Everyone wants "viral."  Its all the rage now.  What is viral?  Well, its a lot of people choosing to see something and passing it on to their friends.  Viral is the Star Wars kid and the George Bush Bloody Sunday Song.

Sometimes, you get someone at an agency who has such a pulse on the human condition that you can create viral.  But most times, viral bubbles up.  Viral isn't intended to be viral necessarily... and the best viral comes when it is created by the audience. 

Its not because there aren't agency folks who can do this... its just that individuals are so fickle that its incredibly hard to figure out what will strike them.  So,  viral becomes a statistics game...   one agency creating one video...   tough to get right..maybe impossible.   A million users creating a million videos...  one of them will go viral.  Its just stats and dumb luck sometimes.

So when Agency.com set out to create a viral video for a client, and they decided to make the viral video about making a viral video, they had a very difficult task ahead of them. 

So here's the result:

What do you think?   So, first off, I have to congratulate them for thinking outside of the box.  They obviously get that consumers don't like to be sold to, and posting this to YouTube was a sign that they understand that if you want to reach consumers, you have to come into our neighborhood.

So, no question, A for effort.  Maybe A+.

The numbers so far... 40,000 plays.  That's enough to get it in the Top 100 most viewed for the week on YouTube.   Not sure what their goal was.

And rather than tell you what I thought...  I'll link to the community's comments.  Kind of a mixed bag to put it lightly.

But, here's the thing about doing innovative advertising and branding.  There were already a bunch of videos that the community had created about Subway.  Many of them were unquestionably good.

Like this guy doing his own 4 part harmony.  (Its the same guy, right?)

Or this girl who probably loves working at Subway more than anyone else loves working at their job.

Or this cute little champion... (A shameless ploy to get her on real commercials, but that's ok... )

Hey Jarrod, we need more water.

This one is just random and disturbing...

This is so gross... and so funny.. all at the same time...   the mustard part was the best.

These two are just goofing off....

Ok, so the quality is really trailing off a bit now....

Anyway... the point is, I wonder if coming up with any content or copy for a consumer facing message is worth it anymore.   Users want to hear themselves, not the company.  They want to hear from each other why a brand or product is worth spending money on.  Is this the moment that ad copy "jumps the virus" in the workds of one YouTube commenter? 

I think everyone in the ad community should wave the white flag and just say,

"The hell with it.  We give up.  You tell us what you think of the brands, and we'll just give you some cool ways to say it, and promote you. We're out of the business of coming up with messaging or content.  Its just too hard... and then when we try to reach out to you in on your own terms, you make a Brokeback parody of us."   

That's what Firefox did.

Robert Young explains this the best:

"...follow the audience into the development of this new market by re-focusing core assets that have the capability to deepen the level, and heighten the production value, of self-expression.

Think of this way… what if “American Idol” had been produced solely by the capabilities of the contestants themselves, without the expertise and talent of the show’s producers, directors, writers, etc. As talented and entertaining as the contestants are, the resulting production quality, the level of emotional engagement, viewership/ratings and monetization potential of the full package would likely be far inferior to what we all see on the air today. Well, social networks should be seen in a similar way… people want to express themselves and the platforms that allow them to do so with the most creativity and production value, are the ones that people will flock to."

In short, don't make a commercial with monkeys.  Give monkeys to the people.  (Full disclosure, my company, Oddcast, built the Careerbuilder Monk-e-mail.)

Leaving on a jet plane..., originally uploaded by ceonyc.

Going to a very exciting business development meeting... Our first flight got cancelled... Lets see what the trip home is like. United: You stink. Plus, me and my bag, empty save for my laptop and biz cards, got searched.

If Billy Wagner doesn't start shutting hitters down 1-2-3, they're going to start playing "Johnny B. Goode" instead of Metallica.

So it looks like Pelfrey is the odd man out of the rotation for now...  He was impressive, but still pretty young.  We'll probably see him again in a few weeks.

Oh, and instead of losing Nady, wouldn't it have just been easier to resign Roberto Hernandez last season?  What we gave up to get what we have in all these trades hasn't impressed me at all.  I hope Chad Bradford emerges as the #1 righty out of the pen, just because I have a soft spot for submarine pitchers.  Combining him with Hernandez reminds me of the '91 Mets combo of Innis and "Senior Smoke" Alejandro Pena.

Cha-ra

1.    Noun. Means ‘shit’.
2.    Use in sentence: “Man, I feel like chara because I didn’t give Charlie a big good morning hello. I will try not to act like such a little chara in the future.”

Obviously, I called someone out on walking around the office with work blinders on...   :)

UPDATE: Before you embarrass yourself, I just found out that the "ch" sound in this is not like the "ch" in Charlie or cheer... its the flemy gurglely noise that you make when you want to hock something out.  I'm sure that's not a politically correct way of explaining that, but if you can come up with a better way to type out that noise, I'm all ears.

UPDATE: “The eight letter of the Hebrew alphabet is called “chet” (rhymes with mate) and has the (light scraping) sound ‘ch” as in “Bach”.   "Light scraping"...  ok, I guess that's a nicer way of putting it.   (From Hebrew4christians.com)

“The eight letter of the Hebrew alphabet is called “chet” (rhymes with mate) and has the (light scraping) sound ‘ch” as in “Bach”

Matt Sanchez of VideoEgg came and spoke this morning to the SEMI program--a group of young college students interested in finance and business that I run.

He said something that stuck with me... that there are two types of knowledge:  experiential knowledge and intuitive knowledge, and that entreprenuers are successful when they have the latter.  Basically, those who can only see and understand something if they've seen it before are going to struggle in a startup, whereas those who can hypothesis and logic out systems of behavior that are completely new will achieve much. 

I think often times, people take a very passive approach to intuition--imagining that you either have it or you don't, but I don't think that's true.  "Gut feelings" often come quicker to some people than others, but a lot of times, putting in some solid effort into thinking from the other side of the table or in someone else's shoes has the same effect.  Sometimes, you get good enough at that where it seems to come automatically, but that takes time.   A good "gut feeling" can come from a well thought out attept to figure out what you would do if you were someone else.   Intuition isn't a gift of luck... it is the result of mental training... a mode of thought.

Yeah, so we definitely had a blip on the grid just now.  91 degrees a few minutes before midnight and poof... my computer restarted and the streetlight went out.

Astoria II?   Damn... I better start eating the cheese in my fridge now.

Then how do I know you're a real person?

Funny how the internet changes our perception about who we are and what makes us real.  If I can't find "bits", I don't always trust that there is flesh to match. 

When you work for an internet company that is mostly staffed with Israelis, you wind up with stuff like this in your inbox:


Hebrew Word of the Day - Mur'al

Mur·al (pronounced as written)

1. slang
2. deriving from the word “poison”
3. Used to describe someone who identifies with and who is deeply associated with a certain goal or mission; for example, many time used to describe a young soldier in the IDF J.
4. Use in sentence: “Wow, that Charlie sure is mur’al. He keeps coming to work with avatar t-shirts.”    

I noticed an interesting phenomenon the other day.  The amount you communicate is
proportionate to the number of different avenues you have for communication.  Right now, I can:

-email
-IM
-Skype
-blog
-text
-phone
-MySpace mail
-MySpace comment
-tag something in del.icio.us for: someone
-poke in the Facebook
-write on a Facebook wall
-email in Facebook
-Flickr mail
-Flickr comment
-Gchat in Gmail

...and I'm sure I'm forgetting some...  Oh yeah..talk in person.

The interesting thing to me is that new forms of communication don't necessarily replace the other.  I comment on Flickr to people whose email addresses I have.  Its not just getting the message across from point a to point b..its the way in which it was sent...the packaging.  Packaging allows expression through an infinately more diverse set of variables, like context, media, volume (degree of publicness).  An avatar message to someone on a blog post is a very different message than a text from one person to another, even if the worlds are the same.

Having all of these means of communication available allows for very nuanced interaction with the world.  Some people I will never get on the phone with...others I only talk on the phone to.  When I got texts, I didn't call less...  I called differently.  Less short phone calls....but then I had more longer ones because texting kept more relationships fresher in a more efficient way...  So I just had exposure to more stuff that warrented a call because I had a little bit of texting
to fill the quiet times.

Hopefully, social networks, wireless carriers, Web 2.0 companies realize that and keep their communication as open as possible.  The model for many web applications, like dating, used to be "pay to contact this person".  Instead of standing on the way of communication, I think the best strategy is to encourage as much commuication as possible.  These services don't own my ability to communicate, and there's lots of competition.  Keeping the room silient isn't  the best way to create a party.

Sometimes, we feel like we have more control over the past than the future.

Weird, no?  Because its already happened.

But the past is somewhat maliable...   its all about perception.

"No, I didn't really mean it that way."

"That's not what I said."

"But you never saw the other thing that happened right before that..."

"You must be mistaken."

In a culture of stories--our own recollections of the past versus hardcoded truth, sweeping over tracks in the sand seems so easy.  Memories are so tenuous and open to interpretation, that we seem to spend more of our time trying to change the past or imagine what would happen if we did (because we know exactly what we things we need to change to make our lives better) than we actually spend trying to change our future.  And yet, the fact of the matter is that the future is unwritten--completely wide open--and the past can't changed.

We could all use a little more work on the future.  Where are you going versus where you think you could have been...   

Yesterday's trip to Skirmish with ZogSports was a blast, and I have the markings to prove it:

"Do you think you serve your country best by being a critic and using words that tend to enflame and overshadow any information?"

This one comes from YouTube (which, by the way, I find myself watching more and more lately).   

Well, actually, it comes from a Hardball interview with Ann Coulter , but I saw the clip on YouTube.  Chris Matthews went to the audience for a question and the first young woman with a question posed the question to Coulter.

I have to admit that I'm not a particularly political person and I certainly don't follow all the talking heads (at least the non-animated ones), so this may be the first time I've ever seen/noticed Ann Coulter speak.  Is she really this wretchedly awful all the time?  I really dislike anyone who just spews division and polarizes people wherever they go.  Like this young woman pointed out, Ann, you're just not helping.  This country needs more people who bridge gaps and bring people together... not make everything out to be black and white, right or wrong.  And the personal attacks? 

I mean, seriously, where does she come off saying that Bill Clinton is gay?  Is that relevent to any conversation whatsoever?  That would be like someone insinuating that Ms. Coulter is just bitter because she's undersexed... it's totally unrelated and drags someone's personal life into the conversation unecessarily.

Besides, its obvious that her statements and divisive and enflamatory behavior are likely traced to either one of two causes...    her own ignorance or her allegiance to the Almighty Dollar.  It might be both.  Ignorance sells a lot of books.                

Helping Dad put together a vanity for their bathroom, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

No instructions in the box... Wonder where these extra screws go...

From Jay Rand...

"When I'm playing on my own mental turf, my batting average at home is very high."

I guess you don't get booed at home, then, like the more neurotic among us do.

Getting feedback from your user community is really important, but, of course, your community isn't necessarily building your product.  There are lines to be drawn, right?  You can't have the inmates run the asylum...

...or can you?

That's a little bit how I feel now.  I feel like I'm the customer.  What would make my product fun for me and my friends?  What would make me want to use it?  What's in it for me?

I can't say enough about being a user when you're building, but not how you might think.  Like just the other day, I started a Photobucket account.  The things that I thought were important... like an uploader and tagging...   not in there at all.  But yet, its just as popular as Flickr.  I didn't find the UI intuitive at all, but then again, I'm not every user. 

Being a user means you see what's out there and play with it, and instead of passing judgement, you try and understand why something is popular.  You match feature sets to usage and popularity.  Its the difference between being a pet owner and a zooalogist.  You don't have to love the stuff... just understand it and learn from it.  Of course, you build up a passion for it, and that's important, but pet owners don't always know the most about their pets, because they don't study their pets.  They interact with them and build emotional relationships with them.  Zooalogists try not to start with that and try to keep it "professional" so that you can take a stop back now and then  I've had to remind myself to do that and to keep an open mind as to what works and what doesn't, lest I overdose on my own Kool Aid.

Every office I work at must have a bird, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

Makiko saved this little guy from the street. He can't fly yet.

Mmm... Birthday sugar... rrrrggggggg, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

So far, this is the best present I got today. :)

Del Frisco's, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

I think this is our favorite...

One thing I've noticed about myself...     within a given setting, whether it was school or a job or where I lived, I'm pretty resistant and uneffected by stress.  Nothing really bothers me much.

But that's when I'm pretty anchored into my surroundings--where I know the avenues for dealing with stress causes and can manage, avoid, reschedule, etc.  When I'm playing on my own mental turf, my batting average at home is very high.

Through me into a completely new surrounding and change the rules, and I have to say, I get a bit mentally unraveled.  I'm still able to complete all my tasks, but adjustment gives me quite a bit to deal with.  When I started working at my last two jobs, or when I moved, the same thing happened.  For a couple of weeks, I just tried to keep the deck chairs from sliding off the ship.

So if I'm a little slow with e-mail or on the blog, bear with me here.  I'm only on week two.

That being said, the people at Oddcast are great, and I can't wait for the momentum to build further on what we're working on, because then I'll be working directly with a lot more people within the organization.   We had a fun company outing on Friday and everyone was very warm and welcoming.   

Its very different working on independent projects when you're in a group of 10 or 4, but 38 people is the largest group I've worked with in quite a long time.  GM was 150, but I didn't work directly with most of those people.

In any case, I'm learning a lot about my own style of project work...    I really like the process of speccing something out.  Taking something enormous and breaking it down to its composite parts is something I'm good at and enjoy.  And, as it turns out, I'm not bad with designing screenshots either!

More details and observations to come...

I'm working on a project that will enable internet users to explore, express, and aggregate their identity on the web, and have fun doing it.

On the other side of the world, people are working on a project to blow up people who are trying to blow them up, because of religious, cultural, and national identity.  It is not fun for anyone.   

I have a friend who is struggling right now with her identity in terms of how she relates to others.  Who does she want to be with?  Who can she be herself with?  You can't tell someone how to be themselves.  They need to figure it out on their own.  The only thing you can do is remind them that they shouldn't be anyone to anybody but who they want to be, and focus on people who accept them for who they are.  Oh, and then, don't forget to accept them for who they are.

At Union Square, they're trying to identify a candidate that will be a good fit for the team...  On one side they're trying to figure out what the profile of that person is, and on the other, there are some young people out there thinking about whether they would be a fit for that position. 

But really, what does it all matter, unless you have a Facebook account.  And, today, through the magic of being a faculty member, you can finally Facebook me!  Fordham doesn't have alumni e-mail addresses (why, I have no idea... its just a simple forwarding thing)... so getting an account has proven difficult.  However, now that I actually teach there, I legitimately got a profile.  What amazes me is that its really a lot like Friendster, but what keeps it strong and useful is the offline relevency.  When you can write what dorm and room you're in, you can know who's in your hallway before you even move in.  I don't think any social network will ever get more relevent than that, unless someone builds Apartmentster for NYC and people agree to list where they live.  I'm not sure I see that happening.