Video everywhere, all the time

Throughout my career i have tried really hard to create advertising that has a legitimate shot of being seen out of choice by consumers. And that legitimately competes with the very best of what’s vying for consumers’ attention at any given time.

That is hard. And has always been hard. It’s hard to create things that really interesting. The path from idea to finished execution can be a tricky one. Ask the Weinstein Brothers!

And there is always a ton of new content to compete with. BUT…the good news is that 99% of it will be uninteresting dreck. So really you’re only competing with 1% of the new content. (I’m making the numbers up obviously, but you get the picture).

And of course the Internet is simultaneously the best thing and worst thing to ever happen to someone who traffics in attention. Lots of new ways for you to engage people. Lots of new ways for them to tune you out.

So it’s kind of sobering to read these statistics… (The audience for online video reached new heights last month, as over 158 million Americans streamed a total of 21.4 billion videos in July according to comScore — both new records for the medium)

I remember ad agencies being vilified in the early years of this decade for trying too hard to use old tricks (video) in the new and interactive medium of the internet. Well, guess what. Turns out video is still the most compelling and fastest way to tell a story. you just have to compete with 21.4 billion other videos.

time to get yourself one of them sneezin’ pandas!

How do you teach a class on “viral video”?

We’ve been asked to teach a class on viral video by our local ad portfolio school. Which is great. But how do you teach someone to create hits? We’ve had our share of hits, hence the invitation to teach the class.

If i was to say one thing, it would be this: get interested in what other people are interested in. you have to get outside yourself to create hits. you’re vying for people’s attention without the aid of paid media. so your idea better be real interesting to other people. everybody loves kittens, so start there!

there’s always an air of inevitability about hits. everyone can tell a hit when it’s a hit. but how do you know a hit before it becomes a hit? by knowing what people are interested in.

that’s what i got so far.