The creative possibilities within a video are bountiful. From the intrusive ‘CLICK ME I’M SOMETHING DIFFERENT’ to the more subtle ‘you seem to be enjoying watching so why don’t you find out more about me’. The tools are widely available to make a video interactive so it seems like now would be a pretty good time for advertisers and agencies to start using them. One important point that I think Matt misses is that a user who is watching a video ad online will almost always have a mouse in their hand and the advertiser needs to think about whether they want the user to use it or not. Interactivity doesn’t make sense in every situation but where there is an opportunity to pass an engaged user on to the point of purchase then why not let them? If someone is giving you their time to watch an ad on YouTube then they are already a pretty engaged user, why make them go elsewhere to look for the product or service that you want them to find.

This is a picture diary of me growing a moustache for Movember. If I hadn’t included the link to donate within the video then people would have to look elsewhere, email me, go to my Facebook page or hunt me out any other way to find the link. By making the clicking and the donating as easy as possible I think that my video has more value. My donations have gone up as a result of it certainly and that was the KPI that I set out ahead of time so for me this has been a success. It may be time for advertisers to move on from thinking that 10,000 views on YouTube is enough of a success, after all – that’s just TV on a computer.

Rather like the second album from many bands or the airport runway ad for Cadburys, in comparison to the Transforming C4 ad – somehow this one just doesn’t quite get there.

Don’t get me wrong – I like this ad, the soundtrack is good, the imagery is lovely, but if I wanted to know more about the car then I will have to go elsewhere and hunt for it. From watching it I can tell that it comes in a range of colours, has four wheels and probably comes with climate control. I don’t know how big it is, when it’s available, how much it will cost but I’m interested enough to go elsewhere to find out and maybe that is the point.

The car doesn’t look as cool as this original DS but it does have some of the same striking lines.

technologically cool

Recent Citroen campaigns involving transforming C4s that went on to dance or skate were pacy, well timed and had a lot of interest in the media, they generated pages of free PR and countless free views. They also delivered the message that the car was technologically advanced.

This ad for the new DS3 will generate a bit of interest but rather like The Second Coming album from The Stone Roses, some people will feel a little dissatisfied with it.

Girl Number 9: Episode 1 from Vincent Boylan 500 on Vimeo.

It is a little different to those webisodes that have gone before in that there are TV actors who have appeared in other British dramas (although some would call them sit-coms) such as Eastenders and Dr Who, after all – if you haven’t been in one of them you don’t deserve your Equity card! The subject matter is quite mature and justifies it’s opening warning by delivering a good few ‘F’ words in the opening minute. After all – if you only have five minutes to play with there is no room for pussy footing around, you have to get involved straight away.

The website for the show is http://canyousaveher.com – this features in the show itself which is a nice touch. The drama continues for the rest of the week. Keep watching!

Universal are distributing the video through viral specialists Unruly media amongst others and using the Silverlight player. Who knows if Silverlight has a future since even MSN’s video site uses a flash player but the quality is excellent in this clip.

Does it sell the music? I don’t think so, does it sell Kanye West? Yes – I think that it does. The video is long at just over 10 minutes during which time Mr West is seen lurching from pillar to post in search of his inner self. A journey involving loving cushions and a plentiful supply of rose petals.

Definitely worth a watch.

A fairly funny TV ad for two such grown up companies. First there was the ‘There’s a Map for that’ (get it) now there is the iDon’t commercial. It seems like things are going to get a little bitchy in the US smartphone market.

I don’t know if I am a fan of the musical genre, after all i am a chap who will recoil at the very mention of the name Lloyd-Webber however I have recently found myself humming some of the hits from Jesus Christ Superstar and Rent. Should I confine myself to the loony bin now?
For a stage show to advertise itself using online video makes an awful lot of sense, after all it is a visual and aural medium, how much of either can you get from a poster or the back of the Time Out magazine. Using video lets the potential viewer get a hit of the show and see the actors in it before they have to stump up the ticket price. Obviously it helps if there is a catchy tune, good production and attractive people in the video.

Legally Blond may not be my cup of tea but I have been humming the song from this clip for an hour or two now so something seems t be working!

You can also see some quality skateboard testing over at Flexdex, which has encouraged people to go out and test their own boards by driving cars over them – see below

Seeding the idea to test products with professional content can then lead product fans to do similar videos in homage to their favourite products. As the guy in the Jeep say to his buddy Trom – ‘yeah man, we’ve got video of that’. Advertisers can get a little wary of this kind of viral content production – after all what would happen if someone tried to blend a Craftsman drill in a Blendtec blender while riding a Flexdex skateboard? Mayhem – that’s what and frankly that is a video which many fans of the genre would like to see but I doubt that the CMO of a large corporation would be thankful for.

Once video is online then people can play with it, copy it, mash it up with various other influences and generally go crazy. They don’t have to respect brand guidelines or rules from Ofcom or the FTC but if there are fans that truly believe in what the brand produces then they should be encouraged rather than limited. Engaging with them carries a greater potential than limiting them and if the occasional bad egg gets out then a quick mail to YouTube or other video sites should soon get them taken down.

I’m a big fan of tearing down some of the walls, let the creative masses get their hands on your content and see what they come up with. Judging by the number of crowsourcing headlines that have been getting attention recently – it seems that quite a few advertisers are starting to agree.

Funny is hard to do well bu if you go by the data from eMarketer then it is worthwhile trying, people respond better to ads that make them laugh, their recall is higher and they are more likely to share the ad with their friends. If you get funny wrong though it can get passed around and pilloried for all the wrong reasons – think about Microsoft’s recent Windows 7 launch party videos which were frankly gruesome even if they were being ironic.

There is a full report available from eMarketer called How to Market to the Online Video Audience. If you are trying to figure out how to do it then it will be worth a read. Of course – once you do decide to advertise using online video, you’ll want to make it interactive and measurable and if you aren’t sure how to do that then I may just know someone who can help.

Fighting environmental damage caused by climate change is a difficult subject. Connect 2 Earth is a campaign featuring a number of videos which attempt to use humour to cover this important but sometimes boring subject. I think that it works nicely, it’s international since no dialogue is used, it gets the message across and it makes you chuckle. Lets hope that it has an impact.