Join us on the set of our video for Pizza Hut’s Ultimate Stuffed Crust Pizza, where we brought a very special surprise to some unsuspecting customers!

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Originally published on MediaPost, written by Supercool Creative Director David Murdico

Supercool Creative gets calls all the time from people looking for a wide variety of things, including viral marketing, online video content, social media, and even bulk quantities of sodium bisulfate — since, we’ve been told, we are also listed in the Yellow Pages as a chemical company. We get a lot of calls for some guy named Sarkesian too, so hopefully someday he’ll check in to see if he has any messages.

Of all the calls I’ve taken, not a a single person has led off with “I need you to help me sell more [insert product or service].” The reason that’s strange, I think, is that every brand, product, service and business wants and needs the same thing: to sell more stuff.

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I was going to give my view of online video from 10,000 feet up — but decided that was still too close. So let’s back it up even further and take a look from Mars. Every day, I read stories declaring that online video is either the wave of the future, is already dominating the online marketing industry, is failing to live up to the hype, or that online video has stolen your wife or husband, run away to Barbados with half your money and is staying in your timeshare, drinking that bottle of Merlot you were saving for your 10th anniversary and smoking all of your best cigars. All of these can’t be true, at least not all at the same time — can they?

The terms online video advertising and online video marketing, like the broader terms advertising and marketing themselves, are often used interchangeably. According to online dictionary MerriamWebster.com, advertising and marketing are defined as follows:

Advertising: The action of calling something to the attention of the public especially by paid announcements.

Marketing: An aggregate of functions involved in moving goods from producer to consumer.

Online video advertising approaches the goal of increasing sales in a more direct fashion, announcing a product, service or special offer and encouraging the consumer to act on the announcement in the form of a direct inquiry or immediate purchase. Just as advertising involves paying for access to a large, targeted audience, online video advertising allows brands and products to drill down even further and reach an even more targeted audience, sorted by interests. Often, the same verticals established for an online video ad campaign can be carried through to online video marketing.

The Kodak Theatre, which will host the Academy Awards on Sunday, is just around the corner from the Supercool offices, so I used my lunch break to make an intrepid, cold and rainy trek to check out the action. Facing the torrential downpour (as we in L.A. call a slight drizzle) and passing Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, and Elmo huddled under an umbrella, I finally made it to my destination, where the red carpet has been rolled out and hundreds are hard at work making final preparations for Sunday’s show.

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Be sure to come back this time next year to check out photos of Supercool walking that red carpet when we’re nominated for Best Viral Video. We’d be nominated this year, but we thought we’d wait until the weather cleared up.

Identifying a primary demographic is as important, if not more important, in online video, viral and social media marketing than in more traditional channels of advertising and marketing. The primary demo is that group of people most likely to buy what your brand or business is selling. Another important target to establish is the secondary demographic, made up of people who are either somewhat likely to buy or in a position to influence those who are very likely to buy a brand’s products or services.

Word-of-mouth marketing has been around pretty much since the invention of words and mouths, and, since then, people have been referring friends to everyone and everything from the guy who made the best hunting spears to the hottest new video game releases.

Reaching the target consumer directly 100% of the time would be awesome, but they are not always in one place online just waiting for your video. Also, while they may all share a love of certain brands, products and services, they may respond to different stimuli designed to encourage them to watch your video, share, interact and follow a course of action that will lead to a sale.

So, including the buying consumer, here are the five people you have to reach and engage to get the most out of your online video campaign.

1. The Influencer. Influencers include bloggers, publications, writers, people with a large Twitter following, people with lots of Facebook fans, hot YouTubers with tons of loyal subscribers and celebrities. They will share your video and message either because…

a. they believe the content will be interesting to their readers, viewers, fans, followers and subscribers.
b. they’re being compensated.
c. they’re involved in the project somehow as a sponsor, partner or creatively.

2. The Fan. Fans can be broken down into 2 categories:

a. Fans of the brand, who will always be on the lookout for anything brand-related, including new products and branded entertainment. They are part of a loyal club and are always eager to share with other fans and convert new ones.
b. Fans of the video style, including fans of comedy, videos that touch an emotion like happiness, or outrage, or videos that inform and educate.

Video optimization including titles, tags and descriptions is key so that fans of the style can find your branded videos. They often may or may not care less about the message but will pass it along to other people they think may enjoy the content. Many of them will be your consumer!

3. The Zealot. Zealots will be interested in your video because it either supports their beliefs or goes against them. Either way, they are likely to pass the video to help further an agenda that may or may not be completely removed from your brand message. Take for instance the 2011 Groupon Super Bowl ad that sparked so much controversy. Plenty of people blogged and ranted about the insensitivity of the Tibet spot, but I’m sure a good number of them, and the people they reached, were still interested in saving a few bucks on fish curry.

4. The Friend. Friends will share your video and message with friends they think might need the brand’s product or service, who may want to enter the contest, sign up for the social network, attend the classes, or otherwise take advantage of the offer included in the messaging.

5. The Buying Consumer. Buyers constitute the end game. These are the people you are ultimately trying to reach, and that you rely on to not only follow a call to action and make purchases, but to share their experiences with influencers, fans, zealots, friends and other buyers.

Get the seal of approval from these five people — and your branded entertainment and viral marketing videos will be a smash!

Originally published on MediaPost, written by Supercool Creative Director David Murdico

Supercool Creative is a digital creative and social media marketing agency in Los Angeles specializing in big ideas, marketing, interactive & online video production.

The great thing about video, viral and social media marketing is that the brand message doesn’t always have to hit the end consumer directly, from the start. Each and every view doesn’t have to come from likely buyers or the end consumers, as long as the creative, message and viral marketing strategy of the campaign are aligned and intended to get there eventually.

Not that I’ve ever tried this, but apparently when you throw a grenade at someone, the thing blows up and sends shrapnel in all different directions. This blast pattern can be predicted to a certain degree, but largely, the people and things that get hit depend on where you threw it in the first place. The people closest to the blast will be influenced the most, the people hit with shrapnel will be second in line, followed by the people hit with debris, the sound concussion and the effects of witnessing such an event. They will be sure to tell their friends.

Supercool Creative’s Executive Creative Director David Murdico was a featured guest on Digital Production Buzz on Thursday,  talking about viral marketing videos, what elements go into developing and launching a successful viral campaign and Supercool’s recent work with T-Mobile, Zeno Group and Khloe Kardashian.

Hosted by Larry Jordan and Michael Horton, Digital Production Buzz is the world’s only interactive talk radio program covering Digital Production, Post-Production and Distribution and is filled with information and entertainment designed for the independent filmmaker or industry professional.

This is a photo of David before going on the show. Actually, several months before going on the show. He didn’t even know he was going on the show back then but if he had known, this is what he would have looked like, so I think the picture works.

In addition to running Supercool Creative, David is a contributing writer on ReelSEO and MediaPost and recently spoke to the Master’s in Human Behavior Program (MHB) at The University of Southern California.

To book david as a speaker or for additional information, please contact Brian Alexander. he can be reached at brian@supercoolcreative.com.

Join us on the set of T-Mobile’s “Share the Love” video shoot with Khloe Kardashian at Dash!

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Each year, we’re seeing more and more video campaigns launching for viral and social media distribution on Facebook, YouTube and elsewhere by larger brands and businesses intent on tapping into the power of video as a marketing tool. Likewise, we’re seeing an increase in video marketing content centered around holidays.

This trend is by no means restricted to big brands and businesses. The Internet has leveled the playing field considerably, so video and viral marketing can be as effective, with a small budget, proportionally speaking, as with a big budget. Big brands have to reach millions of people, while smaller businesses may only have to reach thousands. As always, targeting is key, and quality of views and shares trumps quantity.

As Supercool Creative put the finishing bows and ribbons on a Valentine’s Day video campaign for T-Mobile, I started thinking about why launching videos based on holidays is such a good idea and why everyone seems to be jumping on board.