The Staying Power of Viral Videos

"Viral" is my absolute least favourite word to hear in a meeting with clients, "We want a viral video." is an almost impossible request to satisfy.

It's not that we can't make you a viral video; we can if you give us a couple kittens, a kid singing impossibly well and a double rainbow we'll have you at a million hits within 24 hours. But does viral matter if there is no staying power? If your video goes viral and a month later is forgotten about did you invest your funds wisely?

Truly viral videos may disappear from our cache but they don't ever leave our hearts.

Yesterday a friend of mine shared an article by The Onion. The article claimed that United Airlines, "[had] in its ongoing effort to cut transportation costs and boost profits, announced Tuesday that it was exploring the feasibility of herding them into planes and stacking them like cordwood from floor to ceiling." While the idea of stacking passengers like cordwood is both amusing and oddly accurate my first action upon reading the satirical piece was to head to YouTube  and re-watch the very REAL story of Sons of Maxwell lead singer, Dave Carroll and his poor guitar.

United Breaks Guitars was uploaded more than 2 years ago, has over 11 million views and when I think of United Airlines this song ALWAYS comes to mind.

While I may not remember that kitten video I watched last week or the latest viral effort from the "hottest" digital shop in town, I do remember the first time I saw Harley Morenstein and his band of foodies combine bacon, 5 birds and a pig to create the TURBACONEPIC!

Harley and his team have turned their wildly popular videos into a real business; forming partnerships with companies like Netflix and Gamefly. But stories like this aren't as rare as they seem; Jenna Marbles and countless others have led the way for anyone who wants to turn viral success into a legitimate career.

Real viral videos, viral ads and viral efforts have a kind of staying power that is invaluable; when I'm bored or having a bad day I go back to one of Jenna's oldest videos (linked above) and I smile. Because she isn't a trend or a fad, she's funny and unique and even though I've seen all of her Wednesday videos I go back to my favourites the way I go back to my favourite movies.

Before embarking on a quest to create viral video content, brands should remember that YouTube isn't just for amateurs, there are people that are making a career from their exceptional content. If you want to invest your money wisely make sure that the video you're putting so much effort into isn't just about cheap laughs, make it worthy of return visits.

Your video should be my favourite movie in 3 minutes or less, something I never get tired of and always want to see again.

- Shan

The World Domination Handbook: A Review of Dale Carneige’s ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’

Ever wonder how true leaders and people of influence become successful? No, it’s not by joining The Church of Scientology or the Illuminati. It’s simply by reading one of the greatest books of all time, the holy grail of social interaction and understanding people. I’m talking about ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ a book suggested to me by a dear friend.

It was Christmas holidays and I was looking for an enjoyable book to read on my journey back to Toronto from Antarctica a.k.a Ottawa. I sent a text to my friend Brian who had suggested this book to me many times in the past and constantly raved about its author Dale Carneige. I was slightly skeptical about the relevance of a book written in 1937 to today’s social media driven audience. With nothing to lose I decided to purchase the book and since then have re-read it several times. From start to finish it covers the fundamentals of human interaction and learning to truly enjoy the art of conversation.

The most memorable message and theme can be summarized with the quote “to be interesting, be interested”. Human beings are self indulgent creatures, they love nothing more than sharing their own story and having others listen to them. I know many of you may think that when you listen to your dear aunt Dorothy go on about her cats, you’re truly being engaged and present with her. But how many times do you ACTUALLY listen and allow her to feel important? Showing genuine interest in a person can open up a wonder of opportunities and allow for a sense of ease and trust to be established. These teachings apply to our daily interactions but are especially relevant in a professional setting; getting to know our clients and their behavior can help bridge gaps and allow for more meaningful and pleasant interactions.

With 75 years of relevant lessons I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone in marketing, or for those who want to polish up their social skills. I leave you with this quote, “If you believe in what you are doing, then let nothing hold you up in your work. Much of the best work of the world has been done against seeming impossibilities. The thing is to get the work done.”-Dale Carniege

- Eric

The Pitch

Checked out The Pitch on AMC.

This show would be a whole lot cooler if it was a fake show about advertising. But because no agency is going to let camera crews in on what really happens behind the scenes, it's not that cool. And though agency life in 2012 isn't as glamorous as Mad Men, it's a whole lot more awesome than this show makes it seem. Where are the way-too-out-there ideas that client would never sign off on? The ones that make a meeting howl but need to stay within the walls of the agency? Creative teams are the lifeblood of any agency. These are the people that could have stand up comedy careers or write screenplays but have a love for constant competition (and a pay cheque). The show only displayed creatives during their worst moments, getting shut down by their CD's (who were surprisingly lamely depicted in the show) for not being out there enough. But take a camera into the creative team's office at 10PM and you'd have a better story to expose.

The show misses the mark in the campaign it features. Where is the digital strategy? Where is the social media integration? Perhaps later episodes will touch on more integrative campaign ideas but this one is so inapplicable to today's creative campaign necessities it was baffling. Strangely, the winning agency's big idea stems from a YouTube video with millions of views. Which displays their knowledge that content sharing online is this decade's most powerful way to reach consumers. But they don't apply this knowledge in a fresh way at all, turning a YouTube viral video into a less cool television spot. TV. Pssh. Maybe there will be tie in to digital once the business is won, but to leave it completely out of the pilot episode lends to the lackluster, dinosaur feel this show carries.

In a day when advertising is struggling to find its foothold in this newly evolved, consumer powered, brands personified, full disclosure ecosystem, why does AMC focus on such an outdated aspect of our business? Yes, the Pitch is still relevant. But there are so many more parts of the wheel to include. Will consumers care about the end product? Will they share it? Television ads are for the most part, no longer entertaining. The best advertising comes from the shops that take risks to find what will touch the consumer’s heart enough to pass the content along. Subway should not have been the client to focus on, nor were the agencies that prepared safe ideas to appease them. In the end, nobody will care about this campaign. And thus nobody will likely care about how it came to be, or the Pitch, as it is.

- Jon

“UH-OH” Is ICQ Looking to Make a Comeback with Android?

Remember the days of ICQ? It was the late 1990’s, we would sit at our computers writing reports and chatting with the friends we had left behind at school less than an hour ago. Well, it looks like ICQ might have a place in our hearts again. Now owned by Russian web giant, Mail.ru Group, the company is set to launch its latest app for the Android platform.

The refreshed app, which already exists for iOS and the new Windows Phone, will combine old school IM with the more modern desire to have all-in-one applications. Users of the app can already integrate with existing IM technology including Facebook, AIM and GTalk, but now they will be able to share photos and location, combined with better offline functions like reading and composing IMs without a connection - this new app has the potential to be a massive hit with GenY and hipsters everywhere.

GenY lives in the social space more than any other but they also seem to long for a simpler time, or in the case of the Hipsters a more ironic time, so aside from the cross platform functionality and offline capabilities ICQ has one big thing going for it; the “UH-OH”. That iconic sound that so many of the GenY crowd associate with their first digital memories.
 
From a marketing standpoint, we know that playing on a person’s nostalgia is a powerful method of  connecting with your target market.

Pepsi’s Throwback campaign took advantage of this in 2011 when they launched a can and recipe that was a throwback to the Pepsi we had all known up until 1981 when the recipe changed from real sugar to high fructose corn syrup. Following the success of the U.S. execution, Pepsi Throwback was brought to Canada. Pepsi threw a massive party at Toronto's Revival on College, attendees were invited to put on their retro attire, drink some Pepsi and throw back to a simpler time. The campaign received mass media coverage from the National Post and #PepsiThrowback was trending globally by the end of the party. Even today, almost a year later, fans of the product are begging for its return.

Frito Lay did something similar for Doritos by bringing back their 1980’s Doritos Taco flavour. To accompany the old-is-new-again bag the brand launched a “Time Machine” Facebook app that brought users back to their favourite pop culture moments of yesterday. Thousands of fans engaged with the new app.

The key message is simple, although consumers are product-focused and price-oriented, as people, we’re very sentimental. Play to our past and it might earn you consideration in our future. Will it work for ICQ? I’ll text you about it later.


-Nafty

Happy 7th Birthday YouTube

7 years ago today the first ever video was uploaded to YouTube.

Me at the Zoo is a 19 second film featuring YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim; while the film is nothing revolutionary in and of itself it does mark the beginning of something incredible... and with an elephant no less.

7 years ago, 19 seconds of film changed the way we share content forever.

According to the most recent stats we upload 60 hours of video every single minute, over 4 billion videos are viewed every day all seen by the more than 8 million unique visitors a month.

While YouTube is often mocked for being home to a seemingly unbelievable number of cat videos the real truth is that 7 years ago, YouTube gave voice to a silent web.

With YouTube we found a place to be creative, informative, strange and honest. We found a content creation tool and all that was needed to start sharing was a free account and a camera.

So thank you YouTube, for all that you've done for us as people, brands and creators.

Now, I don't know about you but I'm going to go watch some badgers do their thing.

- Shan

Instaface

Facebook's acquisition of Instagram makes way for some interesting possibilities to reach a new audience. The 30Million users on Instagram are a different target than other social platforms like Twitter or FourSquare, but Instagram does encompass similar features. While the primary intent of Instagram is to share photography, users can also tag a location and write a brief message. It's a visually driven sharing tool for those who believe a picture speaks way more to an event than 140 characters and if we're checking in, we should see what the location looks like, too.

While adding new possibilities to Facebook's social sharing capabilities is important, we're more concerned with how a brand can use Instagram to enhance the brand-consumer relationship by delivering engaging content.

The shift to page-post advertising (using a page's post as an ad), points to Facebook's goal of creating symbiotic relationships between brand and consumer. There is pressure on brands to be creative in enhancing the quality of their page's content, spending money to get their best content in front of more users. With the ability to connect Instagram to Facebook, a brand could set a budget to advertising the "most recent eligible post" and then feed in new pictures and comments live from an event. Instagram pictures will look sharp in ads and with the proper target set, the reach and awareness of an event could significantly increase.

Facebook's move to acquire a popular content sharing network brings to light the apparent mission of blending more visual content into everyone's newsfeeds. Look out for the potential integration of Facebook Check Ins with Instagram Posts as well.

- Jon

Live Pinning: A Real-time Source of Pinsperation

This past New York Fashion Week the brilliant and beloved Oscar de la Renta treated his cyber fans to the utmost industry V.I.P access. Cyber guests were treated via Pinterest to a real-time runway show viewing photos of his collection as it made its way down the runway. His team ‘live-pinned’ show preparation and backstage access to his branded account the evening before the event.

With Pinterest being the latest social media outlet du jur brands are now even more able to share their merchandise and have fans coveting items. Companies using this platform show their connection to all things social and increase their advertising potential. The consumer now becomes engaged on various levels and is left with a virtual take-away that they are able to refer when purchase desire kicks in.

This form of expression and lifestyle engagement would work perfectly for clients such as Holt Renfrew and Nissan. Holt Renfrew could use Pinterest to showcase their consumer’s lifestyle and have boards devoted to labels which they carry, updating them as shipments arrive and expressing their trend forecasts for each season. To make shopping fun and interactive they could even devote boards to various stages in a person’s life helping them to transition their wardrobe. Their biggest opportunity lies within the male consumer, Holt Renfrew could create Pinterest boards outlining the season’s must have items making their trip into the store that much easier and more pleasant. Men have hesitation when it comes to shopping and trying new looks, if they were to see an outfit or items laid out that fit their lifestyle purchasing would be that much easier.

With Nissan Pinterest could tell the story of the companies past and also highlight their present and future vehicles. Inspiration boards could be created for individual models showcasing their features and benefits. They could then help to target vehicles demographic by pinpointing the followers who share the images.

Using Pinterest as a social outlet is another way of giving your brand a voice. Companies are able to create moments and inspire their consumers, leaving them with a virtual take-away and references to items they would like to purchase. This sharing would help to increase purchase desire and help eliminate the guess work in finding that perfect item.


- Eric

Introductions

Welcome to Social Stream a blog dedicated to all things interweb-y, digital and tweet-worthy.

Collectively we make up the community management team at the Toronto ad agency Capital C but separately we are Jon Nelson, Eric Omikunle, Matthew Naftolin (Nafty) and me Shannon Hunter (Shan).

In the spirit of introductions we've compiled our official-sounding bios below; we promise this is the only time we'll refer to ourselves in the third person.

Jon
Jon Nelson has a love for communication and the tools people use to share their interests. His BA in theatre blended into his penchant for advertising and after a post-grad diploma in copywriting, he found himself working as a community manager before Facebook had likes and before Twitter was popular. As Consumer Engagement Manager at Capital C, he oversees content creation, community management and social outreach for brands with diverse voices and creates new personalities for clients not yet playing in the online social world. He loves riding his bike, live music and being outdoors too.

Eric 
Eric Omikunle has taken his love for conversation/debating and fascination for what makes people tick to a social level. A self-proclaimed pop culture junky he’s first to download the latest ‘it’ singing sensations music track and dining at Toronto Life’s noted restaurants. While living life he always remembers to capture the moments by tweeting and instragraming his every move.

Nafty 
Ever find yourself reading up on the latest marketing tactic of a brand and asking yourself “What were they thinking??!!”. It was those moments that pushed Matt Naftolin into the marketing realm, and with Social Media taking over, it’s only becoming more fun. When he’s not analyzing the field, you’ll most likely find him kicking-back on a patio, shooting a basketball with friends, or searching the web for the latest and greatest.

Shan
Shannon Hunter has been active in the Toronto social media scene since early 2009; she has worked as a social media lead and community manager on several brands including Toyota Canada and Infiniti Canada.

Working as social media lead at her previous agency Shannon ran the first geo-targeted promoted trend on twitter in Canada.

She maintains an active presence online and writes as a relationship columnist for several popular online magazines including Women's Post and DailyXY.  Her knowledge of relationships, love of social media and desire to give back to charity led her to create "Love A Heart", an annual bachelor/bachelorette auction that is promoted entirely through social media; since then the auction has raised $21,000.00 for the Heart & Stroke Foundation.

So that's us, feel free to tell us all about yourself in the comments below - we'll definitely read them.

- Shan