unsuccessful viral campaigns

unsuccessful viral campaigns 

A viral marketing campaign can prove to be one of the most successful strategies for increasing brand exposure and gaining a steady number of natural links from typically authoritative sources. However, it’s never as simple as releasing a company video or just dancing in public, and for every successful campaign, there’s a heap load that either didn’t gain attention or actually had a negative impact on the brand

This website shows a lot of unsuccessful viral campaigns, such as Microsoft failing to wow. 

http://www.lakestarmccann.com/blog/technology/the-top-10-viral-marketing-disasters-part-1-10-6/

research: successful viral campaigns

successful viral campaigns

I thought I would do some research into successful viral campaigns.

Tippex: Bear & Hunter (Part II)
Building upon a successful campaign in 2010, Tippex's sequel allowed you to type in a year and see the Hunter and the Bear appear in different time zones, it fun and interactive. 

The Guardian: The Three Little Pigs
Giving a classic tale a modern twist, The Guardian's take on the story of the Three Little Pigs was ingenious and shows just how much modern media has changed.

Melbourne Metro: Dumb Ways To Die
As Air New Zealand earlier proved, safety videos don't need to be boring. Yet not only did Melbourne Metro make its video entertaining, it created a catchy song that will be stuck in your head for days.

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NBA: Color
One for the basketball fans, the NBA got the game's five biggest stars to perform "Carol of the bells" using only basketballs, and they do a surprisingly good job of it.

research: what makes a successful viral campaign?

What makes a successful viral campaign? 

Taken from: http://socialmediatoday.com/adam-torkildson/1038526/top-22-viral-marketing-tactics-you-need-2013

1. If something is compelling enough, people will share it. You can't force people to share crappy content. Creating compelling content starts with understanding what compels your audience in the first place.
2. Facebook drives more traffic than any other social network. Seven times as much as Twitter.
3. Pinterest is on average the 12th largest traffic referring site to viral content.
4. If you want to be social, you have to be mobile friendly. 1 in 5 visitors are using a mobile device. Over half of these are iPhones.
5. Sites that are simple or seem "dumb" are anything but, they're accessible. If an idea seems simple, that's great, it means more people will be able to relate to it.
6. To capture attention
7. Provide an embed code directly beneath the infographic in your blog post for bloggers to quickly post the image on their site. Send an email to your customers and blog subscribers announcing the data and encouraging them to share with others.
8. Make a list of everyone who has some kind of interest in what you want to spread-people who have skin in the game. Do favors for people beforehand (like share their content) as a way to engage reciprocity. The day of release tell all of them, because of the calculus of the exponential spread, the way going viral works is that the wider your starting base, the quicker, and more likely you can go viral. Brad Hines
9.  A tweet from a celebrity - Celebrity endorsement on Twitter is the key ingredient for YouTube video marketing and can set a viral video ablaze
10. Hand out an award. 
11. Make it exclusive - Any offer must not be ubiquitous. If a user has seen the deal before, if it's in the Sunday circular, sharing becomes less appealing. One of the reasons people share is to be that person that shows their friends something for the first time. It's an ego booster.
12. Make it worthwhile
13. Make it available for a limited time - To motivate social media users to share, you must give a narrow window for the desired action to be performed. 
14. The content itself must be 100% factual. 
15. Target specific bloggers
16. Juice the views. There are a couple of different companies that you can pay to run your video or content piece in their network of high profile sites to increase your content’s page views to a critical point so that it then becomes an organic piece unto itself.

1. Passion/Lust

Individuals and companies with the passion trigger make fast connections with others and inspire a close relationship with customers. Do you remember the first time you walked into the Apple store and your mouth started watering over the latest Mac? That was lust. Humans get the same mouth watering physiological effect with food, sex and many other products/services that create an anticipation of pleasure.
For a marketer to use lust Hogshead tells us that you need to tap into the 5 senses; you need to tease people’s passions, to pique their interest. There is a need for constant adaptation as passions can quickly run dry. Be creative.

2. Alarm

Alarm is the instinct we all have that used to keep us alive in more primitive times – the fight or flight instinct – losing your child on a crowded beach or meeting Freddie Kruger late at night. People prefer to avoid problems, so the alarm trigger can be used to show people the negative consequences of inaction in order to inspire a fast action. FedEx has combined trust (another trigger) with alarm (it cannot be late!!) to create a winning business. Marketers should define consequences and then create deadlines. This is all about leveraging fear.

3. Mystique

Mystique is all about holding something back and not revealing it. There is curiosity in lack of fulfillment. Hogshead says that there are 4 ways to trigger mystique: spark curiosity, withhold information, build mythology, and limit access.
Mystique is about telling stories and not giving facts – the secret ingredient in Coca-Cola is hidden in a vault, and according to myth only 2 people know the whole list of ingredients.

4. Power

Sometimes people do not want to be in control; they want to relinquish control to others. A good example of this is the personal trainer at the gym. Another example is a digital marketer. Many small business owners want to concentrate on their core business and delegate their digital marketing to an agency so that they do not have to think about it. Another example is the sommelier at a fancy restaurant. We often relinquish control to others due to their status.

5. Prestige

Prestige is all about perceived respect. People often obsess over symbols of rank and respect. People aim to achieve high standards and tangible evidence of their success; this may be a high salary, a simple thank you or a present/gift. There are great examples of prestige on all supermarket shelves. Why do you pay more for the branded product than the supermarket own brand? Why can a Tiffany engagement ring sell for twice the price of a similar ring? In order to leverage the prestige trigger of fascination you need to limit availability, increase the price so that accessibility is decreased (although you have to live up to the promise in the higher price). This all takes nerves of steel and a long-term investment in your brand.

6. Rebellion/Vice

We all like to break the rules sometimes, to do things differently. Vice is the desire you get when you are told that you cannot have something. Monica Lewinsky managed to launch a handbag line following her flirtation with vice.

7. Trust

Trust comes through familiarity and predictability. Messages should be repeated and retold; they should be consistent, reliable and clear. McDonald’s has trust as their strongest trigger. Personally, I am not a fan but I do trust that I will get what I expect if I were to visit a McDonald’s restaurant. The same goes for Starbucks.
Eliminate all sense of uncertainty, chaos or surprise.
Hogshead’s research helps you to not only understand others, also to understand yourself and your business and how others perceive you. It also helps you to understand how to leverage the triggers of fascination to grow your business.
You can read more on the 7 Triggers of Fascination at Sally’s website howtofascinate.com/

Studio Brief 02: Secondhand Books

As it was an interview week, I went home to Devon for a few days. I visited my local second hand bookshop just to spark some inspiration for the new viral campaign brief , 'read more'

Example of Viral Communication

Example of Viral Communication 

A picture shared by Oscars host Ellen DeGeneres became the most retweeted photograph ever on Sunday night, racing past a record held by President Obama. It reached 779,295 retweets in approximately half an hour, and so beat a record previously held by the US president, when he tweeted an image titled "Four more years" at the point of his re-election in November 2012. Within an hour, the DeGeneres tweet had claimed over a million retweets. The Oscars host later said that Twitter had temporarily crashed because of her actions and added: "We really just made history. We're all winners tonight." Come the end of the ceremony, the figure stood at 2,070,132.

Studio Brief 2: read more/facts & figures

I researched some fact & figures about people and reading, and encouraging people to read, if that is the route my group and I want to go down. I found some of the statistics particularly surprising. 

• 35% of adults don't read for pleasure. 
• 42% of men don't read for pleasure. 
• 60% of the prison population has difficulties in basic literacy skills.
• 15% of the working age population in England (5.1m people) are at or below the level of literacy expected of an 11 year old. This figure was 16% (5.2 million people) in 2003.
• More people are at the lowest level of literacy than in 2003 - 1.7m compared to 1.1m.
• Children who are read to every day at age three have a vocabulary at age five , nearly two months in advance to those that are not.
• 14% of children in lower income homes rarely or never read books for pleasure.Parents are the most important reading role models for children and young people
• Only 1 in 5 parents easily find the opportunity to read to their children
• 10 to 16 year-olds who read for pleasure do better at school
• 15% of the working age population in England (5.1m people) are at or below the level of literacy expected of an 11 year old. This figure was 16% (5.2 million people) in 2003.More people are at the lowest level of literacy than in 2003 - 1.7m compared to 1.1m.

Studio Brief 02: world book day

World Book Day

World Book Day takes place on March 6th. It's a campaign to try and encourage young people to buy books and read more. as you can see from the website here the branding is aimed at young children. It's bright and colourful and features very large, yet interesting type. The target audience is for Children with a friendly tone of voice.  They  advertise through Posters, Websites, Book stalls in Schools, TV adverts, Twitter, Facebook page


This is the about section on the website:

World Book Day is a celebration! It’s a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and (most importantly) it’s a celebration of reading. In fact, it’s the biggest celebration of its kind, designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and marked in over 100 countries all over the world.

This is the 17th year there’s been a World Book Day, and on 6th March 2014 children of all ages will come together to appreciate reading. Very loudly and very happily. The main aim of World Book Day in the UK and Ireland is to encourage children to explore the pleasures of books and reading by providing them with the opportunity to have a book of their own. That’s why we will be sending schools (including those nurseries and secondary schools that have specially registered to participate), packs of Book Tokens and age-ranged World Book Day Resource Packs (age-ranged into Nursery/Pre-School, Primary and Secondary) full of ideas and activities, display material and more information about how to get involved in World Book Day.

Studio Brief 2: Initial Ideas

Sitting down with my group (Me, Ashley, Beth, Mo and Ryan) we brainstormed some initial ideas of what we could do for this 'viral' brief. Our theme is to make people read more.

things we may need to consider:

our intentions

Making people read more books, websites etc.

Make people read lips.

Make people read facial expressions.

Dyslexia Awareness? 

tone of voice

is to...

Inform

Interest

Shock

Comedic

Inspire

methods/deliverables of achieving our goal

Twitter 

Facebook

Leaflets

Stickers

Bookmarks

Website

Video

Stall

Book Swap

Target Audience

Students (don't read much because of time and money)

People who already read

Design is Doing: Final Vinyl Outcome/Submission

Secret Seven Submission

Overall, I am really pleased with my outcome, I'm glad I used my marbling scan ins. I think it fits Massive Attack : Karmacoma well. I really like how the silhouette works, the brain looks active and the blue looks like its breathing in, I feel it was a bit of luck how the marbling turned out. I kept the background plain purely because I felt it looked quite striking and stood out more on a one colour background. I will be submitting both. 

Crit Feedback

Today's crit we had Kevin King from Secret Seven come up this afternoon to help out with our crit. We laid our work out and rotated round and gave written feedback. It was really interesting to see everyone else's work and how they interpreted the songs in completely different ways.Here is the feedback I received.

• I really like the mixed colours, different every time and people see different stuff also smells good... If you do this bright and colourful is the way forward?
• Could develop a colour pattern over the hand , photoshop.
• Scanning idea is good but using scanner is way 'overdone' and you could maybe develop this idea more. Colours are good too but maybe a little too colourful? Try a limited colour palette: Blacks/Greys/Reds? 
• I think marbling is a good idea, but don't just use by itself: try to put it in a shape or type - marbling has been used in record sleeves a lot, so if you want to use it, try to add your own touch to it. 
• Think of head idea is the best. Try developing this further.
• Think the marbling idea is great! also like the scanned hands, very good. Think the scanned one is your strongest.
• I like the marbling. How can you bring that back to your research. 
• I really like the effect of the two hands although overlapped it made me think of people holding hands- so security. Experiment with one hand and positioning or two hands spread (like a mime stuck in a box? - you know) Marbling produces a strong effect but perhaps experiment with dark colours. You don't relate bright colours to being trapped. Maybe a hidden shape or symbol in the marble print. 
• I really like the hand scanned in, its creepy and karmacoma sounds creepy. Also think the bigger black marbling looks really good, like a black hole and is a bit scary. Not sure what you like...but you know 
• Scan the marble effects in they are pretty
• I think the marbling ones look good. It would be interesting to see them layered together on Photoshop. But the hand is also really good design is has an interesting effect.
• I quite like the pixelation and the 'ming' colour shows that sometimes mistakes can actually produce ideas. 
• Texture idea creates some of the best visuals I have seen today. They fit with the idea of the song and overall the best response I have seen.

Overall, I felt the feedback I received was generally pretty positive! However, some people felt the marbling technique is pretty overdone, which I agree with. I was especially happy with the two last pieces of feedback - made my week! ha. I still feel I have a lot to improve and work on , I felt I spent maybe a bit too much time focusing on research into vinyl rather than DOING!

Kevin even posted a photograph of the crit on Instagram. 

STUFF & THINGS COLLECTIVE

Recently after buying a couple posters, I realised the studio, 'stuff and things collective' was based in Leeds! which was totally surreal. The posters I really wanted were sold out, but I settled for a Tame Impala and an Alt-J one, job done. They are a Design & Illustration collective, based in city of Leeds. Specialising in hand-made and hand-drawn, lovingly-crafted creations; they pride ourselves on traditional practices that celebrate the 'human element' in all of their work, which is so often lost in this digital era.The methods used span a broad, eclectic range of creative mediums that together bring about distinctive juxtapositions between bold space and intricate detailing.They have an ever-growing portfolio of sweet and sinister themed pieces we hope to stimulate and inspire both mind and eye! They design posters for Tame Impala to the Brudenell Social Club! 

Poster One I bought!

Second Poster I bought!

The Caseroom Press - Lecture

This morning we had a lecture on text in books, by Barrie who works at The Caseroom press. The Caseroom Press; are an independent publisher whose work explores the function and format of the book, from single limited editions to multiple copies; from poetry to prose; from the artist's book to traditional print; from stencils, to typewriters; from wood and metal type to litho to digital print processes. They collaborate with a number of illustrators, designers, painters, poets, sculptors, students and musicians.

 The presentation took us through text in books through the past 500 years or so. 

notes I took 

• 1765 - 1769 the life and opinions of Tristram shandy gentlemen - experimental 

Here are some of the Caseroom press have published 

especially love the way these books have been stitched

Overall, I found the lecture really interesting and inspiring for my oncoming briefs. I especially liked being able to flick through some of the books. 

Design is Doing: Karma/Coma

Karma

I first began by researching Karma and looking at the dictionary definition.

Karma means action, work or deed;it also refers to the principle of causality where intent and actions of an individual influence the future of that individual. Good intent and good deed contribute to good karma and future happiness, while bad intent and bad deed contribute to bad karma and future suffering.Karma is closely associated with the idea of rebirth in some schools of Asian religions. In these schools, karma in the present affects one’s future in the current life, as well as the nature and quality of future lives.

With origins in ancient India, it is a key concept in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Taoism, Shintoism, Ching Hai and others

Karma is the executed "deed", "work", "action", or "act", and it is also the "object", the "intent". Halbfass explains karma (Karman) by contrasting it with another Sanskrit word kriya. The word kriya is the activity along with the steps and effort in action, while karma is the executed action as a consequence of that activity, as well as the intention of the actor behind an executed action or a planned action (described by some scholarsas metaphysical residue left in the actor). A good action creates good karma, as does good intent. A bad action creates bad karma, as does bad intent.

Symbolisms of Karma

Coma

Definition

The second definition I found really interesting how it links with astronomy, 'a diffuse cloud of gas and dust surrounding the nucleus of a comet'

In medicine, a coma (from the Greek, meaning "deep sleep") is a state of unconsciousness lasting more than six hours, in which a person: cannot be awakened; fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound; lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle; and, does not initiate voluntary actions.A person in a state of coma is described as being comatose.

A comatose person exhibits a complete absence of wakefulness and is unable to consciously feel, speak, hear, or move.For a patient to maintain consciousness, two important neurological components must function. The first is the cerebral cortex—the gray matter that covers the outer layer of the brain. The other is a structure located in the brainstem, called reticular activating system (RAS). Injury to either or both of these components is sufficient to cause a patient to experience a coma. The cerebral cortex is a group of tight, dense, "gray matter" composed of the nucleus of the neurons whose axons then form the "white matter", and is responsible for perception, relay of the sensory input (sensation) via the thalamic pathway, and many other neurological functions, including complex thinking.

RAS, on the other hand, is a more primitive structure in the brainstem that is tightly in connection with reticular formation (RF). The RAS area of the brain has two tracts, the ascending and descending tract. Made up of a system of acetylcholine-producing neurons, the ascending track, or ascending reticular activating system (ARAS), works to arouse and wake up the brain, from the RF, through the thalamus, and then finally to the cerebral cortex.A failure in ARAS functioning may then lead to a coma.It is therefore necessary to investigate the integrity of cerebral cortex as well of the reticular activating system (RAS) in a comatose patient.

Really bizarre image of a 'coma' from wikipedia.

COP Lecture - Modernity and Modernism

Modernity and Modernism have two distinct concepts. 

Modernity - the quality or condition of being modern: an aura of technological modernity. A modern way of thinking, working, etc.; contemporariness: Hobbes was the genius of modernity.

Modernism - modern character or quality of thought, expression, or technique: a strange mix of nostalgia and modernism.

A style or movement in the arts that aims to depart significantly from classical and traditional forms. by the post-war period, modernism had become part of art history.

A movement towards modifying traditional beliefs in accordance with modern ideas, especially in the Roman Catholic Church in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Arguably the process of modernisation allowed modernism to develop and flourish. Western world became modern. 

Pre-modernity the world was governed by, the church, monarchy/aristocracy and patriarchy. 

• Modernism - early to mid 20th century movement in art, design, literature and arts in general.
• Industrial Revolution, Thomas Telford- construction of IronBridge 1789.
• The Age of Enlightenment - Dennis Diderot (First encyclopaedia 1951) 
• Dawn of Modern Philosophy
• Science and Technology (understanding of human anatomy) 
• Writers such as "voltaire"

• 1776 American Declaration of independence
• 1789 French Revolution
• 1804 Napoleon crowned emperor
• 1814 bourbon restoration
• 1830 July Revolution

Movement through Artists 

Joseph Nicephore Niepce - first ever photo taken "view from window" Long exposure image developed over 12 hours. 

Louis Daguerre long exposure image. He paid the man in the photograph to stand still whilst the camera was exposed. 

The Gleaners by Jean-François Millet. It depicts three peasant women gleaning a field of stray grains of wheat after the harvest. The painting is famous for featuring in a sympathetic way what were then the lowest ranks of rural society; this was received poorly by the French upper classes.

Joseph Turner Norham - Castle sunrise

Edvard Munch -  Scream 

Pablo Picasso

'On or about December 1910, human character changed.' 

- Virginia Woolf

Modernism 

Form follows function, which is best represented by the Bauhaus and technology. 

Marcel Breuer Chair 

El Lissitzky

Massive Attack: Karmacoma

I've decided to choose Massive Attack: Karmacoma for the secret seven brief.



The video is pretty bizarre, and reminds of The Shining. I feel the music video doesn't really reflect the sound of the music, the song is pretty laid back and chilled with an offbeat. The video has a big mix of themes and suggestions.  

This is from Wiki: 

• The video shows a hotel corridor and the occupants of the rooms along the corridor. The band are in one of the rooms accompanied by Tricky and an actress. Daddy G, and Tricky are all dressed in uniforms that say "Texmex" on the front. Mushroom is sitting on the couch with a hand on his stomach, where he apparently has been shot and his shirt is bloody.
• The rest of the occupants are shown intermittently throughout the video, and are all engaging in eccentric activities. Some of the scenes cross over from being weird to being supernatural and magical.
• A man is in the corridor, holding a gun in one hand and a plastic bag with something in it on the other. He's walking backwards and pointing the gun at everything he sees, in a clear state of paranoia and distress. He's sweating and mumbling under his breath, desperately attempting to memorise the room numbers for reasons unknown. At several points he is menaced by two mysterious, identical twin girls (in homage to the 1980 film The Shining), who, at one point, hold up the missing letter 'k' from another tenant's typewriter. And at one point he glimpses a double of himself, pointing a gun at him.
• A man with long, unkempt hair and beard is sitting in his room , staring directly into the camera and speaking in a dazed manner. "I am a... dangerous person," he announces at one point. Later: "All those guys I killed... nothing personal." (He bears a strong resemblance to the man with the gun from the corridor, although it is unclear if they are actually intended to be the same person.) At the video's end he tells the camera, "I want to be free... and I am free." (These three lines are all Charles Manson quotes.)
• A man in one of the rooms is covered with oil among cameras and mirrors, apparently performing some sort of bizarre artwork. The oil comes from his navel, apparently, and his finger goes impossibly deep into it to extract the oil.
• A middle-aged man with a moustache is in a room with two women dressed in red satin robes. He asks "Who's gonna be a bad girl, then?". One of the women answers apathetically, "I am".
• A manis seen with a typewriter, writing "Karmacoma" over and over again on a sheet of paper, though the letter 'k' does not appear. When the man in the corridor realises the two girls have the 'k', it immediately cuts back to the man with the typewriter, who does not look at another man who appears in his room, burning sheets of paper.
• A boy watches TV news in which the journalist covers his half face with his hand. The boy repeats what he sees. As this is happening, a woman dressed in campy, old-fashioned clothing is talking on the phone about the boy.
• A man plays golf in the corridor.
• A man attempts to drown a miniature copy of himself in a bathtub.

Screenshots from the music video

Moving on I decided that since I was designing for Massive Attack it would be good to see what their current album covers are like so that I can get an idea of what they work with.

Karmacoma lyrics

Tricky

You sure you want to be with me

I've nothing to give

Won't lie and say this lovin's best

Leave us in emotional peace

Take a walk, taste the rest

No, take a rest

3D

I see you digging a hole in your neighborhood

You're crazy but you're lazy

No need to live in a lean-to

Your troubles must be seen to seen to

Money like it's paper with faces i remember

I drink on a daily basis

Though it seldom cools my temper

It never cools my temper

Tricky

Walking through the suburbs though not exactly lovers

You're a couple, 'specially when your body's doubled

Duplicate, then you wait for the next kuwait

Karmacoma, jamaica' aroma (x4)

3D

You sure you want to be with me i've nothing to give

Take a walk take a rest taste the rest

Take a walk take a rest taste the rest

Take a walk take a rest a taste of rest

Tricky

Don't want to be on top of your list

Phenomenally and properly kissed

We overcome in sixty seconds

With the strength we have to together

But for now, emotional ties they stay severed

When there's trust there'll be treats

And when we funk we'll hear beats

(both)

Karmacoma, jamaica' aroma (x4)

3D

Deflowering my baby, are you my baby mate

I must be crazy, see i'm swazy

Digging a hole in your neighborhood

You're crazy but you're lazy, must be lazy

Tricky

Don't wanna on top of your list

Monopoly and properly kissed

3D

Deflowering my baby, are you my baby mate

My baby

Deflowering my baby, are you my baby mate

I must be crazy, you must be lazy

Karmacoma, what?, jamaica aroma (x4)

Iconic Album Art/Designers

Pink Floyd - dark side of the moon

This Storm Thorgerson design for 'Dark Side of the Moon' is possibly the most iconic sleeve design in history, largely due to its simplicity. The design shows light refracting through a triangular prism, using flat colours and an inner glow on the triangle.

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures

Peter Saville created the iconic album cover for Joy Division, it is possible one of my favourite album covers as well. Below is a video of the fascinating behind the whole album cover which is really fascinating! 

The Velvet Underground. The banana itself is, of course, the handiwork of Andy Warhol, who crafted the image and slapped it on the cover of his pet band's first record in 1967. Warhol served as the manager and patron saint of the now iconic art rock band that surprisingly sold just30,000 albums in its first five years.The original album cover allowed fans to peel back the banana skin as a sticker, revealing the fruit of a nude-coloured banana underneath. 

One of my favourite doors album covers, I love the type.