost less than $5,000 to make but those numbers, like many production figures, probably hide a lot of unpaid or undeclared contributions from various parties.  With video views closing in on 4 million and product reportedly flying off the shelves (figuratively speaking), this marketing campaign is ‘making hay’.

Why this video worked.

There are two claims to success you can make with a viral video: 1. The video drove awareness or, 2. It drove business.  Awareness is good, business is better. The Will it Blend? series is the all time winner in this latter category.  Most viral videos today focus on awareness and even then the creators do their best at hiding any brand message so as not to offend sensitive viewers with anything too ‘salesy’.  Like Will it Blend, this video focuses on the unique attributes of the product in an engaging way and it doesn’t try to hide the fact that it is a promotion. Heck, there’s even an explicit call to action at the end of the video.

Inspired by the Old Spice videos, Dollar Shave Club has a lot going on and it’s a lot of fun to watch. It’s funny, it’s surprising and it actually makes you think (at least enough to consider the merits of the product). In order for a video to spread virally it has to be funny, or shocking, or entertaining – so much so that people want to share it with their friends. This video has certainly benefited from a lot of sharing. It’s very well written and Dubin, who has a background in improv, is fully committed in this video. Using profanity (even veiled profanity) is always a risk, but it works here. It shocks you enough to make you wonder what’s coming next. I can’t remember the last time a Polio reference made me laugh so hard. Great style, great delivery and great writing all came together to create a very engaging video.

Takeaways.

1. You don’t need expensive equipment or special effects to be effective. More than anything, you need a good idea.

2. This video is a shot across the bow of the Broadcast Industrial Complex. It pokes fun at celebrity endorsements, fake marketing technology and just about anything else that broadcast commercials employ to convince people to buy their products. It will be interesting to see if they maintain their internet-only marketing approach over time. (My guess is no.)

3. You can be successful with viral video even when you are ‘selling’ your product.

What’s next.

Dollar Shave Club plans on releasing more products this year, including shaving cream and after-shave moisturizer. Will the company be able to recapture the magic of this video or will they be like the band members of ‘Baha Men‘ sitting around saying ‘Come on dudes… we gotta come up with another “Who Let the Dogs Out?”

Time will tell.

 

If you are one of few who have yet to see the video here it is:

 

Filed Under: Corporate Video Examples, General, Video Marketing, Viral Video, YouTube Video Tagged With: , ,

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:

Is ‘Will it Grill’ effective marketing?

November 14, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Will this viral video generate revenue? My guess is yes.

Borrowing heavily from the Blentec marketing playbook (see Will it Blend ), the good folks at EZ Grill developed this ‘What Grills Faster?’ viral video to promote their portable/disposable grills.  This video was developed by an agency and there was likely some type of seeding activity to support the video, so while the cost to develop the video was much higher than just the cost of the phones you have to imagine the budget was still relatively low.  At 350,000 YouTube views to date and growing, there are a lot of people out their (myself included) who are now aware of a product they had never heard of, or considered before.

There are also a number of people upset with the blatant waste associated with this promotion – you can sense the palpable anger in some of the YouTube comments.

Why I believe this viral video is noteworthy is that it accomplishes two very important things that most viral videos do not:
1. It makes you clearly aware of the specific product – EZ Grill and,
2.  It highlights one of the key benefits of that product – in this case a portable/disposable grill that obviously throws off a tremendous amount of heat.

Will this viral have the same success as Blendtech’s ‘Will it Blend’? I doubt it.

Will it cost effectively drive awareness of their product and therefore net new sales? …probably.

Have they set themselves up for a series of new virals (like Blendtec did) where they set ablaze any number of interesting items (there’s no end of stuff that people would like to see torched)? Perhaps.

Is this effective marketing? What do you think?

{Note:  EZ Grill is also encouraging customers to send in photos and videos of themselves using the EZ Grill product in exchange for free products. This more ‘tradional’ social media marketing technique is a good engagement technique to supplement the awareness being generated by this viral video}

Filed Under: Corporate Video Examples, General, Marketing with Video, Viral Video, YouTube Video Tagged With: , , ,

T-Mobile’s next installment in the “Life’s for sharing” viral video series.

October 31, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Back in early 2009, T-Mobile developed their hugely successful ‘T-Mobile Dance video in Liverpool station‘ (23 million views on YouTube). Then, three months later they delivered the T-Mobile Sing-a-long at Trafaulgar Square video. (4 millions views). A year and a half  later T-mobile has introduced their most recent video developed to support their ‘Life’s for Sharing’ brand message. With this new entry, T-Mobile has delivered yet another clever video featuring great music in public places that captures both inspired performances by participants as well as great reactions from onlookers.

Creating a hit viral video is like creating a hit record – it’s really tough to do. I’m not sure if T-Mobile will ever be able to repeat the magic of the original T-Mobile Dance video, but any video that captures millions of views, as this one surely will, has to be considered a success. All of these videos are uplifting, fun to watch and very well done. I can’t think of a better way to continue to support the ‘Life’s for Sharing’ brand positioning.

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

Inspired Viral Video shows performance is still a big part of the song.

October 17, 2010 by Leave a Comment

.

So what did this one cost to make?

Like any popular song, an inspired video needs a hook. In this case the ‘hook’ is the band substituting their instruments with iPhone aps to play one of their recent songs ‘spontaneously’ on a New York subway. It feels real so it probably is, and if it’s not, it probably won’t matter. Did they do it in one take? Did they overdub some music in the studio? Was any of this really spontaneous? Perception is reality.

The band Atomic Tom delivered on a very simple idea – play your song using iphone aps instead of real instruments… in a public place. The video is certainly helped by good shot planning and structure: Start slow to limit expectations and build engagment as you go; Include crowd reaction shots to build interest and show that you should take notice of what’s going on; Include close-ups of the instruments to demonstrate how impressive (or ‘improbable’ for skeptics) the feat of playing a 4 inch sheet of glass can be.  And it certainly helps that the song they are promoting is a good one.

Like the experience of  Sons of Maxwell, this video will lift the band from obscurity and guarantee them their 15 minutes. The question remains, are they now on the same viral treadmill as OK Go where their future success is tied as much to the quality of their videos as it is to their music?

It’s a great video, and will no doubt inspire a thousand different (and lesser) variations on this theme.

… and yes, Steve Jobs has to be really happy with this video.

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

How to make a great viral video.

March 4, 2010 by 4 Comments

Making a great viral video is easy… just be inventive, shocking, funny, fascinating, captivating and awesome… all at the same time. (It’s actually really, really difficult to create a successful viral video.)

I’m not the biggest  fan of the music but the video is incredible. Obviously a great deal of time and effort went into the making of this music video for OK Go’s new song ‘This too shall pass”. Captured in a single four minute shot I can’t imagine many people leaving the video part way through. CNN published a good background piece on the making of this video.

Sure, this type of video has been done before, it’s still a great video. Don’t know if they’ll catch up to the 50,000,000 views that their last video received but, way to go OK Go.

Filed Under: Viral Video, YouTube Video Tagged With:

Why do viral video marketing projects fail?

January 28, 2010 by 4 Comments

Unlike most other forms of marketing, viral video makes a claim that it can almost never live up to: It will be so compelling that people will want to share it.

Client: “We’re thinking we’d like to do a viral video… like “Will it Blend” except instead of blenders, we’d feature our product”
Me: “Will Network Policy Enforcement Software blend?”
Client: …Okay, how about the “I’m a Mac thing? I know a guy in the lab who would be perfect to play the Mac guy… no, the PC guy, he’s the bad one right?”
Me: “A skit?”
Client: “Exactly! We want it to spread virally to millions of people.”
Me: “Who is the target audience for this video?”
Client: ” Senior Network Managers in mid-sized health services companies.  That’s our sweet-spot.”
Me: “There’s millions of them?”
Client: Well, there’s about 900 of them in North America. The other views would come from YouTube I guess.”
Me: Do you have a budget for this?
Client: “Viral is free, right? We’ve taken a couple thousand out of our cleaning budget to cover the production costs.”

 

The term ‘viral’ means different things to different people. In theory any video has the potential to be viral as long as you can reference it and/or share it online. The challenge is getting people to share it. Some say you can’t call a video ‘viral’ until it has hit the ‘million view’ mark. Others simply call a video ‘viral’ because it is intended to be shared virally – much like calling a video ‘amazing’ because it was intended to be ‘amazing’. Whatever your definition of viral there many factors that can mitigate against the success of your video project.  So why do viral marketing projects fail?:

Great Expectations: Creating a hit viral video is like creating a hit record. It’s really, really difficult. Of the hundreds/thousands of viral-intended videos created every year for businesses only a handful truly go viral. Unfortunately these are the ones we hear about and therefore these are the ones that clients reference. Will it Blend?, T-Mobile Dance, or The Evian Roller Babies are all incredible but it is highly unlikely that anything you do will come close to this level of success.

Viral video is free and easy! No it’s not. It takes time, expertise/talent and facilities/equipment to develop a good viral video. Having more is always preferred in all three of these production resource categories (in spite of the ‘do less with more’ mantra.) ‘More’ costs more, always has, always will – just ask James Cameron. This comment from an article in Inc. Magazine says it all: “Even a company on a shoestring budget, using just a basic camera and simple editing software, can produce an entertaining demo that reaches thousands of prospective customers.” Yep, it’s just that easy!

Viral videos promote themselves! No, usually they don’t – they need help. ‘Video seeding’  is a common practice now for large scale viral videos where companies will help seed the market with videos by encouraging or paying influential bloggers, PR outlets and other influencers to promote a viral video. There are a growing number of companies that offer this service. Most popular corporate viral videos had a significant seeding component that contributed to their success.

Viral video is risk free, right? Just grab a Flip and start posting your video online, right?  What if your video is embarrassing or just plain bad and it goes viral anyway? Would Apple or Coke or Nike allow this to happen? Does how you present your company to the world matter?

It’s all about the views! Is 167,000 YouTube views a success? Are any of those viewers your audience? Did the people watching your video associate anything in your video, in a positive way, with your brand? Will that video affect their behavior or attitude towards your brand? Did they actually view the video or did it auto-load at the bottom of a high traffic ‘Celebrity Caugh-in-the-act’ site. Can you measure any of this?

All videos should be ‘viral’ “…and we’d like the video you’re going to create for us to be viral as well.” I hear this quite often now. Clients want any video they do, regardless of the market, message and purpose to have a “viral component.” The way to create a successful viral video project is to start with that purpose in mind – the video is so compelling that people will want to share it. You can’t throw in ‘viral’ as an add-on to the project. Not only will the video not be viral, you may take away from the primary purpose of the video by trying to amuse, shock or bewilder people.

All web-based videos are ‘viral’ I have read a number of recent articles that interchange the terms ‘web video’ and ‘viral video’ as if they refer to the same thing. A web video is any video (here are 42 examples of web videos) that is consumed on the web. Viral video is a specific type of video that is intended to be so entertaining, or remarkable, or shocking that people will be inclined to share it with their friends and colleagues.

This video is really entertaining! If no one remembers or associates your brand with the video then you’ve wasted your money. Conversely, if the video looks like a two minute product demo no one is going to share it. A great example – Coke does a nice job (as usual) in straddling that fine line between promoting the product – the whole video is about a Coke Machine!, and entertaining – brilliant.

Viral isn’t that difficult. There is extra pressure on viral videos to be really entertaining, or shocking or… something. Some of them are great and some of them are just plain awful. A viral video has to great in order to spread virally. Good usually isn’t good enough. The advantage of promotion through disruptive advertising (TV) is that your television commercial can be absolute crap and people will still watch it.



Filed Under: General, Marketing with Video, Resources, Top 10 Posts, Viral Video Tagged With: ,

The 5 Most Awful Viral Video ads of 2009

January 13, 2010 by 5 Comments

{Bias warning: Large companies have no excuses for putting out poor quality work – they have the resources to develop the best creative on the planet. Sometimes however, they fail gloriously.}

There’s a big difference between ‘Ineffective’ and ‘Awful’.

‘Ineffective’ just means you spent a bunch of money and received very little benefit in return. Most viral videos ads fall somewhere between ‘Somewhat Effective’ and ‘Totally Ineffective’ usually because the video just isn’t that good or because there was no proper promotional/seeding program to help it get noticed.

The good thing about bad television advertising is that it seems to quickly go away – the negative impact is limited. On the web bad ideas live on. Not only are the following videos not effective, they cross into the negative side of the ledger where their existence most likely has a detrimental effect on the brand.

1. ‘Funny’ Lenovo Ad – W700ds

Company: Lenovo
Why this video is awful. This video is crass, not particularly well acted and just not that funny (even though the title suggests otherwise). Lenovo, the Chinese company that purchased IBM’s PC division really missed the mark with this approach. I doubt 13 to 24 year old males with limited social skills are a big market for this really expensive laptop but I can’t imagine who else this video might appeal to. And the ending is pure gold: “Man, that thing is huge”…“That’s what she said.” (Calling this an ‘homage’ to The Office, or a satire, or a parody doesn’t excuse it).  If you are a global brand trying to compete with Apple, Dell, Sony and HP you have to do much, much better than this.

2. Launch Party

Company Microsoft
Why this video is awful. You have to know who your audience is. I have no idea who Microsoft thought this video might appeal to.  It’s difficult to tell whether Microsoft made this video really bad on purpose, or whether they really don’t know how awful it is. If they were going for parody/cheesy they failed. If they made it bad on purpose to generate buzz – as some bloggers have suggested, then you really have to question this being a viable marketing tactic. As I mentioned in a previous blog, hurling farm animals off the roof of your corporate headquarters will also generate a buzz – but not necessarily a ‘good’ buzz. Is the old saying ‘any coverage is good coverage’ true? Perhaps if you are a B-list entertainer trying to rekindle a career, but if you are a global company competing with well respected global brands like Apple and Google, quality and consistency in your messaging  is critical.   Ten years ago when Microsoft was at the peak of their monopoly this video wouldn’t have mattered. Today it does.

3.Track Packages with Mobile Solutions by FedEx

Company Fedex
Why this video is awful. Unlike the previous Microsoft Launch Party video you know that Fedex intended for this video to be campy/funny. It just isn’t. Fred Willard is an interesting/inspired/bizarre/amazing/questionable choice for presenter but this video (and the others in the series of viral videos created) just don’t work. They are not funny or clever enough to be of interest, they don’t impart enough information to provide any real value and nobody is watching them. Like Pepsi, Fedex chose not to advertise in this year’s Superbowl. Pepsi has reallocated funds to launch a social marketing initiative that looks to have huge promise. Fedex, on the other hand took their SuperBowl savings and created this series of viral-intended videos. They aren’t viral.

4. Chevy Volt Dance

Company GM
Why this video is awful. (Note to GM Marketing team – it’s not the 60′s!) GM’s YouTube channel describes this video as “GM’s official dance routine performed at the LA Auto Show and set to the official song ‘Chevy Volt and Me.” An official dance routine? This marketing program was created to promote the single most important car the company has ever launched. The ‘Volt’ is the future of the company and GM should be knocking us back in our seats with how remarkable this car is and showing us (the whole purpose of video) why this is the vehicle that is going to change the automotive world. Instead GM delivers a high school dance routine. Will this video appeal to potential  car buyers willing to spend $35,000 to $40,000 on a hybrid vehicle? Everything GM does right now has to be excellent – nothing less.

{Full disclosure: I want GM to succeed – they are a critical part of the North American economy and now we are all shareholders… but man, it’s frustrating when you see this stuff. My reaction should be “Wow! not, “Are you kidding me?!” Perhaps being ‘too big to fail’ renders all of these discussions moot.}

5. Microsoft Songsmith Commercial

Company Microsoft
Why this video is gawd awful. This video almost crosses the line of being so bad it’s good… but not quite. If nothing else, the YouTube comments are fun to read:

“I just threw up in my mouth”,
“I can’t believe I watched the whole thing and didn’t kill myself”,
“Epic Fail”,
“WTF – I think Microsoft is serious” etc.

Did I miss one? Is there a viral intended video circulating that will probably do more damage than good. If so, let me know.

{Added Jan 14…}

Follow this link below to see how Toyota, one of the most trusted brands in the world ,  stumbled horribly with video and social media:

http://mumbrella.com.au/how-saatchi-saatchis-toyota-social-media-disaster-unfolded-14257

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

The 5 Most Effective Viral Video Ads of 2009

January 4, 2010 by 4 Comments

‘Popular’ is great, ‘Innovative’ is cool and ‘Most talked about’ is wonderful,  but if you are running a business,  ‘Effective’ is what really matters.  So what makes a viral video effective?
1. It has to be viewed by many people – some say 1,000,000 + to be ‘truly viral.’ (Ideally those people are your customers and prospects.)
2. It has to be obviously associated with your brand (otherwise it’s just entertainment) and
3. It has to achieve a measurable business objective (otherwise what’s the point).

Many companies have added or have considered adding viral video to their marketing mix. Patiently waiting for your child or pet to do something adorable or videotaping a funny skit the guys in IT created might eventually garner a lot of views on YouTube but it probably won’t move your business forward. A lot of planning and promotion and a bit of luck is what’s required if you want your viral video to have any measurable impact on your bottom line.

Here are my candidates for the most effective marketing viral videos of 2009:

1.“Will it Blend”

Company Blendtec

Why it’s effective. Blendtec has developed an ongoing series of viral videos that continue to be viewed by millions of people. These videos are effective because they do something that very few viral videos do – they drive sales. Blendtec has created a video series that is not only entertaining (who doesn’t like to see things being pulverized) but also demonstrates the power and utility of their product. Yes, most of these videos are not new – they originally launched over three years ago, but they continue to drive sales. The marginal cost to produce each new episode is minimal and there is an unlimited number of new things that people are keen to see vaporized.

2. Evian Roller Babies

Company: Evian

Why it’s effective. This video (and it’s various versions) have been viewed more than 35 million times – which sets it apart from almost every other viral video ad. As well, the video title ensures that the Evian name is directly associated with this video – a very important step in maintaining brand awareness. This is arguably one of the best (most popular, most engaging, most discussed….)  viral videos ever made so associating your brand with quality and success at this level is a very good thing.  Do I see an obvious connection between roller-blading babies and bottled water? No, but then again, the connection between girls in bikinis and beer isn’t that direct either.

3. Samsung HD Youtube Camera Trick Challenge

Company: Samsung

Why it’s effective. This video had smaller numbers than the rest of the videos on this list (just over a million) but was included because it did a number of things very well: 1. It demonstrated the quality of  the product – the video was shot on that camera; 2. It clearly mentioned the product name without seeming too ‘salesy’; 3. It was very clever -A contest to solve the puzzle presented in the video ensured good viral numbers and; 4. It was well done – it had a natural user-generated style but it was obviously very well planned. Unless you are Apple it is very difficult to get people to willingly share your product videos.

4. United Breaks Guitars

Business: Sons of Maxwell (Musicians)

Why it’s effective. Absolutely brilliant marketing by a relatively unknown band called Sons of Maxwell. Dave Caroll, the lead singer of the band was mistreated by United Airlines and decided to write three songs about his experiences in frustration. Whether this video was simply opportunistic marketing, motivated by revenge, the beginning of a new and growing consumer advocacy movement or just a way of escaping writers block we’ll never know. The outcome however is clear. The previously unknown band has gained a huge following and are booking shows all over the continent because of this viral video.

5. T-Mobile Dance

Company - T-Mobile
Why it’s effective. Sure T-mobile weren’t the first to film a flash mob, but they still hit this one out of the park. This video is clever, energetic, human, beautiful, entertaining and just plain fun to watch. It has huge numbers at over 17 million views and it does a great job of supporting T-Mobiles ‘Life’s for Sharing’ marketing campaign. T-mobile has smartly followed up with a sing-along video in Trafalguar Square and will undoubtedly continue the ‘Life’s for Sharing’ viral video series – a wise decision, but it will be tough to beat the magic of this video.

Which video would you add to the list of ‘Most Effective Viral Video Ads of 2009?”

Filed Under: Corporate Video Examples, General, Marketing with Video, Video Marketing, Viral Video, YouTube Video Tagged With: , ,

The ‘art’ (parody) of local commercials.

November 10, 2009 by 1 Comment

Sure a lot of local commercials are absolute crap, but some of them can be quite engaging.

The creators of the commercial (and making of video) above are Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal, two self-proclaimed ‘internetainers’. Like Kevin Nalts, they have managed to make a good living creating entertainment and infotainment videos for the web. The two North Carolinians have created over 200 web based videos including some very successful marketing promotions such as The Alka-Seltzer Great American Road Trip. They certainly look like they enjoy what they do and I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before Hollywood comes calling.

Their most recent promotional adventure, I love local commercials,  is sponsored by Microbilt a finance company that developed this promotion for small local companies encouraging them to enter a contest to win a commercial created by Rhett and Link. The promotion is coming to an end and there have been a lot of commercials created. Some of these are (c)rude, some are strange, some are funny and some are really engaging.

The Cullman mobile home commercial above features Robert Lee (no middle initials given), a no-nonsense business owner who says it like it is. This commercial is part reality TV, part parody, part local TV commercial and part documentary. It’s fascinating. I imagine it will make Robert and his mobile homes famous for a while and that will probably translate into more business.

The media have picked up on some of these videos and YouTube and other web hosting sites are seeing impressive take-up of this series.

Are the creators making fun of the people in these videos? Are we laughing with or at these people? Hard to say. Parody is funny that way.

Filed Under: General, local videos, Viral Video, YouTube Video Tagged With: , ,
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