The future of viral is...30-second ad breaks?
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
I had the pleasure of attending a presentation by a true viral pioneer at last week’s Creative Social in London. Ed Robinson is co-founder of The Viral Factory, a London firm specialising in viral marketing, who have been behind-the-scenes on many of the most famous (and infamous) viral videos that have spread over the past six years.
It was a fantastic presentation (thanks Ed), and my main take-away was the change that has occurred in viral videos over the years. As Ed talked through many examples, there was a marked evolution from slapstick, violent and comedic short pieces towards more filmic productions.
Ed explained that changes in the way viral is distributed and consumed has bought about this revolution; virals used to spread by forwarding email attachments. Fast-forward to a land filled with spam and email security – it’s no surprise that in a Web 2.0 World viral videos are primarily viewed on YouTube, MySpace and viral portals such as Kontraband.
With broadband standard, file-sizes are no longer an issue, as a result viral videos are becoming longer and production values higher - viral has mutated from GIF animations to Cyber Grand Prix.
Some recent examples by The Viral Factory show how these trends have influenced their creative work for Samsung and Levis. Interestingly, even with healthy production budgets, the home-grown aesthetic is still popular. Are the public naïve enough to believe this is amateur’s at play, or do they just not care?
The famous Sony Bravia ‘Balls’ campaign went viral before it appeared on TV, and Ed hinted that one of their videos may soon be used as a TVC. Dorito’s screened a 30 second user-generated ad(the winner of a competition) during half-time of the Super Bowl. The lines are blurring between viral and above the line advertising. But as we have seen many times before, good quality content that delights, amuses, surprises or rewards the viewer can be a winner in any format.
What do you think is the future of viral? Make your comments below…
Tim O'Neill, Managing Director UK
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It was a fantastic presentation (thanks Ed), and my main take-away was the change that has occurred in viral videos over the years. As Ed talked through many examples, there was a marked evolution from slapstick, violent and comedic short pieces towards more filmic productions.
Ed explained that changes in the way viral is distributed and consumed has bought about this revolution; virals used to spread by forwarding email attachments. Fast-forward to a land filled with spam and email security – it’s no surprise that in a Web 2.0 World viral videos are primarily viewed on YouTube, MySpace and viral portals such as Kontraband.
With broadband standard, file-sizes are no longer an issue, as a result viral videos are becoming longer and production values higher - viral has mutated from GIF animations to Cyber Grand Prix.
Some recent examples by The Viral Factory show how these trends have influenced their creative work for Samsung and Levis. Interestingly, even with healthy production budgets, the home-grown aesthetic is still popular. Are the public naïve enough to believe this is amateur’s at play, or do they just not care?
The famous Sony Bravia ‘Balls’ campaign went viral before it appeared on TV, and Ed hinted that one of their videos may soon be used as a TVC. Dorito’s screened a 30 second user-generated ad(the winner of a competition) during half-time of the Super Bowl. The lines are blurring between viral and above the line advertising. But as we have seen many times before, good quality content that delights, amuses, surprises or rewards the viewer can be a winner in any format.
What do you think is the future of viral? Make your comments below…
Tim O'Neill, Managing Director UK
Labels: Web Culture and Trends, Web marketing
1 Comments:
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tim said...
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Post a CommentMost regular punters on the web are by now aware of those videos being prequels, teasers, subtexts, alternative version, bloopers, behind-the-scenes (or something of that nature) of a broader campaign. To paraphrase your post, Tim, the first viral hits with their shock/erotic/provocative value have become the minority in relation to videos that contain, in lack of a better word, an "interestingness" for their audience. The "Will it blend?" pieces are to me perfect examples of how you can entertain and create pass-on value with the product itself. Other strands like the prosumer-generated ads or the classic long-form hi-budget cinematic works a la Lynx will continue to run side by side with this. Some of the makers/actors/authors/directors will be professionally scouted and signed as web-stars themselves and appear in more syndicated formats of content.