Futurestates: The Plastic Bag

How do you know what food is?

Great viral video examples

the perfect 'viral video' example I can think of. Free advertising for Nike. Kobe does something crazy and the whole internet tunes in, little do they realize, he is just advertising for his shoes.

Heres another great example. Purposely made viral. The Band OK GO likes to make amazing music videos that go viral. They embed them all over the place and get the internet buzzing about them.

another excellent example.. A teaser trailer for a movie called cloverfield. This was one of the best viral marketing campaigns I have seen. They release a trailer for a movie, trailer ends with a huge explosion and the statue of liberty head flying through the air and landing on the ground before the camera cuts..needless to say, but this had the internet buzzing for a couple months about what it could possibly be about.

What makes a great viral video

SXSW: How To Create A Viral Video

Posted in Film, Social Media, SXSW by Sloane on March 13th, 2010

If there were one message from today’s SXSW panel How To Create A Viral Video, it would be that it’s all about the content.

Jonathan Wells from Flux moderated the discussion and was joined by Margaret Gould Stewart of YouTube, Jason Wishnow of Ted, and Damian Kulash of the band OK Go.

The panel began by breaking down viral video into two groups. One is where the video is viral by accident. The creator was in the right place at the right time and caught something extraordinary. These folks aren’t likely to go “viral” again. The second category is much broader and the creators are people who made the viral video on purpose and will make more.

The question is what can you do to make sure your content is seen by lots of people over and over. The answer is it’s all about the content. It’s also about creating content for your audience and making sure the production value is where it needs to be. For Wishnow’s Ted audience, it’s important for the videos to look amazing, which explains their multiple camera angles, hi-def shooting and tight camera angles. For Kulash and OK Go, the production quality should be on the lower end. “If my videos looked good, people wouldn’t watch them,” Kulash said.

Kulash of course can prove that this type of content and production is effective. The first video OK Go posted was their Backyard Dance Video, which obtained more than 300,000 views in its first month–more records than the band had sold at the time. Fast forward from that first video to their many others, including the well known Treadmill Dancing videoand their most recent, which was sponsored by State Farm.

The State Farm sponsorship of the video is an interesting story from the band as well. Kulash explained that State Farm initially wanted to run the video exclusively on their website, something the band didn’t agree to. “Exclusivity online just doesn’t work,” Kulash said. That can work in the real world but online, “the point of something spreading is that it’s supposed to spread. You can’t just drive traffic to one place. Only our diehard fans would have gone to State Farm’s site.”

The band did agree to put State Farm in the video but made sure the brand was part of the story. A State Farm branded truck gets the action started in the video, which works since State Farm’s dollars made the video happen. The band also gives them a thanks at the very end of the video. Was it worth it for State Farm? I’d imagine so. Kulash said people tend to watch the video four to five times as opposed to just once.

So then, what about video content for non-music videos? Positive content works well. Negative or depressing content doesn’t get spread, according to Gould Stewart. Content that has an element of surprise also tends to be successful, like this Rammstein vs. Cookie Monster video:

Other tactics include focusing on your audience and interacting with them, allowing your videos to be embedded, distributing them on multiple platforms and tweaking your metadata. “It’s so frustrating when you see great content with crappy metadata,” Gould Stewart said.

If all else fails, include kittens in your video to make it go viral.

vide-o-so-cool

Check out these stop motion animations that use simple materials to tell a story.

Hunter Gatherer is a badass, New York based production studio that is known for their stop motion productions using wood crafted props. This particular video, "Circle Squared"
won a Webby and was nominated for a 2007 Emmy, and is one of my personal favorites.

Also check this out: Cooking With Photoshop

After posting these I just noticed that these both involved eating, this was not my intent with posting these, but funny how that turned out. Enjoy!

Commercial Inspiration

Check out these Fruits of the Loom commercials from a few years ago. Kathleen mentioned these as possible opportunities to mash-up and make our own. Nothing beets grown men dolled up in gigantic fruit costumes! haha.

Brainstorm

In terms of food access, Rahul and I seek to encourage the younger generation to be on the up and up with the Syracuse Regional Farmers Market. Although the market is a huge success in terms of drawing numbers, it lacks the college community. Perhaps it's because the word just hasn't spread to this circle. That is why Rahul and I have proposed to make some virals videos to "spread the word". Here I'm posting some very rough sketches of simple shorts. Please let me know your thoughts.

Owen's Apples

I talked with Mr. Tripp from Owen Farms today about his farm and what not. He is located in Weedsport, NY, not far outside of Syracuse. I've stopped by his station now for a few weeks in a row and bought apple cider and just chatted. He sells it for $4 a gallon. Syracuse University buys apple cider from Syracuse Banana in cases of 6 gallons priced at $21.84. This works out to $3.64 per gallon. If Mr. Tripp would sell his cider wholesale, it would most likely be cheaper than what the University is currently paying. Just a thought..

Also, I mentioned about local foods in the dining centers on campus. He seems interested and actually has a another farmer friend who sells to a school. He was too busy to elaborate, but I got his card and I plan to find out more.

Geno was also extremely helpful this morning. I suggest that everyone talk to him at some point. He's very enlightening.

Demonstration Kitchen

I went to the market this morning and saw the demonstration kitchen in action.

Everyone up on the Peace Train

The ideas circulating our eating things practicum are not limited to the tapestry of Syracuse. In fact, as we have seen in some of the readings, we are addressing larger issues regarding food and access that seem to be commonplace in urban areas around the globe. Looks like the Farmer's Market in LA hosted a design competition back in the fall that, "asked for design solutions that would help food grown by local farmers to be more effectively delivered and distributed to urban residents." Sound Familiar anyone? From mobile markets to renovated subway cars, people are tackling these questions from a variety of angles. Check out some of the competition winners on http://www.good.is/post/redesign-your-farmers-market-winners/

I happened across this great magazine article posted on some other blog. It talks about communities supporting local farmers and local food systems. It also has a very interesting take on a mobile market (something about a mobile pig slaughtering facility).

A good read.
http://www.foodroutes.org/story.jsp?id=1496

Scott Proposes Initiative To Help Farmers

By Stephanie Rice

Virginia students could soon be eating more locally grown food, helping state farmers turn bigger profits.

A House joint resolution proposed by Del. Ed Scott, R-Madison, would designate the second full week in November as Virginia Farm-to-School week. Delegates passed the resolution Jan. 21.

More than half of Virginia’s schools participated in the program’s first week in 2009. Schools were encouraged to buy local food and educate students about the process. The program is meant to provide nutritional benefits to students as well as economic growth to local farmers.

Scott said he presented the resolution because he wanted to put the information out to the public without forcing any schools to participate in the long term. He said his goal was to show the benefits to students, schools and farmers, identify best practices and create more acceptance of the program. A Senate subcommittee is now hearing the resolution.

Christopher Carpenter, special projects coordinator at Washington and Lee University, worked with Scott in starting the resolution after creating a similar program at Washington and Lee. Carpenter said that if 25 cents a day per K-12 student lunch were spent on locally grown food, $30.7 million would be reinvested in Virginia’s economy.

Carpenter started the program at Washington and Lee about three years ago and changed the percentage of locally grown food purchased by the school’s main facility from 0 to 32.

The Virginia Food System Council helped create the program and works to implement it in schools. Carpenter said he and the committee wrote the basis for the resolution.

One frequent concern about the program is that locally grown food is more expensive. Carpenter said that was true in some cases, but could be offset by buying seasonal produce, such as apples, which is less expensive.

Carpenter said that for Washington and Lee, the average 100-count case of apples bought from Washington state cost $34 to $48, while Virginia apples cost $17 to $21. This offsets the cost of beef, which is about $1 per pound out of state and $2.50 locally.

Directly from the Syracuse Banana website:
"Syracuse Banana is one of the largest restaurant and institution suppliers in this area, serving some of the largest restaurant chains in the United States. The warehouse is located just two blocks from the Central New York Regional Market in Syracuse..." That also includes Syracuse University.

"We purchase approximately 98% of our produce including tomatoes directly from California and Florida. We are a direct receiver and processor of Dole bananas, petites and quads."

Located right down the street from the market. Why can't Syracuse Banana purchase locally from the vendors who regularly visit the Regional Market?

I happened to be at the market on Saturday afternoon at the "information booth." I was purchasing those little wooden coins to buy produce. Besides having done to th emarket just the day before, I never knew that that was even an option.

Anyways, not the point.. A grower approached from the side and butted in front of me to complain to the woman inside the booth about a vendor next to him and a huge 3'x5' sign he was posting out front.

What size is appropriate and acceptable to all vendors?