I came across this excellent presentation today on Twitter by Jonah Peretti, one of the co-founders of viral content aggregator BuzzFeed. Pulling from his extensive experience both creating and organizing viral content online, Jonah attempts to answer the question, “How can you spread your ideas and make them ‘go viral’ on the web.”
He doesn’t provide any secret formula for creating viral content, because frankly there isn’t one. It is difficult to know in advance what will work and usually the kind of content that goes viral is the funny, crazy or bizarre stuff that is hard to brainstorm. Regardless, Jonah offers some great insights into targeting what terms the “Bored At Work Network” and he explains how they are instrumental in pushing viral content online.
Social media is the hottest buzz word on the Internet and it leaves a lot of people asking the question: what the f**k is Social Media? This funny and extremely engaging SlideShare presentation is the best examination of the social media facts, statistics and trends I’ve come across.
This is an exceptional stop-motion video of a guy walking across America. Peter Cote, started his journey on June 17th in New York and ended up in San Francisco on July 1st. The video is directed by Sam Griffith of Conscious Minds Productions, sponsored by Levis Jeans and filmed using a Canon 5D. The song in the video is Home by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros.
“From a technical perspective it was an extremely difficult shoot. The entire project was shot using the 5D, a tripod, 24-70mm F/2.8L lens, a tape measure, and a photoshoped protractor. Measurement was very key to our success. If our measurement or my framing was not consistent then none of this would have worked.
The entire video was shot at 24mm, F stop stayed mostly at F/6.3 and ISO 200 (except night shots like Vegas which were F/4 at ISO 1250). I shot everything in RAW rather than JPEG because we moved so quickly that were not able to light very much or use reflectors. I wanted to make sure we had as much color space and flexibility later.”
If you’re curious how they filmed it, check out the Behind The Scenes footage:
The idea of walking across America reminded me of Karl Bushby’s Goliath Expedition. He is currently on an epic 14-year journey, walking an estimated 36,000 miles across the world.
This great slide show presentation Crowdsourcing: Recession-Proofing Your Marketing Strategy by Contagious Magazine goes into detail how crowdsourcing offers a new business model that is already challenging the traditional business models of many industries.
Maybe crowdsourcing represents the future of marketing and web development, then again maybe not. Check out the slide show and try to decide for yourself.
This award-winning campaign for Old Spice was created by agency Wieden + Kennedy. The ad stars a previously unknown actor named Isiah Mustafa. The witty tagline for the advertisement alone is hilarious: “We’re not saying this body wash will make your man smell like a romantic millionaire jet fighter pilot, but we are insinuating it.”
The funny original ad “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” has over 11.6 million views on Youtube. The second ad “Questions” was released 3 days ago and has already managed 1.5 million views.
Actor Isiah Mustafa gives a great interview below, talking about how the how the ad was created. The 9-minute interview begins with the new Old Spice commercial and then Mustafa gives a play-by-play of how it was filmed outside at two locations; on a beach in California and on a custom-built set beside an icy lake in the mountains near Vallermo, California.
The ad also ties in social media nicely with a Facebook page that has garnered 550,000+ followers.
