Youtube is a video sharing/hosting website that has taken the web by storm. Created in 2005 the site allows users to upload their own videos and share them with anyone who has access to the internet. This has been picked up on by corporate companies such as record labels who have embraced the technology and upload artist music videos. With the ability to search through the videos it has become easy to access videos that appeal to you and this is one of the reasons Youtube attracts millions of visitors per day. Essentially the users alone create the content for the website. It also allows users to embed videos from Youtube into their own sites so you can host videos via youtube and not have to goto the site directly to view them.
Charlie bit my finger
Charlie bit my finger is the most viewed youtube video of all time with over 132,171,484 views and over 252,078 comments. This video is really no more than a home video where a baby bites his brothers finger but the cute inoffensive nature means it has been shared amongst millions of users via email and web-blogs.
With such an easy distribution method large companies have seen the potential to advertise on Youtube and viral marketing campaigns often start on youtube.
Viral Marketing :
The term viral is used because of the way the adverts etc a distributed amongst the viewers via email, instant messaging or social networking sites such as Facebook, much like how a virus would go from one person to the next.
With viral ads the content of the video is never really relevant to the product it is advertising and they often leave you amazed, shocked or in awe, this is because they want your reaction be so great that you want to share this with someone else.
One of the earliest viral marketing campaigns was by BMW in a series of short films staring Clive Owen. They featured hired BMWs in different situations, for example Clive Owen picked up a gangster type guy who had swallowed diamonds and was on the run from another organisation and Owen had to act as his getaway driver.
Sony Bravia
One of the first adverts I came across virally was the Sony Bravia bouncing balls advert. The ad featured thousands and thousands of brightly coloured bouncy balls being launched down an steep LA street. The sheer scale of this advert left me in awe, it left me wondering is this real? how did they do this? and it made me want to share it with the nearest person to me. Usually a few months after the viral is released a 'Making Of' is released to show how it was made and to put to rest rumours of how it was made or if it was real or not.
Spoofs:
One of the signs an viral marketing campaign has been a successes is the fact that people either copy (spoof) it or remix it. There are hundreds of related videos to the best marketing videos. The Sony Bravia advert was spoofed by Tango, instead of bouncing balls down the street they used fruit and they replaced the Sony Bravia tagline (Colour like no other) with "Refreshment Like no Other"
