Monthly Archives: June 2014

Viral Videos – May 2014

viral

Every week Advertising Age, in conjunction with company Visible Measures, publishes a list of the week’s top performing videos. The weekly chart highlights viral video ads that appear on online video sites. Each ad measures viewership of brand-syndicated video clips as well as social video placements that are driven by viewers around the world. True Reach™ quantifies the total audience that has been exposed to a viral video campaign.

There are three key factors for viral video success:

  1. Reaching the tastemakers.
  2. Building a community of participation.
  3. Creating unexpectedness in the video.

Regardless of the type of product or service, the country of origin, or the type of message, what matters most to companies is reaching the audience in a way the both entertains and informs. Check out this week’s top videos and discuss how they address the factors for viral success.

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Bring up Ad Age’s weekly Viral Video chart: http://www.visiblemeasures.com/adage
  2. Have students examine how the ads are measured by Visible Measures.
  3. Divide students into teams. Have each team select an ad on the top video chart and analyze the ad.
  4. Discuss: What is unusual? Who will it interest? What is the key message? How effective is the ad at getting the company’s brand and message across to viewers?
  5. In teams, have students design a viral video for a product of their choosing. What are the elements that are needed to go viral?

Source: Advertising Age, Visible Measures – weekly update

 

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January 2014 – YouTube Trends Map

youtube

Everyone is familiar with YouTube; the video-sharing site averages more than one billion viewers each month! But the videos we watch vary by age, gender, geography, and more. The most popular video watched by men is likely not the same as the most popular video watched by women. And don’t forget about variations in culture across the U.S. The viewers in New York have very different habits than do viewers in Texas.

YouTube posts a daily trends map based on demographics as reported by its account holders. Rankings are based on the number of views and can be separated by age, gender, and location. Through the aggregated data, YouTube Trends show us the most popular video in real time and gives ideas about trends that are developing within the YouTube viewing community. The map is a visual representation of the most viewed videos over the past 24 hours across the U.S.

Before you look at it, take a guess. What do you think the most popular, trending videos are this week? Then click on the interactive map to discover trends and viewing behaviors.

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Poll students: What are the YouTube videos they watch the most?
  2. What videos do they think are more popular for men vs. women? By various age groups?
  3. Bring up the YouTube trends map: http://www.youtube.com/trendsmap
  4. Divide students into teams. Have each team select a specific target market and geography and view the most popular videos in that area.
  5. Discuss how this information can be used by marketers.

Source: YouTube.com

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Drones Deliver Happiness

Drones

Quick – what is the first thing that comes to mind when we hear about drones? Odds are that it is probably a negative association. However, the use of drones has been expanding in business, leading to innovative uses of the technology in distribution. This begs the question – can drones be used to build community and connection?

Taking on this challenge, Coca-Cola recently developed a campaign using drones to deliver cans of Coke to migrant workers building high-rise towers in Singapore. Called “Happiness from the skies,” the campaign was built around the idea of linking Singapore’s citizens with the migrant workers who travel far from home to build apartments, offices, and schools. The drones delivered cans of Coke and messages from Singapore citizens, thanking the tradesmen for their work in the city.

Ordinary Singapore citizens wrote supportive messages to workers, then took photos holding their notes. The photos were tied to the soda cans and delivered by drones to more than 2,500 workers. That’s a good use of technology!

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Show the video: http://bcove.me/4295s72y
  2. What are other possible applications of drone technology to build positive associations?
  3. Discuss the various promotional tactics that can be used for promoting a product.
  4. Have students come up with tactics and list all the tactics on the white board (ex: billboards, print, direct mail, etc.).
  5. Divide students into groups to work on this exercise.
  6. For Coca-Cola, have each team select three different tactics. For each tactic, explain why it was selected and how it will be used.
  7. Debrief by putting together the entire suggested lists on the white board. As a final step, have the entire class vote on the top three tactics to use.

Source: Ad Age Daily

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