© WillVideoForFood, LLC 1

The Secrets of

Yahoo! Canada Summit SeriesJuly 9, 2009

by Kevin Nalts, willvideoforfood.comkevinnalts.com

Viral Video

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Who Am I?

By day, career marketer– Currently Consumer Product

Director – 5 years at Johnson & Johnson– MBA in high-tech marketing, and

experience at interactive agencies (Qwest) and KPMG Consulting

By night, online video– More than 680 short online videos– Viewed more than 35 million times– Authored “How to Get Popular on

YouTube Without Any Talent”– Media, speaking engagements,

industry blogger– Consultant for such clients as Holiday

Inn, Mentos, Cox Communication, GPSManiac, Crowne Plaza

One of the most watched and highest rated YouTube channels with nearly 30 million views

Click to see nalts on yahoo video

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History of Viral Videos

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A Word from the “Viral Video Genius”

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What is Viral Video?

• Viral refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to market or sell -- analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses

Adapted from Wikipedia

“Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world, can write anything they want about any subject. So you know you are getting the best possible information.” -- Michael Scott, The Office.

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Online-Video Vital Signs• Video still ranks low on our marketing spend

– Well behind e-mail, display, and paid search

• Audience is growing: – 71 percent of U.S. Internet audience watch online video. – 18-34 year olds were the heaviest viewing segment

• They have short attention span: – The average online video viewer watches just 7 minutes a day and duration was 2.8

minutes.– Still most visceral form of online media

• Top Sites: YouTube, Fox, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Network Sites

•Source: April 2008, ComScore

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Challenges Brands Face

• Is it appropriate for my brand?• How do I reach the right (not biggest) audience?• Will I lose control? Get slammed?• How can I measure it?• Can it scale?

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What’s Hot in Video?

(source: eMarketer 2008)

• News• Humor• Movie Trailers• Music Videos• TV Show Clips• User Generated• Full TV Shows

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Secret Sauce of Online Videos

• Title & thumbnail• Short, short, short• Timely• Not overly produced

• Engaging Intro• Funny, sexy,

quirky, shocking• Surprise ending

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Evolution of Viral Video Marketing

• Quirky & Big Budgets– The Subservient Chicken: Burger King's TenderCrisp featured a

viral marketing website, television and print campaigns and a pay-per-view program.

• Dumb Luck– Bride Has Massive Wig Out: shot in one take to promote

Unilever's Sunsilk brand of hair care products. • Ads as Sustained Entertainment

– Will it Blend: viral marketing campaign consisting of a series of infomercials demonstrating the Blendtec.

• Comprehensive Campaigns– Rampenfest: BMW Campaign featuring “Spinal Tap” like film of

small-town Germans literally launching car to America.• Next Up: Top Creators & Product Placement

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Prevailing Myths

• Quality of the video is what determines its popularity

• Online video marketing is about contests

• Paying for a well-produced video will increase my brand's ROI

• After consumers watch my videos, they'll visit my site

• I can post my videos on my website to get them seen

• We'll never really measure the impact of online video

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Lessons Someone Else Learned the Hard Way for Us

• Becoming increasingly difficult for brand to create viral sensations

• Keep costs down by leveraging amateurs

• Pick creators with audiences• As with all social media,

“letting go” and transparency aren’t optional

• Get it across in the first 30 seconds

• Seeding is important• Mix can be earned and paid

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Partnering with “Weblebrities”

• Proven entertainment value• Reduce risk of over promotion• Strong affinity with audience• View guarantee• Cost efficient

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Case Study: Mentos

• Brand Situation– Gained visibility through

viral videos involving Mentos and Diet Coke

– Coke initially distanced itself from programs; embraced it with EepyBird.

– Mentos began working directly with creators to go beyond geysers. Unknown YouTuber who ranks

high on searches for Mentos.

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Mentos Short Comedy Videos

• Brand hired creators for a series of short comedy videos

• Hands off of creative, and provided fixed payment

• Videos viewed in excess of 250,000 times on Nalts channels

• Brand team also placed videos as advertisements on Google Video and Break.com

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What Do Videos Cost?

• Most video creators range from $2,000-$10,000

• Agencies may charge $200-$500,000

• Viral campaign’s mean cost is $10,000 (marketingsherpa.com)

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Power of Video and SEO• Video is well indexed by

Google and Yahoo, and represents a short-cut to search results

• Largely under optimizedby brands

• This alone justifies making positive videos

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Measurement

• A view isn’t a view• Move from views

to performance• Focus on quality not

quantity of views• Awareness

and attributes

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Viral Trends to Watch

• Creator Bar is Rising• Audience Deceptively ‘Niching’• The New Studios• From One-Hit Wonder to Sustainability• Promotion and Content Blur (and why that’s good)• Distribution as important as content

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Biggest Barrier Your Brand Faces?

• Noise to compete with?• Doing something inappropriate?• Wasting money?• Negative PR?• Being late? Too early?• Backlash?• Competitors?

Can your company can’t get out of its own way?

(marketing vs PR vs legal vs promotions vs technology)

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What Now?

For more information– www.willvideoforfood.com– “The Profit of Online Video” (8.8.8. by me, kevinnalts)– Viral Video Fever (Charles Trippy)– Most viewed online videos (on YouTube)– 15 Minutes of Fame (book)

Homework: – Watch some videos– Surf videos in your category as target or prospect might– Create tag alert for your brand name (or client’s)– Make some videos and try to get popular (see my free eBook on that)– Do a campaign- ask forgiveness later