My father and I have a lot of things in common. NASCAR and Social Media are not among them. For every race, track, and driver that my dad can wax poetic about, there are just as many social media tools that cause his eyes to glaze over when I talk about them.

We both can thank Brad Keselowski for changing that last night.

During last night’s Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 (which was rescheduled due to a rain delay on Sunday), a jet dryer burst into flames after being hit under caution by Juan Pablo Montoya. Over 200 gallons of jet and diesel fuel spread over the banking near Turn 3, quickly ignited by the initial impact. Unquestioningly, this brought the entire race to a complete halt while the officials and safety crews responded to contain the blaze.

So what do NASCAR drivers do when their cars are at a forced stop on the track? Well, if you’re Keselowski, you reach out to your fans on Twitter:

Before too long, other drivers were gathering around Keselowski on the track, amused by his social media involvement. His fans were more than amused; they were intrigued and re-tweeted his pictures and posts all over the place. In just over an hour, he had added over 100,000 followers to his Twitter account as people clamored to see the first-person NASCAR experience.

Like any responsible driver, he put his phone away when the race resumed, and the final 40 laps were completed without any other fiery surprises.

But who were the big winners here?

1. Well for one, Keselowski. He more than tripled his Twitter following last night.
2. His advertisers. Namely his main sponsor, Miller Lite, as they are associated with a young driver who is already active on Twitter, which allows them more exposure to a key demographic.
3. NASCAR. There may be some fall-out for a driver having his phone during the race, but their lenient approach to social media allows them to give fans the real track experience (as opposed to other sports, most of which have a strict no live-tweeting policy.)
4. My dad and I. Texting with my father at 11pm about NASCAR and social media is something I never thought possible. He now understands how Twitter is used as a part of a brand experience, and I no longer see NASCAR as just a bunch of people too afraid to turn right.

Over the last few months, I have been privileged to work with a talented group of people on a new project for HBO Luck. Working together with the HBO Marketing team, Civic Entertainment Group and Live Stream, we created an application for Facebook that allowed people to become involved in the dark, seedy world of horseracing by practicing making bets on old races before accessing the real betting experience that would lead to a 6-race live Race Day event. An event that would not only be Facebook’s first live racing event, but only the second live sporting event aired over streaming video through their site.

Yesterday I posted Part 1 of my Top Viral Video picks for 2011, which was a great trip down memory lane.  And here is today's list, for the Top 10 Branded Online Videos.  There are some excellent videos here like the Kia hamster dance and Coca-Cola's Happiness Truck, and I applaud the brands that made my list, as their creativity and bravery produced memorable, shareable content. 

So again, in no particular order, I present the best of the online video best:

Top 10 Branded Online Videos

• Zombies: The Ramifications of Yes (Toshiba)

   

Way to capitalize on the Zombie Apocalypse, Toshiba! Rancid milk can do terrible things to a person.

• Party Rock Anthem-Kia Soul Hamster Commercial (Kia)

There’s no way around it; this song is catchy and those hamsters are kinda cute.

• Imported from Detroit (Chrysler)

   

There is no better way to celebrate American work than the 8 Mile king himself.

• The Force (VW Passat)

If you didn’t want to be that kid, if even for a second, you are dead inside.

• Kenny Powers – K-Swiss CEO Video (K-Swiss) (NSFW)

This ad had people changing their business cards all over the office. MFAD, people!

• Angry Birds Live (T-Mobile)

A gaming sensation plus an actual catapult in the middle of Barcelona? Awesome.

• Go Beyond the Cover (Dermablend Pro)

Obviously, this is the best way to cover up that drunken tattoo you got after the company holiday party.

• Jennifer Aniston Sex Tape (Smartwater)

Even Brangelina was curious enough to watch this one.

• Immortalize Yourself (True Blood) - **disclosure - client of Definition 6

Whether you were a True Blood devotee or a Truebie, you totally squealed when Eric left you that message.

• Happiness Truck (Coca-Cola) - **disclosure - client of Definition 6

Getting a surfboard out of a delivery truck almost guarantees the best summer ever.

So folks - there you have it.  Awesome video work from our clients and others.  Looking forward to more hits in 2012!  Leave a comment below for your favorite either on this list or not!

It’s the time of year when everyone is starting to put out their own Top 10 lists. Best holiday gifts for that certain someone. Best appetizer to bring to your annual ornament exchange. Best way to answer the dreaded, “So why are you still single?” question from your crazy Aunt Melba. Best cover-up excuse for a hangover the morning after your company holiday party.

Considering I get paid to know what’s new and popular and awesome in the online world, it only makes sense that I present my list of favorite viral videos, both branded and not, for 2011.
And so, in no particular order, here is part one…(branded videos to be posted tomorrow so stay tuned!)

Top 10 Video Time-Wasters

• Rebecca Black’s Friday

        
This was so annoyingly catchy, that our own CTO started playing it at the beginning of Friday morning staff meetings. The ultimate earworm.

• Honey Badger

Honey Badger don’t care that it ended up on this list.

• The Homeless Man with the Golden Voice

The great thing was that he got a job out of it!

• Webcam 101 for Seniors

Yes, old people are so cute when they don’t understand technology.

• My Drunk Kitchen – Tacos

(A personal favorite.) Not just a single video, but a whole series. Who doesn’t love watching a drunk person attempt to cook and make a video at the same time?

• Girl Falls into Mall Fountain While Texting

A Public Service Announcement for tweens, teens and everybody everywhere.

• OK Go sing “The Muppet Show Theme Song”

If you don’t love The Muppets, you don’t love America.

• NASCAR Prayer

“Boogity, boogity, boogity, Amen!”

• Coneing

The new planking. But with ice cream.

• Siri Argument (NSFW)

“Oh dear.”

So there you have it.  Let us know which ones would be on your top 10!  And stayed tuned for Part 2: Top 10 Branded Online Videos that we'll post tomorrow. 























 

The above photo taken from www.wired.com


Thank you, Mr. Jobs.

For being a revolutionary. An innovator. A visionary. It is no understatement that many consider you a genius. You are our generation’s Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, A.G. Bell. You made it possible for us to carry a library of music on something smaller than the size of most wallets. You positioned your company at the forefront of the information technology industry – you didn’t just foresee trends, you set them. At your keynote speech at the Macworld Conference and Expo in 2007, you summed it up this way: “There’s an old Wayne Gretzky quote that I love. ‘I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.’ And we’ve always tried to do that at Apple. Since the very, very beginning. And we always will.”

You changed the way that people look at design and technology together. You are the template that clients hold up when we ask what they want in a new website. “We want Apple,” they say. What they really want is not just your style, but your ability to bring to light the brilliance of simplicity. Other companies are not keeping up with the Joneses, but trying to keep pace with you.


It is not just the way you looked at technology that changed the world, but the way you looked at the world. You encouraged people to push themselves harder, to think differently, to consider the impossible, possible. You gave a voice to those that pushed the boundaries and questioned everything.

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round pegs in the square hole. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

 
We thank you for your contributions, for sharing your gifts, for changing the world.

Earlier this week, I attended the BrightcovePLAY Conference in Boston. If you know anything about Brightcove, you know they have something to do with online video. As such, the conference talked a lot about online video, and I’m about to do a little of the same.

We’re going to do a fairly quick, informal poll. Raise your hand if you watch online video? Ok, keep your hand up if you have a smartphone or tablet device? And hands still up, how many of you watch video content from your smartphone or tablet device? Yep, that’s what I thought.

Current statistics state that online video accounts for 50% of all traffic on the internet (which makes sense, considering YouTube is the number two most-used search engine after Google). Those same statistics say that 25 million Americans watching online video also do so from their smartphone or tablet device. Consider this: In 2010, 31% of people own a smartphone, which is up from 23% in 2009. Currently, 8% of the American population owns some type of tablet device, and that is expected to jump to 27% in the next year as more companies release their versions across different operating systems.

So what does this tell us? It tells us that online video, particularly mobile video, is becoming increasingly important for video content generators. Fairly obvious, given the statistics I threw out, right? (Let’s hope so.)

It is no longer a matter of “I want to watch X when I get home”; it is “I want to watch X on my nearest screen.” It doesn’t matter if your nearest screen is a smartphone, tablet, PC or even TV – either way, people are transitioning from delayed gratification of watching when and where media is being pushed to them, but rather instant gratification of watching when and where they are pulling media to their (mobile) devices.

As a content-generator, that means you must work to limit or (even better) remove any barriers that keeps the user from getting to the desired content -- your content. Your mobile content.

Some things to consider: Does your site only render video in Flash? If so, that means you’re missing the nearly 25% of smartphone users that own an Apple iPhone and 75% of the tablet users on an iPad – I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t exactly scream “edge case” to me.

Is your site optimized to be mobile-friendly? Easy to navigate with touch-screen controls? Adaptive bitrate streaming so you deliver the best quality video no matter if the user is on a 3G network or connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot?

This doesn’t mean that you have to change your desktop website experience that was built with a specific experience in mind. It means you can't just expect users to navigate your site as-is from their mobile device. Nor can you create one mobile version and expect it to work on all devices – different operating systems, different screen sizes, and different purpose.

I know, you’re starting to grab your calculator and your eyes are bugging out about how much that is all going to cost. Customization gets expensive. But what is more expensive? Losing out on your target demographic because your mobile experience is cumbersome or not available at all. (And there are great options available for customizing content for mobile devices – Brightcove just launched their new AppCloud platform this week.)

Bottom line? If your video content is not available when and where your viewers want to consume it, and if you don’t make it easy for them to do so, you lose the opportunity. Which means lost revenue.