Sometimes, the conversation in comments about a post shouldn’t be left below the folds. This is one of them.
I praised the the terrific OfficeMax Penny Pranks campaign, but called out the agency because the headline of each video begins “HILARIOUS HIDDEN CAMERA PENNY PRANK” and that’s heavy-handed.
Vinny Warren, creative director at The Escape Pod, the agency that created the campaign wrote in comments
“… when you’re fighting for clicks on youtube you find that subtlety is what closes on saturday night. you have become a programmer, not an advertiser. so funny becomes HILARIOUS. and interesting becomes FASCINATING.
And that used to be true.
You can’t dictate what people will find funny by labeling it “hilarious”. People have brains and are smart enough to figure out what they like without being hit over the head. Labels like “hilarious video” or “viral video” that are not created by viewers are bogus.
You don’t tell us what’s hilarious or viral. We tell you.
Escape Pod did a great job on the campaign. People are talking: the videos have already had more than two million views. But it’s not because the word hilarious is in the headline. It’s the content and the concept that matter. No overkill required.
What do you think?
Okay, the videos were funny. I laughed at a few for sure. And then, I thought about what you asked. What’s really unfortunate is that the work does really well, and probably would have done great without the heavy handed push. Wasn’t there a much gentler way to get that into other people’s hands?
My FIRST thought was to find embed codes and share them. My second thought was to find easy links to the ones I liked the most.
My last thought was hoping that I’d get an email from people about them.
Great post as always, BL.
I think you are right up to a certain extend.
Words like these can help make a video stand out in the crowd, but they are far less likely to make people pass them on if the content sucks.
I know from my experience in running PPC campaigns that small details like an exclamation mark or a different word can make a big difference. The word hilarious helps make a first impact and stand out in the large Youtube crowd.
After the first impression the video is on its on. Then the content will be the most important factor in helping a video go viral.
As Vinny is saying, when you’re uploading content on Youtube for a campaign, the fight for views starts. And changing words is part of the fight. As you say, people are brain gifted, and they know “hilarious” doesn’t mean anything on Youtube, but that’s a standard word on such platforms. And to win the youtube visibility fight, you’ve to use all the standards that have been set by viewers and uploaders to connect with the audience.
But regarding “It’s the content and the concept that matter”, I would add the way you spread the video: to whom you’re sending the video first, what’s the way to connect with the first viewers, what’s the follow up, and how you make them spread the video.
Dean – Penny Pranks doesn’t come up in the first 100 Google results on “hilarious video” http://tinyurl.com/6z5cev
Where the hilarious video headline comes up is when you enter the term Penny Prank into Google. Why would you do that? Because someone told you that there were some funny penny prank videos.
I’ll say it again: You don’t tell us what’s hilarious or viral. We tell you.
I can’t say I agree with Daan or Romain. Did the Gatorade “ball girl“, Will Ferrell’s “Pearl“, “Leave Britany Alone“, Weird Al’s “White and Nerdy” or Rick Roll start with anything other than content? Content that connects and a platform to help share it seem to be the top 2 requirements for creating a viral video — not pushing outlandish descriptors on the audience.
David – I agree. that said, you *can* seed a viral video in a variety of ways.
JibJab is the master of viral seeding, for example. They have an opt-in list of maybe a million people who liked their previous work enough to ask to be notified when new work comes out.
Case studies of the Subservient Chicken say that the agency sent it to half a dozen friends originally. Ditto for many of the campaigns I’ve worked on and so many friends have pointed out to me.
In every case, the content has to be great or your next headsup goes unopened, like the emails from people who send you lame jokes and photos that have been going around for five years, generally with attachments.
I enjoyed those videos, but I do hate the titles. People hate over-hyping of videos. Take the adjectives out of the titles. Let the viewers decide for themselves.
As people have said in the comments: Content is King. Titles are mostly irrelevant.
I didn’t say using outlandish terms was the only way to make a video go viral. Or that it would garantuee something would go viral.
Don’t get me wrong, content is king. Without it you’re unlikely to get any sort of tangeable results (unless you use less savoury/organic methods).
However, an eye catching title will help a video stand out and can catch the eye of the person looking. Obviously not when they are looking for the video directly, but when someone does a broader search in which the video pops up.
Having said that, titles fully written in caps tend to get ignored because they look spammy.
I do agree that the way its been used in this instance is somewhat heavy handed, furthermore because it seems as if they are trying to pretend it was uploaded by a regular user.
OK, what should the headline have been then? “Moderately amusing retail promotional film captured usinghidden camera technique?”
;-)
btw, i just talked to our media whiz matt. we have an extensive search campaign within youtube. we bought terms “comedy” and “prank” etc. and if you search “hilarious video” on youtube two of our videos organically pop up in the top 20. yay!
Vinny – your media whiz could get much better results, MUCH more cost-effectively, with blog advertising; blogger outreach; participating in social media as a member of communities, not only as self-promoters; by joining conversations about back to school, viral marketing, etc; & skillful PR, etc.
As i noted, Penny Pranks doesn’t come up in the first 100 Google results on “hilarious video” http://tinyurl.com/6z5cev
As far as coming up in the top 20 search for hilarious video on YouTube, that’s a dubious distinction because this title also comes up in the search “hilarious video”: Hilarious White People Spelling Bee: Niggerfaggot”
You’re still looking at this from an ad agency, old media point of view.
BL,
why would you assume we didn’t any blogger outreach? we actually did.
and being in the top 20 search for “hilarious video” on youtube (where people go to watch funny videos) isn’t an honor, dubious or otherwise. it’s a matter of fact. we earned our way there by being sufficiently
funny/hilarious/amusing/diverting/silly/redheaded enough.
also, our pennypranks channel is the #1 most subscribed to channel on youtube for the past month. 5433 subscribers and counting. so we must be doing something right.
but i would ask you again. what should our youtube headline have been? let’s assume you are entirely correct and i was entirely wrong. what would be a better headline?
“Media Whiz” here. We incorporated both blog and PR efforts into this campaign. We also worked with our partners at Google/YouTube to test some of their newer performance based technology that not only helped the campaign spread, but cost almost nothing to implement.
Regarding the “heavy handed” titles. The back-to-school season is only 4-5 weeks long, so subtlety has to take a bit of a back seat. We needed to take advantage of any and every trick in the playbook to get this message out quickly. Based on the results to date, I tend to think it worked.
Matthew, Vinny: All you needed to do was take the word “HILARIOUS” out of the headlines and the headlines would be fine!
Nobody here said your campaign didn’t work. What I and several others are saying is that you didn’t need the word “HILARIOUS” in caps. You don’t need to tell people what to think these days.
Obviously, your content is great. That’s why I wrote about it in the first place.
We’re not discussing right and wrong. We’re talking about change, evolution, transparency, not “any and every trick in the playbook.”
I’ll say it again: You don’t tell us what’s hilarious or viral. We tell you.
And re-reading the comments, I have become quite fond of “Moderately amusing retail promotional film captured usinghidden camera technique?”
I guarantee you’d have gotten some play with that headline. :>)
Yes, BL.
But they weren’t “moderately amusing” were they? No, they were, it turns out – based on the reactions – hilarious. So we were just being truthful. ;-)
Had they not been hilarious…I don’t even want to think about that one.
Vinny! I was joking. Making a funny. Teasing you. Jeez. They are great videos. the headlines suck.
BL,
you have to realize that i am a humorless, and apparently relentless, pedantic git who doesn’t take criticism very well.
but other than that, i’m cool.
thanks for the mentions and the spirited discussion. out of heat comes light. that’s my philosophy.
PS: dr. ackerman says hi
vinny
Vinny – you’re definitely cool in my book. Tell Dr Ackerman I love him.
BL
What term do Google ADwords and WordTracker say is searched for most with the least competition?
Signed
an SEO sellout…
lol