Tag Archives: meme

Nov 02 2015
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Digital Strategy, Insight, Planning

Recipe for An Internet Hit: Cross-Section of Highbrow Concept and Lowbrow Vulgarity

Beautiful landscapes combined with pair of men´s balls. That is the latest phenomenon among guys. Being a huge fan of infantile humor myself, I am naturally delighted by this art.

nutscapes

There is nothing surprising with this phenomenon. We know that males are naturally leaning towards below the belt every time there is an opportunity. Generally the best coping mechanism in this world is to try to take the piss out of everything. At the same time it is weirdly empowering and disgusting. Like all the great memes, the “nutscaping” is inclusive and the creator has been helpful enough to give tutorial how to create your own “Nutscape” on his website.

HOW TO NUTSCAPE:

  1. Find yourself somewhere awesome.
  2. Turn your back to the awesome scene.
  3. Drop your pants.
  4. Bend over and shoot Nutscape back through your legs.

Other helpful hints include adjusting width of stance to accommodate hanging state (either high or low) of nuts. When you are nutscaping at height, use free hand the anchor and remember to “mind the tip” (so that it does not turn to dickscape).

Obsev.com turned Nutscapes into motivational posters

Obsev.com turned Nutscapes into motivational posters

The cross-section of inspiring and repulsive is something that catches like wildfire in the Internet. Instagram has already suspended Nutscapes, because essentially they are hypocritical and lack any sense of humor. What could be a new energy boost for photography is now crippled by censorship.

“I believe Nutscapes has great artistic depth because it touches upon both a low-brow vulgarity and a high-brow concept. Simply, testes are f*cking funny. Always have been; always will be. They add humor to a subject matter, landscape photography, that is typically a little dry.”

– Clancy Philbrick (Creator of Nutscapes)

This highlights the dilemma brands have when they want to go viral. Extremes are interesting, but only handful of brands can truly take it to the max (and even should try to it). Quite often sharable content lacks any deeper meaning, purpose and any substance whatsoever. It is just fun because people can sense that there a no hidden agenda. Great brands are all about agenda, not even hidden one. Agenda is seldom something you want to share unless it is your agenda.

What makes a good meme does not make a good brand.

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Aug 24 2015
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Marketing Strategy, Strategy

Why People Root For Deez Nuts?

 racepolldeeznuts

How far are you willing to take this practical joke?
As far as America wants to take it.
– Deez Nuts in Rolling Stone interview

If you ever doubt the power of Internet, just check the rise of Deez Nuts. This “presidential candidate” is currently the highest-polling independent since Ross Perot. What could be a viral campaign for Straight Outta Compton (Deez Nuts is originally a song from Dr. Dre´s The Chronic) was just a funny idea from an 15-year old teenager. He realized that anyone can file to run for president with Federal Elections Commission and you don´t even have to use your real name or address.

deeznutsfecfiling

The hype has just begun. Warren G (the originator of Deez Nuts) has volunteered to become vice president for Deez Nuts. The search interest for Nuts has surpassed Hillary Clinton and is almost as high as Donald Trump.

searchtrendsdeeznuts

Why Deez Nuts has become such a phenomenon?

  1. It is funny. It is hard to think about more serious decision than selecting your new president. That does not mean that people would not want take the piss out of it.
  2. People adapt to everything. Donald Trump´s candidacy shocked people at first, but now it is already old news. You need constantly some new stimulus or otherwise you get totally numb to the whole election (and we have not even entered the primary phase). There is so long time till the actual election that people will get bored to pretty much everything: eventually even to Deez Nutz.
  3. Shareability. People share things that instantly make them laugh. If newscaster pronouncing “Deez Nuts” does not make you laugh a little bit, you must be too cynical for your own good. The name and the backstory is a perfect example of digital age and what makes people tick in 2015.

It remains to be seen how long Deez Nuts will remain hot topic in US election. For non-voting fans of practical humor hopefully quite long.

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Aug 18 2015
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Advertising, Digital Strategy, Insight

Anatomy of An Insight: Straight Outta Somewhere

You are now about to witness the strength of street knowledge…

Biopic about NWA “Straight Outta Compton” has been a massive box office hit. That did not surprise me at all. Middle-aged dudes go watch it because of nostalgia and younger blokes still know Dr. Dre and Ice Cube. It´s a bit like gangsta rap Expendables. I would naturally go see the film straight away, but I doubt it will be probably banned in Singapore:

The online campaign (for movie & Beats headphones as well) has also been really successful for the film. Meme generator “Straight Outta Somewhere” has been visited already over 4 million times. In the site you can do your own “Straight Outta Compton” –meme:

straightouttahyvinkaa

Insight: No matter where you from, you want to rep your hood.

Many marketers are wary of user-generated content. It is hard to get people to take part in those campaigns. If they do take a part, the content is quite often shitty and x-rated.

That does not mean you should not do campaigns with “participation element”. The participation has to be as easy as possible. With “Straight Outta Somewhere” you just decide where you are from and upload the picture. Everyone who shares stuff in Internet knows the construct of a meme. It also helps to have some famous celebs to add fuel to the fire in their social media channels:

serenawilliamsstraightoutta jlostraightoutta

straightouttaakron

Majority of brands do not realize that when people are starting to make parodies, that is when your campaign starts to be popular. Beats has truly embraced (read: not deleted) the funny memes which naturally are shared more often than boring brand content.

straightoutta50cent

straightouttakobe
If you want people to take part with your campaign:

    1. Make it easy to participate
    2. Do not reinvent the wheel: use formats that people know
    3. Kickstart with influencers
    4. Embrace (don´t censor) the parodies
    5. Partner up (the lines are blurred, is the website advertising the movie or headphones? No matter, it is a hit)

…Word to the mother*cker
Straight outta Compton

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Feb 14 2013
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Advertising, Digital Strategy, Insight, Marketing Strategy, Planning, Social Media

Advertising should be like Harlem Shake

The biggest meme of the year thus far has been the Harlem Shake. Originally Harlem Shake was a dance coined in Harlem in 1980´s. It was inspired by Ethiopian dance called Eskista.
Last summer EDM artist Baauer did his song by the same name. It was played in the clubs, but nothing major happened.
Then it was quite quiet until YouTube-user called Filthy Frank did his version:

This video inspired other one, which created the current form of the Harlem Shake video:

Currently there are over 4000 Harlem Shake videos uploaded daily to YouTube with over 40 million views. The mainstream media is also quick to catch to the new Internet craze:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Harlem Shake is great example of what kind of content spreads in YouTube.

What marketers can learn about Harlem Shake?

1. Make it short
Attention span for the content in the Internet is getting shorter and shorter.
Who has time for a three minute music video?
Or a 500-word blog post?
You have to be able to tell your message in 30 seconds or 140 characters. That is all the attention you will get.

2. Make it stupid
If you want to make viral hit, you have to hit the lowest common denominator. YouTube videos are majorly consumed in coffee breaks. People want then to escape their boring routines. They want entertainment, not education. Harlem Shake fulfills that need.
You can watch quite many Harlem Shake versions within your lunch break.

3. Make it easy to participate
The concept of Harlem Shake is simple.
First the video starts with one guy (usually masked) doing usually quite boring dance move. After the breakdown the scene turns to total mayhem with more people. And that is basically it.
No difficult choreographies or difficult lines you have to remember. Just gather as many people you want and go crazy. This makes it also ideal for offices and workplaces to participate. Easier than have the whole office running marathon. Engagement has to be made as easy as possible. Harlem Shake provides a blank creative canvas where people can create their own interpretation. If you want to make it big and difficult, you can do it. But also if you want to make it quick and dirty. Harlem Shake just provides you the form and leaves you with the actual creative execution.

The Harlem Shake is interesting phenomenon from music and marketing perspective. Baauer´s label Mad Decent has been quick to ride the bandwagon and compiles the new versions to their Tumblr-blog.

Is it new Gangnam style?

That remains to be seen, but traditional popular culture mechanics were turned upside down in this case. Harlem Shake will be hit because of the consumer-generated meme*. With Gangnam style the pattern followed more the traditional music video route (the dance was in music video).

*And if the meme is machinated by Mad Decent, it makes it even greater case example for marketers.

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