Russian Government Conspiracy Theme of Latest ARG-Style Viral

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In the midst of what has suddenly become Super Bowl XLIII advertising madness, there are, though hard to believe, marketers running campaigns that have nothing whatsoever with the Super Bowl.

One such marketer is Activision which recently launched one of those clandestine, ARG-style, mysterious, who's-behind-it viral thingamabobbers.

There's a "breaking news report" video which covers a murder tied to a Russian government conspiracy. There's a website that talks about hidden Russian secrets dating back to the 1950's. There's Twitter accounts. There's facebook profiles. All the ingredients are there.

We'd dig further to find out what it's all about but someone else already has. You can read all about it here.

And yes, it's all just for another stupid video game.

by Steve Hall    Jan-27-09    
Topic: Viral



OMG! See the LastMinuteTravel Video YouTube Banned

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Keta Keta has been working on a series of promotion videos for LastMinuteTravel which promotes the travel site's latest offering; each day for 15 minutes, every hotel booking is just $1. Five episodes were released over a five day period reaching a total viewership of one million.

The promotion, which begins January 26, features people trying (and in most cases, failing) to take advantage of the deal. Two of the videos, Surprise and Anniversay have garnered the most views. Anniversary is the video that YouTube banned, perhaps for the striptease a wife performs for her husband while he is tied to their bed. Minimal clothing is actually removed.

All of the videos have been compiled into one video here (in which, apparently, there are clues as to increasing your chances at finding the 15 minute windows) or you can watch each one (including Anniversary) individually here.

by Steve Hall    Jan-22-09    
Topic: Good, Promotions, Video, Viral



Ooo! Ooo! You Gotta See This Awesomely Cool Video!

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"hi there!
thanks for a great site!
thought u might like this, an awsome video with skateboarding tv
cool stuff.think you' d love it!!"

"Came over this link while surfing the net. It's a new ad from director Daniel Eskils and KesselsKramer. It's really cool, and I have no idea how it's done!"

Well it must be pretty f'ing good then right? Can't you guys just come out and say you are working for the brand? The agency? The seeding company? Instead of telling us you just randomly "came over" (which is actually pretty gross when you think about it) an "awesome video" that's "really cool" and that we're going to "love it!"?

by Steve Hall    Jan-20-09    
Topic: Commercials, Opinion, Video, Viral



Evolution of Dance 2 Debuts Monday With 'Viral Bridge Marketing'

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Oh no. Here it comes. Another marketing babblespeak acronym. Yes. Are you ready? OK. Viral Bridge Marketing. Yup, VBM, people. What's it all about? We're not really sure but it's described as part of an "innovative deal to monetize the sequel to 'Evolution of Dance.'"

Comparison shopping site Saveology and self-improvement site PeopleJam have teamed and developed "an approach that allows a viral video and its sponsors to meet consumers at the intersection of their tastes (Evolution of Dance 2) and needs (saving money in a tight economy)."

Eesh, if there's anything that'll kill a, hmm, potentially viral viral before it goes viral, it would be this.

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by Steve Hall    Jan- 9-09    
Topic: Opinion, Video, Viral, Worst



Charity Holiday, Enemy Gameplay, More Than Words with Alex B.

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- Top 10 virals of '08, courtesy of the guys that brought you this.

- Digitas Health donates to charity for the holidays, as does RAZ PR (which told us via paper card). Meanwhile, comScore pledges trees.

- "Unprecedented economic waters" (nice euphemism!) means no FedEx retardation during '09's Super Bowl. One less thing to look forward to. Honestly, anything involving Burt Reynolds makes us happier people.

- Remember that crazy/beautiful, semi-schizophrenic media orgy titled Game, Game, Game and Again Game? The sequel is called I Made This. You Play This. We Are Enemies. Creator Jason Nelson promises "More strange hand drawn creatures, with screen shot anchored levels and all the poetic bits known." And then we kissed him.

- Crowdsourcing horror.

- Beancasting Steve and Bill. Among other things, they talk online video marketing, Pepsi suicide ads and diversity (lack of?) in the industry.

- Learn to shred with CP+B. "But yeah, the biggest thing people will go after is Alex giving lessons on how to play Extreme's More Than Words." Sounds like a winner to me.



'Rumble in the Jingle' a 'Trailer Crashers' Sequel (Hmm, That Rhymed)

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Oh look, It's Trailer Crashers with new clothes on. Yes, Samsung is out with Rumble in the Jingle, a Christmas-themed, make-your-own-movie-trailer thing to promote...um..."awareness of the company's Blu Ray offerings."

Gotta love how the three star's "headgear" kind floats awkwardly above their faces. The (intended?) cheesiness succeeds (sort of).

by Steve Hall    Dec-22-08    
Topic: Online, Video, Viral



More (Yawn) Levi's (Yawn) Fake (Yawn) Lame (Yawn) Viral (Yawn) Idiocy

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Seriously? Levi's is *still* pumping out these ludicrously fake videos? And we're still watching them? And writing about them?

Hmm. Guess ludicrously fake is still a viable strategy.

by Steve Hall    Dec-18-08    
Topic: Strange, Video, Viral



Get Your Steve Hall Christmas Doll!

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To demonstrate the new Memo Share, a print and video sharing service, Woo Agency created Made Up Memories, yet another insert-your-picture video maker which, shocker, you can send to your friends.

So here I am promoting the Christmas season "it" toy, Dance'y Pants Steve. Yea, you read that right. My face (from an old picture which I can't seem to eradicate from the bowels of Google) is atop a dancing bunny who looks like he's one of those Barney characters.

by Steve Hall    Dec-11-08    
Topic: Online, Viral



Adidas Taps Footballers For Viral Effort

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Adidas is out with a few new video clips they hope will go viral. They feature Liverpool footballer Steven Gerrard kicking balls at clay pigeons, Togolese footballer playing a video game with his shoe, Real Madrid footballer Arjen Robbenwatching his shoes get a mysterious tune up and German footballer Michael Ballack kicking balls at, well, watch and find out.

by Steve Hall    Nov-24-08    
Topic: Video, Viral



Bike Hero Puts Pedal to Punk Rock.

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This looks like fun. And before you self-harm on account of your incapacity to contrive something this cool with nothing but gamer love and idle time, take comfort: it was apparently pretty well-funded.

Paul Isakson -- better known as @Don_Draper -- says the faux fan effort is actually a promo for Guitar Hero World Tour. Created by Droga5 under the madflux facade, it's already had nearly 520,000 views in its first 24 hours live on YouTube. I'm sure Feed Company is dying of envy.

Thanks @RobertGorell for passing us the link and agency info.

UPDATE: Steve Coulson persuaded us to call Feed Company and find out if they're the genies behind "Bike Hero." The person we talked to was all evasive and weird about it, so we called one of Feed's contractors and got bonafide confirmation: YES, Feed Company seeded the vid for Droga5.

No surprise, I guess; who besides Feed disseminates astroturf amateur vids that people actually watch?

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by Angela Natividad    Nov-20-08    
Topic: Agencies, Good, Online, Video, Viral