Think with Google

Hot on the heels of a wave goodbye here comes a lovely simple YouTube channel. Think with Google. Business in Bites.

http://www.youtube.com/think

Levi's - Ready to Work

This short film (episode 1 in an ongoing series) tells the story of Levi's collaboration with Braddock, PA - a steeltown struggling to stay alive.

The campaign included investment in the community and workshops in Braddock and further afield to help people back to work - http://workshops.levi.com/



It culminates in this epic advert:



We love it.

YouTube PLAY in association with the Guggenheim Museum

On the face of it this is not the most obvious collaboration but we really like the collaboration and creativity on display at YouTube Play.

"YouTube Play is a collaboration between YouTube and the Guggenheim Museum to unearth and showcase the very best creative video from around the world. To have your work considered, simply post it on YouTube, and then submit it at youtube.com/play. A jury of experts will decide which works presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York on October 21, 2010 with simultaneous presentations at the Guggenheim museums in Berlin, Bilbao, and Venice. The videos will be on view to the public from October 22 through 24 in New York and on the YouTube Play channel. Submissions close July 31, 2010."

Vuvuzelas - The Downfall of the World Cup?

This little piece was put together by a friend of ours on his Mac Book during the dull bits ( admittedly there were a few) of the Brazil Vs. N.Korea game a couple of nights ago. In the first day he got 20,000 views. Yesterday, it was recommended by Stephen Fry on Twitter and he's up to 250,000. There's already a copycat version.

Reminds us of this quote from Nicholas Carr: "What's happening isn't about amateurs and professionals. George Washington was an amateur politician. Charles Darwin was an amateur scientist. The decisive factor is not how we produce intellectual works but how we consume them".

Production Cost = 0. Media Cost = 0. Being sued by the makers of 'Downfall'- Endless.

The 73K Bar Tab - Ogilvy, Brazil

Genius.

Right place, right time, right message. For free.

Love it.

Augemented Reality for real

We've talked about Augmented Reality applications before on this blog but mostly in a "look what might happen some day" or a "look at those crazy Japanese" kind of way.

E-consultancy has just release a top 10 real life AR examples being implemented by real world Superbrands.

It's worth a look to see how science fiction is fast becoming science fact.

Nike - Write the Future

Those of you not on Twitter regularly (and let's face it, that's probably quite a large proportion) may not have noticed that the above Nike ad has been getting quite a lot of "bird of mouth" (and, no, we didn't just make that phrase up).

It's been teased over the last few weeks and is due to break during tomorrow's Champion's League Final.

Whatever you think of it personally, 700K views in 4 days with a 99% "like" rating is pretty impressive.

Online Video Viewing up 37%

Last month's Comscore report shows a 37% year on year increase in online video viewing with more than 5.5 billion streams viewed for the month of February.

Other highlights:

Facebook was the fastest growing video property in the top 10 with a 205% year on year increase to 43 Million views.

BBC more than doubled its videos viewed last year to come in second place. Each visitor to the broadcaster's site consumes 15.7 videos a month.

The younger Channel 4 audience views about 19 videos a month with women visiting Channel 4's site watching about five more videos per month than males.

Interest in user-genenrated and portal-based video at YouTube is peaking while traffic to longer-form TV-branded video is increasing.

When Complexity Fails

http://www.gapingvoid.com/

This piece by Clay Shirky is a bit long and a bit academic but it's well worth the read for anyone interested in how the internet is changing complex and traditional media business models.

With the recent introduction of paywalls at News Int, AOL's inability to fund profitable growth with Bebo, and Youtube seeking new ways to monetise their offer it's a timely article which looks at the difficulties that emerge for business when expensive, complex content production models enter direct competition with simple and cheap, even free, alternatives.

As Shirky points out, the most viewed minute of video in recent years isn't a Hollywood movie clip, World Cup goal highlight or astonishing news scoop, it's a low quality amateur film of Charlie biting his brother's finger. Twice. 176 Million views and counting.

The truth of the matter is that News Int, AOL and others are really saying to us:

“Web users will have to pay for what they watch and use, or else we will have to stop making content in the costly and complex way we have grown accustomed to making it. And we don’t know how to do that.”

Interesting stuff.

Pepsi leads World Cup advertising league

Coke may be the official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, but Pepsi's 2.5-minute "Oh Africa" is the first World Cup ad to make the viral chart says Adage.

Are Politicians Socially Adept?

Many respected political commentators (and this blog) have talked at length about how Barack Obama's use of social networking allowed him to engage previously disenchanted sectors of America's electorate, citing this as a major contributor to his success at the polls and subsequently in managing information flow from the Whitehouse to the people.

Naturally, you'd expect our politicians to try to learn from Obama in the run up to our own impending election. The key feature of the Obama social strategy was contact across multiple platforms:

Keen blogger who wants to read, discuss and leave your own comments? - come on over to http://my.barackobama.com/

Budding photo-journalist with images to share about the campaign or it's key issues? -  there’s a place for that on Flickr

Unable to attend political rallies but still want to see key speeches? - watch them on Youtube

The Obama team covered off all major and many minor social networks and made sure to keep them updated regularly. To all intents and purposes they owned the medium to the exclusion of the Republicans in the months preceding the election.

So, with all the prior comment and analysis of how to successfuly use social media for political success, are Clegg, Brown and Cameron using this knowledge to engage more effectively with the British electorate? Will this be the first digital election in Britain?

Here are some stats with only a couple of months to go until election day:

Labour Party Facebook fans: 7,416

Conservatives Facebook fans: 24,929

Lib Dem Facebook fans: 7,472

While the Conservatives appear clear winners here it's worth noting that Obama has nearly 8 Million fans who are engaged and active in commenting on the page. While all 3 parties regularly post messages, none attempt to engage the audience with questions or discussions. It is very much a PR mouthpiece channel for all parties.

Obama’s campaign tried hard to avoid confrontation with McCain, making the policies the talking point. It's dissapointing to see the UK parties applying the same old techniques to this new environment rather than leveraging new platforms to take them beyond the partisan party politics of old.

All 3 parties have their own Youtube channel. Again they seem to be used mainly to house party political broadcasts and general messages. There’s no insightful commentary or impartial content. No canvassing of opinion or openness.

How could the 3 main parties do better?

People want to consume content that is interesting, engaging and that will deliver a clear benefit to them. Posting a party broadcast may tick a few boxes for a few supporters, but for momentum to grow the parties need to be developing bespoke content that appeals to the audience that they’re trying to reach - simply posting conference speeches is not going to engage anyone beyond the party faithful. Where is the debate and disucssion around local issues, global issues, issues that show that they care about the audience, that they deserve their vote and that they'll listen to their opinion.

The Facebook fanpages will never take off and appeal to the masses with the current content. The trick is to play to the strengths of the site. Polls, gifting and clever use of apps should be pushed to the forefront above soundbites and insults.

Is this going to be a digital election? Not on the evidence to date.

OK GO - This too shall pass

Released on Youtube.

Over 3 million views. In less than a week.

More details here

*applause*