Online video has had at least one key advantage over TV from the very beginning: there’s no list of words you can’t say on the internet. While this has opened up a powerful avenue to viral success for shock humorists, brands often struggle to find their place among internet memes that aren’t burdened by maintaining a friendly brand image or helping their parent company avoid boycotts. No one, not even Axe, is going to touch a 2 Girls 1 Cup, no matter what the view count and viral response tail.

And, of course, they shouldn’t. But it’s still nice to see a brand go out on a limb and test the waters with a too-hot-for-primetime web spot. Last month, Wrigley’s Orbit brand teamed up with DumbDumb, a production company led by Arrested Development alumni Will Arnett and Jason Bateman and backed by IAC (CollegeHumor, Vimeo, tons of others).

In the digital short (embedded below, NSFW), Arnett and Bateman revive their impeccable AD chemistry and are joined by Aubrey Plaza (Parks & Recreation, Funny People) and Rachel Harris (The Hangover, various shows and films about cougars). It definitely goes too far for most brands, which is part of the viral appeal.

The real story here is DumbDumb’s new initiative, and how they’re trying to create truly shareable digital shorts that communicate the brand message without feeling bogged down by it. Interviewed in the New York Times, Bateman compares what they’re doing to an improv show, where the audience throws out a random word, and the actors create a sketch out of it. In the case of branded content, they start with the tagline (this time, “A good clean feeling no matter what”) and ride it well into the sunset.

In the Times article, Bateman comes off a little more independent from branding than he probably is. He says they make funny entertainment and then “just arbitrarily make that subject matter a brand’s message.” DumbDumb admits Energy BBDO “provided creative insight into the campaign development,” and the resulting short is certainly more on-target than your average SNL digital short.

But the spot is still pretty compelling, and pushes brand comfort farther than most efforts out there. “Prom Date” is just the first in a series for Orbit, and it will be interesting to see where DumbDumb drags other excited, if hesitant, brands in the future.

It may seem like old news considering most of our friends and family spend more time online than watching TV but now there are official stats from Ipsos Reid to support this statement:

First time ever, Canadians are spending more time each week online than watching television.

The report finds that overall, Canadians are now spending more than 18 hours a week online, compared with 16.9 hours watching television.

Internet usage is up from 14.9 hours last year. The number of hours watching television also rose in the last year, from 15.8 hours in 2009. Usage of newspapers, radio and magazines have all remained relatively stable in the last year.

Some industry watchers have noted that the cost of watching TV is rising as cable TV companies and satellite operators raise the monthly cost of service. As that happens more people are watching TV online for free.

Later today, the CRTC is expected to rule on a so-called TV tax or fee for carriage, a cost cable companies have said could add another $10 a month to consumers’ bills if the regulator rules they have to pay broadcasters for their local signals.

In breaking down its survey, Ipsos Reid noted that males are spending significantly more time online than females–20 hours compared with 16.

In addition, 18-34 year olds are spending 20 hours a week online on average, compared with 18 hours for those over 35.

“In previous years we’ve seen significant differences between the generations and the amount of time they spend online,” said study author Mark Laver.

“The data indicates that not only are people of all ages spending more and more time online, but it also points to a shift in how online Canadians are consuming media and where they are spending their free time.

“Today, online Canadians are finding a myriad of entertainment options available to them within the walls of their homes. While some entertainment content has simply shifted from television to online, the Internet is also providing new content to Canadians.”

Take a look at a Style Agents feature from Metro Toronto:

& don’t forget to tune in to the Vaughan Mills YouTube Channel to catch the latest episodes of Style Agents Season 2!

Some say failure with social media is a sort of “rite of passage”…. but why not get it right the first time?

Here’s a list of not-to-dos:

1. Be fake

The social web isn’t meant to be the easy way to deceive people’s trust.
Example: Originally, companies like Walmart and Sony foolishly saw an easy opportunity in creating artificial relationships and tried to bluff their way into making consumers believe sites like Sony PSP or the Walmarting Across America blogs were written by the brand leaders themselves – when that wasn’t the case at all. However since then, both Sony and Walmart have learned from their early mistakes and now have social media sites that follow more honest (and effective) practices. If only they got it right the first time!

2. Fail to listen to your customers

Information must flow two ways. Social media and non traditional marketing succeed on customer interaction that personalizes the experiences. Listening is really the most important step in learning about social communities on the web. It’s important to monitor conversations on an ongoing basis about brands and analyzing what can be done differently. Luckily, there’s a great deal of social media monitoring tools to choose from.

3. Not understand formal & unwritten social rules

One of the few (only?) times it’s okay to be a stalker is in the participation with social communities, especially with commercial intentions in mind. You should try to know what you’re talking about in an effort to improve your brand’s online presence and encourage relationships. Not only do the web sites have their own Terms of Service guidelines, but the communities also have an unwritten code for behavior that can only be understood by observing and participating. Ignoring these guidelines will most likely result in alienation by the community.

4. Be pushy

One of the worst things a marketer can do is be overly pushy. I think we all speak from experience when we say these methods turn customers away from the brand. Being pushy in social media and expecting traditional marketing outcomes are common among companies that see social media as content distribution channels for existing marketing programs. (See Online Video For Newbies: Tip #3)  Straight forward sales pitches are frowned upon in social communities. A social (media) environment is meant for interaction amongst “friends” and likeminded individuals not sales message interruption sales messaging. Provide information in interactive ways facilitating choices that lead to sales, and you’ll get better results.

5. Approach social media channels as silos

Many companies make the prevalent mistake of approaching social media via individual web sites rather than as a collective execution.
Example: having one division do a blog, another Facebook page, and yet another a LinkedIn group does not create a consistent image. Not working together is inefficient and can create mixed messages for consumers that participate in more than one social media outlets for the brand.

6. Not know how to assess ROI

Let’s face it, marketers are concerned with the same bottom line – ROI. This is why it’s essential that a social media strategy includes a goal and ways of assessing business value by focusing on increased product awareness, sales or cost savings. Regardless of how value is determined, social media should be validated as a profitable marketing channel.

It’s no longer only about the “4 Ps” (product, promotion, price, placement) of the marketing mix. If anything, social media has helped us evolve past the initial mix into a more consumer friendly mix of “8 Cs” – Conversation, Connections, Community, Consumer, Control, Creative, Collaboration and Content.

Test your knowledge of online video marketing presented in a quiz by EyeView. Not to brag, but we got 5/5….

CLICK TO TAKE THE QUIZ

Hint:

The quiz reinforces popular online video assumptions with stats addressing launch triggers, call to action, auto play, landing pages and voice over accents. What’s important to take away from here is that results vary sometimes in drastic measures based on video presentations. It’s substantial for marketers to understand which video experiences drive the best performance for their specific target audience in order to bring the highest value to their videos.

A notable presentation from the 2nd annual Marketing Week was carried out by Steve Mast, vice-president of Delvinia, who discussed business digital diseases, how they ruin users’ online experiences and their possible cures. These “diseases” occur when brands attempt to use social media without a great deal of success wondering why the digital world is not in sync with their goals. Each of these social media diseases can be avoided, or “cured”, without falling in the trap of lower online sales, visitors and return on digital investment.

The “diseases” were determined using survey data from Asking Canadians (Delvinia’s own research division).

Participants were asked to grade familiar complaints about websites, producing this top six list of diseases which include:

Ad-Theria
The over use of ads on websites because marketers feel so strongly about advertising products and services at the expense of the customer’s experience.

Mono-typosis
Not listening or responding to your customers and prohibiting conversation and a connection with a brand.

Widgetitis
The overuse of trendy tech gadgets.

Navigation Deficiency Virus
Confusing site navigation because there’s too much content.

Obsessive Content Disorder
Information clutter and inundation due to irrational fear of removing old content from a website.

Datapox
Asking for customer information in confusing ways making the site’s core purpose difficult and frustrating.

Although these problems appear to be part of a new medium development cycle, similar to how advertisers struggled with television in the 1950s; there are ways to prevent these common mistakes, “curing the diseases” with an easy formula. The 5 step formula as suggested by Mast includes understanding your customer, focusing on the customer experience, providing people with a voice, communicating and learning from the experience. In other words, it’s presenting your brand as approachable and customer oriented as possible in the digital world that makes your brand the “healthiest” and “disease free”.

Source: Marketing Magazine

Check out my guest blog post on REEL SEO, discussing Style Agents and the first Canadian online web series for a shopping mall!

Original Web Video Series = Success for Retail Shopping

-Marina

Yesterday we came across a study that was recently released by Turnhere.com on what the top priorities are (in terms of communication channels) for marketers and advertisers in 2010. As we expected from our own first hand experience in 2009, online video is at the front of the pack for most marketers and shows no signs of stopping. Now, more than ever companies are recognizing the tremendous potential and ROI benefits of web video marketing. Online video’s acceptance into the mainstream marketing fold has been a strange process over the last few years fraught with starts and stops, hype and hoopla and inexplicable successes and failures. But 2010 looks to be the year this medium comes into its own as a powerful brand communication channel.
What this study reveals and what we have always been advocates of, is how democratizing online video marketing can be. The study polled 116 respondents from companies that ranged from Fortune 500 brands, regional brands, digital, and PR. The marketing budgets of the respondents ranged from the tens of thousands to the millions and yet all said that online video was a must have in their communications mix for the coming year and beyond.
So why is the fever catching on now almost four years after YouTube hit the big time and the concept of “viral” became a household term? Well in those four years we’ve had what I call a “maturation of the medium,” experiments were conducted, audiences were tested, the model was built up, torn down, re-built and refined. The end result? Well to put it simply, online video passed the test. It survived the hype and came out the other side as a incredibly powerful medium capable of crossing genres and cutting through the clutter and growing ineffectiveness of print and TV.
Perhaps the most revealing aspect of the study was that an overwhelming percentage (81%) of respondents ranked internal marketing teams as being the key players and decision makers in pursuing online video. Not the agencies, not the big PR honchos, but the people inside the companies and behind the brands who know their message the best. 2010 will be the year marketers take back the power and get their message to the consumers. Online video and the genre of branded entertainment will be the way they do it, and VMG will be there to help.

Full review of the study from Reel SEO:

http://www.reelseo.com/video-marketing-top-priority-2010/

I have to admit I haven’t heard of Greg Jarboe before, but I sure as hell liked what he had to say in this video. And yes you should check out the Monty Python YouTube case study he mentions because it is truly eye opening to the potential of YouTube as a direct marketing and sales conversion tool (Monty Python DVD sales went up 23,000%!).

Here’s the link to the full Monty Python case study

Check out my recent Q&A in Toronto Marketing Blog with Sandra Bekhor on the topic of marketing professional service firms with online video: http://torontomarketing.blogspot.com/2009/09/marketing-professional-service-firms.html

- Evan