Tag Archives: Chicago

Nope! It’s Chuck Testa.

Posted on by Andrew Rushmore

Soon, if you haven’t already, you’ll be watching a video shot for Chuck Testa out in California.

As I’m writing this, I have had to opportunity to watch his video spread from a tiny comment on www.reddit.com to a full out internet meme.

(A meme (play /?mi?m/[1]) is “an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. Pronounced like “cream” it was coined by Professor Dawkins)

Here’s the video:

Hilarious yes?

What makes this video great, is that Chuck Testa pops out and says “Nope! It’s Chuck Testa”. But if Chuck had said “nope” to the video producers creative ideas, he would have seen far less exposure for his content.

Published August 14th, the video saw minor success. Chuck was probably happy enough with the video too! But wait. Check out the insights below. Once there internet “found out” about the commercial, his views skyrocketed.

Not every viral video will work. In fact. Most don’t. Our city saw great success thanks to Rob Bliss and his team producing a Lib-Dub video for the classic song  American Pie. Rob and his team poured their time into that video – and views kept climbing. Grand Rapids got another 15 minutes of fame (more like, 4MM+ views of fame!).

So why did Chuck Testa’s video hit off with the internet? Simple. They didn’t try too hard, but they experimented with a creative solution that ended up becoming a booming success.

He’s actually hosting a contest right now on his website for the best “NOPE!” photoshop. (http://www.ojaitaxidermy.com – if you want to enter.)

Here are my key takeaways from the Chuck Testa ‘experience’ (and he still makes me laugh outloud, FYI.):

  • First and foremost: don’t be afraid to be creative.
  • Pushing the boundaries doesn’t have to be “offensive” – you can push boundaries and still be noticed.
  • If the internet “finds out” about something you’ve done and it goes viral – let it. Heck, join it!
  • Don’t. Be afraid. Let your brand explore a creative message that wouldn’t normally “fit”.

If you find any good Chuck Testa stories, share it with us on our Facebook or Twitter!

www.facebook.com/weareagentx

www.twitter.com/weareagentx

Addendum: I should add that the video was shot by professionals for “Commercial Kings“. Just note that while shot by professionals, the beauty of the video is how long it took to be “discovered” by the internet. Very impressive viral piece.

Sweet WOM, Chicago…

Posted on by admin

It’s that time of year again, the birds and bees are out and about making whoopie, and in the bustling metropolis of Chicago the Word of Mouth Marketing Association is preparing to welcome all (including a few of us from SGC) attending the 2010 School of WOM at Swissôtel Chicago, May 24-26.

The reason I say all this is to shamelessly promote the event and to encourage anyone in the industry that hasn’t signed up to attend to do so if you can. We’ve been involved with WOMMA for almost a year now, and the School of WOM is a “shouldn’t be missed” event, if you’re at all into WOM marketing. In addition to presentations by some of the leading voices from some of the world’s biggest brands on their approach to WOM, there will be a number of great discussions around creating sustainable word of mouth campaigns, how to measure the effectiveness of your efforts and more – much more than this simple post can hope to contain.

So, to all you WOMites out there, get registered, jump on your plane, train or automobile and make your way to Chicago. The weather is nice this time of year, the food is great and I’m sure we’re all going to walk away in an enlightened state of mind.

David