Fred Tops the Tubemogul Top 40 with 100 Million Views

Even if you don't like the pesky little high pitched voiced Fred you have to respect his might in topping the Tubemogul Top 40 with over 100 Million Video Views.

BTW the latest Fred Episode is sponsored by Fox's New movie City of Ember. Way to go Fred!

Are the Diet Coke and Mentos Guys Dead or Are We Just Moving Out of Spectacle?

I'm at Blogworld Expo in Las Vegas working on my presentation for tomorrow about Monetizing Online Video and I remembered that a couple of weeks ago I saw the EepyBird "Diet Coke and Mentos guys" had posted a new Experiment with Stick-Notes for ABC Family promoting Samurai Girl. When I searched YouTube I found that after 2 weeks of being posted on YouTube it only had 154,213 views as of this posting and it has been reposted (a viral video trick) two days ago as Office Covered in Sticky Notes (watch in high quality) with only 515 views as of this posting.

What's going on here? Have the EepyBird guys lost their touch? Are views not being counted? Is the ABC Family logo in the bottom right corner turning viewers away?

I think there is a lot going on here.

First let me say that I respect the EepyBird / "Diet Coke and Mentos guys" a lot. I think they are geniuses and left alone to create engaging video spectacles they are unstoppable but knowing what I know about ABC Family and the Disney Cable Network marketing machine I have a feeling this video was "killed by committee."

The video itself feels like something you could get on TV. It's not "Internet Special." It's also missing some key elements of viral video success.

Let's go back in time for a moment to the early days of filmmaking back to the Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (The Lumière Brothers, 1895) This short film was the "Diet Coke and Mentos" of it's day. People paid money to go into theaters to watch this film of a Train pulling into a station. It was a spectacle, it was emotionally engaging and it moved two or more human emotions. Patrons were mesmerized by these motion pictures and they were terrified as well.

Terrified? Of a Train pulling into a station?

Tim, are you nuts?

Yes. I am nuts and yes they were in fear. Watching this film they thought they were going to get hit by the train and ran screaming from the theater.

They didn't understand the technology of film.

According to screenwriting guru Robert McKee when ever there is an advance in entertainment technology "Spectacle" comes first then "Story." In the early days of filmmaking people paid money to sit in theaters and watch horses and buggies going down the street and trains pulling into stations but it wasn't until 1903 and Edwin Porter's The Great Train Robbery that someone actually told a story using film. The same is true of Sound, SFX, 3-D and Online Videos. Spectacle comes first and then story.

Once people had seen The Great Train Robbery and other story based films they had no need to go back to just watching a train pull into a station and horses and buggies going down the street.

Have we left "Spectacle" and moved to "Story" in online video?

No, not by a long shot but we are on our way.

So why isn't the new EepyBird video getting millions of views on YouTube?

I think there are multiple reasons why the Spectacular Sticky-Note Experiment doesn't have millions of views. It does have spectacle but it doesn't move two or more human emotions and here are a few other reasons:

1. The opening shot doesn't deliver what the video thumbnail promised. When I see that small photo with a bunch of colorful Sticky-Notes and the EepyBird guys I'm expecting to see a bunch of colorful Sticky-Notes and the EepyBird guys right away and I'm expecting to see a funny spectacle right away. Instead I see a guy's hand with a pen tapping on an office desk with an ABC Family logo superimposed on what looks like high quality film or HD. The first thing that runs through my mind is that this is something someone recorded off TV of ABC Family and uploaded to the Internet. It doesn't look like an Internet video or a EepyBird video.

2. The running time is too long - 3 minutes and 19 seconds. Now 3:19 is by no means too long for a video to go viral but it can be a deterrent if a video doesn't have a lot of views or deliver what the thumbnail promises.

3. I think this video was being advertised across the Google network as a 300 by 250 banner ad and I don't know if that made it a turn off to people or not.

4. The video has spectacle but it's not emotionally engaging except for when you first see the EepyBird guys.

I'm sure this played very well on TV (if it did play on TV) and I think it may have played well on ABCFamily.com if it did but it's not really an Internet video. It looks like a TV show clip, like a scene out of Ugly Betty placed on the Internet and most of all with the exception of the spectacle of the experiments themselves it doesn't look like an EepyBird production.

Internet video is a new medium just like Television was a new medium and in those early days of TV producers were taking radio programs and placing them on TV and they didn't work so well. New TV formats had to be developed just like new Internet video formats are being developed.

From a business model I was very excited about the Spectacular Sticky-Note Experiment. I'm really, really excited to see a Cable TV network and a brand name sponsor like Sticky Notes get involved with an online video production team. I want this to work.

I hope I'm wrong and that this video is getting millions of views somewhere like Vimeo that I don't know about because I believe in the EepyBird guys and I think they can create emotionally engaging videos full of spectacle that will continue to get millions of views and I want to see talented online video content creators make money.

Maybe if this video was somehow featured on CNN it could get some more views on YouTube?

What do you think?

Licensing Your Videos

When I think of licensing my videos I first think about making them available on mobile phones in Europe or Asia. Then I think about licensing clips for TV shows about Internet video or a licensing deal like EPIC FU did with Next New Networks that later allowed them to move EPIC FU to Revision 3.

Well the folks at Common Craft have a different way of looking at licensing online videos that may very well have more potential for some online video producers.

Check out the above video.

MSN is Looking for Independent Producers with Great Stories

I had a chance to chat with Rob Bennett, General Manager of Entertainment and Video Services for MSN and Joe Michaels Head of Business Development / Entertainment and Video Services for MSN at the New York Television Festival's Digital Day this week and they looking for content from Independent Producers who have great stories to tell.

If you think you have an emotionally compelling story you can contact MSN Video via email:

original@microsoft.com

YouTube Videos Just Went Interactive in a Whole New Way!

My head is spinning. I have been inspired by the INTERACTIVE Fortune Teller. This type of technology has been available on QuickTime for some time but not on YouTube. Now that it's on Youtube we are going to see some major innovation spawned from this viral video hit.

I see INTERACTIVE Fortune Teller as a groundbreaking pivotal moment in online interactive storytelling.

This is going to be a fun ride.

I've shot an email off to the creator of INTERACTIVE Fortune Teller and I hope to have more info soon.

Lonely Girl 15 guys Premier New Show at New York Television Festival

Tonight the Lonely Girl 15 guys Greg Goodfried and Miles Beckett will Premier their new show LG15 The Resistance at the New York Television Festival.

I had the chance to catch up with them today at the festival with my FLIP camera

Will NBC Serve Ads in Their Embeddable Videos?

NBC posted the SNL skit of Tina Fey as Sarah Palin and Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton and they have made it embeddable. It's gone viral.

Will it and future videos stay that way and will NBC deliver ads to these embeddable videos? More importantly, will they ever rev share with bloggers who post their videos?

"Dear Mr. Obama " Is a Viral Video that is Polarizing

Dear Mr. Obama is an emotional YouTube video promoting John McCain (I don't think that it's from the McCain Campaign http://www.youtube.com/user/weneedmccain) that shows an Iraq Veteran who has a personal message for Barack Obama.

It also has an American flag and when the veteran finishes giving reasons why Obama is wrong and disrespectful to the US Forces the service man walks away to reveal he has a prosthetic leg.

The Dear Mr. Obama video is a very powerful and heavy handed emotional video that I think will go viral (CORRECTION that went viral with over 5 million views while I was writing this post) and will be very effective in polarizing viewers and dividing the United States of America even more than it already is.

The producers of this video should be very proud.

Why Is Seth Macfarlane's Promo a Big Deal?

Seth Macfarlane's Promo is a co-branded promo that is utilizing widget technology from Gigya to deliver a 300x250 banner ad that has video, click-able links and allows for embeds on third party sites.

So what? It's just a stupid promo for Seth Macfarlane's new cartoon comedy Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy?

No it's not.

It is a co-branded advertisement where Burger King paid not only for the creation of the 300x250 interactive banner and the promo in the banner they also paid for the ad buy on the placement of that interactive widget AND for the creation of Seth Macfarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy and a co-branded site.

THIS IS VERY VERY COOL!!!!

But more importantly, YouTube/Burger King allowed me to grab that widget and embed it on my site.

What's so important about that Tim? I grab embeds all the time and put them on my site.

Yes you do but you don't grab embeds that are 300x250 banner ads and place them on your site. Big advertisers have never wanted their ads to go places that they couldn't control but for now it looks like Burger King is willing to give that a try and who knows, with this widget technology they might be able to control it. (But that's another blog post for another time.)

This is a really big deal.

Why?

Because in the past if you were going to launch a new show you had to build an audience before you could find an advertiser who would be willing to spend money sponsoring your show but now the rules have changed.

Now I can find a sponsor who like the idea of my new show (that hasn't launched yet) and I can guarantee them ad impressions with my new show.

How can you do that?

If they sponsor a co-branded widget or co-branded Google Gadget Ad with my video content in it and I buy placement across the Google Ad Universe I can guarantee them the amount of impressions I buy from Google because I know Google will deliver those 300x250 interactive banners to any relevant site that I buy space on.

What? You're going to buy advertising on Google? Where are you going to get money to do that?

I'll get the money from the sponsor that wants to get their name out there. The will have their branding on the 300x250 banner right next to and around my video content. And they will get the impressions they pay for and I will build an audience for my show.

Do I have to have a new show?

No you don't. You just need a sponsor who believes in your show.

Take French Maid TV for example. Let's say that a big sponsor who would normally advertise in Maxim magazine or on Spike TV has a new product that needs to be explained to 18-34 year old males. In the past I know the French Maid TV videos would only deliver between 1 Million and 5 Million views for my sponsor. If I have a sponsor who wanted to get 30 million impressions I couldn't guarantee that. But now if a sponsor wants the French Maids to explain their product and service I know that I can reach as many people as my sponsor is willing to pay for and with the embed maybe even more.

So that's why Seth Macfarlane's promo a big deal?

Now get out there go meet some potential sponsors and get them to sponsor your new show!