Today at the Mashable Media Summit, College Humor’s CEO Ricky Van Veen announced a partnership with SoBe to launch SoBe Studios — a project that creates branded video content — and with it a three-part web series called Mr. Vicarious, set to premiere on June 9. He also shared with the audience his “10 Web Content Urban Legends.”
In true Internet entrepreneur style, Van Veen started College Humor in his dorm room — now it’s an operating business of IAC with more than 10 million unique visitors a month. Although it now produces TV shows, films, live tours and books, Van Veen told the audience that the web always remains at the center. And how did the site gain such high standing on the web?
And how can brands capitalize on such cache? According to Van Veen, by being hyper aware of the 10 Web Content Urban Legends, which are as follows:
Myth #1). People will want to watch your branded content: Why would anyone watch this? If you don’t have a good reason, don’t make it. If your goal is 75% to entertain and 25% to sell a product, you already have a handicap.
- Brands need to be flexible. IE, College Humor is a racy site — so if you want to partner with a media outlet like this, its content will be racy. Embrace that. To remedy this issue, you can present content that is not explicitly branded, and then reveal your involvement later.
Myth #2). People will be patient with your content: 35% tune out soon after starting to watch a web video. Also, one third of web activity is executed while watching TV.
- So, get to the point — quickly.
Myth #3). People will find your content: Your video will not necessarily go viral. Over-saturation is not the key, either.
- Have a strong seeding strategy.
- Team up with an established brand or platform.
Myth #4). The Internet is a level playing field: A link on Drudge Report yields more results than some dude’s blog.
- Tap into power users.
Myth #5). We have no idea why things go viral: There are no rules for making a viral video. But all viral videos give the user a reason to pass it on. This all has to do with identity creation: What does passing this video on say about me?
- College Humor has a hit strategy: Only hit for nines and 10s.
- The shorter the better.
- The hook comes within the first 20 seconds.
- Sweet spots College Humor taps into: Topical issues and “Candycorn” (cultural touchstones that everyone knows, but doesn’t actively think about).
Myth # 6). Experience () beats documentation: We have a new generation that puts documentation above experience. It’s all about Flickr feeds and Facebook status updates. It’s basically high-tech bragging.
- if you’re a marketer, create experiences that allow people to show off how cool they are.
Myth #7). You should build your own community and tools: The web values simplicity and openness. Don’t limit the openness of your project. Make all tools open and easy to share. Don’t build your own features — if you want people to share photos and whatnot, use Facebook () and Flickr (). You get much more exposure and reach in that way.
Myth #8). Keep things professional: Show the people behind the scenes. It gives your site personality and makes it sticky. Personality drives your brand. Post photos of staff as well as videos and other content. Perez Hilton does this really well, according to Van Veen.
Myth #9). Traditional media is irrelevant to the web: TV is not over. Content creators are always working to get to TV and film — that’s where the money is. The average American watches 151 hours of TV a month, so that’s nothing to sneeze at. You get a stamp of approval thusly.
Myth #10). People will create good content for you: This is the biggest myth of all.
SOBE STUDIOS
Van Veen topped all of this off by announcing the creation of SoBe Studios, a production studio that creates content centered around the SoBe brand. According to Van Veen, this partnership adheres to two of the rules laid out above: 1). SoBe is partnering with established brand with a history of creating good content. 2). It’s working directly with College Humor to create something that people will actually want to watch.
And what exactly are they creating? A series, which was filmed at South by Southwest, based on SoBe’s “re-skin” campaign — which involves the drink company redesigning the labels of the SoBe Elixir and Tea bottles called Mr. Vicarious. In true metamorphosing spirit, the show centers around two comedians — Paul Scheer and Nick Kroll — who live vicariously through three actors dressed up as different characters, including a karate sensei, a massage therapist and a caricature artist.
Source - Mashable
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