Gillette has been building buzz the last month with how-to online
videos. The videos show men how to shave everywhere except their face,
also known as “manscaping.”

There has been tons buzz around the videos. By last Friday, Gillette’s Youtube site had more than 300,000 views in about a month.

The videos are very clever and humorous, which is different from the
approach they usually take in their advertising and marketing. Each
light-hearted video shows a cartoon demonstrating how to manscape
different areas of the body.

Before the videos were posted, Gillette tested them on both men and
women with little negative feedback. Through their research, Gillette
also found that one-third of men shave hair from their body other than
their faces.

“Our goal was to engage guys in a dialogue on the whys and how-to’s, and to do it comfortably and reassure them in a funny and entertaining way,” said Tim Williams a Gillette marketing official.

I think Gillette did a really great job with these videos. Not only are
they funny and perfect to reach 20-something men, but there is actually
research to back their approach.

Although we can’t leave without saying that they are ripping off the Phillips Norelco Shave Everywhere site from a few years ago.

The ESPN-Youtube channel is now up and running. Not many people know about it, though. Probably because neither ESPN nor Youtube is promoting it yet.

There are high hopes for the new channel; the biggest sports network paired with the biggest online video sharing site. How could it go wrong? I’m just hoping they’ll start talking about it offline soon in order to get the huge audience they’re expecting.

Right now, the content is what you would expect. Just clips from Sports Center. Don’t get me wrong, that’s great stuff but ESPN has a great opportunity to target their superfan in more meaningful ways than with just sports clips they could see anyday on ESPN.

Everyone loves the Sports Center commentators and the funny commercials, which everyone talks about for years. They should use Youtube to give their fans exclusive access to ESPN commercials and behind-the-scenes footage of the sports casters.

If they are trying to get the attention of legit ESPN superfans, give them something unique and funny. Feed their appetite for signature ESPN humor.

Bad news for Domino’s. Look at what happens when you hire teenage boys who know about Youtube! Yep, they make stupid videos. It’s a risk that every fast-food company takes when they hire adolescents. Too bad that this video really screwed with Domino’s brand.

If you haven’t heard, two employees of Domino’s – now former employees – made a Youtube where they did inappropriate and disgusting things to the food before boxing it up. The video ended up getting crazy popular and had more than a million views within 24 hours. The video has since been taken off Youtube by Domino’s.

Had the video been positive, that amount of buzz in such a short amount of time would have been amazing for Domino’s. But alas, it was really bad.

The Youtube video and the buzz it created on other social networks had the capacity to kill the brand. But Domino’s acted quickl enough to prevent any further damage to the company.

Patrick Doyle, CEO of Domino’s Pizza USA, created his own Youtube video to respond to the concerns created by the previous video. His video showed sincerity and concern for Domino’s customers and assured everyone that everything is being done to prevent that kind of behavior from being repeated. The store where the video was shot has actually been shut down and undergoing intense cleaning. There is also an investigation to see if this kind of behavior is taking place in other stores.

Domino’s reacted well to a bad situation and have taken the first step to regaining customer trust. However, in true Buzz.io fashion, we must point out that this situation didn’t need to be nearly as damaging to their brand. If they had already set up social network accounts, especially Twitter, they would have known about the video almost instantly and would have been able to take the video down before more than a million people saw it.

Pizza Hut, knowing that they hire people of the same caliber as Domino’s, have already created a new position in their company – the “twintern”. The twintern’s purpose is to be the voice of Pizza Hut on social networks. Luckily they are learning from Domino’s mistakes.

To Domino’s credit, they have set up a Twitter account since the incident. Too bad they didn’t think of that last week.

Ford is bravely entering the world of social media at full speed. To build buzz about their new compact car, the Fiesta, Ford is giving their branding and promotion responsibilities to 100 young web savvy people.

The best part of this plan is that none of these individuals has any advertising experience. They were chosen for their “social vibrancy” rating. Essentially, they were judged by their web presence and popularity – number of online followers and accounts on different social media platforms. They were also judged according to their creativity, film-making skills and ability to retain audience’ attention.

So here’s the deal, Ford is giving each of the 100 people chosen a Ford Fiesta to drive around for six months. They will be asked to document their experience with the car through Youtube videos, blog posts and other social media updates.

We always talk about the key to good and honest marketing is being transparent. Ford is taking this a step farther by not having any censorship over what is said and posted about the Fiesta. This is definitely a make-or-break situation for Ford. They must have thought of this, so Ford must be confident enough in their product to publicize this trial period. And if it goes horribly wrong, Ford still has about a year to redeem themselves before the Fiesta hits U.S. dealers.

Ford, we commend you for the unique grass roots campaign. It’s a great idea and will definitely build buzz and awareness about the Fiesta. For Ford’s sake, hopefully it’s positive buzz.

There are two things I love in this world: nontraditional advertising and musicals. I never imagined these two things could come together so flawlessly. I thought both of these videos were incredibly creative and effectively got people excited about the theater.

I’m really impressed with how lastminute.com went about creating buzz. It was a great way to create word-of-mouth marketing among people at the performances but it also created great videos to be spread virally.

My favorite part of The Sound of Music video is when the hard-core guy in all black is smiling and clapping at the end of the performance. Absolutely perfect.

The printer we used posted this video of our business cards on Youtube. We posted our cards before but now everyone can see them in action.

And the top Facebook pages are …. #1 Barack Obama (no surprise) …. #2 Coca Cola (of course) …. #3 Nutella (What?). Yeah, that’s right. The Italian hazelnut/chocolate spread.

It’s safe to assume that most of the fans were from Europe but the craziest thing about Nutella‘s high ranking is that they don’t advertise. Well, that’s not true; they spent $300,000 on media last year, which is pretty much equivalent to nothing. Here’s the impressive part: their Facebook page was created by a fan, Nutella has 5 million Google search results, there are 5,000 videos on Youtube featuring Nutella, and there are 17,000 photos featuring Nutella on Flickr.

Despite it’s European base, Nutella has become very popular in the U.S. as well; and the U.S. fans are very loyal. For Americans, it’s probably associated with memories of trips to Europe and then they spread the word about Nutella to their friends and family at home. In some ways, it has become a form of social currency.

It’s interesting to see that a company can have a crazy online presence without even trying. They’re obviously doing something right. So here are 3 easy steps to follow that will create the online buzz we all hope for:

1. Become a European staple so Americans will have no choice but to think you’re cool
2. Gather a cult following effortlessly
3. Be kind of like peanut butter, except use a weirder looking nut and add chocolate

Humor
In the 80’s everyone used sex to sell beer. Today they try really hard to be funny, check out bud.tv. Microsoft just announced that they will be doing a $300 Million dollar ad campaign featuring Jerry Seinfeld. Thanks to YouTube, Digg, and other social media sites you can do the same thing for $30.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Evolution of Dance – Almost a right of passage for new users on YouTube.  This video featuring comedian Judson Laipply cost nothing to make and has been viewed almost 100 million times.  Those are captive eyeballs that chose to consume the content, not interruption based media like the Microsoft commercials will be. I am not sure what he charges for his public speaking but I am sure it is more expensive than it was 2 years ago.

Will It Blend – Sure it isn’t laugh out loud funny but it is amusing and completely engaging.  How exciting can you make a blender? There are nearly 100 thousand subscribers to this YouTube channel. The videos have been viewed tens of millions of times.

B-Boy Stance – I thought it was funny

Sex Appeal

Dove Evolution – This isn’t what you would typically think of as “sexy”.  But this is the perfect balance of sex appeal and a relevant message.  I will talk more about the message in a minute.

Good Magazing Porn Video – This one is a little racy but it is still PG-13.  They run through all the stats of the porn industry by writing them on the nearly naked body of a porn star.  Good message, great use of sex. Oh and just in case you don’t make it this far it is an advertisement for Good Magazine – I have never read it but they have an interesting website and a good cause.

Shock Value
Dexter – Microsite – they have had to dumb this down and make it a little more obvious.  When this first came out it really scared people.  Really really scared them.  This little site was emailed millions of times and they never could get that same exposure buying advertising.  It is extremely engaging to see yourself as the next murder victim on a fake news broadcast.

Relevant

The most important thing about all of these video’s is they have a purpose.  They hold some relevance to the audience.  After all it is the relevance that makes you pass along a video.  You might start watching for the other factors but you keep watching or take an action because of the relevant message.

Warning you are about to waste an hour so you better be at work.

Just in case you missed the last couple years on YouTube here is a viral video roundup of must see web cinema

If you haven’t read The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell then you better get started.  You can get a used copy on Amazon for like $3.  No excuses.  Malcolm does an incredible job describing how products develop and eventually tip into incredible success when built and marketed the right way.  He uses example after example of how word of mouth marketing helped products tip.  An ugly pair of shoes worn by the right crowd tips into a nationwide phenom worn by every young adult.  Products and especially buzz about products spread primarily due to word of mouth marketing.  It’s the basis of many successful products.  YouTube, Gmail, LittleMissMatched socks, etc.  If someone sees a funny video and they pass it on like crazy, Gmail accounts were limited only to those invited, and LittleMissMatched creates a product that people can’t stop remarking about (thanks Seth).

The web has become the ultimate medium for communication.  Buzz.io has recently partnered with one of programming’s brightest stars, Phil Burns, which allows us to take things to the next level.  Buzz.io provides a knarley buzz marketing service whose employees engage in conversation but, thanks to Phil, Buzz.io will soon offer tools that will blow your mind.  Phil brings SAAS to the table and will allow us to build out our systems and ideas into products clients can use to monitor conversation, engage in conversation, and view key information and reports regarding the client’s industry and product.  Phil has been tracking every little thing that people have been saying online for years.  Every search made, every comment posted, every subject talked about, and everything else you could ever imagine.  Knowing what people are talking about is huge for any business.

What are people talking about?  What are consumers buying and why?  What do consumers want from my product?  What price points make sense?

DIY Buzz.io tools allow clients to use the incredible information Phil has accumulated.  Not only can you see what people have been talking about but clients can also get involved in conversation that applies to their product.

Giddy’up.