Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - S3E10 - Viral Videos

Episode Date: March 9, 2014

In this episode, we look at the wild and crazy world of Viral Videos. Some brands spend big money on videos and nobody watches, meanwhile a cat video is viewed by millions. It’s a world with no rules, fuelled by luck and timing. We’ll look at the most viewed videos ever, including a video a woman made when she quit her job that attracted almost 10 million views, the Evian bottled water video that went into the Guinness Book of World Records, a Nivea viral video that might have gone too far, and a Dove video that broke the Evian world record.These days, marketers can’t necessarily spend their way to consumer attention, they have to earn it.And Viral Videos can be just the ticket. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly. As you may know, we've been producing a lot of bonus episodes while under the influences on hiatus. They're called the Beatleology Interviews, where I talk to people who knew the Beatles, work with them, love them, and the authors who write about them. Well, the Beatleology Interviews have become a hit, so we are spinning it out to be a standalone podcast series. You've already heard conversations with people like actors Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, and Beatles confidant Astrid Kershaw. But coming up, I talk to May Pang, who dated John Lennon in the mid-70s. I talk to double fantasy guitarist Earl Slick, Apple Records creative director John Kosh. I'll be talking to Jan Hayworth,

who designed the Sgt. Pepper album cover. Very cool. And I'll talk to singer Dion, who is one of only five people still alive who were on the Sgt. Pepper cover. And two of those people were Beatles. The stories they tell are amazing. So thank you for making this series such a success. And please do me a favor, follow the Beatleology interviews on your podcast app. You don't even have to be a huge Beatles fan. You just have to love storytelling. Subscribe now and don't miss a single beat. In case nobody's told you, weight loss goes beyond the old just eat less and move more narrative. And that's where Felix comes in. Felix is redefining weight loss for Canadians with a smarter, more personalized approach to help you crush your health goals this year.

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this episode is from Season 3, 2014. You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. Good hands with all. You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. One day, Marina Shiffrin decided that she didn't like her job anymore. The company she worked for made online videos. Marina didn't like the way her boss was more interested in video views than video content. So, she decided to make

a video of her own and went into work at 4.30 in the morning. All alone, she put on the Kanye West song Gone and filmed herself dancing all around the office.

She danced at her cubicle. She danced in the hallway. She danced on a desk. She even danced in the washroom. And as she danced, words appeared on the video. This is what it said. It's 4.30 a.m. and I am at work. I work for an awesome company that produces news videos.

For almost two years, I've sacrificed my relationships, time, and energy for this job. And my boss only cares about quantity and how many views each video gets. So, I figured I'd make one video of my own to focus on the content instead of worry about the views. Oh, and to let my boss know, I quit. Then, Marina stops dancing,

walks to the office door, and turns out the lights. The final words on the screen say, I'm gone. She posted the video on Saturday, September 28th. By Monday, the video had a quarter of a million views. Five days later, it had nine million. Suddenly, Marina Shiffrin's resignation video had gone massively viral,

and she was being interviewed by dozens of news and talk shows, including Queen Latifah's talk show on Fox. After Marina explained her reasons for quitting a job creating viral videos by making a viral video, Queen Latifah asked her this question. So, you looking for a job? Yeah, do you know, are you hiring? And that wasn't the only job offer Marina got as a result of her viral video. As of this writing, the video has received over 16 million views. The world of viral videos is one without any rules.

Sometimes millions of dollars are spent to create them and no one watches sometimes someone posts a video of a cat doing something cute and millions watch in the world of advertising videos are fast becoming a major element of many campaigns but unlike paid advertising where you can guarantee an audience the world of online videos makes no such promises. Whether it goes viral or not is completely out of your hands. It could be half a dozen views or half a million. And nobody knows the secret recipe.

You're under the influence. The difference between a viral ad and a viral video is intent and length. A 30-second ad that goes viral was made for TV and just happened to get an updraft online. A viral video, on the other hand, is a film that usually runs anywhere from 90 seconds to 8 minutes long. It's made specifically to live online. And, as with all new advertising techniques, it ain't so new. Between 1933 and 1941, Chevrolet produced close to 30 short films that featured various aspects of Chevrolet technology. Some featured the braking system.

Some showed the amazing manufacturing process at Chevrolet. And still other films showed the public how automobile production, and Chevrolet in particular, was an expression of American industry and progress. Each film was made to enhance the image of Chevrolet in the minds of the buying public. The films predated television and were shown in over 4,800 movie theaters to millions of people across the nation, which were the viral videos of their day.

One of the more creative of those films was called A Coach for Cinderella. Now, here's a theme that never grows cold. Always dear to young and old. The sweetest story ever told. A Coach for Cinderella. It was an animated feature that told the story of Cinderella who had her coach put through a, quote, modernizer to magically turn into a Chevrolet. The full-color film was made in 1937,

a full 13 years before Disney made the definitive version of the story. As time went on, Chevrolet would make dozens of films, including this 12-minute feature with star Dinah Shore. Hi there. What a wonderful time for you to drop by. You know, they're just setting up to shoot a scene of our new star, and I'd love to introduce you before they begin. Come on now. I want you to meet a great new star. The new 1953 Chevrolet. Isn't that a sight to take your breath away?

Along with the 1950s Chevrolets came the launch of television. Soon, short films were replaced by traditional commercials on TV. Advertisers would sponsor programming, and the structure of TV shows didn't allow for long-format ad films anymore. But every now and then, they were still used for very special occasions. One of the most interesting, to me, was the five-minute film Chevrolet made to introduce its new line of cars for 1965. It aired during a rare commercial-free episode of the hit NBC TV show Bonanza in late 1964, where the last five minutes of the program were given over to a new Chevrolet promotional film. It was a strange film on many levels. First, it was hosted by Canadian actor Lorne Green,

who played patriarch Ben Cartwright on Bonanza. The Cartwright family appeared in full Western costume and actually drove the cars down the main street of Virginia City past horses and saloons circa 1860. Welcome to Virginia City. Though I guess we should call it Chevrolet City because this is where we'll begin to show you the exceptionally exciting lineup of new 1965 cars from Chevrolet. First, Lorne Green introduced Purnell Roberts, who played his son Adam on Bonanza, to tell viewers about the Chevrolet Corvette. Then Green made an unexplained jump through the time-space continuum and introduced Robert

Vaughn, the star of The Man from UNCLE, to tell viewers about the Chevrolet Corvair. Next, Elizabeth Montgomery from Bewitched appears and tells us about the new Chevelle. Have you seen the new 1965 Chevelle? Then Michael Landon, a.k.a. Little Joe Cartwright, tells us about the new Impala. And, after we've seen the full line of 1965 Chevrolets, Lorne Green takes us home. Well, I hope you'll visit your Chevrolet dealer tomorrow to see the entire lineup of new 1965 Chevrolet cars close up.

Thank you for joining us. It's an astounding bit of marketing on many levels. Not only was it a 5-minute and 27-second film that aired on primetime television, but Bonanza and The Man from UNCLE were both NBC shows, whereas Bewitched was an ABC production. Hard to imagine the networks would even allow that kind of cross-promotion. But advertisers ruled.

Chevrolet not only sponsored Bonanza and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. on NBC, but also Bewitched on ABC. Reaching audiences in the 20th century was relatively easy, with three or four main TV networks delivering over 80% of the population. Paid advertising was the preferred method, with 30-second television spots being the preferred vehicles. And while the arrival of cable would eventually splinter the viewing universe and make it

more expensive to find large audiences, that 30-second mentality didn't really change until the arrival of the Internet. The term viral had no real marketing definition until the year 2001. If an ad campaign caught on, its reach would usually be confined to word of mouth in the region or country of origin. And that word of mouth was difficult to quantify. That all changed when another automobile manufacturer decided to do something that had never been done before. And we'll be right back. If you're enjoying this episode, why not dip into our archives?

Available wherever you download your pods. Go to terryoreilly.ca for a master episode list. BMW had found that their advertising had lost its power because competitors had all started adopting the same techniques and BMW's revenues had dropped considerably from the previous year. So they asked their advertising agency, Fallon Worldwide, to come up with something unprecedented to change their fortunes. The agency creative department felt stifled by the confines of traditional 30-second television commercials, so they approached the project more like a film.

They wanted to show the car for longer periods of time within an exciting, extended storyline. They also knew that 85% of potential BMW buyers were young, affluent males who spent most of their car shopping time online. They were upwardly mobile consumers who didn't have time to watch television. The agency came up with a motion picture idea, where a James Bond-type driver would be hired to save, transport and escort various characters using different BMW models. The agency hired David Fincher, who had directed the movie Seven and Fight Club. He convinced the ad agency to break the story down into five separate short films to facilitate downloading and allow more flexibility in attracting talent to the project. Fincher then convinced A-list

directors Ang Lee, John Frankenheimer, and Guy Ritchie to come on board. British actor Clive Owen was chosen to be the star as the skilled hired driver. Each episode ran five to seven minutes long and was uniquely filmed for computer viewing. So things like file size were kept in mind and scenes were shot to work on a small screen. The first episode was titled The Ambush and featured Clive Owen saving a diamond smuggler from machine gun toting assailants. Diamonds, slow down. No, no, no, no, no, no. Slow down now.

Buckle up. In the Guy Ritchie directed episode, he managed to convince his wife to be the star. Her name was Madonna. If you'd keep your eyes on the road instead of on me, we might be getting somewhere. Let me see what I can do. The five action-packed films were given the road instead of on me. We might be getting somewhere. Let me see what I can do. The five action-packed films were given the umbrella title of The Hire.

They were released every two weeks, and while tailored to each director's style, were carefully written to work as an ongoing series. In a highly unusual move, print ads promoting the films ran in Hollywood trade magazines, as well as Vanity Fair, Entertainment Weekly, and Rolling Stone. Movie trailers ran on BH1 and Bravo. When the series finally went live online, the advertising world finally met the word viral.

This series recorded over 11 million views immediately, which in 2001 was unprecedented and pre-YouTube. Not only did The Hire win every conceivable award in advertising, but it also won awards in film festivals and was reviewed in entertainment magazines and even in the New York Times. The groundbreaking series garnered media coverage that was simply not accessible to traditional commercials. With that success, three more films were shot the following year, costing almost $25 million for a total of eight films. By June 2003, the BMW films had been viewed 45 million times, vastly overshooting the original goal of reaching 2 million viewers.

The series not only inspired a real movie titled The Transporter, starring Jason Statham, but BMW sales rose 17.5% between 2001 and 2002, helping it outsell Mercedes for the first time. The Cannes International Advertising Festival said the BMW films had, quote, caused the industry to stop in its tracks and reconsider the way forward. Word is that BMW films will return in 2014.

With that stratospheric success, the advertising industry tried to emulate this brand new territory called viral videos. One of the most notable was the video for Evian water. Evian, three times more expensive than most competitors, was losing market share to cheaper bottled waters. So, a hilarious video called Roller Babies was shot in 2009. It featured babies pulling off jaw-dropping dance moves on roller skates to the song Rapper's Delight by the Sugarhill Gang. The tagline was Live Young.

While Rollerbabies had a TV version, it went viral as a video. It broke the Guinness Book of World Records for the most viewed viral film ever, with 66 million YouTube views and over 170 million online views. Yet, with that incredible viral success, the Business Insider News website reported that Evian's sales went down. And the Daily Mail reported that Evian's share of the bottled water market

was just 0.3%, down from 1.2% a decade earlier. I suspect those two widely viewed videos managed to stop Evian's decline. But clearly, even wild viral success doesn't always translate into wild sales success. One of the ways advertisers try to get a video to go viral is to be bold and outrageous. Nivea tried that tactic recently with a video called The Stress Test. In a German airport, Nivea ambushed a series of people in the waiting areas. The Nivea staff hid behind a wall, picked out specific passengers, and secretly took their picture.

Then, using digital technology and remarkably quick response time, they printed a fake newspaper with the passenger's picture on the front page with a headline saying they were a wanted criminal. In one instance, a Nivea staff member sat across from a young female passenger and casually read the fake newspaper. The second the girl spotted her wanted face on the newspaper, a fake news story appeared on television sets in the waiting area, showing the same picture and describing the fugitive passenger perfectly.

The victim's panic grows with each passing moment, and other passengers begin to point and stare. Then, the German authorities walk up to her. The passenger, almost beside herself, can barely speak. At that exact moment, the authorities ask if she is stressed and open a case they are carrying containing Nivea Stress Protect Deodorant to keep you dry when you're stressed. The girl, realizing it was all just a prank, sits there awash in relief.

The prank video went viral immediately and has amassed over 7 million views to date. But it was controversial, as many asked if it went too far. Did it abuse the public? Was a line crossed just to chase viral success? One problem is the current threshold for what defines a viral video. To make the advertising age viral video chart, for example, it takes at least 1.5 million views. Four years ago, it only took 220,000. That's significant because it means advertisers have

to fight much harder to get noticed today, which can lead to risky decisions. According to Advertising Age magazine research, audiences in 2012 chose to watch video ads 4.6 billion times, or about 13.2 million times per day. That is incredibly alluring for the advertising industry, because those people actively sought out those videos. Very few people actively seek out television commercials. Plus, a lot of paid advertising dies the moment you stop paying for it viral videos live on that's why around 4.1 billion dollars was spent on advertising videos in 2013 maybe the biggest viral hit of that year was the Dove sketch artist

video Maybe the biggest viral hit of that year was the Dove sketch artist video. I'm a forensic artist. Worked for the San Jose Police Department from 1995 to 2011. In the video, the sketch artist asks women he cannot see to describe themselves and draws a portrait based on what they say. Tell me about your chin. It kind of protrudes a little bit. Especially when I smile.

Your jaw. My mom told me I had a big jaw. What would be your most prominent feature? Kind of have a fat, rounder face. Then strangers are asked to describe the same women who they just met in the lobby, and the sketch artist draws those pictures. She was thin, so you could see her cheekbones. And her chin, it was a nice, thin chin. She had nice eyes. They lit up when she spoke. Cute nose. She had blue eyes, very nice blue eyes. When the two portraits are shown to the original women,

they see the one described by themselves is plain and unattractive they see the one described by themselves is plain and unattractive, but the one described by strangers is positive and nice-looking. The video made the point that only 4% of the women around the world consider themselves beautiful and that women are more beautiful than they think.

The Dove sketch artist videos were an immediate viral sensation. More than 30 million viewed the video in the first 10 days. The video also stirred up a lot of debate, with many people disliking the implied importance put on looks. But many more felt it made a critical point, as one woman articulated in the video itself. I should be more grateful of my natural beauty.

It impacts the choices in the friends that we make, the jobs we apply for, how we treat our children. It impacts everything. It couldn't be more critical to your happiness. Do you think you're more beautiful than you say? Yeah. According to reports, the video has overtaken Evie and Rollerbabies as the most viewed viral video in history.

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Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. Maybe one of the most delightful viral videos of the year came from WestJet. T'was a night before Christmas, and all across the land, the good folks of WestJet had a miracle planned. Working with Studio M, a content creation company, WestJet created the Christmas miracle. Utilizing amazing software technology, 250 passengers waiting for WestJet flights the Christmas miracle. Utilizing amazing software technology, 250 passengers waiting for WestJet flights in Toronto and Hamilton

were invited to scan their boarding passes on a special screen. Suddenly, up popped Santa Claus, who was able to ask passengers, by name, what they wanted for Christmas in real time. Hello there! Is that... Is that Cohen? What are you looking for Christmas this year, Cohen? A choo-choo train?

A classic! What would Mommy and Daddy like for Christmas? Big TV. Yeah, big TV. Ho, ho, ho! A big TV! Then the passengers boarded their planes for a flight to Calgary, happy in the fact they had just talked to Santa Claus. But here's what they didn't know.

While the guests told their Christmas wishes to good old Saint Nick, WestJetters took notes and got ready to shop quick. While the planes were in the air, WestJet staffers in Calgary rushed out to buy and wrap all those Christmas gifts with less than four hours to do it. But was everything ready? We all had to wait for the moment of truth at Carousel 8. When the WestJet planes landed

and passengers were gathered around the luggage carousel, beautifully wrapped gifts suddenly started coming down the chute. Gifts that were personalized with the passengers' names on the tags. All the gift wishes they had made to Santa were fulfilled. The WestJet customers could not believe their eyes. WestJet used 19 hidden cameras, a production crew of 18, and 150 WestJetters to execute the Christmas miracle. The airline made a pledge that if the video were to hit 200,000 views, it would donate additional free flights to the Ronald McDonald charity to reunite families in need. The video got over a million views in the first 24 hours.

That number hit 10 million on day three. At one point, it jumped 6 million views in only four hours. One week later, the video had close to 30 million views. Virally speaking, I think they hit their number. By the way, the company that Marina Shiffrin quit put their own video out, with the staff dancing all around the same office. It has attracted over one million views so far. The message of the video? We're hiring. Marketing is a very complicated game these days.

With entire industries springing up producing ad avoidance technology, advertisers are desperate to find new ways to connect with consumers. Online video offers the tease of low cost and big results, the scale of which has never been available or imaginable until this point in history. Yet, over 100 hours of content are uploaded to YouTube every minute,

which means 1.4 million videos uploaded every day. And the chances of getting noticed are like your odds in a casino. But like a casino, some do win big. And with 4 billion views on YouTube every day, it's like having 4 billion slot machines. But how those numbers tumble is luck of the draw. The seismic change in marketing in the 21st century is that advertisers can't necessarily spend their way to a consumer's attention. They have to earn it. But even a viral video with 60 million views doesn't guarantee sales.

And that is the mystery of marketing. Your message can be relevant, the creative compelling, the exposure into the tens of millions, and still nobody is convinced to buy your product. It's enough to make advertisers join Marina Schifrin and yell out, I quit, when you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. Oh, hi, Terry. I just saw online that you took the Dove sketch test.

A question. How come when you described yourself to the FBI artist, the sketch looks more like George Clooney? Under the Influence was produced at Pirate Toronto. Sound engineer, Keith Ullman. Theme music by Ari Posner and Ian Lefevre. Series coordinator, Debbie O'Reilly. Research, Warren Brown.

Okay, I won't beat around the bush. I like the cut of your jib. And your jib would look even better in an Under the Influence t-shirt. You'll find them on our shop page at terryoreilly.ca slash shop. See you next week. New year, new me. Season is here and honestly, we're already over it. Enter Felix, the healthcare company helping Canadians take a different approach to weight loss this year. Weight loss

is more than just diet and exercise. It can be about tackling genetics, hormones, metabolism. Felix gets it. They connect you with licensed healthcare practitioners online who'll create a personalized treatment plan that pairs your healthy lifestyle with a little help and a little extra support. Start your visit today at felix.ca. That's F-E-L-I-X dot C-A.