Saturday, August 11, 2018

Cringe: the new genre

          Now a days, it's all the game of catching attention. Human cognizance has always been a valuable asset but its more valuable now than it ever was. Its not just the professionals but also the regular people that are now in the race to win over this asset. The platforms which were exclusive to the professionals earlier got tapered off of their value due to the emergence of new media. Anybody can tap into your consciousness now with the same power and ability as any professional out there.


what do all these people have in common?

          Apart from their notability, the most common notable thing is the way they achieved it.  Their creation was not some artistically created artifact. Nor it succeeded to reflect any overt talent as such. Rather the whole creation was anything but an appreciable oeuvre. Some might find their content whacky but ultimately its absurd.

          In fact this very characteristic seems to be at the core of the substantial success they could fetch with this kind of content. Now, seemingly it appears strange but if contemplated, one can realize, it's rudimentary in human behavior. No matter whether it appeals or is worth appreciation, we are always inclined to take the notice of something which is far from it, something ridiculous or even abhorrent. It generally tend to catch our attention due to the very fact that it's something unusual. And when its exhibited out there to public, we get more intrigued and that's where we are gamed. In the process of mocking them we forget, we are the ones ultimately giving fuck to that crap, thereby augmenting its universality.

          While scoffing at them we overlook the fact that if someone has to be laughed at, its us. Whatever be the form, they got successful at what they aimed for. And we are being that egocentric dumbass who is unaware that he is being exploited... the exploitation of most valuable entities a human has!

          Now, this young lady got invitation from Dubai to give a public performance. She was a participant for a well known TV show of the country. 
It goes without saying that these are merely the examples of leveraging a public face but we might just wanna reflect what she created and where she is now. There are many talented music artists out there struggling to get into the limelight since years and this person achieved it in a mo!

          Now, this gentleman is a professional comedian from Japan but the tool he used was far from his (assumed) witty talent.
He used the same 'absurd' ammunition from his arsenal to shoot his fame through the rooftop. Now there could be a question mark on whether it was(or is) a 'fame' but, at least he got his face familiarized to many.

          One thing I love about this person is, he is very shrewd in keeping his cover from getting blown.
He appeared in many TV interviews when he always pretended to be normal with regards to his content and so-called contribution of his to the music industry. He appeared to have had a particular target audience on his agenda and he appears to have succeeded in tapping it precisely. 
He selectively appeared on various TV shows getting himself interviewed and emerged out as a(although self proclaimed) musician in his country. People are talk about him and his cover remains unblown.

          Now, this was a traditional and serious content creation.
The motto doesn't appear to be projecting the absurdness, but due to the cultural gap, it was kind of absurd for the audience which was not originally the target audience for the video and it got viral. One thing to be noted here is, instead of escalating number of views on the original video or getting exposure to the actors of the original video, it was just the song which got viral. And one of the major reasons behind that was the public involvement in further content creation. Generally, as a normal layman, we are rarely used to facing a camera and performing, but due the very nature of the song, the unspoken expectation about the essence of perfection or artistic talent, was diminished. and as it was a simple group act (as simple as, tilting head and nominal facial movements), it was performed by many, thereby increasing the viral aspect exponentially.

          Well, this particular content include few celebrities featured with a qualitative visual.
and this song do have some cultural or regional language denotation but that fails to justify the viral aspect. But on the customary artistic yardstick, lyrics as well as music both stand nowhere. With that notion, both don't deserve the notability as well as the monetary benefits this video has acquired. It doesn't even fall into a proper category of bloopers or behind the scenes. But as far as spell-bounding imperfections of the absurdness are concerned, it very well justifies the 155+ million views.


          Now, i got nothing to say about this guy and his intentions behind his creation but this could very well demonstrate what people (could) really heed to.

          So ultimately, the notion of essential blend of the coherent traits one has to possess in order to achieve notability, has shattered into pieces. It indeed takes a talent to achieve this.. a newfangled one... the one which wields you the ability to be off the track at every step.. 

          YouTube is also stacked with many cringe, awkward prank videos. It's often astounding to see the number of views these videos fetch. That videotaping of baseless, meaningless and equally undesirable situations and conversations, doesn't fit the bill of something to be relished in but it evidently play some role in stirring curiosity and converting it into the clicks on those thumbnails. Just to get those reaction out of the subjects, these YouTubers show readiness to do any stupid damn thing. And that's when one might realize the value of human cognizance. Because we all are clued up about what does that make of a YouTuber when the same videos skyrocket the views.

          And finally, one of my favorite. It isn't cringe exactly but it is a different kind of humor, I guess... This humor includes the dimension of the illusion about the personality of the comedian altogether and until this cover is not blown, its very attention catching. After that, it becomes a masterpiece of an act. And as a matter of fact, she even has a video titled 'I am an act' and she navigated through it so gracefully that the image about her 'personality' remains intact. Here's one of her bestests-

Friday, August 10, 2018

Inbound marketing at its best

Ohkhay here's that ad which has got all the fuss about...
Its not just another advert aired on a television.
          First of all, its a superbowl commercial. And Wieden+Kennedy didn't just stop there. What they did besides, is a history.
          Here's what they did. First, they uploaded this ad on YouTube (ok, it was all back in 2010). Getting a spot during the SuperBowl season is kind of an achievement in itself but by uploading it on YouTube, the video becomes more shareable and could be watched whenever people want.
          Then they started responding to the comments put up on the ad. They say, 'successful people do the same things in a different way'. These people responded with exclusive responses to individuals with their respective comments. These responses were nothing but the videos featuring the same man Mr Isaiah Mustafa in the same setting as the original ad. Now this was a drastic trigger for public to get enticed to involve and put up their comments.
          These responses were at the comments made on the ad on various platforms. and not just that, they eneded up creating 120 such response videos in just a matter of 24 hrs. The whole scenario fetched the attention of many celebrities as well. They commented. They got a response video with a tag to their account (reaching to the new audience). All this created a lot of exposure to the ad.
          Well, a pictures says thousand words. It's their Twitter page.













and some comparative stats of the views of the video..

well well well.. cherry on top, they bagged Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.






          One of the things I appreciate the most about HubSpot is its astute use of ChatBot. They have their ChatBot on the platform where they have the most public involvement i.e. Facebook. They have more followers on Facebook than any other social media platforms. No wonder, that itself is a part of a strategy because Facebook Messenger open rate is 80% in contrast to our regular Emails which is just 20%.

          While adding any informative/educational content out there, they never forget to add the lead magnet in the text followed by the actual content in the post.
Which lets them channel their huge number of followers of Facebook towards increasing their own website traffic. No wonder if they are doing same on other platforms as well.. such as this..

          Their Website too is very carefully and strategically designed. You can't miss out on their scroll box any time you visit their domain. Website is full of call to action buttons. When you are viewing something, you are always presented with similar content they have to offer. Most of the call to action buttons are just those enablers to get 'free' access to this relevant stuff. And when you click one of those buttons, you are presented with few blank spaces which are supposed to be filled up before you
get an access. That's one of the lead generation tactics employed there.

          They are the masters in content marketing. If you wanna know how to do the content upgrade, HubSpot is the live example. They have N number of ways to upgrade their content and which rendered them to be omnipresent. In fact, one of the key aspects of that is their content partnership with ChatFuel. Now, this partnership is about a simple Ebook. This Ebook is made available at ChatFuel's domain, which allows HubSpot to tap into entirely new chunk of the market. When you click on that Ebook button, you are taken to the ChatBot of HubSpot. There again, you would be required to answer few questions which further helps to segregate your lead.

          They don't just stop there, they keep on bombarding with 'gentle nudges' of displaying relevant paid services and products at some or the other corner of the screen throughout this lead generation funnel. Apart from prompting clicks, these nudges display variety of stuff HubSpot has to offer, cultivating image as An industry expert.

          And one of the most beautiful thing is, when everybody was giving out free ebooks, checklists, infographics, case studies, templates, scripts.. these guys literally started handing over free softwares. Which doesn't only help in establishing expert brand image but also gives them an opportunity to understand the needs of their leads and convert them into very valuable prospects.

          And what did they achieve by all this? Well, they generated a hefty 25 million website traffic each month. Moreover, look at the slope of the graph of the growth of their customers since the inception in 2006.
and here's that of their revenue




Thursday, August 9, 2018

How to make a viral video

  1. Decide the category
  2. a. funny

    b. cringe

    2.  Decide the demography, if you could. That would help to target specific audience with a compelling content.

    3. Keep the same flavor throughout the video. The video is no display of versatile creative talent. It ought to have a strategic purpose, so keep it one dimensional. Some helpful examples-
              a. Sarcastic
              b. Self deprecating
              c. Obscene or Naughty

    4. Also, give it a thought 'what would cause' the audience to share the content further.
    a. Because, they want other people to laugh as well


    b. Because, they merely want to get associated with the content (being aware, others may or may not relate, appreciate or understand). It could be anything related to a hobby, profession, lifestyle etc.



    c. Because, they appreciate the creativity in the content


    d. Because, they are using the content merely as a metaphor to describe what they are saying
    i. Be like..
    ii. When....

    5. If one intend to exert influence for immediate action then he has to immensely work on your video itself (primary content) to carefully craft the content or idea. eg.

    6. Watch out for the time you decide to publish your content. Sports leagues, festivals, award functions, big budget movie release etc might affect your outcome
    7. Make sure, you are putting your best efforts to create the meta tags of your primary content video on YouTube.
    8. There are many research observations available on the internet about what timing would be the best to post on various social media platforms. Timing seemingly vary with the platform, with the target audience (lifestyle wise as well as location wise) and even with the expected results (shares, views, CTR etc).. and also, yeah, with who's research you are reading..
    9. Instead of rushing to create accounts on all social media platforms, its wiser to keep your target audience in mind and accordingly try to tap them on relevant platforms
    10. Don't forget to leverage question-answer websites. Search questions where you can put your content as an answer or at least, give a little nudge putting up your link somewhere in the answer.
    11. Understanding the difference between to market and to make viral is vital here. You want the public to make your content reach out to more public.. just like a ripple effect. And all the steps discussed here is nothing but the first ripple. One has to make sure that all this has to be done all at once. You don't wanna keep the people bombarding throughout a particular period of time. You ought to be omnipresent but at an instance.
    12. Having primary content (video) is ready, as the pre-decided publishing date approach, try to leverage the trending keywords or most searched keywords. Try to overlap your content titles with these keywords. Also, most importantly, never 'invent' new words/phrases for your content that are not in the dictionary or in usual use.

    13. If you simply want it to be known and shared, then you can rely on secondary content eg. memes & tweets. This secondary content allows to tap completely new demography. The original video may or may not appeal them but a meme can be created which aligns with their cultural denotations, mentality, knowledge etc.
    a. I never watched daily soaps in which so never knew his name but it wasn't the case anymore when the memes started circulating over the internet.
    b. I was never fond of hindi stand up comedy so never knew him but again, due to those 'sakht launda' memes I couldn't miss his name, profession AND his content.

14. Once your release your content, get yours and your creative teams's sleeves rolled up for Newsjacking. 






    15. While creating your secondary content use already trending memes, viral content. eg.
              a. you vs the guy she tells you not to worry about
              b. 
              c. just another example about leveraging already viral content

    16.You will need to make sure that your secondary content is ready even before you release your primary content. You can't afford the risk of crafting it in a do or die situation. In addition to that, make sure your timing of releasing secondary content is neither too early nor too late. Primary content should have passed the peak level of the public exposure. In the era of information overload, attention span has reduced drastically so you don't wanna release your memes so late that public is getting caught up with some other internet sensation, getting over with that of yours. Your memes might get the exposure but your primary content might loose the heat. So choose the trade-off.

    17. You have an option to leverage your contacts. Request YouTubers to make reaction videos about your primary content, in return to the favor of any kind of exposure you can give to using your channel. Or even implicit sponsorship would do. Now, these reaction videos could be about the reactions of the youtubers themselves or the reactions of people on streets

    18. You always have an option to share textual secondary content in image format on platforms like Instagram as a screen shot.

    19. Try, if you could, tagging well known public figures. Try using trending hashtags in your posts either contextually or relevance wise. It will increase chances of the exposure to your content and if you are lucky enough, these public figures might respond to your tweet. Boom! Sky is the limit.

    20. Last but not the least! As simple as it may sound ' keep your camera always ready! ' eg.