Monday, 7 May 2012

Viral Videos


Charles Trippy, creator of Internet Killed TV commonly known as CTFxC (Charles Trippy Family Core), describes the making of viral videos as both "an art and science". According top Trippy, the making of viral videos is a science in the sense that one has to create content that people will want to share through social tactics. These kind of videos are exactly what marketers and advertisers have been looking for; a quick response for the consumer and fast sharing, publicity at it's best.

From a Integrated Marketing Communication point of view, this phenomenon is the answer to the prayer of many a practitioner. Viral videos allow for practitioners to create videos that people will be able to share through social media and email. These videos are created to speak to ones emotions and since it is a human instinct to share emotion, be it good or bad, the video is catapulted into instant stardom. One example of such a video is Kony2012, which I have spoken about previously in this forum, it spread like wildfire within 24 Hours of its release by the Invisible Children Org [Watch Video].

Through Viral Marketing, as it is commonly referred to in industry, practitioners manage to get people talking and sharing information about their product and/or service. These videos generally have to be witty, funny and of conversational value, otherwise they are of no use. One company that managed to take advantage of Viral Marketing is Audi, with their, Audi Olympic viral campaign [Watch Video].

Friday, 23 March 2012

African Warlords


http://slaveryinthe21stcentury.blogspot.com/


Thomas Lubanga Dyilo former rebel leader in the Democratic Republic of Congo was found guilty of war crimes and recruiting and sending child soldiers to battle.  It was the unanimous decision of three judges for the first time in the court’s 10-year history (Read More).
 Although many view the verdict as setting a precedent, those closely aligned to him have mixed emotions with regard to the verdict as many thought that he would be acquitted (Read More).
I recently found a copy of the warrant of arrest of Joseph Kony issued on 8 July 2005 (Warrant). After the releae of the video that took the world by storm displaying the attrocities committed by the Lord's Resistence Army under the the leadership of Joseph Kony, this is what the Ugandan Prime Minister had to say in video posted on YouTube (Watch Video). Joseph Kony is still at large.
How do men like these two mentioned aboved allowed to run from the hand of the law for so long and yet manage to continue commiting crimes right under our noses?
  • Shouldn't the media be doing more to elp stop these 'warlords' in Africa and across the world?

  • Do we not have a responsibility as Africans on social media to spread the word against such individuals and get a reaction from the powers that be timeously?

Friday, 16 March 2012

STOP KONY 2012


artistsagainstcorruption.wordpress.com

The STOP KONY 2012 Campaign was launched on March 5th, 2012, which began with the world wide release of the internet based documentary by Invisible Children titled: KONY 2012 (Read More).

The aim of the social media campaign is to get people talking about the injustices carried out by the Ugandan Warlord Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord Resistence Army in Uganda. Kony, who's army is notorious for abducting children and forcing them to commit atrocities. Is on the run from authorities and is no longer in Uganda.

The video (KONY 2012) took the world by storm as it took over social media (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube) the video has had over 4 million views since it was released (View Video).

The Ugandan screening of KONY 2012
The Ugandans do not appreiciate the way their country is being depicted in the documentry some even got up and threw stones at the screen during the public screening mg.co.za.

Steve Bramucci also shares his views on KONY 2012 on his blog (Read More). He makes no secret of the fact that he thinks it was done in poor taste.

  • Has the documentry mislead us so that we are on a wild goose chase for a man that could possibly be dead?