Everyone on the internet is running around like a headless chicken saying video is the next big thing. Of course, since it IS the next big thing, many ad agencies have been trying to take advantage of viral videos to help boost their clients’ brand into the buzz world. However, from the many attempts I’ve witnessed and the storyboards that have been presented, most of them have been or would have been huge flops.
In most cases, technology is not the issue. A viral video is all about the content and in exchange for great content, the viewers are willing to sacrifice quality and post production touchups. So why is it that a 13 yr old girl can capture a random event on their cell phone and have it be more viral than a professional commercial that cost $25k to produce? What is it that teens and social media experts get that traditional brands don’t?
The missing element is… the danger zone.
Viral videos for the most part crosses the safety line and bring in to light something that shouldn’t be seen. Now, when I say “shouldn’t,” it doesn’t necessarily mean a sex tape even though those are pretty viral.
Shouldn’t includes a number of things such as:
- the likelihood of witnessing that in our lifetime is close to nil
- something created that was meant for private viewing
- something so amazing you just had to pass it on so you can discuss how awesome it was
- a new idea or process that invites imagination and wonder
- a train wreck or something so dangerous that you simply can’t look away
- something so stupid you just have to pass on because it made you feel smart
- something witty caught on video that made you smile after you watched it
Unfortunately, the above is where most brand marketers get stuck because they aren’t allowed to cross the safety line into the danger zone. In fear of offending anyone at all, most brands have chose to stick around in the safe zone when producing videos or worse, they try to take it half a step further by faking the funny or faking the dangerous situation by staging the act, which usually bombs miserably.
Most people can tell a genuine smile from the fake one you do when posing for a camera and that 6th sense is heightened 10 times more when watching it in video form. So if you’re looking to do a viral (promotional) video of your product, make sure you ask yourself if your video crosses any of the lines mentioned above. If it doesn’t, you’re probably going to waste a lot of money and time to learn the hard lesson.
Here’s one that was trying to cross into the danger zone. They were close… but just not quite there.
I’ve read a multitude of blogs out there in the last day about how people were incredibly disappointed in what was actually shown at the 2008 WWDC yesterday. Whereas I can understand the disappointment for things like dual cameras for conferencing on the phone, I also understand that most wireless networks do not yet have the infrastructure to handle this sort of bandwidth. Let’s say you start selling 5-10MM more iPhones around the world and these people start to take advantage of this feature on a daily basis, whereas in the US we might be able to ramp up the necessary bandwidth, I hardly believe Denmark, Malta, Peru or Madagascar could handle this out of the box. Out of the box, everything works is Apple’s bread and butter. They understand that people will suffer with a few less features for a user experience not plagued with slow of buggy features (the Windows Mobile Task Manager is a perfect example of the sort of hack Apple has a knack for avoiding).
With all that said, what was shown was absolutely mind blowing. The developers who demoed their products simply blew me out of the water. I recall developing games in Microsoft’s MFC development environment in high school and simply being stonewalled at the obscurity and limiting nature of a development environment. I then look at a combination of what’s in the SDK (I downloaded it shortly after watching the Keynote video) and what was shown and I’m almost ready to delve into trying to create an iPhone app TODAY. The 3D game shown was nothing short of astonishing. The music app, Band, sold me when they got to the “Blues Music Keyboard” and seeing all the Modality Apps made me want to become a doctor. It may sound dumb to you, but this device is more than Apple’s next big money making scheme, this device really can enable the dreams of others (to quote Randy Pausch) by allowing greater flexibility in their day to day life. From presenting information never available to the public in such a rich manner (again, Modality apps) to keeping track of all your information in a centralized location with no fear of losing the data (MobileMe) to sharing your life and everyday adventures with the easy of taking pictures and blogging through the iPhone 3G, I’m floored and almost ready to be one of the idiots in line on day one for these phones.
This phone is right now for the bleeding edge customer. The power user. We know what we’re doing and we use all features of the iPhone on a daily basis. However, the average user like my Mom, my Dad, my Fiancee and my Brother are simply going to be overwhelmed by a phone with many more features than it has. Apple is slowly allowing people to test and try the iPhone and get used to a PDA that works for the average person. Society as a whole is still getting used to the mobile enabled citizen and if they’re going to release a product that lives up to what we expect from Apple (ie. Perfection), they’re going to need more time to ensure that both the product works flawlessly and people are able to use this in such a way that their cited 90% satisfaction rate isn’t tarnished.
But that’s just my take on it, and though I always want more, I also want time to learn some of these features from a developer’s perspective before some more of these great jumps in mobile awesomeness.
I don’t spend too much time on YouTube but last night I did spend about 3 hours on omnisio.com watching a bunch of Startup School videos. In fact, I would highly recommend watching all the speakers from Startup School 08 as they all provide great advice on a variety of topics.
The only catch? Even though these videos are shown on a cool new player, sometimes the player gets stuck in the middle of a video for no reason at all. I really hope they fix that soon.
A friend sent me this link over today and I thought the video had many great points. It’s definitely worth checking out if you’re looking to start a web business.
We are co-founders of a new and used cars autos startup called EasyAutoSales.com. This blog chronicles our journey from conception to launch. Along the way, we will be sharing resources for startups as well as lessons learned.
If you are starting your own business or are interested in our service, we welcome you to join us on our journey.
