Everyone tries, but very very few videos succeed at being viral. This is especially true with the videos that try to sell you crap – an activity pretty much universally disliked and about as far from viral model as you can get.

So, how do you make an effective viral video that actually sells a product or service rather than being comedy for it’s own sake, a category most successful viral videos fall in? It’s a highly elusive target with no formula. One thing is for sure – viral videos don’t come out of your average marketing meeting. They are unique, unusual, funny, unexpected. They look at at idea in a new light. They are original. These are all qualities far removed from the typical “bullet point” headlines of features and benefits a product or service offers – the usual tactic of trying to sell you something you don’t care about. Our _______ is the best because it’ll do XYZ for you and the price is great and other people like it and please please buy now. Pretty please? That’s the approach of most commercials, admittedly some done more creatively than others, but still the same lame sales technique people automatically dislike and tune out.

To make people want to forward your video to friends they have to just really like it. Sound simple, but pretty much impossible to engineer in a course of a traditional marketing campaign. Great ideas come from the least expected places. And the harder you try for it, the less likely you are to come up with something great. There is certain effortlessness and Zen-like feel around great ideas that art more than science and just can’t be forced.

So the closest I can come to shedding more light on the subject is to offer a case study – a story of a successful viral video we just produced here at DHD. I claim it a viral success because the video generated 10,000 hits in one day on Youtube. You might differ in your definition of viral, but that’s a l0t of eyeballs in a short time. We hope it continues to build on its momentum – and these videos usually do as they get mentioned in various blogs and sites and the momentum just keeps on building.

I think the success of this video is especially notable because it sells something that’s not something considered an “easy sell” in our highly skeptical world. Our client, Bigspot.com, is a highly successful, reputable company that pays consumers to take opinion surveys for various companies and products. I know most people are thinking “yea, right” at this point, because it sounds like one of those too-good-to-be-true internet scrams. Yet it’s really as simple as that and it works. The company is highly successful and while nobody is getting rich taking surveys on the internet, the money part is real and the model work very well. Still, you have to admit, it’s a slightly tough sell in our highly suspicious world, especially since there are lots of empty promises and scams out there that created the skepticism in the first place. So, how do you sell something like that? And make it viral?

We took a very simple approach, which is likely one of the reasons for the success of the campaign. We created an “commercial” for a fictitious product so bad, so incredibly stupid, so ridiculous – The Neck Basket – that just about anyone could appreciate the idiocy of the idea and laugh at it. Then we stopped the commercial in mid-stream with the stereotypical (yet always so very effective) needle scratch sound effect and then put in the pitch for our client – if you think this is bad, well, there’s something you can do about it at bigspot.com while getting paid for it. However, that spot did not end up being the viral video success I am talking about here, even though it’s still an effective, great commercial in its own right. What became the viral hit was the full-length spot for the “Neck Basket” we produced pretty much just for fun. It’s a minute and a half of ridiculous sales pitch for a non-existent product. Pretty much just a joke.

That was probably one of of the reasons for it’s success – the spot aimed to entertain and did not try to sell you anything. Yet it does sell bigspot.com very well because you learn about it from reading more about the video in the description and going to the “fake” Neck Basket website we created as well. No guarantees that people will continue to bigspot.com, but what a great way to bring the company into consumer’s consciousness – unobtrusively, non-pushy, all opt-in and and driven by people’s curiosity.

We didn’t plan for the full-lenght spot to sell anything and that’s probably exactly why it went viral and why it works. Instead of pitching it entertains, engages, and creates conversation. That’s the kind of stuff that goes viral. That’s what stands a chance of working within the social media ecosystem.

We can’t promise you that we will replicate the success of bigspot.com for you at Denver HighDef, but I can promise we will approach your product or service with the same open mind, originality, and out-of-the-box-thinking that became our recipe for success and standard operating procedure we aim for in all of our work here every time. We go to atypical lengths to come up with new and interesting ways to tell the story for even the smallest client or budget and create videos people actually like. Videos that we like ourselves and that we enjoy working on. We feel it’s the only way to stand out in the highly crowded world of often well-produced, flashy, yet pointless videos, WordPress templates and most other cliche-laden, cookie-cutter world of old and beaten to death marketing pitches out there today. We approach each project as a unique creative challenge and we feel that’s the only chance at success there is in today’s new mediascape. Well, OK, you might be successful even with a lame idea if you have a million dollars for your media buy… but for the rest of us I think success is still defined by doing great work.

Please go to http://www.youtube.com/user/DenverHighDef to access the channel.

The page features animation, live action, stock footage and other styles of TV spots that were created here. Most of these spots were produced for clients across the US as a part of our partnership with Google and their Ad Creation Marketplace program. For all of the spots we were in charge of the entire production cycle starting with developing a concept and scriptwriting to filming (if needed), creating the graphics, editing, all the way down to compressing the finished spot to Google’s specs for upload into their TV system.

Denver HighDef on Facebook

Be sure to become our Facebook fan because you don’t want to miss any of the exciting updates we’ll be publishing regularly.

The simple yet ingenious app keeps track of spending for a group of people travelling together over a period of time. Here is the marketing copy from iTunes:

Make it easier to be the gentleman or the pal. Trip Arbiter makes the old nagging question “Who owes what for what?” obsolete.

No more struggling to remember who paid for gas, lunch, or the beef jerky. Simply keep tabs on your trip’s expenses with this simple app. By the end of your journey, your only concerns will be about what’s ahead and not what’s behind.

Say goodbye to being put-upon for expenses or having to ask your friends to cough up the cash.

The only ones who won’t love Trip Arbiter are the moochers. And who invited them to come along, anyway?

Road Trip Arbiter “About” and support page

Our iPhone App Star Radio Communicator got the attention of some of the bigger news outlets around the web, including Wired and Gizmodo. It all started after iPhone Savior blog published a glowing review of the app. It got re-posted at Cult of Mac and then at Gizmodo. From there on it snowballed and now we’re all over the web in places like Subspace Communique, Bitter Wallet and iGizmo among many, many others.

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Needless to say, all this attention did wonders for the sales of the app and we’re very pleased with all the publicity.

That’s right – Denver HighDef is now officially in the iPhone app business with the release of our Star Radio Communicator 1.0. Here’s a description of this must-have app:

As you trek though space, communicate with a flick of the wrist. Whether you are contacting landing parties, hailing your home, or just ordering pizza, the Star Radio Communicator puts you in the front of the fleet. With one deft move, the trillium mesh cover flips out and animates open, exposing the communicator interface. The opening action is accompanied by a “chirping” sound. Under the mesh antenna “cover” is a spinning black-and-white spiral. Below are three blinking colored lights and two metal buttons. One button takes you to a retro-modern iPhone dialer. The other activates a hailing signal that begins once the communicator is flipped closed. With the Star Radio Communicator, you put the glamor of the 1960s future into your hands today.

Go to the iTunes store to buy this sensational app today. It’s a lot of fun even if you’re not a hardcore Trekkie. Visit this page to watch the trailer!

UPDATE: The app is currently not available pending a licensing deal with a major media conglomerate that holds the copyright to the communicator interface. We hope to re-release it in March 2010.

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Main Screen of the Star Radio Communicator

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“Gorillas in the Mix” webisode series:

http://denverhighdef.com/gorillas.php

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“Just Brunch” comedy series teasers/development:

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“Gorillas in the Mix” Webisodes produced by Denver HighDef for Point of Reference and Alcatel/Lucent:

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“Just Brunch” Comedy Series teaser shoot:

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Harsh Times dvd Denver HighDef welcomes Rachel Farha to our family!  

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The Backstory:

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Rachel comes to us from a well-known Denver based natural and organic meat company.  She has a tremendous and diverse portfolio of experience in client service, sales, and technology, and a proven track record of management success.  Let’s just say that Denver HighDef is the cause of some true sadness at her former company – we’ve got her now boyz – HAHA!

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The REAL story:

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Picture it – the Taxi II Building, October 1st, 2008.  Rachel’s first day with Denver HighDef commences at 9am.  Poor thing – everyone except our ever faithful Office Manager Lori happen to show up late on that particular day.  Oh, but did we have any idea what we were coming late to?  No way…

One by one, the rest of us begin to show up, welcoming Rachel and apologizing profusely for our tardiness.  By about 2pm we all realize that something very different is happening in the office.  A certain energy is coursing through each of us that in undeniably awesome.  An ah-ha moment happens the next day when we realize that Rachel has filled not only a functional need, but also is providing a medium for incredible synergy across the entire DHD Family.  What a fine, fine day that was – as has been each day thereafter. 

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In Cold Blood full movie This, of course, is only the introduction to the full story, but the first two months Rachel has been with us have been incredible.  Our little family has grown tremendously, and we’re all massively excited about shaping the rest of our story together as the months go by.  

Stay tuned for more chapters and exciting news about the goodness coming from the Denver HighDef Family!