How is it, that something that was hot years ago… is back? It seemed like viral videos had all but vanished, except for an occasional teenage transvestite (or Old Dog’s Seth Green) defending Britney’s honor. In 2008, no client was going pay for your media department to produce a viral video campaign.

That’s all changed. Advertisers want “in” on where people are lurking. Which is Facebook, Twitter, etc… All despite any accepted metrics for measuring a brand’s social media presence. Just imagine what Wendy’s would pay to get in on LOLCats… Now, everyone is able to sell viral video content, with just a couple freelancers and no proof of any results. Eureka! It’s the equivalent of being able to sell an English BA degree for 30-grand a year.

Gavin McInnes, the sardonic old face of Vice Magazine proclaimed on his new site that the “future of advertising” will follow in the lines of Tim and Eric’s Absolut Vodka viral campaign, starring Zach Galifianakis. Which must be a moderate success in that everyone under thirty has forwarded it to someone.

Apparently David Cross and H. Jon Benjamin are also subscribing to this Tim and Eric viral vision of the future. They’ve been building some buzz by combining Mr. Show’s format of randomly connected clips, with the Tim and Eric hallmarks of bad production values, non-professional talent and disturbing subject matter. This new project titled “Iclandic Ultrablue” drops the N-bomb, looks like crap and airs at 4am under the generic title of “Infomercial.” Their prudish approach to courting viewers is generating the same effect it had in high school – everyone’s interested.

Did I mention it’s created by 40-something postboomers? So don’t expect it to conform to the YouTube mandate of being under 10 mins, despite it being viral or anything…

For more on meaningless traffic masquerading as advertising, watch or my mention of Microsoft’s Looking Glass.

Tags: Campaign, Metrics, Postboomer, Viral
Posted in: General