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.

“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!

I’m not sure if this GE ad for Clean Coal is lipstick on a pig or truth in advertising but what this GE commercial that was posted on YouTube in 2006 really brings up is the fact that now more than ever you have to be ready to have your old videos, commercials and advertisements show up online and go viral.

If you are a marketer for a company that has been around a long time and may have a closet full of video skeletons you might want to spend a little time looking at your old spots and thinking up your game plan on how you will deal with it when you old videos go viral.

In this soon to be viral video an electric mower drags guy across a yard, into the street and then in front of a truck. The only thing else the video does is super impose the website address http://www.electricityuntamed.com which redirects to http://www.audiusa.com . There you get a slick presentation on electricity facts and a countdown clock to 9/15/09 that leads you to believe that Audi is coming out with an electric car.

Audi is using a cheesy funny viral video to drive traffic to their website and there’s nothing wrong with that. But there is a disconnect for me.

I own a luxury car but I want an electric car. I like the look of the Audi Q7 SUV. I like viral videos. I am the perfect consumer to want an electric car from Audi. What’s not working for me with this video?

Brand permission.

A brand is a promise. The Audi brand has a promise of luxury. Their website looks luxurious. Their cars look luxurious. But this viral video looks like a beer commercial.

In the 1990’s Ford came out with the Ford Explorer Eddie Bauer package and sold many of those cars because they had brand permission. Although I’ve never seen one, I have been told that Ford also created a Ford Explorer with a MTV Package. That car did not sell in the US nor was it meant to but I have been told it did very well in Brazil where it had brand permission.

Does Audi have brand to make a luxury electric car? Absolutely.

Does Audi have brand permission to make this viral video?

Well, I think Audi has as about as much brand permission of doing this viral video as they do in sponsoring an episode of French Maid TV.

It makes no sense and it cheapens their brand.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a fun viral video. I just don’t think it’s right for Audi. Now if it had been done for a car brand that was targeted at a younger crowd I think it might have brand permission and be a brand fit.

What do you think and have you seen any other brand disconnects in viral videos?

He may not be the cutest 13 year old girl video blogger on the Internet. Nor is he the most conservative News Anchor. But he certainly is the smartest Sci-Fi Musical Comedian in the Galaxy and he’s definitely an online video leader.

Hayden Black started creating online videos with Goodnight Burbank in 2006 then went on to produce and star in Abigail’s X-rated teen diaries and now he’s launch a new web series called The Cabonauts and when I met up with him at NATPE’s LATV Fest in Century City last week, he told me about his business deal with Dailymotion.

Watch/Download in HD

I often speak at conventions about what it takes to create a viral video. The ingredients of a viral video are simple: Spectacle, Story and move 2 or More Emotions. But who you get to cook those ingredients makes all the difference in the world. The Bui Brothers are well on their way in becoming viral video chefs with a series of videos that they are producing that showcase Internet celebrities like Veronica Belmont, Sarah Atwood and most recently, The Guild’s Creator, Star and current Online Video It Girl, Felicia Day.

Each of these videos shows a behind the scenes look at a Bui Brothers photo shoot and markets the photographic and video production skills of Vu Bui and Lan Bui in a fun, elegant and emotionally engaging way. Now keep in mind that these videos are not the kind of videos that will go SUPER VIRAL but they are videos that will get lots of “TWOVE” on Twitter and will be passed around the online video community with love, care and respect. How many demo reels or portfolios can you think of that will do that?

In his book World Wide Rave, Marketing, Leadership Speaker & Number #1 bestselling Author David Meerman Scott talks about creating free triggers that make people want what it is that you have. The Bui Brothers have done just that with these short portfolio videos that not only show the creativity that these men have but also showcase how easy they are to work with and how much fun a photo shoot with them can be. It also doesn’t hurt that they have photographed 3 of online video’s smartest, funniest and sexiest women.

When I started French Maid TV it was my goal to create a series of “PG-13″ type videos about anything that would be on regular television except the video would have French Maids in them. At that time many industry trade magazines were talking about how the 18-34 year old male was hard to reach on regular TV and I thought FMTV would be the perfect way solve an advertising problem and give young men some entertaining content. During that period I was producing television specials, interstitial programming and promos for cable networks. The work was fun but it was also stupid.

I remember one interstitial we did for a cable network where the copy was something like, ” It’s hot outside drink water. – This message brought to you by…(Insert corporate bottled water company here).” Now I shouldn’t complain because I was getting paid $20K to $40K to shoot these little spots. That’s right they were spending tens of thousands of dollars on the production of these videos and that didn’t include what they were spending on the media buy at the cable network. About the same time on a Friday afternoon around 5PM I got a call from an old buddy of mine who use to work at Nickelodeon but was now at SPIKE TV. He asked me if I could shoot something the next day which was Saturday. Thinking it was something like a red carpet event in Hollywood that he needed me to cover I looked at my watch and said, ” Yes.” Then I asked, ” What do you need? ” He said he needed me to shoot some hot sexy girls in lingerie reading the latest cheat codes to video games for a segment on Spike TV’s Video Game Awards. I said, “That sounds fun. Where are we shooting?” He said, “Well, we were hoping you could find a place.” I said, “Alright, Who are the girls?” He said, “Well, we were hoping you could find some girls.” I said, “It’s Five O’clock on a Friday.” He said, “Yes it is. Can you do it?” I asked, “Do you at least have the cheat codes for the videos games?” He said he did, I hung up the phone and went to work. The next day we were building a set in my office, lighting it as we built it and casting hot sexy lingerie models while we worked. Now we had gotten these girls from a casting director who did work for Playboy so these girls weren’t shy. Even though we had a bathroom for them to change in they would come in and just change right into their lingerie in front of us. My sound guy looked at me and said, “This is the best job I’ve ever worked on.” I had to agree. It was fun and it was funny to see these young women in lingerie reading cheat codes to video games and the segment was a big hit on the Video Game Awards.

That shoot got me to thinking about integrated advertising, product placement and what marketing opportunities there might be in online video and video podcasting with iTunes and the video iPod. It wasn’t long after that, that French Maid TV was born.

The first two episodes of French Maid TV were proof of concept pilots: How To Video Podcast and How To Give CPR. It took us about a month to get listed on the iTunes Store but three days later we were number one.

Since then I’ve tried different formats with French Maid TV. The One Minute Maid, French Maid Magic and now because of a communication error on my part with a sponsor I’ve got a new episode of 2 Hot Girls Pranking a Sleeping French Maid. It’s not a How To video like other episodes of French Maid TV but it will be interesting to see how it performs and if it becomes a viral video.

I have no knowledge of how this video was produced I only thought it was an incredible concept (A History of the Net) that in my guestimation was watered down to what it is. I can only imagine what they paid to produce it.

Kim Waldauer and Robert Christophe are the duo behind Cube News 1. They live in Los Angeles and are part of the “I Do It All” movement — they write, act, produce…sew costumes, build sets… They have worked together as creative partners for years, collaborating on pieces for the stage, big screen, small screen, and those itty bitty cell phone sized screens.

The Cube News 1 and The Adventures of Cubegirl videos have been picked as favorites by The Wall Street Journal, Time.com and Yahoo; Glamour Magazine named Cubegirl one of YouTube’s funniest of 2007, and they have been featured on the homepages of CNN, YouTube, Revver, blip.tv, Veoh, Brightcove, and JustForLaughs. The videos have been viewed millions of times and are consistently honored as a top viewed Comedian and Partner on YouTube.

Kim was at a day job in a cubicle at a Big Corporation …which slowly began to suck the soul out of her…which began to depress Robert…who finally convinced her to quit, and then realized “your misery would be funny on camera” and Cube News 1 began. Early episodes griped about personal matters, but they quickly jumped over the cubicle partition as viewers wrote in with their own stories of workplace woes.

Do you have a web series about your work place?

Having a 30 second spot on the Super Bowl is one thing but a 60 sec ad during the Super Bowl ain’t cheep so you better make it great. I thinkCareerBuilder.com’s Official Super Bowl Commercial 2009 is one of the best.

What is your favorite 2009 Super Bowl Commercial?