Please take a look, and let me know if you have any questions:

http://www.nma.co.uk/resources/viral-brand-chart

We were assigned by the lovely people at New Media Age to help them report on the brand-funded virals that are taking the net by storm. The chart is updated weekly and features exclusively on the NMA site. It is also the first of its kind to report on UK specific trends, not that we’re ones to brag!

Our chart acknowledges important viral indicators on top of basic views. This includes activity in social areas like Facebook and Twitter to help understand the extent of a campaign’s effect on web communities. We aim to maintain this as a cutting edge indicator of what is trending online, as well as a useful tool for those interested in social media.

To accompany the branded chart and to make best use of the reporting system, we have also launched a weekly chart for user-generated content, to help understand current trends and favourites across the wider internet. If you’re a fan of acronymys and abbreviations, this could be classed as VAN’s chart on NMA to report on UK UCG on the interweb, OMG! See this here:

http://www.nma.co.uk/resources/viral-ugc-chart

Let us know if you would like any more info. Everyone else, please enjoy responsibly!

The proposition of the Viral Ad Network is a pretty simple one. We get your viral content, make it compatible with our network, then target it to the most relevant viewers in our audience for their enjoyment and consumption. We then pay our publishers for each time an engagement is made by a user on their site.

Below is a little tale of a campaign we worked on with our friends Cosmic Station & Associates to help launch the video assets that accompanied a wider PR campaign for the launch of the LG Crystal Mobile last year.

The presentation exemplifies how VAN works to launch, execute and report on your campaign and the type of results that can be achieved from a potent mix of good content and effective distribution.

Take a look, add a flake and pass around to your pals who have ace content. We’ll help give it an audience:

What will you have on yours? I’m thinking maple syrup and icing sugar, followed by good old sugar and lemon.

This video is a classic, and definitely the most entertaining way I have ever consumed a recipe…

Click here to view the embedded video.

We held a 3 second graduation ceremony for Ally, which gave me just about enough time to take this snap on my phone:

Alistair Stuart BA PMEM, well done!

Predictably, the entire city has been halted to a bit of a standstill and the majority haven’t been able to get into the office today. Nonetheless, the internet has carried on regardless, and with the power of broadband, us at VAN have been able to power on as if nothing has happened. This does mean that you won’t be able to get in touch with us via telephone, but we are on email and ready to help as usual.

Here’s pictorial proof of me working and carrying on inspite of the white chaos that is unfolding around me:

In other snowy, Team Rubber (our parent company) related news, some of our tougher colleagues made it into the office today and managed to squeeze in the time to build a ‘Snowzilla’ in the nearby park. Check out the video that was made:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Think of us as the ice cream producers, going out in our VAN: we take the viral content (say a video for your latest campaign/product, a bit like this), sort out the tracking for it, then we send it along to the vendors (i.e. the publishers affiliated with our Viral Ad Network). Once it’s up on their sites, they bring in revenue from the people who engage with it.

A bit more about social media, explained in plain English (read: ice cream) terms:

Click here to view the embedded video.

NB. The VAN logo and branding was lovingly designed by Gavin Strange aka. Jamfactory – what a clever old stick!

We realised that this was never announced as loudly as it should have been. Hopefully this should clarify things in enough detail and act as a reference point for you guys until it’s articulated better on the main site:

Geo-targeting allows us to continue to pay you for every view that comes to your site and clicks on our viral content. For example, if somebody from an Italian IP address visits your page, your Fun Unit will automatically display the most relevant content that we are serving for Italian users.

Many advertisers only want to pay for viewers from specific countries. By showing different ads to different users, we are able show each user the ads that will pay you the most. If we have nothing targeted at that specific country, we will show the next highest ad that is available world-wide. This ensures that you receive a payment for every click delivered through your Fun Unit, that the amount you get paid is optimised, and that your inventory isn’t going to waste.

Ker-ching!

Our main targets, based on advertiser trends from the last few months, are the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain. This is where we are highly likely to be serving ads at any time, so publishers with significant traffic in any of these territories will currently benefit the most from hosting a Fun Unit. But rest assured, we’re constantly looking to expand these territories and provide those of you with valuable traffic elsewhere with a unit of your own soon!

We will also continue to offer managed placements as they come in for a set time periods and targets – and for a specified price for each territory. The same principles as above will apply, but the content isn’t syndicated and rotated.

Alternatively, if you have an Ad Unit on your site, we often specifically target certain campaigns directly into units. These placements will only be shown to users when our system feels that your site will earn more by showing this site-targetted ad than by showing one that is showing across the rest of the network.

We hope this is clear. Email us at publishers@viraladnetwork.net if you need any more specific details. Also, feel free to post any feedback to us that you may have, we always want to know what we can do better, and look into giving you the things that are going to make your life easier.

Cheers,

The Viral Ad Network team.

We have some great campaigns in the pipeline, coming up before Christmas, so keep an eye out for us offering placements. There will be some funny/unuasual/ridiculous/entertaining content being pumped into the internet stratosphere by the Viral Ad Network and our wonderful publishers in the next few weeks. Exciting stuff!

We also have some other equally exciting developments and additions to the sophistication of our ad serving. This is in Beta stage, and some of you may be running paid tests for us at the moment!

Have great weekends, and don’t forget, your numbers are visible in your dashboard!

Ian

80% of (presumably traditional) ad-agency executives and media buyers were accustomed with viral video, with some 72% say that advertisers were interested in utilising viral video in their marketing strategy. These figures correlate with 70% of said agencies and media buyers planning to increase their viral video marketing budget.

The report also states that agencies are turning to viral video due to its inherent value compared with traditional media and its cost effectiveness in the face of an “economic downturn”.

While this undoubtedly being promising news for companies like Rubber Republic, the report also gives feedback on agency and media buyer qualms with viral marketing, and their suggestions for improvement in this area. Responding to the concerns and expectations of our clients will be key in maintaining these positive steps in the future.

I would like to see a study like this also take into account industry attitudes towards viral game content. It is surprising that – despite some of the great virals of the last few years being in game format and the platform’s appeal and versatility – viral video still maintains a place as the ‘default viral’ form.

Nonetheless, this is a valued and insightful piece of research.

Read the study

Reference: Marketing Vox

Post originally written for the Rubber Republic Blog