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I recently received an email from Cake Group, about a new viral video that they produced. This is one of the few instances where I think the spoof is better than the original.

My only complaint about this video is the product placement. Can you tell what product this video is for? Does it make you want to buy the product?

Here is the original Guinness video.

A while back, Axe launched the “Naughty to Nice” campaign. The premise is that Axe Vice products are turning nice girls into naughty vixens. As part of the campaign, Axe launched a slick viral microsite consisting of a funny video and a mystery for visitors to solve.

The problem I have with the mystery is that there is no mystery. The answer is plastered all over the site and the clues are spoon feed to you.

Painfully Obvious Tip: If you’re going to create a challenge for your visitors, make sure that it’s somewhat challenging. Otherwise, visitors are not going to feel rewarded for their effort. Don’t spoon feed the clues. Make them earn it. People who participate in mysteries want to be challenged.

Perhaps the true mystery involves figuring out who Axe is actually marketing to? After viewing the Naughty To Nice video (well worth a click), you are asked to report any naughty girls in your life. Once you report a naughty girl, Axe sends that girl an email to inform her of the video.

This “report a naughty girl” feature brings up some interesting questions. Are they hoping that this will spread to teenage girls who will buy it for their smelly boyfriends? Are these naughty girls going to send it to their naughty friends who will send it to their boyfriends? Is Axe going outside their direct target market so that they can jump between different male social clicks? Are naughty girls the common thread that binds all men together?

To promote the new Xeon microchip, Intel has created an amazing microsite for geeks. Robo Brawl allows you to build a robot and enter it into battle against other robots. The best part is that you can challenge your friend to a match.

The website is well thought out. The longer you play the game the more you learn about the Xeon chip. What I love about it is that they don’t jam it down your throat. It’s definitely worth a click…especially if you’re a geek like me.

In my last post, I talked about pushing the limits of social norms. One of the best people at doing this is Sarah Silverman. The video below has been viewed over 4 million times.

UPDATE:

Here’s Jimmy’s reply.

Also, check out this great spoof featuring Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Great editing.

Sometimes you have to do something jarring or unusual to get noticed. Sometimes you can’t wait for something magical to happen. You have to take matters into your own hands and stage an event. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn’t:

7 Viral Videos You Didn’t Know Were Staged
This article exposes the truth about some well known viral videos. It has some great footage of how these “fake” videos were made.

Firefox Marketing Campaign Goes Too Far
During a recent viral marketing campaign Mozilla did a statistical comparison between Firefox and Internet Explorer users. Unfortunately, some of their stats tried to convince us that we’re less likely to get Cancer if we use Firefox.

To get noticed, marketers occasionally push the limits of widely accepted social standards. Sometimes, things backfire.

Although this footage of how Pauly Shore made his video is successful in its own right. Hmmm. That’s one way to give a campaign new legs.

Okay…this Japanese viral marketing video is weird. Prepare yourself. This is not the Ronald McDonald your grew up with.

Although, check out the first Ronald McDonald commercial. It’s equally as creepy.

via viralavatar

Last June I reported on how MTV hired a couple of YouTube celebrities to promote their global warming campaign. This celebrity-on-a-budget approach is slowly starting to catch on.

According to adrants.com, the Philippine Department of Tourism recently hired HappySlip, a YouTube celeb, to promote Philippine tourism to second- and third-gen Filipino-Americans.

What I love about this pairing is that it makes sense. HappySlip is a Filipino-American. As a result, her videos are sincere and touching. Here is HappySlip’s sentimental arrival video.

In an effort to sell more Cheetos, Frito-Lay has launched a website called the Orange Underground.

The microsite asks people to join a not-so-secret society that encourages mayhem and random acts of Cheetos (RAoC). I guess if you can’t get people to eat them, maybe you can get them to waste thousands of Cheetos on silly pranks and gags.

To help the creative process, Frito-Lay has created videos and a cookbook on how to best “fight the man”. To help spread the word, they are encouraging people to video tape their pranks and post them on YouTube. Frito-Lay is hoping that this healthier alternative will produce a collection of funny user generate videos.

Oreo’s Approach: Supported by a TV campaign, Oreo has taken a different approach to selling food. They actually have a viral campaign that encourages people to eat their product. Check out the next hot sport: DSRL. Basically it involves licking the cream off an Oreo.

After everything is said and done, viral marketing is not about microsites and YouTube videos. It’s about finding and sharing something truly unique or remarkable.

In the spirit of all its past innovations, Apple is now taking on the bland banner ad. Although it’s not the first time they’ve employeed this technique, this witty execution was disruptive enough to get my attention. In TBWA’s latest creation, Apple’s loveable PC character reaches into another banner ad to pasts a “NOT” at the end of it.

This interaction between two separate ads has proven to be a unique enough idea that it has attracted a lot of buzz on the web. Well done Apple.

(via Ad Freak)

According to a blog called “The Vig“, ABC has launched a viral campaign to promote the new season of Lost.

In Portland, there are now a few new billboards for a fictional airline, featured in Lost, called Oceanic Airlines. In the spirit of multi-site mysteries, the billboard leads you to one site, which leads you to another one.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much there unless you are a big fan of the show. And there’s no reason to send it to your friends…unless they are big fans of the show. Personally, I think this viral broke one of the most important rules of viral marketing: keep it simple. There’s way too much information for the average person to go through or care about.

It would have been more interesting if visitors could invite their friends to help them solve some kind of mystery.