Harry Taylor

Ten Popular Viral Ads

Kia soul hamsters 2011 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF6MNVAk05A

“Kia soul hamsters” is one of the most bizarre adverts of this year. Its urban hamsters, violent robots, and ridiculous dance moves certainly help separate it from the painstakingly dull genre, of generic car advertising. Beneath all the explosions and stupidity, the advert is actually surprisingly well designed: the captivating opening immediately draws the viewer in, helping to prolong the overall immersion, the superb CGI and character animation will almost defiantly keep the viewer in awe, and the general post apocalyptic style is definite eye candy. “LMFAO’s Party Rock Anthem” was a superb choice of a soundtrack, as recently prior to this ad, “party rock anthem” also made it to the viral milestone of internet popularity, allowing it to

be instantly recognised. The shots used are also worth mentioning, there is a mixed bag of different and artistic shots (such as one from a first person perspective, which isn’t commonly found within advertising), all connected fluently together, representing a party like theme.

Cadburys Gorilla – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AC-bxM35t8&feature=related

“The Cadburys Gorilla” is an immensely popular advertisement, and was voted the best of 2007. Although the concept may seem pretty simple, the actual design is rather complex; which is the reason for its success. Cadburys made the unexpected choice to break from the norm barriers of hard selling and focused on a completely entertainment based commercial. The ad seems to carry a rather artistic and dramatic tone throughout, with “Phil Collins - in the air tonight” complimenting this theme. This advertisement was particularly immersive because of the realistic behaviour of the gorilla, and with the subtle shakes of the camera shots, adding a sense of fear and intimidation. A spokes women for Cadburys, explained that there was a noticeable

change in the product’s sale due to this advertisement, and with 6,000,000 views, it’s hard to disagree.

Stop looking at me – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQVfsY0-ZR0

An extremely well known American anti – cannabis commercial by “above the influence”, parodied a countless amount of times, including in the award winning “Family Guy”. The advertisement is almost terrifying with an extremely disturbing soundtrack. It carries a surreal tone, with crudely drawn characters and stiff

animations, but the novelty of it’s’ simplification is also its strongest aspect. If you can get past the creepy exterior, a hint of comedic value can be found, within the irony of the owner’s and dog’s hierarchy. There are only two shots from pretty basic angles, but the style “above the influence” are going with is intentioned to be simple, so there isn’t really too much to pull them up on.

Evian Roller Babies – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQcVllWpwGs

Evian roller babies would be an obvious hit, as the developers mixed two of the most popular viral concepts: Cute and Comedy, almost gaining instant internet fame. The video its self was aesthetically pleasing, due to the soft colour overlay placed in order to brighten the film up and the surprisingly well detailed CGI babies, considering that most were only in shot for a few

seconds at a time. The film was well choreographed which fitted perfectly to the instantly recognisable soundtrack “sugarhill gang – rappers delight” and the camera shots were varied and placed in interesting angles and positions. Gaining an awe inspiring 50,000,000 views, “Evian” has noticed drastic improvements to product sale.

Wassup – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W16qzZ7J5YQ

The “Budweiser – Wassup” commercial is a viral relic, and has been parodied a countless amount of times, most famously within the comedy horror film “scary movie”; this spoof could arguably be more popular then the advertisement itself. “Wassup” Contained the perfect amount of comedy and product advertising to

effectively improve sales, and with a simple catchphrase such as (“wassup”), it could and would be easily mimicked for years to come, allowing the ad to become viral in a matter of days. I could easily nitpick at the simple camera positioning and the lack of a soundtrack etc, but the novelty of its catchphrase pretty much overweighed these shortcomings.

Jennifer Aniston goes viral – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc47LcvIxyI

A fairly recent video to achieve viral status was “Jennifer Aniston goes viral”, it contains a few YouTube celebrities, Jennifer Aniston, references viral themes and contains a stable balance of comedy throughout. The overall style of the video is pretty plain, which is meant to represent a more sophisticated look in order to accompany the product’s brand; “smartwater”. The shots were well laid out, positioned nicely and the smooth camera tone and lighting worked well with the general theme.

Sony Bravia LCD T.V – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8ROuv3SOnU

Sony did great job on creating this extremely feel good advert. The soundtrack chose (Jose Gonzalez – Heartbeats) is amazing and fits the general tone perfectly. The commercials concept is profound, and gives an awe inspiring result. With sea of vibrant bouncyballs echoing down the street accompanied by the emotional

soundtrack, Sony is able to provide a completely aesthetically pleasing experience. The camera placement and techniques are superb, while some shots are laid to represent a first person perspective (to help the viewer feel like they are there); the others are artistic captions of the urban landscape, allowing the audience to be immersed within about 15 seconds. The ad truly

showed off the capabilities of the LCD T.V, and improved sales with the new age technology.

The last exorcism - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNSaurw6E_Q

The last exorcism - chatroulette scare, is a superb example of a successful viral marketing campaign. The platform in which “Lionsgate” used to host their advertisement (chatroulette.com – a popular online chat room) was a well thought out choice, not only was it a unique concept, which hasn’t been done before due to chat roulette’s standing against marketing, but also because disinterested teenagers, often accompanied by their friends, consume a large majority of the sites population; the ideal audience for the growth of a viral. The best aspect of this campaign is the viral’s shock factor, it has the potential to catch every viewer off guard, due to the explicit sex appeal. The viral was later uploaded onto “youtube.com” where it then grossed an average of 6,000,000 views, with this multi platform content, “the last exorcism” gained an expected increase in ticket sales and due to the stylized link at the end, the film’s website was frequently visited.

Meet the medic - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36lSzUMBJnc

The newest and final addition to the “meet the...” series, “Meet the medic” was created to advertise and celebrate “team fortress 2’s” recent jump to free to play, and did a great job of providing a comedic and cinematic experience. This ad gained “team fortress“ a ridiculous amount of attention, the video was anticipated to start

with as a completely entertainment based purpose, racking up an average of 8,000,000 views on “youtube.com”, but when free to play was announced, “valve” (the developers) received so many client downloads that the majority of their game play servers were full. The video itself was stylized alike their game play content, and featured pretty spectacular shots and lighting, with their CGI characters detailed and their animations fluent.

Wario land shake it – http://www.youtube.com/wariolandshakeit2008

This particular viral almost breaks the mould of the traditional advertisement layout, with the developers choosing to create a completely interactive entity. As the video progresses parts of the “youtube.com” screen and layout fall apart to replicate how the real world is being affected by the game itself, and actually results in a pretty immersive experience. There isn’t much to say about the video itself as it is primarily

game play footage, and is designed to hard sell, but footage is nicely cut together, and all the game play shots are exciting and full of chaos, which is amplified by the videos interactivity. The ad gained 6,000,000 views and the company shared that sales were at an all time high.