Final Analysis

I personally tried to create additional interest from outside of Fields' target market (16-24 year olds). I emailed friends and family and I also posted a link to the video on the puppet designer's Facebook page (i.e. "Return of the Stupid Sock Creatures") to see if this would create more interest.

After one week my viral video has had over 660 viewings. On a personal level this is a very satisfying result as it is now the band's most viewed video (their previous most-watched video has had 600 viewings over a timespan of one year). Several hundred people have watched and listened to the video and this must have increased awareness of the band to some extent. However, on further analysis, my promotional item is probably not as successful as it could have been.

Thirteen people have shared the video link on the band's Facebook page. This will have helped increase the number of viewings, but thirteen shares is still a relatively small number compared to their Facebook fan base of 400. The band did ask for fans to share the link on their Facebook page but provided no further incentive to do so (e.g. win a t-shirt etc).

The  number of people who 'liked' their band page on Facebook has only gone up from 407 to 428. To maximise exposure on Facebook this is a critical measure and I think that this is disappointing. The band needs to really work hard at getting more people to like their Facebook page. They need to supply incentives that their fans would respond to (e.g. get a friend to sign up for the chance to win the puppet).

I think the band needs to encourage more interaction with their fans. The number of postings on their Facebook page is relatively low, and they probably need to tease their fans to create interest and create a sense of momentum (e.g. we have a fantastic new video about to be released, get your friends to like our page and when we hit 450 likes we will release it). I originally included opening and closing captions on the video to promote the band's Facebook page. The band asked me to remove them, I explained the reasons for including them but they still preferred them removed. I think that this was a mistake.

Finally they have chosen to remove the ability for viewers to comment on the YouTube "Troublemaker" video. I do not know why they chose to do this. Maybe they were afraid of negative comments. I think that this was a mistake as it prevents the sort of interaction which encourages a loyal following and relationship with their fans.

Overall I am very pleased with my publicity item. Although I seem to be critical of the band, it is only because I think they are personally unaware of how creating and running a successful marketing campaign is much more than just simply posting random items on Facebook. I would like to take this opportunity to wish the band every success for the future because they are a great bunch of guys, and have a distinctive and refreshing musical style.

The Video is Officially Released

Fields uploaded the video to their YouTube account last night at about 9pm. By 9am the following morning it had 200 viewings which is very encouraging. I will do a final analysis of the effectiveness of my promotional item in a couple of weeks time.

Released Video:

The final released video can be seen below:

 

Promotion for an Event Version:

The video below has a final caption promoting the live event at the Bodega venue in Nottingham where Fields were performing (please note that this video has been rendered at a low resolution for this blog):

Editing the Video and Getting Feedback

I edited the video on Thursday. I had all of the main shots that I needed but did not have as many cut-away shots as I would have liked. I therefore re-used some general footage of the classroom more than once which was not ideal. I used slow motion and speeding up effects as required to add comic effect and also to fit in with the pace of the sound track. I also used a camera shake video effect filter to dramatise the effect of turning the console volume to the maximum ('dangerous' level). I added credits at the end of the video to highlight the band's Facebook page address.

I uploaded the video to YouTube as an 'unlisted' video. This allowed the band to view it to see whether they liked it and wanted to use it. I also sent an email link to Will Jennison, our tutor, who took part in the video to ensure that he was happy appearing in the final version.

The initial feedback was very positive. The band loved the video and want to upload the video to their YouTube account. The band would prefer the video to have no closing credits as they will include them as part of the information posted with the video. I personally think that this is a mistake as I believe that the pay-off will be weakened if the video is embedded in a shared link. However I will leave the final choice to the band. The band have shown it to their friends and have got positive feedback. Over 60 viewings have occurred within 24 hours without any viral marketing.

The band intend to upload the video on Wednesday 6th March. I will then remove the existing version from my YouTube account. We will then initiate the viral campaign by linking to it from all of our Facebook accounts and encouraging other people to share the link. I will also be encouraging people to email each other to pass the YouTube video link to non-Facebook users.

Shooting the Video

The video was shot in the morning and afternoon during the two lessons I have on Wednesday. I showed my storyboard and explained the concept to Will Jennison, a tutor who was standing in for Chris Stanley in the morning lesson. He liked the concept and kindly agreed to take part in the video. I had rigged up a camera stand together with a microphone pole to hold the puppet to get all the puppet 'running' shots. The video was filmed out of sequence but this was possible due to having a prepared story board. I had also pre-prepared and printed a fake 'Band Recording' notice to pin on a door and some dummy volume labels to use to add humour to the recording console sequence. I also had some cotton thread with me to allow me to hang the puppet from an overhead projector and to animate the puppet where necessary. The video was successfully shot in one day.

My Publicity Item - Planning A Viral Video

I have decided to create a viral video. To be successful the video needs to be unusual and something that people will be be prepared to pass on to others via social networking sites such as Facebook. The video also needs to carry a payload which will actively promote the band (i.e. Fields in some concrete way).

I have chosen to create a humorous video of Field's "Trouble Maker" track. It will consist of following the adventures of an unusual looking puppet. This puppet will be a cheeky "trouble maker" who is late for lessons, wastes time in class watching Fields videos on Facebook, mucks about and gets expelled from the class. He finally manages to gate crash the bands recording session. This video will be a high risk strategy because if it is not perceived as being funny and interesting then it could have the opposite effect, that is, of making "Fields" seem 'lightweight' or silly.

I produced a storyboard shown below to enable me to be able to quickly film the whole video in one day at Confetti. The story board is pretty rough but it should be good enough to enable me to get all the shots that I want and will help prevent me overlooking some important shots.

The storyboard incorporates a scene where the puppet uses Facebook to watch the band's videos. I will ensure that the band's Facebook username is clearly shown. I will also include closing credits which will highlight the band's logo and will also include the band's Facebook address. The main objective of the video is to raise general awareness of the band, and more specifically, to get people to view and 'like' Field's Facebook page. If the video works as intended then it should ideally be used as the start of a marketing campaign to create further momentum to attract new fans and to keep existing fans interested in following the band.

I was happy with the above concept in theory but was a bit worried about whether it would work in practice, and more importantly, whether the band would like the end result and would want to show it. I planned to complete the filming of the video in one day at Confetti. I also intend to incorporate some pre-existing footage of the band that I filmed earlier when they were re-recording some of their older songs at Confetti.

Ideas for a Viral Marketing Stategy

I am thinking of producing a short video as the basis of a viral marketing stategy for fields.

Josh Bernoff in his Viral Marketing blog entry at http://forrester.typepad.com/groundswell/2008/12/viral-marketing.html states:

"When it comes to viral video, you need to make sure

1) you create something people will spread and
2) that the video carries a payload -- a message about your product.

Fail on point 1 and your video won't spread. Fail on point 2 and you'll be a hit -- but it won't help your [product]. It's a very difficult balance."

Viral marketing is therefore a difficult balancing act but if successful could provide alot of publicity at low cost.

The above research has focussed my mind on producing an unusual video which may go viral. It will be a high risk strategy though as it could easily fall flat.

Video Editing with Adobe Premier Elements

Today I experimented with video editing software. The software used was Adobe Premier Elements, Adobe's entry level video editing software. It was easy to use. I loaded some video footage of the "Fields" band practicing in Magnet studios. I experimented with different video filters to see what interesting effects could be added. The original footage is quite dark so I experimented with the brightness and contrast controls as well. The sound quality recorded by the camera's built-in microphone was quite poor due to the high sound levels. I have some better audio which was recorded using Cubase running on a laptop. The audeo was obtained directly from a stereo output feed from the live mixing desk. I intend to create a video of the live practice session using this better quality recorded sound, synchronised with the visuals from the video footage.