Wanna Win An Award? Copy A Successful Viral!
Recently I came across two award-winning videos: “Parental Controls for TV Viewing” for Erotic channel Beate Uhse TV, winner at the 2008 NY Festivals Advertising Awards and The Cresta Awards 2008.
And the viral “Crazy Leaders” for Amnesty International, winner of a Cresta Award. Both videos you might have seen before …
In October 2007 Brazilian YouTube user Seminovos drew over 2,5 million viewers with his offensive drawing video: “Ao mestre, com Carinho”.
Now watch the 45-second TV commercial, created by Hamburg-based Kemper Trautmann gmbh, for Beate Ushe in 2008, promoting the advantages of parental controls for Beate Uhse TV. Total views on YouTube 20,000+. The Tagline: “You will see it. Your children are not”.
Two years ago comedian Craig Ferguson, host of CBS’s The Late Late Show, paid tribute to former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on his show and came up with a very original idea. Watch Rumsfeld solving a Rubik’s Cube puzzle, making origami & paper dolls, sketch, and roll a joint during press conferences, viewed 1.6 million times.
Now compare the previous video with the viral advert for human rights organization Amnesty International, created by German agency Scholz & Friends. World leaders George Bush, Vladimir Putin and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad get creative with origami, balloon animals and crocheting. Total views on YouTube 21,000+. The tagline: “We can change what they do”.
See also the massive viral Ping Pong Matrix (8.3 million views) and the internet commercial People Powered for Canadian cable company Shaw. Or Rollerblade Bottle Music and Audi’s TV Spot In Crescendo (CyberLions Shortlist).
Conclusion
Copying a succesful viral as brand will hardly get you the same viral numbers as the original videos, but it can get you top ratings and advertising awards.
Have you seen similar videos? Let us know or post them in the comments.
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Unbelievable, funny to see that viral is not always about quantity (to get as many views as possible, no mather where they come from), but also quality..
Well the question is: Can you really call it “copy” or is it more an “inspiration” that professionel creatives get from amateurs on youtube. Interesting question .. will discuss this on my german blog immediately.
There are also viral’s copy as the TVF one for diesel:
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=XQVNVdTTvPA
or the free hugs campaign for aids
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=vr3x_RRJdd4
Great findings Paul!
The thing with this content is that if the crowd doesn’t like it (because they’ve probably seen it before), it won’t go viral. Copying these kind of ideas can be very harmful for a project, so it’s actually a big risk …
I think the challenge for creatives is to find inspirations on content which did not go very viral yet, rebuild it and make it so strong that it will go viral in it´s new (brand)form. I agree, copying content which was already very successfull is propably not so clever …