The latest branded viral video win goes to Gillette for putting out this amazing trick shot demonstration with Roger Federer. The company claims the footage was captured in one take during a real commercial shoot with the British Skin Foundation. Somehow Roger manages to knock a water bottle off a guy’s head not once, but twice with a powerful serve. The video has not only reached over a million hits, it’s left everyone debating about whether the clip is real of fake. But even if it is fake, what matters is everyone is talking!

It’s the kind of overtly branded “viral” that only Funny or Die can get away with, and it’s well executed. Game recognize game.

Remember LonelyGirl15? YouTube’s 5th birthday was last week and I’ve finally gotten around to watching the “YouTube Stories” series they produced– 2 minute interviews with select creators about their successes with the medium. The stories, and this interview with the director, contain interesting little insights about creating for YouTube that are worth checking out–

What kinds of techniques do you use to make these videos look so good and feel emotional?
When we all make YouTube videos, we’re creating for a screen size of about 630 by 350 pixels, so go in close. Use eyes, use foreheads, look at the way people move their mouths when they talk…all that says a lot, beyond just the words. Use that emotional power of the face to amplify what they are saying. Shoot as close to the face as possible, because we’re trained by thousand of years of evolution to respond to those movements of the face. And don’t forget hands, which can speak in the opposite way…or in sync…and reveal much. In the end, we want viewers to feel they’ve had a chance to meet these subjects over a cheeseburger or a beer and really feel them viscerally.

What is something about YouTube users you didn’t know before you started this project?
What I didn’t fully understand was how much the content creators have given their lives over to communicating with others. They’ve found their mission. Sharing their talent or passion with the world. Despite realities of family obligations, old jobs, the need to learn a bit more about technology, the people who shine come through because of sheer passion and faith. They believe that what they are doing on YouTube will change the world, and the effort that belief inspires in them usually gets to a positive outcome.

– Inside the Making Of “My YouTube Story,” interview with documentary filmmaker Stephen Higgins

The story behind LonelyGirl15

Search Story Tutorial

Parisian Love

“The recipients did not know that the video crew documented their snatch and get-away, sometimes trailing them for blocks. “I’ve never actually trailed anybody before,” said Henry Joost, an executive producer for Supermarche, the video production firm. “The only thing I know about surveillance is from movies.”" — full story in Fast Company

The campaign touches so many different platforms, it wins at social media bingo: a real world competitive game, tracking and buzz on Twitter, and a viral video on Vimeo. It’s a playful way to engage unsuspecting potential consumers in a game about design, ownership, and their product.

via fake TV

1. It was about one of my favorite neighborhoods in San Francisco, the much maligned Tenderloin, which combines the grime of any innercity skid row, with classic San Francisco early 20th century architecture, a handful of great dive bars/restaurants/galleries and borders (like, literally across the street from) SF’s main tourist districts. So any time you go drinking in San Francisco, you’re bound to find handfuls of terrified conventioners, desperate to make their way back to Union Square, which is a sight I enjoy.

From Wikipedia, here’s a story about how the TL possibly acquired it’s name:

There are also some legends about the name, probably folklore, including that the neighborhood earned its name from the words of a New York City police captain, Alexander S. Williams, who was overheard saying that when he was assigned to another part of the city, he could only afford to eat chuck steak on the salary he was earning, but after he was transferred to this neighborhood he was making so much money on the side soliciting bribes that now he could eat tenderloin instead.

I’m saying. Hood is grimey.

2. They made very cool short video about the project, which is as intimate a look into TL as I ever seen.

3. The opening is this Friday in SF. Details here.

PSFK had a post on a dope sounding premier of this new ABSOLUT branded doc on Jay-Z before a concert, which apparently had the audiences attention on lockdown. They make the really intelligent point that the audiences would have been furious to see commercials before the show, but to watch this branded series was seen as just part of the show. Memo to the folks that program the pre-film-shows at major theater chains: do THIS. The liquor brand has been killing it on the content tip, lately. Remember the awesome Tim & Eric X Zach Galafanakis video that made the rounds last year? (see below if you slept on it) Yeah. Dope.

Anyways, the doc premiers March 22nd on facebook.com/ABSOLUT