Choose your own ADventure: You Tube Edition
Posted by Luc in 
Once in a while, a new ad campaign comes along that opens new doors and pushes the boundaries of what can and cannot be done. Two weeks ago, Tippex, a whiteout manufacturer, launched a mind blowing You Tube campaign that takes us back to the days of Choose Your Own Adventure novels and is the greatest thing since the Old Spice campaign.
The campaign, titled NSWF. A hunter shoots a bear! starts with a simple enough video (Not Safe For Work Language) of some hikers talking about their sexual escapades. Suddenly, a bear comes out of the woods, and just as one of the scared hikers is about to blow its head off, two options come up on the screen: Shoot The Bear and Don’t Shoot The Bear. Upon clicking on either one, the user is taken to the Tippex YouTube channel.
The videos goes on, but the hunter in the frame turns to the camera, reaches out of the video box, grabs the giant Tippex container in the ad on the right hand side, and erases shoots in the video title. He then breaks the fourth wall and asked the user to type in their own scenario.
Following this, the user can input literally any word(s) he/she wants and press Play to be taken to their chose scenario involving the bear and the hunter. In some cases, the scenarios have been grouped together, like if the user inputs any type of sport it will go to a soccer video with a streaker running by and the bear scoring a goal on the hunter.
In the event that a non-filmed or non-recognizable scenario is entered, the user will be taken to an error clip. 
By this point, you are likely thinking that this is quite the extravagant campaign for something as simple as a whiteout company. But it’s genius considering that it was timed perfectly with back to school, and contains a lot of swearing and a hilarious result if anything sexual is typed in (hence appealing to the youth). It also spits in the face of the bigger companies that struggle to launch successful online campaigns.
It’s one for the little guys. Inspiring, to say the least.
SEO Tip #2: Site Structure
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a relatively new component of any business trying to make it big online. Follow our online tips to help your business thrive in the ever expanding online market.
Content is King in SEO. No matter what. But after Content, the layout of the very same site who’s search results you are trying to optimize is a pretty important second. If your site is not properly structured, its chances of coming up in a search diminish rapidly.
Depending on the size of your site, you may need a Site Map. The more pages on your site, the harder it will be for Google to differentiate between them. Who would have thought that Google would need your help? Well it does, and that comes in the form of a sweet and simple map, so that users can be sent to the home page much more often. Plus, if your site (or business) is very intricate and in-depth, a map will also aid the users, and you definitely want them to find it easy.
“A site map should not be the primary navigation on your web site it should complement it.” – Web Developer Notes
Keeping on the topic of site depth, Domains are another important aspect. Create many of them. With several names. And make sure they all contain the right Keywords, so that search engines can find them easily. When it comes to Domains, consider the web like a prize raffle. If you only buy one ticket, you only have one chance to win the prize All Inclusive Vacation. But if you buy several tickets, you will have multiple chances to win, and wake up on the beach in Bora Bora (in this case, the prize is people visiting your site and buying your product/reading what you have to say).
One more thing to keep in mind, and we probably should have mentioned it in the Keywords tip, is Bolded words. Search Engines hate that. It confuses them and they will pick an un-bolded word before a bolded one, hence your site will fall further down in the ranking. This is something to watch for when giving titles to your pages/blog posts.
Check back daily for more SEO Tips and Industry Buzz.
Advertising in the 2010s: Part 1
Is it irony, or just coincidence, that in a world where advertising for major corporations is drastically changing every day via Social Media one of the hottest television shows is about the origins of blatant mass marketing? Yes, I’m talking about you MadMen. Stop glorifying a world where catchy tag lines and shiny new products no longer work on the masses of consumers!
Part 1 of our Advertising in the 2010s series will focus on viral video campaigns, in particular, the ones that dress up like a user made amateur video in order to promote their product. Although there have been various online campaigns over the past few years, including the recent Old Spice questions and answers that even garnered a wedding proposal, few have been as cool and brand defining as the ones made by Levi’s.
Back in 2008, this amateur video of a man doing Parkour-like jumps into a pair of jeans gained popularity online.
It seemed as though the clip was created by some highly skilled individual amateurs, especially considering the description simply read “Guys do crazy stunts and backflips into their pants”. But it didn’t take long for the online community to discover that Levi Strauss was in fact behind the video. And then this pastJuly, a photo essay surfaced of a man walking across America. Note the close up on the jeans near the end when he reaches into his back pocket.
Within a a day it already had half a million hits and featured hipster-band-of-the-moment Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros on the soundtrack. It even had a Behind The Scenes feature detailing how some indie filmmaker types carefully crafted the effects. The following week, it was noted by some users online that in a video blog posted by one the producers, he points out and mentions “the guy from Levi’s”, a man wearing a blazer seen standing with them at the Golden Gate bridge.
Now, these videos don’t expressively go out and tell the public to buy Levi Jeans. In fact they don’t even mention buying jeans at any point, they simply bring attention to the fact that people are doing really incredible and cool tasks while wearing comfortable jeans. And that’s where the genius lies.
With these viral videos, Levi Strauss got people thinking about jeans. And when you think of jeans, what brand comes to mind first? Levi Strauss of course. They know they are synonymous with the ever popular leg wear, and they were remarkably (and quite boldly) able to identify that fact and simply chose to promote the actual medium of jeans via sub conscious marketing.
The most important thing to remember when plotting a viral video campaign is to make something that is for your company. Something special and unique that you will be happy with. You can take inspiration from other successful campaigns, but do not try to mimic their idea or style. Do something that your fan base (or target fan base) will enjoy watching, and don’t be afraid to be a little silly.
The Day the Double Rainbow Died
If you have to work in an office during those beautiful summer months and you stare out the window at the sunshine you are not enjoying, viral videos have likely become one of the only sources of joy in your day.
Likely the hottest (see what I did there) video this past season was Double Rainbow, posted by HungryBear9562. If you haven’t seen it, I very much recommend you check it out. Even though it was posted in January 2010, it rapidly gained popularity this past July and spawned countless parodies and auto tune remixes. Paul Vasquez, the man behind the camera in the video, is the type of guy who would probably never gain fame in other way. With this clip however, he instantly became a YouTube celebrity, and Double Rainbow became entrenched in the Internet Pop Culture Lexicon forever. The guy seemed a little crazy in the video, and the fact that he was able to leave a smile on so many people’s faces gave you a bit of a warm feeling your tummy. A success story if you will.
Until now.
Vasquez has apparently sold out, and is now featured in the latest Windows Live Photo Gallery add. Bad HungryBear9562, very very bad HungryBear9562. The magic of YouTube stars is that the lot of them never really sell out, other than mass manufacturing t-shirts of their meme, appearing in a Weezer video, or going on Television to discuss their fame.
Alas, you can decide for yourself. Do you think this is selling out?
SEO Tip #1: Keywords
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a relatively new component of any business trying to make it big online. Follow our online tips to help your business thrive in the ever expanding online market.
Without Keywords, the likelyhood of people finding your blog or website is very low. However, going overboard on Keywords is a big mistake a lot of start ups or first time bloggers will make at first.Before you do anything, you will need to understand the keywords that pertain to your business/website. The Google AdWords Keyword Tool is currently the best way to figure this out. It allows you to check out what key words are being searched the most and what sites attract which words. You can also sort it by Country and Language. Play around with it to find out what exactly you are up against, and what keywords will lead people to your business.
When filling your site blog posts, don’t write with keywords in mind. Forget them all together. Simply write the post, make sure its clean, neat, and that your message is getting across. Content is the most important part of any website and it must be high quality tangible stuff to keep people coming back. Thinking about keywords in your post before, during, or after the post might muck up your sentence structure and make you look like a poor writer. That is the last thing you want. Rather, save the keywords for your post titles, product descriptions, mission statements, etc (the parts of your website that won’t change).
Check back daily for more SEO Tips and Industry Buzz.