When will small business in SA start using viral video?
by Fred Roed on 11/03/07 at 3:26 pm
6 comments
Most of us now have high speed internet. Many of us are stepping up to Telkom’s even quicker offerings. Nearly all of us have viewed a coupled of vids on YouTube.
So, when are we going to start seeing small business viral campaigns online? It costs roughly R70,000 for a 30 second slot on SABC during rush hour (6 – 8pm). It costs nothing for a slot on YouTube. Math? There is none.
We had the Pronto Condoms ads from last year, but other than that it’s been pretty slim pickings from South African SME’s.
How hard can it be? Today, I was inspired by this guy (see video below). He’s an Indianapolis gun dealer in one of a series of legendary low budget ads he posted on the net. Sample of the screenplay: ‘I don’t want to make any money, folks. I just love to rent guns. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA‘
[gv data="ynCsFZ3AS3E"][/gv]
Genius.
Come to think of it – why don’t we (Ideate, World Wide Creative & Live Alchemy) do it? What do you think, fellas?
Fred Roed is the marketing guy in the Ideate crew. Fred is the CEO of web marketing company World Wide Creative and the co-founder of online learning portal Heavy Chef. Fred loves writing about people out there doing marketing right. Follow Fred on Twitter here. View more articles by Fred Roed.
Nic
Mar 11th, 2007
I think it is a brilliant concept. Interestingly enough I was listening to an interview with SA band Cassette, apparently they have been doing Viral music videos/films to promote themselves and it has worked great guns. I haven’t managed to find any yet on youtube so maybe they aren’t that great?!
But in essence, its an awesome idea. People just need to start thinking that online medium is a worth while tool to make use of.
Jackie
Mar 11th, 2007
I think SA is very ready for online viral videos. Especially with new local sites like http://www.zoopy.com that have just launched.
There’s already a whole ads category in there with tons of local ad clips. Check Zoopy – you might find the clips you’re looking for there.
Tristan
Mar 12th, 2007
I think viral videos will play an important role for marketers in the near future, primarily because they are becoming increasingly aware of the power of social proof in spreading brand information.
There is an article in Bizcommunity that extends this concept. You can read it here:
http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/16/13499.html
Peter
Mar 13th, 2007
There is still a large portion of South Africa which either has no internet connectivity or no internet connectivity at all. People who work in offices all day and there work requires that they access email and the internet 24/7 I’ld generally say that these people have access to high speed data streaming capabilities.
Then there are those of us who can only check email say once / twice a day due to limited technology or else the cost of being connected 24/7 is too high since the company does not require more internet access.
Then there are lots of people who most probably dont even know what the internet is and probably cant even read or write.
Prehaps it’s more about, who is your target market. If you target market is Yuppies who sit in offices in CTN/JHB/DBN or even PMB and what about at the coffee shop (using wireless) or even at the beach using some fancy 3G or HSDPA connection.
Yes thats where the sophisticated market is for all those fancy YouTube advertising/marketing is. It’s a very interesting world in which we live.
Craig
Oct 24th, 2007
Having lived in Taiwan for 4 years where the Govt has laid ADSL cables throughout the island and you pay a measly R200 p/m for a 2m/b or even up to 8m/b uncapped connection I can tell you that when (and it will eventually get there) South Africa’s internet gets to this standard SA business is going to be scrambling for people who can use this medium to get there business out there. I work in the web design / software business and having our own business I realise that most South Africans are eager to get something but not ready to pay for something they feel is not going to have immediate effect on their business. If the US or Silicon Valley is anything to go by then even if we are in Potgietersrus we need to get ready to get on the web.
The biggest problem is that South Africans are ignorant when it comes to the web and it’s intricacies. YouTube is a perfect tool for more reasons than 1.
Firstly – it’s free!
Secondly – you can use your youtube video on your site and they pay for the bandwidth (this is the biggest plus for most SA companies who have a site)
Thirdly – it’s the easiest thing to send to friends or post on Facebook messages, it does everything for you.
And apart from this there is the remote chance that other people are going to be surfing the web, come across your arb gun rental video, take a liking to it and give you even more international exposure.
Now all you need is a decent handycam or similar, someone with even a limited knowledge of Movie Maker (But try get someone who is creative – I see so many below par movie maker productions on YouTube that I could strangle the people who can’t take the time to change the font or screen colour from it’s default! arrgghh!).
You can put something pretty creative together with very little effort!
Have a look at this totally free creation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04jypQ5emWM
PS – Fred and the guys, I only discovered your site this morning and I’ve been reading all day. Great stuff and insightful commentary! I’ll def be coming back for more reading!
My 6 cents for the Amstel re-entry campaign at Media In Africa Blog Solutions
Nov 1st, 2007
[...] the ability to create a buzz and diffuse among a number of blogs and social media websites. Popular video marketing clips have done wonders for the brand and created a much stronger brand affinity with consumers [...]