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Five steps to achieving viral reach on mobile: Step Four

Step number four: Use video

By Ryan Gandalf van Jaarsveld, MD 7Dffrnt Knds of Smke

I love video, it’s such a simple media to share and it engages so many senses. I understand why ATL, and TV specifically, has been the Biff since the 40’s. The beautiful stories told by brands in 30 seconds – just look at some of the awesome work by Allan Gray and I really enjoyed Emoticon Boy last year - Velocity you are the business!

As mentioned in my first article in this series we started Seven because we wanted to change the game in this highly technical space by merging left and right brain thinking. We wanted to start the first mobile only advertising agency and deliver sick campaigns with the kind of viral reach that would make keyboard cat fall of his chair (if he was still alive today). In order for us to do that we would have to have video as part of our service offering.

Of course lots of mobile marketing agencies have been doing video on mobile for some time now though when I say do video, I am not talking about syndicated content that’s formatted for mobile and slapped onto a mobi site for download with some nasty branded wallpapers and a ringtone of a celebrity saying, “You’re freaky but I like you a lot”. No, I am talking about the kind of stuff you see on TV, but on your phone (and more suited for viral).

So when I chat to people they often ask the same questions about video. They are either struggling with the technical side of it or they are having problems compressing it or they don’t know where to go for the production. So I would like to use this article to share some of our learnings with you.

Let’s start with Production.

Masters and Savant. Their team is awesome and they have done some excellent, award winning work (they have great biltong too!). We got them to produce a video for a Tropika MMS we did for Christmas. 

We’re also working with them on some killa stuff for Cell C, when it’s up I will share the link.

Velocity. These guys are brilliant – we are working with them on some awesome stuff for Nedbank which is still due to go live so I can’t share a link, though their ability to tell a story and create amazing viral content is outstanding.

Pollen.  Great team, very diverse, with their fingers tightly on the pulse. They handle everything from animation, design, augmented reality and shooting. They put all the animation together for us on our latest campaign with Nedbank. www.WhoIsSam.co.za

Alight Productions. Great company for shoots. Alight have worked with us on a number of mobile campaigns. Really good with stuff for sport. 

What all these guys have in common is that they take the original idea and make it fly – they push the concept and make it work.

Once you have produced the epic piece it’s time to start making it work for mobile. This can be tricky as you need to adapt the content for different handsets. You are going to want to allow consumers to stream it from a mobi site and download it. For the mobi site side of things YouTube is a really awesome tool and provides a solid API. Link this in with the current technology you are using for content adaptation and you should be a winner. One thing you have to make sure of is that you cater for Flash, HTML5, RTSP and download. RTSP stands for Real Time Streaming Protocol which means playing the video using the phone’s native video player.

Before you start embedding the video onto your site you are going to have to compress everything. This is vital as you don’t want large files (buffering sucks!). For MMS don’t produce anything longer than 20 seconds and cater for a screen size of 176 x 144. Your FPS should be set to 15 and your bitrate should be 40KB/s. Use a 3GP codec when converting. With these settings you will be able to compress a video to 250kb with crystal clear quality. When it comes to download you can have a higher resolution. Fiddle with the FPS and bitrate until your file size is around 500kb – you can go higher though always think about the download costs for the consumer.

With streaming you can upload a video of around 10mb – YouTube will handle the compression on the fly.

The one thing I obviously can’t cover in this article is how you come up with the idea for your video. Follow the steps in the first article and make sure the person conceptualising the piece is not a techie or strategist otherwise you are going to end up with something most people will consider lame and probably see as spam.

For me the main objective of using video is to increase the value proposition for the consumer, the brand and the agency. If we do not focus on ways to make campaigns more engaging they will not become more viral and mobile will continue being the ugly step child.

Remember, a mobile phone is a viral channel – if a campaign does not achieve viral reach then it’s because the campaign was not engaging. The consumer is in control – give them something cool and they will pass it on.

Today! Star Wars Episode I in 3D

Put a bird on it!

Probably one of the funniest videos we've watched lately. Towards the end of 2011 we came across this clip from the TV series Portlandia and since then, we've just wanted to put birds on things. Put a bird on it!

What we're amped for this week

So we at 7DKS are a bunch of geeks. We're into everything from Star Wars to Superman and our HQ is proof of that.
So when the new Avengers trailer came out we gave a unified "squee" - like a bunch of fangirls.

Check out the trailer here!

Image: Blogworld.com

Who is Sam?

We recently worked on a Facebook connect app with Nedbank for their campaign aimed at the youth, Smart About Money (SAM).
The video takes the viewer on a journey through what their future could be: new car, a house, trips overseas and most of all, the financial freedom to have time to do the things they love.
The video connects to Facebook and uses (with their permission) the viewers Facebook photos.

So if you want to find out who Sam is, why not take the journey yourself at www.whoissam.co.za

Five steps to achieving viral reach on mobile: Step Three

Don’t play it safe

By Ryan Gandalf van Jaarsveld, MD 7Dffrnt Knds of Smke

When we receive a brief and the client wants to achieve viral reach we know that the one sure way to tell if we are doing our job is if the client has that look in their eyes that says they’re scared. It’s rare for the client to move ahead regardless. To put themselves aside and realise they aren’t necessarily their target market. As they say – no guts, no glory!

We all know the feeling we get when we pass something on via e-mail, SMS or word of mouth and the person/ people receiving it have a reaction similar to what we experienced when we first saw it.

For a moment we have been able to add value, change a perception, entertain or educate – ultimately have an impact on the recipient’s life, and get the credit for it.

What’s interesting is that we don’t only pass on funny stuff like

“Badger” http://youtu.be/EIyixC9NsLI or

“Baby laughing hysterically at ripping paper” http://youtu.be/RP4abiHdQpc

but also share serious matters like “I have something to tell you…” http://youtu.be/OkoPQwYL9ys or ridiculous, bordering on insane stuff like “Leave Britney alone” http://youtu.be/kHmvkRoEowc.

How many motivationals, Fails, remember the 80’s, clever inventions and presentations on 3D pavement art have you received and passed on via e-mail, how many times have you had someone Bluetooth a video or image to you or send you a link to something via SMS that you viewed immediately because it came from a trusty source?

And the numbers are mental – “Charlie bit my finger” is sitting at over 411 million views on YouTube! Die Antwoord’s “Enter the Ninja” - over 10 million views! Goldfish’s “We come together” – 1.4 million.

It seems that user generated content and music videos dominate though six days ago VW launched a video called “The bark side” – a brilliant piece of viral content that’s currently sitting on over 7 million views. Well done VW!

How are they doing it and why are so few brands in SA getting it right?

Mathew Bull once said “If you are scaring your client, then you are heading in the right direction.” And I think that’s the problem – when it comes to viral, agencies aren’t presenting work that scares the client enough. Everyone is playing it safe and the result is a boring, wasted attempt at engaging consumers and giving them an experience they can get anywhere else.

So instead of going with some awesomely produced viral content that entertains the audience we are left with branded wallpapers or a ringtone recorded in a celebrity’s voice that one could easily find on Google.

The crazy thing is that as much as the client insists on going this way the success of the campaign lies in the hands of the recipient. The result of your viral  campaign is a direct reflection on how engaging it was. You can’t force someone to like something or share it and people won’t risk their reputation by passing on something that should be left for movie day at the local old age home, where it doesn’t matter if the content is engaging because anything is better than watching grass grow while waiting for your next cup of tea.

I really applaud VW for their video – if you look at the comments you will notice that someone said “What does this have to do with a car” and that’s the point, it doesn’t have to have anything to do with a car. It can just be an awesome, entertaining, engaging piece brought to you by a company that is already renowned for manufacturing brilliant automobiles.

Next time you are pitching something to a client, or next time you are receiving a revert on your brief think of how serious you are about the mobile/ viral element achieving results. If you are giving the consumer an experience they can find elsewhere online then rather don’t bother. The budget could be better spent elsewhere.

If, however, you want to see mobile really deliver on its promise then push the limits – be scared but don’t let it stop you. Your target audience will be impressed with your brand’s ballsiness and forward thinking and they will feel rewarded for their support, time and loyalty.

When browsing the mobile web the consumer comes across thousands of ad banners – if they clicked on yours then something compelled them to do so, if they feel let down when they get to your site then you have failed them and your campaign ends there. Who knows how many people they would have shared their experience with.

And that’s the beautiful thing; if your campaign is viral you can turn a mobile media investment of X into 200% or 500% or 1000% X. Every hit you get above your spend is free.

So when you start preparing for your next campaign, put on your big person pants, toss an extra teaspoon of java in your cup, have a bowl of jungle oats and do something meaningful and memorable.

If you find yourself yawning after the first slide of the pitch send it back and if the client pulls back the reins on a crazy idea remind them of why you are there and what’s at stake.

If your brand doesn’t grab at every opportunity to be great then a competitor will and all that will remain will be another poor excuse for a campaign that could have been more, and we all know how much the boss loves underachievement.