by Les Kollegian

For the past five years I have attended SXSW for an amazing week focused on a combination of film, music, and interactive media. One of my favorite theaters in Austin (and frankly anywhere in the country) is the Alamo Drafthouse. Why? Well… first of all, it’s a small and very quaint theatre. Secondly, they have great stadium style seating complete with bar counters and full restaurant style service during a film for both food and an amazing selection of craft beers. Finally, the theater wants to make the viewing experience for each customer pleasurable, and as such, they request that people not speak, text, tweet, or check email during a film. Usually, this is done by showing a funny short video prior to the main film and they make it quite clear that they will “throw you out” if you break the rules.

Anyway, my friend Nick sends me this YouTube video yesterday – one that ridiculous enough to be turned into a PSA that they now show PRIOR to enjoying a movie. What is it? Well…a woman who was thrown out of the theater left a “complaint” voicemail to share her protest after being booted. I have to say… I am beyond impressed with the brilliance of this video and the forethought that went into saving this voicemail to create not only a PSA, but a video that launched and went viral on YouTube. The short ended up being a huge press generator for the theater so touche to them. By the way, when I say “viral“, let me give you an idea of what I mean. Yesterday (6/6/11) when I viewed the video, it had just over 434,000 views. I got busy and wasn’t able to blog about it until now (6/7/11) and during this 24 hour period, the video now has over 953,000 views. That’s over 500,000 views in a very short amount of time. HUGE!

Anyway, I am going to contribute to the viral exposure by showing you the video below. It’s DEFINITELY worth watching so please enjoy. As well, please don’t text while viewing this video…I don’t want to have shut down your computer. Reminder… you will need sound to truly enjoy this and it IS uncensored, so turn down your speakers in the office.

by Jonathan Marshall

In addition to last week’s discovery of Handerpants, and in the spirit of reiterating just how effective viral marketing truly is, today’s post is an online video for Samsung from digital marketing company The Viral Factory. Although I found the video on Creativity Online, it has just over 10,000 views on Youtube. And while the video responses are mixed between lovers, haters and morons who get stuck debating whether or not the video is real (common guys- it’s an ad, of course it’s not real)- it gets people talking regardless. That, like I said last week, is the point of Viral marketing, creating a buzz in today’s user-generated content environment.

In the video, Samsung claims to have set up 32 hidden cameras all over London’s Piccadilly Circus to capture a live stunt. After the stage is set, a UFO flies over the heavily-visited London sector, pauses, and two elephants bungee jump out of the bottom of the ship. After dangling for about a second or so, the elephants get pulled back in the UFO, and it darts out of the picture. After the witnesses rushed to capture the ridiculous spectacle on their phones, only one person is able to show off a photo she snapped with her lightning-fast Samsung Jet. And that’s it.

So how well does that work? What do people think about fake stunts staged to look like real ones? Powerade has a great viral video of Lebron James draining 90ft. jump shots from the opposite-end of the basketball court. Although the flight of the ball, timing and actual jump shot of Lebron all look realistic, anyone who has ever played basketball before understands that it takes way more effort to pull off a stunt like that- even for King James. Whether or not Lebron can make those shots is not the point of the ad, Powerade just wants to point out the ridiculous skills and further hype the bball-phenom dubbed “The Chosen One.” That being said it, like many other Nike, Gatorade and sports virals, has well over 1,000,000 views on Youtube. Most would say that is effective, but what do you say?