If you are trying to decide if you should buy an HTC EVO or an iPhone4 this video might make you feel better about the whole situation.

WARNING: ADULT LANGUAGE

When kids dream about playing professional sports they imaging being a super star like Kobe Bryant. When professional sports stars dream of playing they dream even bigger. Nike brings the emotion of those super dreams together in yet another web clip for the World Cup that has become a new viral video that combines multiple emotions and celebrities. It also drives home the point that sometimes in life it does just come down to the PKs.

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When I speak at conventions and consult with people about their web videos I often talk about spectacle, story and emotions being the ingredients of viral videos and people are sometimes confused by what I mean when I say “spectacle.”

Spectacle can be just about anything that visually grabs your attention. Think about the plastic bag in the Sam Mendes directed feature film American Beauty or the young cheerleader on the bed of rose peddles in the same film played by Thora Birch or the cheerleader dance scene choreographed by Cindy Montoya in the same movie. All of those images are spectacle and they are spectacles that move emotions.

When you are writing and designing your web videos think about what emotions you can move within the context of what you are creating and try to move as many of them as you can.

Take for example the above footage of Eyjafjallajökull the erupting Icelandic volcano by Sean Stiegemeier. Alone it’s breathtaking. Add ethereal music and you move more emotions. Show it to someone who missed their flight and lost money because of travel delays and you are dealing with a whole other set of emotions.

Funny videos are great but if you can’t remember the name of the product they have failed. I don’t know if it’s because this is not a US product or if it’s a because of the way the spot was designed but I can’t remember the name of the product in this video and I’ve watched it four times while preparing this post.

I do think the video is creepy and funny and has a great chance of going viral but will it sell more products?

I’m not sure.

Jaime Pressley and Jamie Earl are cast in this advertainment video from AXE that shows men how they can clean their balls. What’s interesting is that not only is this video available on Youtube but it’s also being served as a 300 x 250 banner ad. That should jack up the numbers on Youtube. If you “act now” you can also receive a free scrubby to clean your balls.

Remember, “If you have dirty balls that need cleaning, check out this very important message from Axe.”

Balls  CYB  Axecyb  cleansyourballs.com  Axe  Effect  Dirty  Sports  Detailer  Shower  Gel  Body  spray  Monica  Blake  Old  Ball  sack  free  funny  LOL  dirty  infomercial commercial  demonstration  film  video  shower  tool  scrub  soap  BBH  Harold  Einstein  Tennis  Soccer  Golf  Small  Big  Station  Films  comedy parody giveaway  demo  QVC

The most important viral videos of 2009 were few and far between but I did mange to pick 5 videos that for one reason or another brought real value to the independent production and distribution of web video.

5th – Do You Want to Date My Avatar

This year the brilliant and talented Felicia Day (Creator / Star of The Guild and Stream Award Winner) proved that you could give away 6 Million views of an independent music video for free and still sell electronic downloads of the video and the song as well as market and promote your web video series and DVDs.

4th – JK Wedding Entrance Dance

This viral video wasn’t important because it got over 35 Million views this year. It was significant because it didn’t make any money for the content creators to begin with but it did prompt YouTube to change policy and then it became a boon to YouTube’s “click to buy ads” program.

Social Media Site Mashable said the JK Wedding Entrance Dance was the, “antithesis of the Susan Boyle video explosion, where YouTube and ITV were unable to work out any sort of deal, and hundreds of millions of video views went unmonetized.”

3rd – The Bannen Way Trailer

Actor, co-writer and executive producer, Mark Gantt teamed up with writer, director and executive producer, Jesse Warren to create The Bannen Way (Launching Jan 6th, 2010 on Sony’s Crackle) but before they sold their idea to Sony they created a online trailer and “Pitch Site” that created buzz, got them a fancy Hollywood agent at ICM, helped then sell their show idea to Sony and they got to act, write and direct their project. The studio didn’t take Mark and Jesse’s football away from them and give it to someone else, Sony let them play quarterback and wide receiver. It has been fantasy filmmaking at it’s best and if The Bannen Way does well next month when they launch the first episode (on the same day that you can buy the feature length film on iTunes via electronic sell through) which I think it will, there will be a new working business model for web video and those of us who have been pushing this online video rock up the hill for so long will be jumping for joy.

Now I know the Original trailer for The Bannen Way came out on Saturday August 23th 2008 but I’m excited for these webisodes to become an online web series hit that will become a household name that sends mainstream America to the web to watch video they way they started texting after Ryan Seacrest told people to text in their votes on American Idol.

2nd – Ataque de Pánico! (Panic Attack!) 2009

More than any other video this year this online video goes to show you the power of web video for independent filmmakers.

Federico “Fede” Alvarez made a short film of robots invading the capital city of Uruguay for $300. He now has a CAA agent and a multi-million dollar movie deal with A-list Hollywood “Spider-Man” director Sam Raimi.

According to Patrick Goldstein of the LA Times, “After seeing his short film, which depicts an invasion of Montevideo by a battalion of giant robots, Mandate Pictures agreed to bankroll a $30-million upcoming film for Alvarez, with the filmmaker getting a cool $1 million director’s fee.”

1st – Iran, Tehran: wounded girl dying in front of camera, Her name was Neda

Neda Agha Soltan was shot to death on 20.06.2009 by security forces during a protest (against Iranian Presidential Election 2009) in IRAN. Her name quickly became a rallying cry for the opposition who protested against Islamic Dictatorship.

This video stands to remind us that without the freedom of speech to show videos that are real news and not fluff or propaganda we will be in the same boat as Iran. We need to make sure that the Internet remains open and gets even more open for people who don’t yet have access to the democracy of online video.

If you are interested in keeping the Internet Video and Entertainment open please visit the Open Entertainment Alliance

Social media networks are a buzz about the YouTube film Ataque de Pánico! (Panic Attack!) 2009 saying that Spider-Man Director Sam Raimi is going to Turn the YouTube Film into $30m Movie

Giant robots invades Montevideo is a 5min short movie directed and animated by Fede Alvarez.

Who gave you permission to post on the Internet? Who will you need to get permission from in the future? How much money will you have to pay to post or serve video in the future? Who do you want telling you what you can and can’t see on the Internet? Why should you be able to share your thoughts with other people on the Internet? Why should there be net neutrality?

Why should you have an open Internet?

If this is something you care about join others who are fighting to keep the Internet Open at Open Entertainment.org .

What’s old is new again with social media. This last week Amp Energy drink launched the Before You Score iPhone application to appeal to guys looking to pick up the ladies. The App is pure sophomoric fun in true bad taste and feels like a Saturday Night Live sketch come to life as an iPhone App but it has created a storm of anger in the social media community causing parent brand Pepsi to apologize for the App.

Controversy builds interest and in this case it has got the app a lot more attention than it would have if the haters had not said a word but this is nothing new.

Several years back religious groups use to get upset and protest Hollywood movies that didn’t go along with their beliefs. By protesting a film they raised awareness and drove more paying ticket buyers to the theaters. Eventually these groups learned that their efforts to publicly denounce a film that didn’t fit their beliefs only benefited the movies they disagreed with so they stopped drawing attention to the flicks they hatted.

At several cocktail parties at Blogworld this week I heard both men and women talking about the B4 U Score AMP iPhone App. That never would have happened had the haters not been so vocal.

Pay close attention to your paying customers. Give them what they want and engage them in your conversation but keep in mind there are people out there that will never like your product. They will never recommend your product and more importantly they will never buy your product. But if you can polarize your audience and get the very people that hate you to publicize your product and bring it to the attention of people who may like or even love your product, then you need to love the haters.

AMP, Energy Drink, AMPUP, B4 You Score, iPhone app

“Got Milk?” the campaign that can do no wrong has spilled the milk on their latest branded entertainment extravaganza that is FAR OUT. The “Got Milk?” folks have created a new branded entertainment viral video campaign in conjunction with a new sweepstakes targeting High School students. But after 6 days on YouTube their videos that are getting National TV ad spends only have 23,610 views on YouTube. You know the video sharing site that High School students watch instead of TV?

The problem is that the “Got Milk?” TV commercials are driving traffic to the Branded Entertainment site, milkquarious.com that has it’s own video player. That’s great, but that costs them money AND when you go there to watch the Milkquarious Videos which by the way are FUN in an Austin Powers / Shaft kind of way YOU CAN’T GRAB AN EMBED CODE!!!! WTF????

What kind of Rookie mistake is this? Or does their ad agency make more money by doing it this way? I am soooo confused. Why would you try to have a viral campaign that is using TV to drive traffic and then send viewers to a site that doesn’t jack up your YouTube views?

If you want to reach teen age high school students go to YouTube. If you are going to spend money on TV advertising to target High School students have your adds go to a site with a YouTube video and make sure there is an embed code that your visitors can embed and place on their sites. This way you will get more views on YouTube and more High School students will see your video with millions of views on YouTube and you will get more and more views, more people embeding your videos and more Milkquarious LOVE!

Got It?

Oh, and the “Got Milk?” people also didn’t tag their videos with the words, “funny, sexy, hot, or girl” which the videos seem to have and will get you more views.

The sad thing is, after a post like this the people who could use my help the most will never hire me but hopefully you, my loyal blog visitors, friends and family will in some way benefit from this rant and use the information to get more view of your viral video!