Catvertising. How a small Canadian Agency revolutionizes Marketing (again).

November 14th, 2011 • Experimental, Fake, We like
Tags: Agencies, Cats, Cool, Experimental, Funny, Pink Pony, Viral

Canadian agency John St does it again. After staging Pink Pony, the mother of all award videos, last year they are now ready for the next step: a Catvertising Agency. John St: The time is ripe.

Mindblown. Dachdeckerinnung Obeschwaben goes viral.

November 1st, 2011 • 1 comment Allgemein
Tags: Funny, Shit, Viral

I really don’t cross often from English back into German on my blog. But today it has to be. Simply because the officially best viral video in the world is German and can actually only be understood by German-speaking people. It was created by a roofer guild from the south of Germany. And I feel sorry for for anyone who cannot understand the following video. There is nothing to achieve in this industry anymore.

Auf Deutsch: Die Dachdeckerinnung Oberschwaben hat jetzt auch ein Viral Video. Strategisch ist alles falsch daran. Aber wenn es sowas wie Viral Video gäbe, wäre es auch schon wieder so schlecht, dass es recht gut ist. Ach, ich bin verwirrt.

(via W&V)

Winnebago Man. A Documentary about the other Side of Virality.

August 31st, 2011 • Advice, We like
Tags: Advice, documentary, films, Funny, jack rebney, People, Viral, winnebago man, World

“My mind is just a piece of shit this morning.” (Jack Rebney) 

I don’t usually recommend films on davaidavai. Today I make an exception. A couple of weeks ago I read about a documentary that tried to understand the background of one of my most favorite Memes ever: The Winnebago Man.

Most of you will know him. The ‘Winnebago Man’ is almost a relic from the Dinosaur age of viral entertainment. Back in 1989 Winnebago Industries hired the man below to promote their motorized homes in a number of videos. But Jack Rebney was a grumpy man and the actual shooting day was hot, unpleasant and dominated by flies. Cursing is what followed.

And his team filmed it and edited his swearing.

So a couple of team members took copies of these outtakes and passed it on and on and on. Voila – a viral hit was born (on videocassettes!!!).

The documentary ‘Winnebago Man’ starts more than 20 years later. Director by Ben Steinbauer’s self-imposed mission: To find the man behind the video. And to tell his story as ‘the angriest man alive’.

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White Bull Army. Everything that was ever wrong with Ad Awards in just one Video.

Mai 8th, 2011 • 14 comments Brands, Experimental
Tags: Ads, Africa, Agencies, Alcohol, Awards, Beer, Brands, Future Lions, Ideas, Politics, Strategy, Sudan, Viral, visual

A little update to this article: After bashing the video below as “either an extremly sarcastic subtle protest against ignorance in advertising. Or the saddest thing in the industry” I was now contacted by a couple of people who commented that anyone (except me) found it extremely obvious that it is not the saddest things but a very subtle protest. But what is it that this video wants to achieve?

Is it taking the piss out of award videos? Pink Pony does that without touching the Sudanese civil war. Is it supposed to remind us of South Sudan? Not really. So in fact whatever it was that this video wanted to be ironical about – it crossed the line from irony to cynicism.

To make my point I. I don’t give a damn if this is an official award video. I just think it’s extremely tasteless and stands for a very acultural cynicism typical for too many people in this industry. Generate buzz no matter through which method. That’s pathetic.

Follow the rest of the conversation on adland.tv

——————————

Actually everything that was ever wrong with ad awards can be studied in the video below. It is a submission to the Future Lions, a sub-award of the well known Cannes Lions. And it is given to anyone (you can be a private person) who comes up with a hypothetical idea for an existing brand that wasn’t technically possible five years ago.

So the following video showcases a hypothetical idea on how to promote a beer in the soon to be independent state Southern Sudan. Key elements of the story are true. White Bull Lager is in fact the first major locally produced beer in Southern Sudan. But the hypothetical campaign described in the film gave me Inner Mouth Vomit.

It does not just show a deep lack of historical and political understanding – it’s just cynical (even worse than Jung von Matt’s great guerilla stunt that took the piss out of German anti Nuclear protestors…2 months before Fukushima).

Stuff like this is the end result when ignorance meets fake caring. Seriously? This is either an extremly sarcastic subtle protest against ignorance in advertising. Or it is one of the saddest things I have ever seen coming out of the industry. Two million people died in Sudan and some hipster presents beer logos on T-72 tanks to win an award. Oh…the best part: In the end they even dare to dedicate this to the people of South Sudan. Makes me want to kill myself.

Oh Shit. Al Qaeda Attacks Internet With Photo Of Adorable Piglet.

Februar 27th, 2011 • Ideas, People, Politics
Tags: Cool, cyber war, Funny, Ideas, People, Politics, terror, the onion, Viral, World

Diabolic!

As North African societies revolt with support of social networks, Al Qaeda switches to cyber terror to bring the west to its knees. In its latest attempt in cyber warfare U.S. digital infrastructure was targeted by the terror network. The objective – wreaking havoc through a picture of an adorable piglet that was leaked to a super multiplier in Flordia and spread across the U.S. within seconds to cripple any other traffic. My god, what comes next? (thx to laughinsquid and Onion)

Web Videos. Evian Rollerbabies vs VW’s The Force.

Februar 22nd, 2011 • 1 comment Social
Tags: Brands, Creativity, Evian, Experimental, Facebook, Sharing, Social, Social Influence Marketing, Social Networks, Twitter, video, Viral, VW, youtube

Even though I would like to shoot myself every time I hear the term ‘viral video’ there certainly is a social trigger that turns TV commercials into something users like to share online. Some of the most successful examples over the last two years were Evian’s Roller Babies and VW’s commercial ‘The Force’.

Check out how much reach these two ads generated. Particularly interesting – Evian definitely had more Youtube views, but interaction with VW’s film seems to be much higher (via Griffin Farley).

Pink Pony. The best piss take of a Cannes case study film ever.

Januar 11th, 2011 • 2 comments Experimental
Tags: Case Study, Funny, Pink Pony, St John, Truth, Viral, World

High five John St. The Toronto based agency has just created a Case Study that pretty much ends all other case study videos. It’s a template for any agency out there trying to make believe their idea deserved a Cannes Lion simply because the office manager retweeted it.

Here goes Pink Pony…

Quora. Twitter gets a Jeopardy Update.

Januar 6th, 2011 • 9 comments Social, Tech, Trends, Twitter
Tags: buzz, Quora, Social, Tech, Tools, Trends, Twitter, Viral, World

Quora. Currently my favourite example of an overbuzzed platform and I strongly recommend to follow the bizarre network effects that are taking place these days.

Quora is a knowledge platform that was founded in summer 2009 by Facebook’s former CTO Adam D’Angelo and Charlie Cheever. Quora received some funding in March 2010 and is in closed beta since summer 2010. Quora basically is a polished version of a forum. It merges forum functionalities with social platforms such as twitter or Facebook to generate a new type of Q&A platform. That’s not dramatically new but it’s a nice, well presented concept.

Quora turned red hot in late December 2010 and early January 2011. And it seems everyone tries to get on board asap. On January 2nd Techcrunch mentioned Quora as one of the 7 technologies that will rock 2011. Quote: ‘Quora will have its twitter moment’:

…2011, which I believe will be the year Quora has its Twitter moment and start to really take off. Quora represents a bigger technology trend, which is the layering of an interest graph on top of people’s social graph. On Quora, you can follow not only people, but topics and questions. It defines the world by your interests, not just the people you may know or admire. This is a powerful concept and is not limited to Quora (both Twitter and Facebook also want to own the interest graph), but Quora is designed from the ground up to expose and help you explore your interests.

I agree that Quora is a great platform. It nevertheless is not the reinvention of earned media. And I don’t see how a Forum 2.0 + Digg functionalities should come close to a general, broad interaction platform. Anyway for a couple of days the tech press keeps on posting about Quora day in and out. Did you for example know that the former AOL chairman is posting on Quora as if there was no tomorrow? No? I didn’t as well. And I don’t care.

The reason why Quora is so successful is definitely related to it being a helpful, well set up platform. But the momentum behind the current craziness is based on some superstars of the scene pretending Friendfeed, Plancast, Foursquare Quora is the reinvention of anything digital. Oh, and if David Armano and Jeremiah Owyang are posting there as well…we all follow, right?

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Funny Crap? How things go Nuclear on the Web.

November 10th, 2010 • People
Tags: Funny, People, Philosophy, Social, Social Networking, Truth, Viral, World

The mysterious code how things go ‘viral’ is not going to be discovered…ever still uncracked. Amplifiers such as 4Chan, Reddit or Boing Boing may not really have a marketing value when it comes to viral effects but they promote a lot of funny crap. Do follow the story of how one piece of funny crap becomes even bigger funny crap. Presented by Tom Scott as part of Ignite London‘s Pechakucha-style presentations. Or isn’t it funny at all? Isn’t it actually pretty insane? The lines are blurry.

Oh Fuck. ‘When I grow up’.

August 18th, 2010 • 2 comments Ads
Tags: Ads, Cool, Creativity, Funny, HR, Ideas, monster.com, Viral

Ha ha…ha….ha….think you’re funn……waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! The video is very very old. But it still is……waaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!