There’s long been a debate in our profession about what viral content is and how many views or clicks it takes before you can call a piece of content viral.  A few years ago, a video went viral on YouTube if it hit a million views.  But now, many are saying it needs more than 5 million views in a 3-7 day period to be considered viral.  Although most brands and YouTubers would be ecstatic with 500,000+ views.

But if there’s one thing we can’t debate, it’s the power viral video has in generating word-of-mouth and its ability to reach and connect people in an instant, at a fraction of the cost of traditional media. From watching strangers kiss, a PSA for beautiful pizzas, Kevin Bacon explain the ‘80’s to Millennials, to Dollar Shave Club promote their “F****’blades,” viral video can be an extremely effective way to get noticed. 

Still, whether your viral video will have huge success is anyone's guess.  But great content helps.  So here are some things to think about before you start production.

Expect the Unexpected

Imagine your friend told you a story. What about that story would make you want to share it to someone else? Is it who the story is about or more about what happened in the story? Chances are far greater that what happens, and the fact that you never expected it to happen, or that it hasn't happened before is what’s going to be remembered. So do what hasn't been done and spend some time ensuring no-one else has done it.  

Have a Credible Reason for Being There

Don’t underestimate your audiences “marketing filter.” Your brand needs to earn a sense of purpose in people's lives. So avoid the hard-sell and try your hardest to create an honest and credible connection. Take the first-date scenario, are you going to go out with the person who keeps talking about themselves or the one who captivates you until the last word and then hands you their phone number?  

Shoot for the 3rd Circle

Scott Stratten, writer for Fast Company and owner of UnMarketing.com, says the key to creating long-lasting viral is its ability to reach the 3rd Circle. The first circle is your fans or anyone who’s affiliated with the company. The second circle is the community to which they belong.  The third circle is the largest leap, because at that point it is being shared simply on the merits of its content. If you’ve reached the 3rd Circle, you’ve given those who are not familiar with your brand a reason to watch, experience or even listen. So think about how to utilize a panel of tastemakers or influencers who can quickly share your viral video with a wider audience.  

Align Your Marketing Efforts

It’s also important to align content with the rest of your marketing activities. Say for instance that your video is a big success, generating thousands of new leads every day, but your website lacks an e-commerce system or sales platform that doesn’t align with the rest of your marketing activity. You’ll get a lot of traffic to your site but are probably going to lose a lot of potential customers and sales. 

Take Dollar Shave Club’s infamous viral video. Within just 24 hours of the video going live, they received over 5,000 subscribers by merely posting the video online. Not just because they went out of their way to show how great their blades were but also because they had a really simple landing page that continued the story and could convert visitors into members in less than three clicks.

So while having a lot of money can buy you attention, viral content has a remarkable ability to be “liked” and create brand evangelists.  To get there, our best advice would be to surprise, have purpose, align your marketing efforts and most of all, provide something that's worth sharing.  And, in the words of our new associate strategist Lisa Carson, “take a video of your kid after the dentist.” 

Matthew McConaughey, Lupita N’yongo, Jared Leto, and Cate Blanchett had huge career wins on Oscar Sunday, but there was one winner who didn’t get an Oscar trophy: Twitter.  Here are three ways Twitter came out on top Sunday night.

1. Live-tweeting. The Oscars had record viewership on Sunday, with 43 million viewers tuning in for the lengthy award show, the highest viewership since 2004. It was the most popular entertainment event on television since the "Friends" finale in 2004 – which is pretty huge, when you consider events like the Superbowl. Maybe it was Ellen DeGeneres, but it’s more likely that live-tweeting drove viewers to tune in. Ratings have been slowly increasing since 2011, which Nielsen credits to the influence of social media and the growing popularity of live-tweeting. Live tweeters didn’t miss a step on Sunday night.

They ripped on John Travolta butchering Idina Menzel’s name… and his face/forehead:

And even brands chimed in:

Even if consumers weren’t initially watching the show, they probably tuned in after this:

Which brings us to…

2. Twitter Crashed:  After Ellen’s famous selfie (which Samsung paid for), Twitter actually crashed due to the number of retweets. The photo is up to 3.12MM tweets, which makes it the most retweeted tweet, breaking a previous record set by Barack Obama on his 2012 inauguration.  Typically it’s not a good thing when social media crashes, but in Twitter’s case, it just generated more buzz and more interest. Even the Academy tweeted about it. Nothing like a good celeb #selfie.

  3. Promoted Tweets. It was a good year for promoted tweets during the Oscars with the record viewing audience and the multi-screen trend. Jennifer Lawrence was a hot topic for promoted tweets, and given her popularity and tendency to fall at events, it wasn’t such a bad idea. Unilever's Lipton tea purchased the most promoted tweets impressions around the phrase “OMG Jennifer Lawrence”, so when that phrase was used, a tweet promoting the new Muppets movie would appear in the user’s feed. American Express and AT&T also bought impressions against Lawrence’s name. The strangest use was from business-to-business firm Clio, which purchased impressions against the celebrity. The company sells cloud software for lawyers and was promoting a conference in October. Huh? Not exactly the best brand alignment.

  Now that the Oscars are over and have generated Twitter buzz, it will be interesting to see the future of other live events. I have to believe promoted tweets will continue to be of interest, but do they actually drive consumer action and loyalty? Maybe it’s just being in the right place at the right time, like DiGiorno and Papa John’s during Ellen’s pizza stunt. One thing is for certain though –everyone wants the next selfie that breaks Twitter.

At least that’s what Bud Light has been teasing, with foreboding statistics, curious celebrities and a llama named Llilly (I’m guessing that’s how she spells it) who tells punny jokes.

  But whatever is not just what we’ll see in Bud Light’s Super Bowl commercials, it’s what we can expect to see in all of the Big Game advertising. A little bit of this, a little bit of that and whatever else advertisers and their agencies have dreamed up.

  The Super Bowl is the largest TV audience of the year. An audience filled with a cross-section of every demographic you can think of. So brands can’t, or at least shouldn’t, just talk to their specific target. They need to find ideas that everyone can identify with, and if those ideas happen to include explosions, funny noises, babies or talking animals, well, studies have shown that doesn’t hurt.

  I have already seen a lot of the ads that will be on during this year’s game, and you can, too. Most brands can’t wait until Super Bowl Sunday anymore to share their big ideas, so you can find teasers, previews and often, entire spots online exactly as they’ll run. It kills some of the suspense, but if their ad is good, I’ll look forward to seeing it again. And if it’s not, at least I know when to go get another slice of pizza.

  From what I’ve seen, I will be looking forward to Volkswagen and Chobani’s work, and Toyota has an ad with the Muppets, and it’s hard to go wrong with the Muppets. Hopefully, there will be a few fun surprises that I haven’t already seen, too. Either way, I’m sure our office, like everyone else’s, will be buzzing about what was the best come Monday morning. I will also be on the Fox 17/ TN Mornings show in the 8 o’clock hour to share my opinion and discuss everything we saw.

  Whatever that turns out to be.

Tonight, the college football season comes to an end with the BCS Title Game. I’ve watched most of the bowl games so far and I certainly intend to watch this final one. I don’t know what to expect when Auburn and Florida State kick it off, but I do know what some college football fans are really hoping will happen.

Love it or hate it, the Nissan Rogue commercial has been unavoidable, playing repeatedly during every Bowl game. A quick search of Twitter will lead you to believe many are hoping Nissan will have eased up on the media buy. You know the spot I’m talking about. Three hipsters are headed somewhere in their bold new Rogue, but they’re afraid they won’t make it on time because of traffic. So they hop on a cement ramp, leap onto a train and drive across the train before soaring back off and into the parking lot of their destination.

Here’s what people are saying:

@Cambo_Slice8 Dear Nissan, Stop showing your Rogue commercial. I have seen it at least 324 times in the last week and cars cannot drive on trains.

@mason_mcdonald Honestly, I would never buy a @NissanUSA because of that Rogue commercial.

@ThatSteveLee I think it's time we start punching anyone involved with the Nissan Rogue. They all deserve it.

Those are some of the nicer comments. Although, I guess in some ways it’s good that Nissan is bringing football fans together with the ad.

@benjamineboyd Can Auburn and Alabama get along for once and focus on the real enemy? Nissan Rogue...

Realistically, we can’t expect Nissan to pull their commercial off the air because of the comments of a few hundred people on Twitter. And even if they did consider it, I’m sure they changed their minds when they read @JT_Moon’s comment.

@JT_Moon I'll buy a damn Nissan Rogue just please God make it stop

When the college football season officially comes to a close, will this online activity lead advertisers to rethink how they plan their media buys?

Ever since the 2013 NFL Season officially kicked off, “Grantland.com” has been all over it.  Articles on everything you need to know including how to defend the read option, the great expectations surrounding Titans’ running back Chris Johnson and the “definitive answer to the ridiculous question ‘Could LeBron James Really Play In The NFL?’”

This preponderance of football articles on “Grantland” isn’t surprising, considering it is the brainchild of ESPN’s Sports Guy Bill Simmons.  The mix of culture and sports that gained him a half-million unique monthly visits to his “Page 2” column is now bringing more than 2 million readers to his personal brand site.  Each with a unique devotion to him and the impressive collection of writers he has brought together under his own banner.

This devotion, not only to him, but also to the select few presenting sponsors on the site, has inspired others to form their own personal sites.  Nate Silver, political prognosticator and economist extraordinaire, is leaving his “538.com” blog page at The New York Times for a site supported by ESPN, as well.  While it will be based on the statistical analysis that has earned Silver more than his fair share of both followers and detractors, he freely admits that it will be based on the “Grantland” model, right down to the presenting sponsors’ advertising structure.

One personal brand site has even deigned to eschew advertisers altogether.  “The Daily Dish,” longtime blog of Andrew Sullivan’s opinions and varied interests, left its most recent home at “The Daily Beast” at the beginning of this year.  Sullivan has established a metered paywall on his independent site.  What you see is free, but if you want to read more, he’s asking for $20 a month to dive deeper.  Many of his loyal readers put an even higher price on his staff’s prodigious output and have overpaid to help ensure his success. In half a year, he had raised $715,000 of his stated $900,000 goal and 80 percent of his readers were visiting the site two or more times per day.

Sullivan has mentioned that he hasn’t ruled out accepting some sponsored content, if he finds sponsors whose interests intersect with his.  If the current devotion of his readers is any indication, the right advertiser could find an audience willing to support them the same way they’re supporting Sullivan.

And there lies the opportunity for agencies and clients alike.  Finding common beliefs or causes with personal brand sites can introduce our brands to an audience of loyal and engaged consumers.  But as marketers, we can’t afford to wait for them to come to us. These sites are already innovative.  It is up to us to show them that we have just as much to offer them and their readers as they have to offer us.

Just days after The Buntin Group lobby was christened with the new metal-letter mantra, Everything Speaks, we were treated to an innovative Lunch & Learn hosted by Steve Keller of iV Audio. The very timely topic was “Now Hear This: The Business of Audio Branding.”

Audio branding? Hmm, interesting idea. But what is it? Well, think in terms of an audio logo. A signature sound associated with a particular brand. For example, Intel’s audio ringout.  Or McDonald’s I’m Lovin’ It close. And, of course, NBC’s famous three-note chime. Got the picture? Or sound?

“Every sound that touches a brand has the potential to define it. Audio branding is a discipline designed to harness the power of sound, engaging consumers and driving emotional connections along the way,” claims CEO Steve Keller, who is personally introducing the business of audio branding to Music City and beyond. iV and iV2 in Frankfurt, Germany are a creative community of audio and marketing professionals, focused on providing strategic audio branding for a range of global agencies and brands.

Steve also explained the idea of audio landscaping to the group at The Buntin Group. Directional audio messages aimed, quite literally, at passing consumers in retail environs. For example, ceiling speakers that are motion activated to alert grocery store shoppers of specials on bananas. We always thought of that as “guerrilla marketing.”

As Media continues to touch every aspect of our lives, quite literally with iPhones and tablets, we are always striving to find new ways to break through the clutter and engage with consumers. While TV continues to dominate media and as such is a necessity for many advertisers, a large majority of viewers are rarely only watching TV.

Cross platform consumption is becoming the standard with viewers browsing social media on their mobile or tablet devices while watching their favorite shows. Instead of targeting consumers one way digitally and one way via television, the question is how to organically reach them at the same time. This raises the question of how is cross platform consuming changing Media purchasing?

Nielsen and Twitter announced a new Social Media TV ratings system, launching this fall, which takes into account TV conversation reach within social media. This is a huge stride for the advertising industry. Users who share their TV experiences with others while simultaneously watching is a perfect example of an engaged viewer; the “ideal” consumer for many advertisers.

Will brands with social media appropriately target audiences continue to purchase television programming that doesn’t have a social media rating? Driven by ad sales, this may affect TV programming for many audience segments and may result in networks pushing more social tactics and perhaps even launching and canceling programs based on their social media attractiveness. 2013 will prove to be an interesting season for fall programming.

Check out this article from Business Insider for more stats on social network use during traditional TV viewing.

As a marketer and mother of a bevy of millennials (all still living at home), I can personally attest to many of the traits identified in our latest consumer insights report, Back to the Start: Millennial Brand Connections, especially how their upbringing translates into consumer behavior.

In the case of my girls, they are technology-obsessed multi-taskers with strong confidence, resourcefulness and a little thriftiness thrown in. While I was not a Helicopter Parent, I do take responsibility for some pampering and their constant craving for activity.

Why are millennials important? Nearly 80 million strong, they now comprise 25 percent of the U.S. population, and spend or influence $700 billion in purchases each year.  As our report illustrates, behavioral trends resulting from their upbringing provide direction on how to connect and engage with this powerful demographic.

Understanding the consumer mindset, their motivators, brand relevance and brand connection points is the job of the Buntin Insights Team, where we inform and guide strategic decisions for our clients and our agency. We strive to be stewards of people. We love people-watching and dialoguing, both “remotely” on the Internet and in person through our proprietary Brand Journaling™ activities.

Whether the insights we provide are borrowed from life experiences, such as my “job” as a mom, or gleaned from the varieties of ongoing consumer work we undertake, they enable our clients to filter their decisions through the eyes of the right consumers, at the right moments along the consumer journey, through the right vehicles — making it easier to start the conversation and engage consumers on a deeper level.

If there’s one thing our work on millennials reveals, it’s that growing up in an all-digital world has its advantages… now if you’ll excuse me, I have some tweeting to do before I start dinner.

Click here to go to the insights report on millennials:

As the nation prepares for July 4th – stocking up on fireworks, barbeque and beer, decorating with red, white and blue, and starting impromptu “U-S-A” chants – marketers have prepared their brands in the same fashion, dressing up their brands with anything and everything American. In the week leading up to Independence Day, brands traditionally have depicted themselves alongside American flag-waving and presidential figureheads.

In recent years, the idea of brand patriotism has taken on a more emotionally-charged approach to reach consumers – reminding the American people of the grit, fortitude and self-sufficiency our country was founded on. Similar to messaging leading up to Memorial Day, Labor Day and Veterans Day, the Fourth of July has become another way for brands to honor our troops, veterans and hard-working Americans that help keep the lifeblood flowing in our country. Earlier this week, General Motors introduced their 2014 Chevy Silverado “Strong” campaign as a part of their biggest launch in six years. The spot features a soundtrack from Nashville singer and songwriter, Will Hoge, communicating ideals of dedication and family values. About the campaign, Chris Perry, VP of U.S. Chevrolet marketing, explains, "It reflects the values of our audience. A man and his truck equals 'strong.’"

The U.S. automobile industry is no stranger to patriotic advertising (Think Super Bowl spots from Chrysler brands, Dodge Ram and Jeep, preaching the importance of the American farmer and honoring soldiers overseas, respectively). The Super Bowl advertisements seemed to have been well-received, with Chrysler and Jeep dealerships reporting increased sales of 300 percent in less than two days.

Interestingly, in a recent survey of the “Most Patriotic” brands, the top three – Jeep, Hershey’s, and Coca-Cola – all have ties to the military. Jeeps have been used as military vehicles for almost a century; Hershey’s has developed ration bars for the military since 1937; and during WWII, the president of Coca-Cola vowed to provide soldiers with Coke, regardless of production and shipment costs.

Brand patriotism is also evident in Oral-B’s recent campaign, promoting Oral-B products that are “Built in the USA,” an idea conceived by Oral-B’s employees, many of whom are veterans. This is an effective tactic, especially considering more than 80 percent of U.S. consumers stating that they are willing to pay more for products labeled “Made in USA” than for those labeled “Made in China,” according to a Boston Consulting Group study.

While the advertising industry will continue to utilize American holidays to represent patriotism, it is important to keep ideas central to the reasons for celebration – our freedom and independence. This emotionally-charged messaging is an important and effective way to communicate your brand’s values to the consumer. So, before you crack open your Budweiser, crank up your Chevy, or pull on your pair of Wranglers, remember that this holiday exists to celebrate the past, present and future awesomeness of this country. Have a Happy Fourth of July!

http://www.duffelblog.com/2013/02/patriotism-jeep-sales-skyrocket-after-super-bowl-ad/

Recently, the Tennessee Performing Arts Center hosted the fourth-annual TEDxNashville or “Next” conference featuring leaders in technology, medicine, education, politics, business, art, music, religion, and other fields. “Next” is special not only because of the range of topics and speakers it covers, but also for what it is not. For instance, it’s not similar to a product release presentation from Apple showcasing the latest and greatest innovations. Nor is it a conclave of “social media strategists” waxing on about “driving engagement.”

Instead, it’s a chance to step away from the constant stream of information and look deeper at what drives positive change in societies. It’s a collection of philosophical perspectives that demonstrate how to prepare for and deal with obstacles in a healthy, ethical manner. And what this year’s “Next” talks reminded me of is how the relationships between individuals and communities are no different than those between agencies and clients: Positive change is built from the inside out.

In true Music City fashion, the event kicked off on a high note with singer Mike Farris’ soulful performance, offering little sermon, but powerfully reinforcing his message of, “do what makes you happy, stay on the ‘helping team’ in life, and everything you do will fall into place.” His enthusiasm set the tone and energy level for the rest of the presentations.

Many of the speakers focused on how to prepare and educate our citizens the right way so they can be successful in a variety of fields. Bob Ezrin, music producer for rocking bands like Alice Cooper, Kiss, and Pink Floyd, encouraged the support of music and art education in our public schools to help build well-rounded individuals, and to keep the spirit of Nashville alive.

Along the same lines, Dr. John Wikswo, physicist and professor at Vanderbilt University talked about how imagination, curiosity and the merging different disciplines can solve bigger problems, citing his development of homunculi, microchips that contain replicas of human organs used to test new pharmaceuticals.

Perhaps Ossama Bahloul, Imam of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, speaking about “The Gift of Difficulty,” delivered one of the most inspiring sermons. He explained how the opposition his congregation faced while building their controversial mosque actually fueled the funding completion of the project. He illustrated that going against the grain can sometimes help build the strongest support and devotion.

The takeaway? Combining the intellectual capital of inspired people, and approaching everyday problems with a zealous mindset, together we can shift culture, and create more innovative solutions the benefit the whole.

Great nuggets to chew on for Ad Agencies looking to continue to serve their client partners in the long term.

To see more of the awesome artwork: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alphachimpstudio/sets/72157633202817467/

With the NCAA Basketball Tournament narrowing to the Final Four, hours of productivity are being hijacked all across the country. I admit that my eye has wandered to the ESPN.com scoreboard, but I am actually even more interested in another tournament taking place right now.

Garden and Gun, one of my favorite magazines, is conducting the Battle of the Brands, Southern Food Bracket, on their website.

As an aficionado of southern foods, I am eager to see which of my favorites are moving on to the finals. As an ad guy, I’m fascinated by the relationships that so many of us have with these brands.

In the last round, Duke’s Mayonnaise knocked off Old Bay Seasoning in what has to be an upset, because I know everybody in the coastal regions will tell you that you can not have a low-country boil without Old Bay.  But I also know an equal number of people who will tell you that Duke’s isn’t just part of the recipe for potato salad, it IS the recipe for their potato salad.

Since I’m originally from Atlanta, Coca-Cola is synonymous with soda for me. So even though I love a good Cheerwine, how can I not root for the drink that put my hometown on the map?

And realistically, I shouldn’t be angry that Blue Bell Ice Cream was shown more love than my personal favorite Mayfield. I just don’t understand how anyone who has ever spooned a bite of Mayfield Chocolate can feel differently than I do?

Ultimately, no matter the final results of this tournament, each and every brand involved will emerge a huge winner. Because we don’t just buy and use their products. We stand up to cheer for them and take ownership in their success.

Whether you’re from the Big East, the Pac-12 or the SEC, that’s the kind of passion every marketer dreams about.  As an agency, it’s the kind we want to build for, and with, our clients.

At The Buntin Group, we’re always looking for new technologies and better ways to engage customers for our clients. So we invited our friends at Total Immersion to stop by and talk about their latest augmented reality technology (AR), and discovered that the line between what’s a useful marketing tool and make-believe just became a lot clearer.

Until the app revolution of the mid-2000s, AR usually conjured up visions of Minority Report or pocket-protected geeks in high-tech labs wearing bulky headsets, swiping at the air in their virtual playgrounds.

Today, brands like Starbucks, Toyota, Tic Tac, Bloomingdale’s and more are using AR to create incredibly unique digital experiences across a wide variety of platforms—mobile apps, Web Flash applications using web cams, kiosks, live events, and e- and m-commerce.

One of the coolest applications we saw is called TryLive, a software solution that allows customers to virtually try on product on the web before they buy. Ray-Ban has added this technology to their website, allowing customers to compare up to four frames simultaneously, and save and share on Facebook.

With seamless integration with any web interface or app, AR experiences can drive significantly higher levels of engagement and boost sales. But this is just the tip of the virtual iceberg, with robust motion tracking built into AR technology, almost any 2D plane (magazine covers, ads) can initiate a rich, immersive 3D world at the point of sale or over the web.

Thanks to our friends at Total Immersion for the smack upside the virtual head to get our creative juices flowing.

   Total Immersion  http://www.t-immersion.com/

  Ray-Ban  http://www.ray-ban.com/usa/science/virtual-mirror