Koo’s Corner

One of our VC contacts at YBN Media popped into the new YBN media office today to see the new digs in San Francisco today. I had to work on a cool research project with him and have become friendly since and enjoy learning more about all the cool things happening in the world of VC’S.

I consider myself a viral youtube conisuer but was impressed when he showed me three great videos I have never seen before. Just goes to show you that VC’s really do have their eyes on everything on the web for some reason or the other….

First up Dirkalicous . I actually like the last 2 songs he does. This guy (Paul Brogan) is awesome. Get him on SNL or something.  Next Jaime Kennedy?

You can see more awesome videos like this here. Love this Iphone one.

Alright next up is more ridiculous Gen Y techie focused hilarity. These guys called Pantless Knights apparently make high quality viral videos and hope to work with companies who are cool enough to realize that viral videos are awesome. My VC bud actually lives with one of them which probably bodes well for hilarious weekend shaningans. Microsoft should give them a call after this god awful disaster. Below are a couple of samples. To be honest, these guys are fantastic. I would hire them to make any video I ever needed for anything.

The Intern Music Video

MAC  Vs PC…

Google vs Yahoo Rap War

These 2 teams of video rap makers should really battle. Seriously has new media ever been this darn awesome?

No doubt this year, social media will have a very relevant effect on the outcome of the election. (Most obvious comment ever made). However its becoming more clear just how large and diverse that impact is.

I am not just talking political blogs, and Obama or Mccain badges here or there. For instance, tailgaters are now even blogging about how to get politically active to fight against lame tailgating policies at games.

However here are two really hot videos in terms of influence and reach floating around.

First, we have a really comical video with pretty much everyone in Hollywood telling you to register to vote. Its kind of long, but its continuously funny enough to make you keep watching and hopefully gets some people to register and or vote. My favorites by far are Jonah Hill (please stop comparing me to him)  and surprisingly Sarah Silverman who I usually find hit or miss.

NOT WORK SAFE……Swearing and just pure hilarity at some points

How effective is this video? We’ll never really know, but the Google Maps link will help and the number of views on Youtube is approaching around 3 million and its only been up less then a week. Solid interest, but a bunch of Hollywood A lister’s playing Scrabble would probably get some traffic too.I liked the ending with Hoffman and the pretty women that I should bet setup with for a date. Hoffman, hook me up.

Next up the real star of the election, Saturday Night Live. Tina Fey’s ridiculously spot on repeat   performance of Sarah Palin is amazingly funny for anyone who enjoys politics. Biden gets a lit grief too, but as you can see its Palin mania that is pumping up SNL’s ratings.

4 years ago, something like this wouldn’t have made it onto blogs and such. It would be buried at NBC.com just like Lazy Sunday painfully was. But thanks to Hulu…you can rock out to it here on benkoo.com.

And while I have you, if you haven’t seen Lazy Sunday then why not cross that off the Bucket list too.

I saw or heard about a lot of interesting April Fools jokes. ESPN pulled a good once on its viewers with a fake breaking news story that Davidson was still in the NCAA tourney and that the last 20 seconds of the Elite 8 game would have to be replayed. Peter Fuitak at collegefootballnews.com had me slightly convinced that Hershel Walker was coming back to college football.

A pretty bold risque prank call was documented on a message board I frequent.

“dad, i just got a call from this girl named Stephanie that i met on spring break… we met at a bar, got drunk and did the spring break business… she called me yesterday stating she is pregnant but she does not know if its mine or not because she has a boyfriend back home”

However what really suprised me was the tech industry and in particular Silicon Valley’s participation in the April Fool’s festivities.

Below are some highlights.

- Google led the way with a couple interesting pranks, the most ridiculous below.

Funny but its better if you know someone dumb enough to believe it

Google followed this shaninigan with a fake micro site claiming Gmail users could now back date emails.

-Google owned Youtube continued the Internet phenomena that is Rick Rolling. Rick Rolling has two different forms. 1) When a publication or website puts up a link promising something interesting but rather redirecting you to the video below. 2) Blasting the song “Never Let You Down” to protest formal gatherings (Scientology meetups have been rick rolled several times.

All the links on Youtube’s homepage today directed them to the video below, with many other sites joining in on the fun. In fact the music video below has now tallied 8 million views/ Rick Rolls with duplicate videos talling multi millions of views.

- Technology publication ZD Net ran a fictitious story that ICANN was going to shutdown the internet for an hour for research purposes.

- San Francisco based Wikipedia made fictitious entries for their “On This Day” and “Today’s Featured Article section”

- InfoWorld published a pair of great fake stories. 1) Google buys facebook 2) Yahoo and Microsoft agree to merge. Both articles laid on the sarcasm pretty thick.

You probably have never heard of the web video rising star “I am f_ucking Ben Affleck” and are probably unfamiliar with the works of Jonathon Coulton.

However via the power of new media outlets such as youtube, instant messenger, blogs, and message boards (and of course procrastination) both are poised to infiltrate the American sub culture that is internet phenomena.

Let’s start with the Ben Affleck video.

What it is: Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel has had a running gag in which he apologizes to Matt Damon for bumping off the show due to time constraints. Its a gag as Damon is not even scheduled to appear. Kimmel’s girlfriend, Sarah Silverman, made a comedic music video poking fun of her husband entitled “I’m F_cking Matt Damon”. Below is Kimmel’s response on his talk show.

Disclaimer: No swearing, lots of bleeps, hilarious

Why it will be a internet phenomena : Its been one day since that aired (Feb 24th). Its already been seen 75,000 times on Youtube. If the video is not taken down its on pace to be seen by millions of Americans by April.

It has star power with Kimmel, Silverman, Damon, Brad Pitt, Lance Bass, Cameron Diaz, Robin Williams, and countless others in it. Its risque, hilarious, catchy, and most especially something that is compelling enough to be circulated to the masses of procastinating Gen X and Gen Y ers.

Original Matt Damon video

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.481280&w=425&h=350&fv=] from www.break.com posted with vodpod

Moving on to Jonathon Coulton

What it is: Actually it’s who is he? Coulton is a retired software programmer who quit in hopes of pursuing a music career. If you click on this link a yahoo video (advertisement will play first) will give you all the details if you are really curious. He runs all of this through his website jonothancoulton.com where he has cultivated of large community of listeners via free downloads, podcasts, blogs, and of course videos.

Coulton’s music is somewhat tailored to developers and IT professionals but seems to have crossed over and attracted a broader audience. While he still is mainly unknown his cult like fan base is attracting a lot of attention.

Below is a video made by a fan of Coulton. It has been viewed over 2 million times.

Why it will be a internet phenomena : 2 reasons

1) Coulton and his fans are web savvy and proficient in the proliferation of content via the web.

2) I believe his music will resonate with a larger audience besides developers. His music is a satirical commentary on society and seems on par with what many 20-35 year olds would rant about.

I will be sad, very sad if this ever gets taken off off you tube… Genius. I usually chuckle at funny things, but this made my eyes water.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=vYu68SHWh64]

The last several years, headlines were made as big time networks, shows, professional sporting leagues, and movie studious fought to keep their content off of youtube and away from the masses. Viacom sued, NBC aggressively fought to keep the SNL sketch and internet phenomenons “Dick in A Box” and”Lazy Sunday” , and studious cried foul when trailers pre maturely circulated on the massively popular video depository.

While its a shame this content is not available on demand via youtube, its 100% understandable that these companies wanted to protect their business interests by choosing how, when, and where people view their programming. Studious pay and receive large sums of money to air never seen before trailers before a big time movie, professional leagues want you to watch highlights on their web properties, and television networks need you to tune in or visit their website to capture ad revenue to help pay for production costs.

But today I was absolutely baffled at how many of my “Commercial of the Week” blogs no longer had valid youtube urls to show the actual commercial (Sharp, EA, and others removed). I can only assume that in the majority of these scenarios, the ad agency or advertiser requested to take off the commercial from youtube. But why?

Advertisers throw billions of dollars annually to spread their company or products gospel to the masses. With so many people avoiding advertisements via tivo and shifting away from print media to online, you would think advertisers would embrace the idea of allowing curious potential consumers to view advertisements online.

Some do, as companies will upload their commercials onto the site themselves or just turn a blind eye to the repurposing of their content. In fact Youtube has embraced working with companies to display their content allowing them the opportunity to build a customized channel which users can subscribe to and find videos faster. (CBS channel screenshot below)

These companies understand that any ad impression is a good one regardless of the fact that youtube’s platform allows for negative comments and attacking response videos. While some fear that allowing an open forum for thousands to criticize your commercials warrants restricting ads from youtube, advertisers should take note at just how many consumers are surfing Youtube in search of funny or interesting commercials. Below is a recap of the top 3 commercials of the week on Benkoo.com based on their listed web traffic. Keep in mind this does not include replicas of the same ad on youtube but just the exact video found on my site.

3- Ipod Nano - 435,000

2- Peyton Manning Pep Talk 625,000 views

1- Toyota Tacoma 2.175 million views