The Vatican will soon have its own channel on the video sharing site YouTube where the Catholic faithful or the curious will be able to see Pope Benedictus XVI or Church events, a Vatican source said on Saturday.
The details of the accord are due to be presented on Friday at a news conference attended by Vatican officials as well as Henrique de Castro, managing director of media solutions for Google, which owns YouTube.
The initiative will involve Google, the Vatican Television Center and Vatican Radio. It will mark the Vatican’s deepest plunge into new media. The Vatican opened up its website, in 1995.
Did you ever see the coolest Catholic digital branding concept? Check SQPN…
Seth Godin seems angry about the fact that viral marketing is getting a bad name. He blames clueless marketing agencies and clueless marketers. And Godin has a good point in some of his points. However, I feel some of his remarks might need more explanation or concrete next steps…
Here’s what brands and agencies do, says Godin: “they get a lame product, or a semi-lame product, and they don’t have enough time or money to run a nationwide ad campaign. So, instead, they slap some goofy viral thing on top of it and wait for it to spread. And if it doesn’t spread, they create a faux controversy or engage a PR firm or some bloggers and then it still doesn’t work.”
Godin continues:”Being viral isn’t the hard part. The hard part is making that viral element actually produce something of value, not just entertainment for the client or your boss.”
Next Godin explains that: “Marketers are obsessed with free media, and, as is often the case, we blow it in our rush to get our share. We create content that is hampered or selfish or boring. Or we create something completely viral that doesn’t do any marketing at all.
But I’m afraid I do not understand all of the remarks really well….
Viral Friday is the weekly viral video chart of ViralBlog, showing the 5 most popular viral videos, commercials or user-generated videos, carefully selected and ranked by popularity, viral impact & spread.
This weeks Viral Friday #1 position goes to Evolution Of Dance 2. We all know “Evolution Of Dance”, the wacky dance moves video. Now there’s a part 2! The runner up spot is for Ray-Ban with Cow Gives Birth To A Dude. This rather strange video is the latest of Ray-Ban’s “Never Hide” campaign. Mactini completes this week’s top 3. Last week we had the MacBook Wheel, this week another “Let’s Make Fun Of Apple” video; the Mactini.
Do you want to see this week’s list from 1 to 5? Go on then, and have a look! We’d like to hear your opinion about the virals. Have fun!
Social Media as Ice Cream? Perhaps this post is slightly on the fun side, but the metaphors hold true. Its a simple story that illustrates the forces shaping social media. Why is social media like ice cream? Check out Scoopville…
And learn more about Blogs, RSS, Podcasting, Twitter and Social Bookmarking, all in Plain English. An excellent guide for brand marketers!
More than 150.000 people have seen the video: Social Media in Plain English that Common Craft founder Lee Lefever constructed. And if we take a deeper dive into the WHY? See the 17 reasons why social media is as ice cream. Or see the other videos, all in Plain English!
Burger King isn’t an unfamiliar on viral grounds and has proven its viral creativity with previous campaigns like Whopper Freakout and Subservient Chicken. Now Burger King comes with another campaign which is targeting the social space: Whopper Sacrifice.
Burger King asks you to remove 10 people from your friendlist on Facebook in order to receive a free Whopper. It’s the first Facebook Application I come across in 2009 and makes a good start for this year!
Would you sacrifice a few friend for a free burger? (more…)
Viral Friday is the weekly viral video chart of ViralBlog, showing the 5 most popular viral videos, commercials or user-generated videos, carefully selected and ranked by popularity, viral impact & spread.
This weeks Viral Friday #1 position goes to One Year In 40 Seconds. In 2005 Eirik Solheim did an experiment shooting images out of his window for one year. It turned out pretty cool so in the end of 2007 he decided to do the same for the year 2008. The runner up spot is for Heineken with Walk In Fridge. The walk in fridge is Heineken’s brilliant gift to man in this Dutch commercial which can be understood perfectly even if you don’t speak Dutch. Robbie Madison’s Amazing Record Jump completes this week’s top 3. Australian freestyle motocross rider Robbie Madison fulfilled his lifelong dream and ambition last night when he successfully completed a 300ft almost vertical jump to land on top of the Arc De Triomphe.
Do you want to see this week’s list from 1 to 5? Go on then, and have a look! We’d like to hear your opinion about the virals. Have fun!
Soccer star Luis Figo stars in a new movie about virtual community Second Life. The movie will be launched in Portuguese cinemas at 29 January 2009. See the teasing movie trailer here…
The movie was created by Utopia Films from Portugal. Since I’m Figo fan and feel the movie trailer is full of tension and erotic scenes, I hope the movie will be a big success. But I’m not yet convinced, the film will become a huge Box Office hit….
Online fund raising in Barack Obama style. With the help of over 125.000 donors from around the world, the Wikimedia Foundation raised a total of $6.2 million, sustaining Wikipedia for the foreseeable future. The money will be used to maintain and grow the foundation’s technical infrastructure.
“This campaign has proven that Wikipedia matters to its users, and that our users strongly support our mission: to bring free knowledge to the planet, free of charge and free of advertising,” Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation, wrote in a thank you letter posted on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation’s Web site. “We deeply appreciate the generosity of our supporters.”
The Wikimedia Foundation was behind in its total contributions in late December, but Wales published a personal appeal on the foundation’s site to increase funding. In the eight days trailing that message, more than 50,000 contributions flooded in, totaling $2 million and closing the gap toward the goal.
3 Mobile in the UK launched a piece of online content to promote their new mobile email service. The campaign was created by glue London. See 3 Mobile’s promoting online video Ridiculously Easy Email…
However it was clear from research groups that for many consumers ‘ease of use’ was the real barrier for what has previously been seen as a fairly niche service, therefore we wanted to communicate just how easy using e-mail on the full range of 3 mobile phones was, said creating agency glue London.
‘Easy Email’ was launched on three.co.uk as a homepage takeover which linked through to a bespoke landing page filled with our content, which is now a permanent demonstration of e-mail on 3.
In Australia Yahoo! recently launched the new Yahoo!7 Mail Inbox as: Think Outside The Inbox. The video promo shows how easy it is to have your friends upfront in the new inbox.
Even though Australia does not have a very high broadband penetration, Yahoo! has chosen to launch an online video to promote the new Yahoo!7 Mail. See how the Aussie cowboy online video demonstrates the new features of Yahoo!7 Mail.
It’s a simple but clear online video demo, that was created by Australian agency Three Drunk Monkeys.
And online video and motion is what more brands should do: really invest in digital brand programming. Not again launch that cheap ugly campaign site that scares away consumers. Not only launch that cheap and ugly set of banners!!
