Buzzworthy Wednesday Video: Nike SB
So this week was a little light in terms of newly released online marketing videos that I would consider buzzworthy. However my pick this week is for Nike SB to celebrate the release of professional skateboarder Paul Rodriguez’s (aka P Rod) third shoe (the skateboarding son of the famous comedian). Set to the grooving tempo of the Ice Cube song “Today Was a Good Day”, the Nike video kind of parallels the original Ice Cube music video storyline just through the eyes of a skateboarder with one slight humorous difference at the end. It’s had over 370,000 views since being uploaded about 3 weeks ago.
Nothing earth shattering here. No crazy production. No trick camera skills. No dancing babies or flash mobs. While there are some very cool skateboarding tricks, I’m not a particularly big fan of skateboarding. So why did this video appeal to me? I probably just like it because the skateboarding tricks ARE cool, the tempo of them follow the music well and it’s set to one of my all time favorite rap songs. There I said it. Sometimes it’s all about the music and how it moves you or grabs you.
And the Oscar goes to….Social Media?
Or what the movie industry could learn by listening to conversations and engaging further on social media.
The Academy Awards are a once a year experience that is exciting to the movie industry insiders and fans alike. Although a lot is made of who wore what on the red carpet or what surprise winner there was — the Oscar’s isn’t just an event…it’s business. It’s important to keep in mind that the Oscar buzz and awards can affect many movie production studios who have a lot riding on their movie…for this year and, particularly for small studios, to get funding for projects in the year to come.
Which is why I found the following information from eMarketer so incredibly interesting. According to Nielsen, the five Best Picture nominees spent a combined $64.3 million on advertising in the US.
The film with the largest advertising budget was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which spent more than almost all the other Best Picture nominated films combined.
So with that kind of marketing blitz you’d expect the majority of online buzz to be centered around The Curious Case of Benjamin Button…right? On Oscar night however, all that spending had no effect on the conversations people were engaging in online.
According to New Media Strategies, who tracked the online conversation buzz for the 24 hour period surrounding Oscar night and produced two reports: one covering Twitter posts (lead by @leslieann44) and one covering blog posts (lead by @simonowens of Bloggasm).
On Twitter of the Best Picture nominees, the movie with the most mentions was the Best Picture winner, Slumdog Millionaire, followed by Milk, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Reader and Frost/Nixon, in that order.
- Slumdog Millionaire: 6,369
- Milk: 3,617
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: 1,110
- The Reader: 814
- Frost/Nixon: 543
The most tweeted about individual was Best Actor winner Sean Penn followed by Best Supporting Actor winner Heath Ledger, Mickey Rourke, Best Supporting Actress winner Penélope Cruz and Hugh Jackman to round out the top 5 individuals.
According to their analysis of blog mentions, Slumdog Millionaire, was also No. 1, with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Milk, The Reader and Frost/Nixon behind.
- Slumdog Millionaire: 28,909
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: 20,939
- Milk: 20,676
- The Reader: 16,123
- Frost/Nixon: 8,341
The most mentioned individual on blogs was Angelina Jolie followed by Best Supporting Actress winner Penélope Cruz, Mickey Rourke, Best Supporting Actor winner Heath Ledger and Best Actress Winner Kate Winslet in that order.
It’s interesting to note that while heavy spending is required by the movie industry to get people into theatres; it had virtually no influence on the conversations being held online in the social media world. Was all the talk on Twitter about Sean Penn’s somewhat controversial acceptance speech? Were people cheering for the underdog story by talking about Slumdog Millionaire? Could more social media engagement by the movie industry and production studios on Twitter, Facebook and blogs help bring a happy Hollywood ending by creating more buzz about these movies? What do you think?
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Stop Trying to Force Monetization of Online Video
According to data released in January 2009 by comScore Video Metrix and published on eMarketer, more than 146 million US Internet users watched an average of 87 videos per viewer in November 2008—that’s 77% of the total US Internet audience.
eMarketer also puts online video viewers at more than three-quarters of US Internet users, and estimates that percentage will rise to nearly 90% in less than three years. These numbers just go to show that online video continues to grow incredibly fast and offers the savvy business deploying online video content more opportunities to engage with a growing audience if the content is created correctly to engage viewers without a hard sell. Transparency is key. If it’s a straight up sales video don’t try to disguise it as a “funny” video. Online viewers can sniff out a fraud within 10 seconds.
So with that in mind the next part of this survey is what really bothered me. The subtitle of the article was “Is all of it monetizable?” and it stated “For marketers, this growth raises the question of how much online video can be monetized.”
STOP. I repeat stop trying to monetize every single video out on the internet. Stop trying to squeeze a cent out of every online video just because it has a viewership to market to. There are occasions particularly with long-form (online television shows or movies) where pre-roll ads or post-roll ads could be seamlessly built in around the content. But please stop trying to squeeze ads in on a 90 second video. Particularly while the video is running and it blocks the bottom half of the screen with its “message”. Do you think these content-blocking and interruptive ads make me want to buy your product?
If you really want to take advantage of online video growth and the budding audience that goes with it — hire a content creator to produce a video or series of videos for you that is entertaining, engaging and has your product or service loosely worked into the story line. Make outdoor hiking gear? Create a short series about hiking up Mt. Ranier using your gear in the video series. Sell office products? Shoot your own mockumentary of “The Office”. There are a million ways to produce your own online content to get your message out without interrupting what online videos people are watching with rolling ads. Besides if you create content geared and tagged to be found by your demographic, it’s that much more targeted to reach your audience when and where they are searching.
I think eventually viewers will move away from video sharing sites where these video ads are used and the “marketing powers that be” will think online video cannot be used for advertising mainly because they don’t understand how they need to completely rethink their advertising tactics for this medium.
What do you think? Where do you think online video advertising is headed? Share you thoughts & keep the conversation going below in the comments.
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