The sad truth is dumbing down content is fundamental to most successful marketing campaigns. What super bowl commercials do people remember? Not the ones with a serious message. Instead, people remember the one with the baby talking about how he wasted his money buying a creepy clown. As a viewer, I get no value from this other than a brief second of happiness and if the advertiser is lucky, I remember the name of a company.
Business people and expert marketers call this practice catering to the lowest common denominator. They argue that by writing to get the dumb instinctual laugh rather than the intellectual laugh, they maximize their audience. This might be true for old media but it surely doesn't apply to the internet, right?
This brings me back to the monkey video. Should I be striving to ignore the monkey videos and spend all my time online reading informational texts? Absolutely not. One of the most powerful uses of the internet is to help people relax. There is a very important reason people mindlessly surf the net at work. They need to relax their brain before going back to the stress of solving complex problems for their respective companies. Taking mental breaks keeps people happy and productive.
This is especially true for SEOs and SEMs. One of the reasons our industry is so enjoyable and successful is that our actual work is intertwined with the mind numb-ers. Top ten lists of weird looking cats are accessible along with up to the second industry news. We get the benefits of both worlds. We work to solve complex problems while being surrounded by things to dumb us down and keep us happy. In our case, it is not ignorance but rather stupidity that is bliss.
Now for your moment of zen.
A dovernym is any word that looks like how it is spelled. So far, the only one I have been able to come up with is 'bed'.
Pretty cool, huh?
On the whole I would agree with you but, without wishing to blow our own trumpet (oh, what the hell) we're just coming to the end of a campaign aimed at raising road safety issues, which has managed to get more than 4million views in less than a month.
Now undoubtedly a lot of people just think it's funny & move on, but scanning the comments in the hundreds of places the video has ended up, it's really satisfying to see how many people have taken the main theme to heart.
Excellent point. I think you are absolutly right.
From my post:
In my post I was arguing that dumbing down content is a practice I see in the vast majority of viral marketed material. However, as you pointed out there are great exceptions. Martin Edic (comment above) also made a fair point when he pointed out the Barack Obama race speech video.
I think the material that goes viral without relying on dumb humor deserves extra recogonition.
BTW, Great video. I had seen something similar previously (possibly a take off of yours?) so I was looking for something odd to happen and ignored the basketball. That said, I still missed the distraction. lol Well done.
You guys did that spot? I had no idea! I've been a huge fan of that video...effing brilliant.
Yeah - 5.3 million views across the various places it's spring up at the last count.
Inspired by an older video, but with a nice spin from our friends at WCRS (our sister ad agency). I'll be talkking about it in Sydney next week if anyone fancies popping along!
;)
I love the word "dovernym", and I think this show should be right up your alley.
I remembered seeing this chess set in Oprah's magazine a few months ago...it's pretty cool :)
Dovernyms abound!
Two words.
Dramatic Chipmunk.
That monkey is veeeerry funny, but the Dovernym takes the cake. I'm going to keep my eye out for more!
Many of the comments you said are correct while others, we'd have to think over. Unfortunately, the average person is simply not very intelligent. It's a sad fact..thus the reasoning why we may have to "dumb it down" for them but we wouldn't say that it has to be entirely stupid for it to be viral... we've seen various accounts where it can be ridiculously heart-wrenching to be viral as well.
Good point, the truly heart felt content is an exception I failed to think about. There have been many examples that support your point, Post 9-11 videos, Darfur, Abu Ghraib, ect. These are all important and intellgent content subjects that have gone viral.
Also, I personally wouldn't go as far as to say most people are unintelligent. I argue that the large need for dumb content exists to help all people (regardless of intellect) relax and unwind. Sometimes it just brightens my day to see a monkey smell its butt. (:
My take is Google -
" Not every exploration leads to a blissful result - Use Google ! " I Wish the monkey too had the access to Google... :)
How about:
Nair: Is ugly body hair hurting your reputation?
Dating Websites: is your boyfriend/girlfriend an idiot?
Colleges: Are your current activities leading you no where?
King Kong 2: What is the big deal with opposable thumbs?
Dating websites: Finding you the right partner, not the assholes :)
Amongst almost 1000 3-letter-words (https://www.yak.net/kablooey/scrabble/3letterwords.html) no other quality dovernym could be found :( BTW: no other English result on Google than this blogpost for the word 'dovernym', where'd you find that wisdom?
I may or may not have coined the term after my last name when I discovered the word 'bed' had strange properties.
This is just my little way of upholding the family name. Perhaps someday the malicious Ben Dover jokes will stop. (-;
Hiya Danny, must say I enjoy being a professional internet surfer, SEM rocks!
Weird We posted about basically the same thing on the same day. I think mine was published first, so I win.
https://hiphapnin.com/the-strippers-guide-to-canoe-building-go-small-or-stay-home/
This is what I said:
Trying to compete and create content for the masses is hard because everyone likes violence, nudity, monkey's smelling their poo etc.. Millions of people are creating content for the billions. But as you make your adience more targeted making something go viral in a small world becomes much easier.
This website is a perfect example - only a small group of people care about SEO tactics. Because the audience is so passionate almost everything you say will go viral.
Good thoughts about viral marketing/media.
What I found most fascinating is the comment trail behind the viral marketing pieces on the web. Behind the mask of a profile name or handle, viewers will say basically what's "on their mind" about anything. This is almost as entertaining as the viral piece itself. Even serious YouTube videos get picked apart by the comments.
Its interesting to think about how to guide this phenomenon to the fullest extent of "viral" possible.
I agree that universal humor does not exist.
Case and point : Canadian humor ..
My problem with the whole concept of 'viral marketing': If marketing wrks, it's VIRAL. If it fails, it's NOT.
It's not like viral marketing is some new, distinct discipline. It's just another buzzword to add a '0' onto a contract.
Like whistling a tune you can't get out of your head .... now I'm thinking about dovernyms.
Here's my entry.
https://www.arenet.com/dovernym.html
Hi Danny
I'd have to agree with your friend on this one - ie I can think of a lot of people that would not only find that monkey video not funny, but actually very offensive..
Universal humor does not exist.
You're taking a parochial POV based on your age. You don't have to offer something dumb to be viral. Barack Obama's race speech is a prime example- a widely watched, intellectually challenging 40 minute video on a challenging subject.
What viral is, IMHO, is completely unpredictable and, therefore, not a viable planned marketing tactic. You can throw something out there and hope but that is not marketing.
Your monkey example is not one that belongs on a blog discussing SEO because there is no chance of relevance or addressing of intent. It's just something funny- you can't market anything with that.
Mr. Edic,
I read your resume and was very impressed. It does appear that you have many more years of experience than I do. That said, I think your comment is unexpectedly naive.
Although you are right that not ALL viral content is based on dumb humor, the VAST majority of it is (This is the point of my post). Ignoring this fact is irresponsible for a online marketer. Take a look at Diggs homepage today.Of the top 15 articles:
Furthermore, examine the traffic to primarily viral marketing based sites.Digg gets 20,221,561 monthly views compared to its intellectual counterpart, Reddit, who gets less than a tenth of that (2,020,705 MV).This is a pattern that continues elsewhere on the internet.While Youporn.com gets 2,650,946 MV, The Smithsonian Institute Website gets less than half of that (1,141,409).I think your example of the Barack Obama Video is satisfactory. However, I think it is an exception.Barack Obama Video: 3,647,966 views
compared to truly viral videosLaughing Baby Video: 42,922.174 viewsEvolution of Dance: 80,198,200 views
Lastly, in regards to
Sir, on this point I think you are completely wrong.Go look at the top viewed videos of all time on YouTube.of the top 16, 11 have commercial intent. (Music Videos)It is no coincidence that those videos are where they are. Businesses spent a lot of money to have those marketed as well as they were.
Again, I reiterate my super bowl commericals example. These tv ads represent the highest marketing dollars to airtime ratio.Of the 64 commercials, only 1 (Zantac Ad) did not rely on dumb humor.You mentioned that as a result of my age, my perspective is scewed. I agree I have a lot more to learn, but as exemplifed by you, age alone is not representive of authority or correctness.
Respectfully,
Danny
Martin,
I'm afraid I have to concur with Danny - for something to go viral it has to have mass appeal; and humour is an excellent way to go.
As for your comment: 'It's just something funny- you can't market anything with that' - In the UK last year cadbury's ran one of their most successful advertising campaigns ever - how? They created an ad where a gorilla sat playing the drums (YouTube link for those interested -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzFRV1LwIo )
Risky? Yes. The could've crashed and burned, but they didn't.
Cadburys saw fantastic brand benefits in addition to increased sales (as reported in Brand Republic https://www.brandrepublic.com/News/784573/Gorilla-ad-works-its-magic-sales-Cadbury-bars/ )
It seems to me that funny sells...
While the video is funny and I have to agree to a certain degree with what you said, something on a tangent came to mind that correlates with your idea regarding advertising: bad press is still press. No matter if you're getting bad press - ex. MySpace creepy stories - it still gets your name out there.
In your case, even if the commercial or tactic is "dumb" it still gets the item or service branded to a user and in many cases, the broadest of possible users. So many of us are concerned with getting specific traffic for which tactics like this might not work so well. But, traffic is still traffic, no matter what.
hmm, that monkey isn't stupid Danny, he just did wat most of us do when we were kid failing to resist the inner most desire of smelling own poo. haha :)
But I wonder which industry would use such a video to promote its products or services...
Let's put up some crazy selling ideas which this monkey can promote...!
Danny, I don't know if you are right or wrong. But I do know that the monkey video is really funny.
The Masked Millionaire
www.TheMaskedMillionaire.com
How can anyone not find that monkey funny?
- Casey Removed Link
I can't understand why 10 people did not find my comment funny. No one else got thumps down by making the same comment on the monkey in the video, someone needs to fill me in.