Carl’s Jr UGC videos off to a fast start

Following up on our previous post, The New Network Buy, the branded UGC vids for Carl’s Jr’s Portabello Mushroom Burger have hit the Tube-waves.  You can view them all here: http://www.youtube.com/carlsjr

So far the videos have received 3,412,606 views in the first week of launch.  The expected viewership was set at 10 million views and we think they’re well on pace to exceed that.  After all, video responses from the community haven’t even joined in on the fun yet.

YouTube all-star, nigahiga, is leading the way with 1.2 million+ views on his creation.

We appreciate the $1 off coupon on the YouTube branded page as well.  Good for accountability and stuff.

The New Network Buy

We always talk about taking advantage of the painfully over-used term “brand ambassadors” and yet we rarely see it put into action with any success.  Maybe because the lines are always blurry when it comes to advertising, and personal promotion.  Consumers are quick to cry foul.

Well, a new model seems to be emerging.  Carl’s Jr. and Google have teamed up to create a new form of network buy.  You could say it’s 100% for the people, by the people.  The approach is simple and transparent.  Carl’s Jr. creates a simple brief for branded content that Google distributes to it’s top content creators on YouTube.  Based on their subscriber base quantities and demographics, the team at Carl’s Jr. can reasonably expect upwards of 10 million views of this campaign.

Benefits?  Lower production cost than TVCs.  More efficient media spend.  Viral from the outset.  Consumer-centric content made from the people consumers already love (no blurry lines).  

Plus, it’s an emerging business model for YouTube to monetize.  Remember, that users cannot use YouTube for commercial reasons unless big daddy Google has a hand in the pot.  

Videos are due to go live soon.  Keep your eyes peeled here: http://www.youtube.com/user/YoungHungryGuy

*thanks to Michael Nicholas for the find!

Twitter top 20 list > Super Bowl TVC… eventually

A $250,000 USD offer was made to Twitter by Jason Calacanis (CEO of Mahalo) to lock in a 2 year position in the top 20 of Twitter’s suggested user list. As he sees it, this position can easily boost your following by 100,000+ dedicated tweet-crazy users (see @BritneySpears or @MCHammer). Eventually, this kind of following will hold more value than the once coveted Super Bowl television commercial. Could this be one of Twitter’s early moves toward monetizing their rapidly growing user base?

Long live micro-blogging.

Full article here:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/12/how-much-is-a-suggested-slot-on-twitter-worth-jason-calacanis-offers-250000/

TV shaping the way we dream

According to new research, almost everyone under 25 dreams in colour; by contrast many over 55′s dream in black and white- and scientists suspect that the advent of colour TV explains this.  Even more interestly, before the advent of colour TV all the evidence suggests we were all dreaming in colour.

If the way we watch TV has changed so much, would that then shape our dreams in the same way…will we be dreaming stuff as if we were watching it on youtube or on an ipod?