LEGO Takes Over The World

If there’s been a better marketer than Lego this year I’d be stunned. Hard to imagine anyone’s been better even for the last 10 years with a couple years where you could vote for Apple or Red Bull.

Between the brilliant product tie-ins, crazy amount of cool consumer content on YouTube, and now great movie with really rich extended content (without the overkill of Anchorman 2) it is a relentless march of great customer engagement.

Chanel Nails Long Form Video: Again

We’ve been flapping our gums about the merits of long form video for a long time and lately enjoying what Chanel is doing with the history of Gabrielle Chanel.

We’ll say it again — why do we know more about the the origins of a few different spirits brands (like Johnnie Walker), fashion icons (like Chanel) than we do about any brand of car we can buy?

Seriously Chevy, if you made a new Malibu and it’s really different this time then for Christ’s sake, can you please wax poetic for a few minutes in some inspiring way on what went into this rev?  Please?

The Beauty of Barbershops

I don’t know how any marketer can see this video and not feel inspired to make something long form about the craft of their products.

Interesting how we can know more about something like Barbering or the history of Johnnie Walker than how our 20-40k cars are made when we buy them.

Shame on any auto-marketer who isn’t crafting long-form to explain how they’re doing it differently.

Gangham Style Marketing

Gangham Style has brought in over 15 million in revenue for Korean Pop Star Psy over the last three months.  This includes: music sales, ad sales, concert tickets, tv appearances and commercials.

Anyone looking to build a spike in their marketing plan would do well to follow Psy and the K-pop studios cranking out these new stars.

The brilliant use of social and a manic, but methodical, amplification of the initial social success should be inspiring.  The K-pop have done persistent well with their Korean Stars but really did it right when they hit big with Psy.  A hit followed by a military style expansion, all in a matter of weeks.

Difficult to repeat as evidenced by the fact that Psy is the first K-pop artist to break through in the states but really solid.

YouTube Ceiling Tile Videos Will Set You Free!

Great write-up by Baljeet Singh, the Group Product Manager at YouTube, about how people use the network.

Interesting Stat number 1: three times more people search for “How-To” videos than “Music Videos”.

Of course most people just search for the artist or song over the generic “music video” expression but the same is true for a search for what you’re trying to do over the generic expression “How-To” so the point holds.

Interesting Stat number 2: Cellume, a company that produces ceiling tile videos, has seen over a million views.  Over a million views of ceiling tile videos.

Note to client and agency looking for a viral video concept.  Are all the basic, instructional, relevant videos produced and in place on YouTube?  If they aren’t then do not bring up the V word until they are.  Now go and do likewise.