web video thunderdome: the presentation

March 23rd, 2010 • posts i've written

If you remember anything from this deck, remember these two things:

• The web wasn’t built for advertisers. It’s your internet, not theirs. But they, of course, can earn a place on your internet if you choose to let them. And we choose with our clicks. Every click is a vote to let a brand interact with you or not. Thus the whole voting thing – we want people, especially marketers, to be more conscious of the fact that people choose to interact with brands on the internet.
• Stop saying viral videos. Please. Viral assumes the mechanism for distribution is built right in. It’s not. People choose whether or not to spread your content. Viral puts hype ahead of people. For my full thoughts on the blight that is viral, read this full post.

A hearty thanks to everyone that attended our SXSW Interactive panel and participated in voting. A special thanks to the whole Made By Many crew for their support as well. And of course, a big thanks to Mike Arauz for being such an awesome co-presenter.

When SXSW makes our podcast available, we’ll re-upload this presentation so you get the full effect of being there. It was pretty rowdy for 11am on the rainy final morning of the conference.

Be sure to visit WebVideoThunderdome.com to watch all of the popular videos we collected and visit our Delicious page for more background research.

Oh, and the fonts we used were: Public Gothic (free) and Din (not so free). Din was used for all number values and Public Square for all text.

Here’s a full list of the videos presented:

Best Song Parody
Two kings of candy corn, The Muppets and CollegeHumor.com, mash up their unique sensibilities with a pop music classic.

The Muppets – Bohemian Rhapsody (branded)

vs.

CollegeHumor.com – I Gotta Feeling Parody (un-branded)

Best Cute Kid Tricks
Whether they’re computer-animated or not, people around the world can’t tear themselves away from these adorable kids doing amazing things.

Evian Roller Babies (branded)

vs.

Ukelele Boy – I’m Yours (un-branded)

Best Web Video Antidepressent (or The Happy Happy Joy Joy Prize)
Which is more stimulating to our brain’s pleasure center: mind-blowing physical computing or kittens!?

Volkswagen’s Piano stairs – TheFunTheory.com (branded)

vs.

Surprised Kitty (un-branded)

Best Actor
Two videos with amazing, heart-felt, riveting performances; one wants you to buy soap, the other wants you to treat “gingers” with more respect.

Old Spice – The Man Your Man Could Smell Like (branded)

vs.

Gingers Do Have Souls (un-branded)

and finally…

Best Web Video of the Year (or The Grampa, You’re Scaring Me! Award)
Two very odd older gentleman go off their rockers, and the internet was there to capture it on video for our LOL-ing and OMG-ing pleasure.

American Idol – Pants On The Ground (branded)

vs.

Epic Beard Man – AC TRANSIT BUS FIGHT I AM A MOTHERFUCKER (un-branded)

Related posts:

1. top web videos of the past year
2. stop saying viral video
3. 10 golden principles of successful web apps

Tags: sxsw, sxsw interactive, YouTube

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