I like Vine. I like the concept and in particular, I like how fun it is and simple to use.
I believe Vine will do the same for video case studies that Twitter did for blogs. How can you tell a story in a six second video clip that continuously rolls? Well the same was said about 140 characters but people simply got smarter about how they communicated their stories and it exploded.
You can see here is an example of a Vine we made in the office which although simple and rough around the edges, I believe gets across our story more than effectively.
From a short six second clip you can see that my PR agency works with Kaspersky Lab, that we ran a campaign around safer internet day and generated some strong national coverage. It is enough to whet the appetite and hopefully if people want to know more they will ask. Ultimately, I can see these Vines linked to longer form video case studies with a six second Vine being essential to getting someone to click through and invest two to three minutes of their time watching a longer form case study.
The main ethos of online is sharing for free. This is something we have always done at Berkeley PR as part of our sales drive. We do this by giving our prospects a free PR tip every month. There is no hard sale, just a light touch point where we provide them with something and in return, ask only that they remember us.
This month the top tip became a video and I’m affraid that Chris will have a whole bloopers DVD by the end of the year. That said, I think it works increadible well. Let me know what you think and make sure you watch the clip to the end…it’s only about a minute long.
I saw on the Guardian yesterday that the brilliant Cadbury’s Dairy Milk commercial featuring a boy and girl with “dancing” eyebrows has been named the public’s favourite TV advert of 2009. I know this doesn’t have anything to do with PR but it is a brilliant example of how a digital advert can gerate a buzz online for a brand. According to the news piece the advert has been watched 200,000 times on its site this year – and another 5m times on YouTube. Below is the top ten according to tellyads.com:
1. Cadbury: Eyebrows
2. Comparethemarket.com: Comparethemeerkat.com
3. PG Tips: It’s The Taste
4. Churchill: Rolf Harris
5. Change4Life: Eat Well, Move More, Live Longer
6. Maltesers: Tiny Jeans
7. GoCompare.com: Only A Tenor
8. Vodafone: If I Ruled The World
9. Aviva: Green Army
10. EDF Energy: Eco20:20
Having just bought the new album after falling in love with the song Papillon I was quite impressed with this viral where they hack Google Maps to co-incide with the album launch. Neat idea.
I have never been much of a gamer having never really got past playing Sonic and Tetris but I love this beautiful viral video which I found on the Wired UK blog. A neat viral advert from the people at Freebord Skateboards and I love it.
Brilliant video by a student of Savannah College of Art and Design who was obviously struggling for inspiration and then found it. Thanks to The Media Blog for bringing this to my attention.
After a few days away in Cornwall visiting my brother I was checking my emails this afternoon. This blog has managed to get my email address on some press release distribution lists and I routinely receive announcements.
One that caught my attention was a press release announcing that The Co-operative Bank has decided to thank its customers for the recent Which? Award for being Best Financial Services Provider by singing them a ‘thank you’ song. At the end of the release it explains that the viral is available on You Tube and it’s own blog.
Firstly. This is a blog about PR so I’m not really sure why I received this release and secondly the “viral” is dreadful. It also got me thinking about what makes a good viral video?
Visitors to this blog will also know that I love well executed viral videos. Recently Evian’s “Roller Babies” commercial yielded millions of hits in less than a month in line with its Live Young campaign. This is a great example of a campaign which has been executed in line with proper planning, marketing and development to create a viral sensation.
My colleague Jo Jamieson also pointed out a viral video the other week which is proof that they can have a devastating affect to a brand. Dave Carroll had his guitar broken by United Airlines and wrote a song which he performed on a video. Apparently within four days he had over a million views on You Tube and many thousands of blog mentions.
These two are good examples of what makes a viral video and the different effects they can have on a brand. How do you make a good viral video? Ben Terrett has written a great post about what makes a good viral and is worth checking out. Please note that it is quite old but still relevant today.
Personally, the thing which made the Co-operative Bank’s effort so bad was the fact that just because they had created a video they presumed it would be viral. I understand it was just a bit of fun but when a press release was distributed promoting the viral it also opened itself up for ridicule.
I am a little behind on this one but was going through some of my old notes and came accross a link to Strive Notes and in particular to this viral video. Sherilynne had found the video herself via Wadds and it is a classic.
In a time when clients always want more for less this couldn’t be more appropriate. I particularly liked the couple at the restaurant who finish the clip by saying “we will pay this time but we are going to have to ask you to show us how you made it so we can do it in house next time”. Crazy but true.
I stumbled upon this neat video on the PR Disasters blog. It talks about the links between punk and social media and there was something about it that struck a cord with with me.
As anyone who visits this blog regularly knows, I do appreciate clever viral videos which is why I was pleased when I found this one by Samsung on Chris Norton’s blog. I like how it shows off the features of the product but in an innovative way. What do you think?
Paul Stallard is a PR professional at Berkeley PR, a digital, technology and consumer PR agency with offices in London and Reading, where he also contributes to its technology PR blog. Please note that this blog is written in a personal capacity and does not necessarily reflect the views of Berkeley PR….although they all read it.
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