Behind the Times.

While reading this Wall Street Journal article this afternoon for my advanced marketing class, I discovered a pretty interesting fact about one of our favorite social media sites, YouTube.
Though it wasn't a front page story or anything, actually it was in the Marketplace section (really the only section I usually flip through), the article was pretty big and even included a large colored picture. Basically the article was telling about how Youtube has been renting movies since 2010 -- something I was not aware of -- and is planning to increase their collections and add in more recent movies to be available at the same time that they come out in video stores. This new addition would be great for YouTube and make them more competitive with video stores, television shows and OnDemand programs. Also, by offering the new titles that it hopes to, it would also be competing with Netflix, which only offers older films that you can watch online for a monthly fee.
This came as a surprise to me, though, as well as the fact  that YouTube was the number two search engine on the net. It's a great idea for Google to use YouTube for renting movies as well as a video sharing site and I think that it will continue YouTube's growth and influence on the Internet. The only thing that concerns me with renting a movie from YouTube is how the video will load, because here at ONU and with a less than reliable connection all the time, it can be a terrible pain trying to load a four minute video -- let alone an hour and a half worth of a video.
So if you're behind the times like me and not too familiar with all of YouTube's options and offerings, then go check out the YouTube Store, which apparently you could have rented movies from since 2010 and soon to more and more recent movies too! You can also watch some of the really old movies for free in the movies tab.

For the Kid at Heart

I don't know about you, but even though I'm in college, I still love watching Disney movies. Some of my favorites are the Lion King, Finding Nemo, the Emperor's New Groove, and Cars.
Naturally, when I heard that Disney-Pixar was coming out with a new sequel - Cars 2: World Grand Prix, I was pumped. In this new movie, the star race car, Lightening McQueen, and his tow truck friend, Mater, head overseas to compete in the first-ever World Grand Prix to determine the world's fastest car, but on the way, Mater gets involved in some kind of adventure dealing with international spies and espionage.
The really cool thing about Cars 2 is how they're promoting it. I saw a YouTube video advertising the the new sequel and though it was kind of weird and didn't tell too much about the new movie coming out, but there was a hidden message/video clip hidden in the ad. If you paused the clip and typed in the code, you would be taken to a new video which is "leaked" footage of the new movie. I thought it was very creative and goes along with the sequel's theme of espionage and is pretty clever if you can catch it. (and if you didn't, then type chromea113.com in the URL to see it)

The Hidden Message - From Unnecessary Umlaut

I can't wait until June 24th when the movie comes out so I can go see it!

Animation and Alcohol?

So Three olives walk into a bar... Oh wait.

Actually, the Three Olives Vodka has a new campaign based off of the old joke about three guys walking into a bar. I think the short advertisements are clever and fun, and really capture the brand's personality. So far, there are three animated clips on YouTube (for now) featuring cowboys, sugar daddies, and sportscasters. I found these videos from a post on AdRants, and though most of the comments on the post and videos were positive, there were quite a few expressing concern about the material and the fact that the ad was animated. Some of the comments were in regards to promoting an alcohol in an animation because it would appeal to children.

Despite this little gripe, the Three Olives website actually won't let you on unless you enter your birthday and are over 21 years old. If you type in a date thats over 21 years ago, you can get in though. Three Olives Vodka is a premium imported vodka from the U.K. and comes in over 15 different fun and colorful flavors, including Bubble(gum), Purple, Dude, Rootbeer and Triple Shot Expresso.

From the article on AdRants, "Explaining the campaign's approach, Proximo (parent company to Three Olives) Senior Vice President of Marketing Elwyn Gladstone said, 'It seems that all the fun has been taken out of vodka with virtually all brands scrambling for the same crowded, so-called 'luxury' positioning. The Three Olives brand is set apart from that stuffy niche because while we're seriously premium, we're also seriously fun.'"

The only problem that I can see with advertising such a fun brand of fruity and exotic flavors with little cartoons is that, yes, kids may be more attracted to it, but they won't be able to purchase it until they are 21 years old and I would say that the use of the videos to advertise the drink should be very successful to adults who want to go out and have fun when they drink.

Here are the links to the three animations.

Three Cowboys walk into a bar...

Three Sugar Daddies walk into a bar...

Three Sportscasters walk into a bar...

What do you think about Three Olives Vodka advertising with animations?

Feel Good About Yourself!!

Have you ever been sitting around with a bunch of girls and the conversation inevitably turns to a rants session bashing on our bodies and looks? Sure you have, because this is such a common scenario these days. One girl will start with, "Oh my gosh, I'm so fat!" Then another one will chime in with, "Me too! I need to work out." And yet another girl will say something about her need to exercise and how she wishes she were prettier. These conversations are ridiculous and are awful for our self-esteems. Some people say that there is tremendous pressure on young girls from magazines, television shows and advertisements, which I think is true, but I also think that a person's harshest critic is herself. I think this is true even if we aren't just talking about looks. When it comes to school and activities or sports, we tend to focus on the things we could have done better at than what our actual achievements are.

Complaining about our flaws isn't going to do anything for us. If we really wanted to change ourselves to feel better then we can. Go work out or put make-up on oh take a few minutes to vent and let it all out if it helps you feel better, but don't sit there and degrade yourself and wallow in self-pity. Everyone should be happy and do what it takes to make themselves feel good each day.

This video has been making its way around the web for a while now, and though it's quite funny how blunt and honest he is, his message is very valid and true. I think everyone should take a look at it and could take a bit of advice from him.

Back to the Books!

Well since I was in New Orleans the past week, I missed the memo of the switched readings for class. I decided to catch up with that and see what all the hype was about viral videos! Though I am thoroughly upset that I missed the day in class that you all just watched YouTube videos all day, I am well aware of some of the most viral videos and have a few favorites myself. One of them is Grape Stomping. There have also been remakes and re-enactions of this, but it started out as a story on the news telling about a winery where you can actually stomp on the grapes to help make the wine. However, it turned out to be a hilarious fail.

What I like about viral videos on the web are that anyone could make one, from a dancing baby in a home-video to a child lipsyncing, from pets doing tricks to mishaps and failures of various activities.
Actually let me correct myself -- not everyone can make a viral video (purposely.) Anyone can make a video and post it on the web, and I mean, it is possible for that video to go viral, though it probably won't unless bloggers and viewers really like/dislike it and share it with everyone they can.

In The New Rules of Marketing & PR, I found the example of Mentos and Diet Coke to be really very interesting from a company's viewpoint. Now of course I've heard of the reaction when Mentos are dropped into Diet Coke, and I've even done the experiment in elementary school, but the fact that these two guys recorded the reaction and put it on the web for everyone to see -- genius. Seriously though, who doesn't like to see explosions and watch things blow up? Not only did Mentos greatly benefit from this video that spread like wildfire, they also took it to the next level with social media and got the customers in their market to get involved. They hosted a contest for people to tape their own experiments and send them in to a special Mentos website where other people could vote and choose the video they liked the best. So smart. Then, to make it even better, they chose the prize offered to the winning video by carefully examining who the target audience would be -- technology savvy, younger people -- so they chose to give 1,000 free iTunes songs. This is such a great example of marketing because they did everything so thoughtfully and planned out once they got all of that publicity from that video, to continue gaining more publicity and milking it for what it was worth.

So Clever.

First of all I would like to start by saying that I LOVE SmartWater. I love the taste and the bottles and even the label, because it has a little saying on the inside of the bottle.
I can't say that I've really seen any SmartWater commercials or seen too many advertisements, but this YouTube video seems to have taken all the stops. This advertisement is trying to make a viral video, which according to wikipedia, is a video that becomes popular through the process of internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites and e-mails. Generally these viral videos include silly things like dancing babies, little animals, lip-syncing, and sexy hair whips, which is exactly what was included in this commercial. SmartWater uses these little tactics to hopefully create a video that will go viral, giving them massive exposure to promote their product.
I first saw this YouTube video on the blog, AdRants, and I must admit that it was pretty clever for SmartWater to take advantage of the video sharing media. They're also letting the public display their opinions in comments and the video has 26,772 likes and 4,636 dislikes. This kind of made me think about the groundswell and how big of an impact the public as a whole can affect this video and the spread of it, based on whether they like it or not.

Life is Soooo Much Better with Broadband!

I made this little clip for my social media class and for the Connect Ohio contest that we are required to enter. The purpose is to "produce Public Service Announcements (PSA) that tell great stories and inspire people who don't use broadband today to GET CONNECTED!"

Enjoy!