As I’m sure you’re all aware, the Super Bowl 2013 took place at the beginning of February and as usual, it attracted more than its fair share of creative, funny and downright crazy adverts from some of the world’s most well-known companies.

I watched most of these ads on YouTube (I’m not really into sport) and I have to say, they were so funny that I watched a handful of them over and over again.

So, I thought I’d take a moment to share some of my favourites with you; our loyal blog readers. Enjoy.

#1 –  Doritos – Goat 4 Sale

I wouldn’t like to imagine what Doritos’ executives thought when they were presented with this crazy ad concept as I’m pretty sure that it was far from what they were expecting to hear.

Nonetheless, I for one am thankful that the executives were somehow persuaded to go with it as for me, it goes down as one of the best Super Bowl ads of all time.

There’s no point me trying to explain what happens, just watch it and see. All I will say is that it contains a screaming goat, some Doritos and a bearded man; all the right ingredients for a successful ad then.

#2 – Volkswagen – Get In. Get Happy

Some people criticised this ad saying that it was racist; it was even debated about on ABC news (which truthfully, I think was all part of the plan) but personally, I think it’s one of the cleverest, funniest ads ever produced. Period.

Again, it’s not the easiest concept to explain but if you’re having a bad day, sit back, grab yourself a cup of “wicked coffee” and watch it now; it really will help you to “turn de frown de other way around”.

#3 – OREO – Whisper Fight

Oreo attracted a lot of attention during the Super Bowl but strangely, very little of it was because of their Whisper Fight ad (see here what it was for).

If you’ve ever argued about the best part of an Oreo with your friends (no, I haven’t either so don’t worry, you’re not alone) then you’ll be able to relate to this ad. Even if you haven’t though, it’s quite easily one of the best, and possibly also one of the quietest Super Bowl ads of 2013.

#4 – GoDaddy – Perfect Match

Despite getting more “dislikes” than “likes” on YouTube, this ad proved hugely effective as GoDaddy actually posted  their most successful sales day in history shortly after the initial airing of the ad.

Personally, I think the concept is genius but obviously, some people disagree. GoDaddy’s ads have been described as being like Marmite; you either love them or hate them. What’s your opinion?
Enjoy this post? Follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Google Plus to keep up-to-date.

To learn more about our video production services, take a look around our website or contact us directly.

The post 4 Of The Funniest Super Bowl Ads 2013 appeared first on .

We absolutely adore YouTube, so to show our love for the site this Valentine’s Day (coincidentally also the date it was founded), we’ve created a beautiful infographic documenting the journey of the site over the past eight years. Embed code at the bottom.

The post A Brief History Of YouTube [INFOGRAPHIC] appeared first on .

Most of these sites don’t have much of an audience (at least not compared with the bigger sites) and even if they do, they may speak and entirely different language meaning that they probably aren’t really your target audience.

Despite this, there are a few video sharing websites aside from YouTube that you should be uploading your web videos to in order to increase exposure and attract a larger audience.

#1 – Vimeo

Vimeo

With over 70 million unique visitors per month, you can’t afford to miss out on Vimeo’s huge audience. Vimeo has a loyal community of regular visitors and tends to be the website of choice for amateur/semi-professional videographers, regularly attracting high quality, ‘arty’ videos that if high enough quality, can be promoted to the Vimeo front page and attract an audience of thousands.

Vimeo is also a great video hosting platform and offers two premium account options for those who are serious about hosting their videos professionally (i.e. in full HD and without YouTube’s advertising/branding).

#2 – DailyMotion

DailyMotion

Currently attracting over 106 million unique visitors per month, DailyMotion is another hidden gem in a sea of video sharing sites. It might be French, but it attracts video views from all over the world (2 billion a month to be exact) and over the years, has firmly established itself in a number of different countries (including the UK and US).

With almost a third of the sites visitor base aged between 12 and 24, DailyMotion is a site that appeals primarily to the younger generation, making it great for marketing your business to new, youthful audiences.

#3 – Facebook

Facebook

Facebook attracts hundreds of millions of visitors per month and chances are that you probably use the site on a daily basis too. However, Facebook is never really viewed as a video sharing site; probably due to the fact that it’s primarily viewed as a social network but much like YouTube, Facebook allows video uploads and sharing.

Sure, you could just upload your videos to YouTube and share the link on Facebook (and as a matter of fact, that’s what most people do) but uploading to Facebook gives you the ability to share your videos with Facebook’s huge audience, without them even having to leave the site. Not to mention that videos can quickly go viral on Facebook (much like the recent BodyForm video).

#4 – Flickr

Flickr

Despite the fact that Flickr seem to keep this feature pretty well-hidden (for whatever reason), the site offers yet another way for you to share your videos online.

Flickr’s free account allows members to upload a maximum of two videos per month (so long as they’re no larger than 150mb and no longer than 90 seconds) but if you want to upload more, you can opt for a Flickr Pro account which offers unlimited video uploads.

To be honest though, the free account is good enough for most small businesses.

#5 – MetaCafe

MetaCafe

According to WikiPedia, MetaCafe attracts over 40 million unique visitors per month making it one of the largest video sharing sites out there.

MetaCafe did used to have a rewards program (until it was terminated back in 2009) that allowed it’s contributors to make money from their videos, much like YouTube.  Through the program, you could earn up to $5 per 1000 video views on MetaCafe, so it’s a real shame they got rid of it as it really was great for producers. Despite this, MetaCafe still offers a great way to increase the potential audience for your video and is always a worthwhile site in which to upload your videos.

Conclusion

Sure, there are plenty of other video sharing sites like YouTube (e.g. Veoh, Blip.tv, PhotoBucket etc) but as we mentioned at the beginning of the post, most of these simply don’t have enough visitors to make your upload worthwhile.

By focussing on just a few sites that are most likely to offer a return, you will be able to dedicate more time to promoting the videos on those sites and ensuring that the videos are optimised properly (i.e. tags, titles and descriptions).

In our opinion, it is much better to upload your video to just a few video sharing sites and do things properly than to bulk upload to hundreds of sites and simply ‘hope for the best’.

For more video production/marketing tips, follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Google Plus.

To learn more about our video production services, take a look around our website or contact us directly.

The post 5 Video Sharing Sites Like YouTube (that you should actually care about) appeared first on .

The problem is that there’s hundreds of video production companies to choose from (it’s a very competitive industry) and often, it’s hard to tell which is the best.

Obviously, we’re a video production company ourselves but we admit, we’re not always the right people for the job; which is why we’ve created our totally non-biased guide to choosing the right video production company. We hope it helps.

Step #1 – Deciding What You Want

Before you even start looking for a video production company, you need to know exactly what you want. Are you looking for a corporate, web or viral video? Perhaps you’re looking to get something produced for TV or specifically for internal use (such as a training video).

The better your understanding of exactly what you want, the easier your search is going to be. Obviously, you might wish to get some creative input from a production company (as this is usually a good idea anyway) but generally, you should have a good outline of the style you’re looking for prior to beginning your search.

If you haven’t done this yet, take a moment to think about exactly what it is that you want and what the aim of your video is going to be. Is it going to be used predominantly on the web? Or perhaps on TV? You don’t need to know every detail but you should at least know the basics as without this, you’re certainly not going to find the search process too easy.

Step #2 – Beginning Your Search

If you were just about to reach for the phonebook, don’t. This is no way to begin your search and to be brutally honest, neither are those generic business directories (Thomson Local, Yell.com etc) as they simply don’t offer much insight into the companies they’re listing.

The only way to start your search is using the internet, or more specifically, a search engine (such as Google, Bing etc). Being as you already know what style of video you’re looking for, you should know what to search for. If you’re looking to have a video produced for the web, try searching for something along the lines of “web video production company” or simply “web video production”. Similarly, if you’re looking for a corporate video, try searching for “corporate video production”. If you’re looking for a local company, just add your location to your search.

Once you’ve got your search results, you can start looking through the companies. Don’t just stick to the first result or even the first page of results, have a good sift through the first two or three pages and look through each company’s website.

Look through their portfolio and see if you like their work. If possible, try and decipher whether  they’re a trustworthy company or not by taking a look at their previous clients and viewing any available testimonials. If you find a company that could be a contender, make a note of them and move on to the next step.

Step #3 – Refining Your Search

Now you have a decent list of contenders, you need to separate the good companies from the not-so-good. The best way to do this is by looking at online reviews (on trustworthy websites).

A couple of the best places to look include Google Places and FreeIndex. Usually, any well-established business will have at least a few reviews on each of these websites and this will allow you to decipher the trustworthiness of each business.

If any of the companies on your list don’t have any reviews, don’t rule them out altogether as they may still be a great company. It’s the bad reviews that you’re looking for.

Step #4 – Getting A Quote

Hopefully, you’ll have a list of a few companies at this point but obviously, this eventually needs to be refined to just one company (i.e. the company you choose for the job). The best way to do this is by contacting each of the ones on your list with a brief of your project and ask them for a quote.

One thing to remember at this stage is that a video production company is going to find it very difficult to provide a detailed quote if you don’t give them enough details, so make sure you submit a decent brief to them.

Basically, a video production brief can include anything you want but as a bare minimum you should let them know what the video is for, where it will be showcased (online, internally for training purposes etc), how long you want it to be and where you’re based (as they’ll need to take into account travel costs). You can also include any other details you want such as examples of videos you’ve seen and liked, the deadline or even your desired budget. All of this will help a video production company create a bespoke quote for you.

Step #5 – Getting A Proposal

When you receive your quotes, you’ll probably notice that they vary quite significantly. At this point, you can ‘weed out’ any of the companies that you simply cannot afford so that you don’t waste any more of your time (or their time).

From the remaining companies, you should ask for a production proposal from each of them. This is simply a written document that will give a brief outline of your project including an initial production schedule, detailed cost breakdown, video concept overview and the value it will bring to your business.

Production proposals are usually no longer than a couple of pages and will allow you to see which video production company has the best understanding of your needs. Some video production companies may request a face-to-face meeting or phone conversion in order to better understand your needs and create an effective bespoke proposal (this is usually done by the best companies).

#6 – Commissioning Your Production

At this point, you should have found the perfect production company for your project so all that’s left now is to actually commission the production. Before you do, there are a few last questions you should make sure to ask.

Firstly, you should enquire about the cost; is the proposed cost a fixed cost or could it possibly escalate throughout the production process? You should also enquire about re-edits; is the company including re-edits in the proposed price or will any additional editing be charged at an hourly rate? Most video production companies will be happy to make any necessary changes until you are entirely happy with the video but at the same time, you need to be clear about whether or not this is the case beforehand.

You also need to set a guaranteed completion deadline for the video and ensure that you will have full Copyright ownership of the finished product too. All of this should be documented in the contract between you/your company and the video production company you are commissioning.

And That’s It… (phew!)

We know it seems like a bit of a lengthy process but when you’re spending thousands on a video, you need to know the company you hire is going to deliver. The good news is that once you’ve found a company that produces great work, you won’t have to go through this lengthy process again.

For more video production/marketing tips, follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Google Plus.

To learn more about our video production services, take a look around our website or contact us directly.

The post How To Hire A Video Production Company; A Non-Biased Guide appeared first on .

If you were holding out for an (even briefer) briefer history of time, I’m afraid it’s bad news and if I’m being brutally honest, I think it’s already pretty brief considering the complexity of the subject. However, if you’re secretly a physics geek currently paying over-the-odds for your car insurance (which you almost certainly are), it’s your lucky day.

Why? Because Stephen Hawking is the latest (somewhat unlikely) star to sell car insurance on behalf of UK based brand, GoCompare.com (you know…the one with the annoying opera singer?).

Not seen it? No worries, it’s here:

Personally, I think the video concept is pretty funny but the thing is, once you’ve seen it a couple of times and got over that, the question still remains; what exactly is the world’s most famous scientist doing selling car insurance?

I mean, someone as famous as Professor Hawking must be constantly inundated with offers to star in ads and clearly, he hasn’t previously chosen to star in any until now so what makes this one any different?

The answer it seems is simple; he was just a fan of the adverts (as well as opera). Here’s what Hawking himself told the Daily Mail:

“I confess I am a fan of the Gocompare.com adverts, but I am also an opera fan, so I was delighted to be given the opportunity to help save the nation and silence Gio. I hope the public find it as funny as I did.”

So there you go; he hasn’t ‘sold out’ as many people are claiming, he did it for fun. Still, I’m sure the money was a nice bonus; although I did hear that they only paid him a tenor…

The post Stephen Hawking Kills Opera Singer With Black Hole (in a TV ad) appeared first on .

#1 – Eton Style

If you thought sending your kids to private school might be a good way of spending your hard earned cash, let this video reassure that it really isn’t.

Tweet

#2 – London Style

Featuring Big Ben, The London Eye, Black Cabs, The London Underground and just about everything else you’d expect from the British parody, London Style has racked up nearly 4 million views on YouTube in just 2 months.

Tweet

#3 – Mitt Romney Style

He might have lost the recent U.S. Election but Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has found fame in the most unlikely place; a Gangnam Style parody video. Ok, so it’s not actually him but with over 25 million views, who cares!?

Tweet

#4 – Annoying Orange Style

Everyone loves the Annoying Orange…or do they? Either way, here’s the official Gangnam Style parody from the Annoying Orange. With 12 million views on YouTube, someone must like it.

Tweet

#5 – Minecraft Style

Minecraft….you know, that game where you build stuff out of pixelated blocks for some reason? This must have took some serious time to make but with almost 30 million views, we’d imagine it was worth it.

Tweet

#6 – Gunman Style

Have you been looking for an Asian Western parody of Gangnam Style? No, neither have we, but we still found one and loved it and it seems that with over 23 million views, so did a lot of other people.

Tweet

#7 – Eastern Europe Style

We know what you’re thinking and yes, it is all a bit weird but that doesn’t stop us loving it, along with a couple million other people.

Tweet

#8 – Hans Solo Style

Perhaps the shortest Gangnam Style parody out there, Hans Solo Style is 11 seconds of pure brilliance, or as one YouTube commenter put it, “Best 11 Seconds Of Your Life”.

Tweet

#9 – Gangnam Style on Coke

Do you like Coke? Yes. Do you like Gangnam Style? Yes. Ok, watch this then…

Tweet

#10 – Inmate Style

If you were ever worried that some prisoners weren’t getting the punishment they deserve these days, let this video put your mind at rest.

Tweet

#11 – Lifeguard Style

It’s some lifeguards…ok?

Tweet

#12 – GangMom Style

Oh look, it’s some guy and his Mom dancing to Gangnam Style! You can thank us later for this gem of a video, along with 7 million other people.

Tweet

Share the love!

The post 12 Of The Most Awesome Gangnam Style Parody Videos appeared first on .

Unless you live in a cave cut off from all civilisation (which we admit, would certainly be nice sometimes), we imagine you’re aware of the recent presidential election. As usual, it was all over the TV, radio and perhaps even more-so, the internet.

A lot of this media is pretty bog-standard and quite frankly boring, but there’s one video that stood out amongst the crowd. If you haven’t guessed already, we’re talking about the one with Will Ferrell.

Not got a clue what we’re talking about? Take a look below.

Funny? We thought so too and apparently, so did millions of people around the world as the video racked up over 3.5 million views in less than 4 days. Strangely, the video was actually uploaded by the official Barack Obama YouTube account and it was also featured on Obama’s official website.

What does this mean? It means that it was an official production commissioned by Barack Obama during his presidential campaign. Why? Well, each and every election there are millions of American’s that don’t cast their vote at all. The video was created to try and persuade these people to cast their vote and to ensure that they ‘have a say’ in the future of their country.

You’ll notice that the video doesn’t mention anything about who they should be voting for until the end of the video where Will says “Vote Obama! It’s a slam dunk!”. This keeps the viewer watching right until the end where they’re informed that the funny video they just watched (probably the one their mate sneakily sent them on Facebook while they were bored at work) was brought to them by Barack Obama himself.

So why Will Ferrell? What does he have to do with American politics? Well, the main reason is that he recently starred alongside Zach Galifianakis in the 2012 comedy; The Campaign but that aside, who doesn’t like Will Ferrell really!?

Barack is well known for his sense of humour and judging by comments like “Was gonna vote for Romney, but this ad changed my mind! GO OBAMA!” on YouTube, the video was pretty successful.

For us, it’s yet another example of how powerful online video can be when it’s done properly.

Here’s to President Obama!

The post Barack Obama Wins Presidential Election…Thanks To Will Ferrell? appeared first on .

Richard’s Facebook rant drew attention to the way the brands TV ad’s marketed their sanitary towel products in such a visually misleading way, regularly using imagery such as “bike riding, rollercoaster’s, dancing, parachuting, ‘blue water’ and wings”. Basically, he was saying “why do you make the ‘time of the month’ appear to be so much fun when it isn’t?”.

Needless to say, Richard’s comment went viral and within just a few hours, his comment had racked up thousands of views and at the time of writing this post (approximately one week after it was originally posted), it had attracted over ninety-thousand “Like’s” and nearly four-thousand comments.

Not wanting to miss a potentially huge advertising opportunity, one of BodyForm’s marketing guru’s had the bright idea to post a video response to Richard’s comment, which has now also gone viral, attracting over 170,000 views on YouTube in just one day.

The video (embedded above) features fictional CEO Caroline Williams explaining to Richard how he was right and how the company had indeed purposefully misinformed him in order to protect him from the reality surrounding a woman’s ‘time of the month’.

As with all successful viral videos, the idea is not only funny but also extremely simple and although it might not the most daring video concept ever, it is certainly a far cry from the bog-standard, safe marketing that brands like BodyForm usually adhere to.

At the very least, the video has done two things from a marketing point of view; it has significantly raised BodyForm’s brand awareness around the world and also increased their social media following, allowing the brand to connect with more potential customers than before, especially on Facebook.

When you look deeper into the effects of the video however, you realise it has done far more than this. BodyForm has always been a straight-laced brand and as previously mentioned, they have never really offered anything ‘out of the ordinary’ when it comes to their marketing campaigns. With just one video, the company has been presented in a completely new light and has shown that despite its rather boring product, it still has a sense of humour and is not only in touch with the public, but also cares what they have to say (apparently enough to post a video response to a Facebook comment).

It was certainly a genius idea on behalf of BodyForm to post the video response and if there was ever any doubt as to just how powerful online video marketing can be, it seems the ‘proof is in the pudding’.

Although great video marketing, for us personally, we doubt anything will ever be as brilliant as the DollarShaveClub.com ad (AKA. marketing perfection!).

The post BodyForm’s Spoof YouTube Video Goes Viral appeared first on .

We’ve been working on the site a while, so it’s good to finally have something to show for all our efforts and hopefully, you can now look at all the fantastic work we’ve been doing over the past few months. As far as companies go, we are still in our infancy but are our work is not. We’ve got years of experience in the video industry including wedding videography and music video production. We’re now turning our attention to web and corporate videos under the ShortyMedia brand.

We’ve already had the opportunity to work with some pretty great clients, and over the months, we expect you work with many more (you might even be one of them!).

We’ll also be posting regular, informative blog posts on our site as we known online video marketing can be a confusing subject, so we’ll do our best to offer our expert advice.

That’s everything for now. We hope you enjoy our work.

Martin & Josh @ ShortyMedia

The post Welcome… appeared first on .