Wooshii Developer Blog http://wooshii.com/blog/ Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:15:38 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://wooshii.com/images/logo2.gif http://wooshii.com/blog/welcome-to-the-wooshii-developer-blog/ http://wooshii.com/blog/Link-Roundup-6-Crowdsourcing-Entrepreneurship-Marketing-Video Crowdsourcing
Profiting in the Idea Economy
6 Worst Case Scenarios of Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing in Africa
Beyond the Call Center
Another *new* ad agency. Crowdsourcing Social Innovation and Sustainability Challenges
Harvard-Based Crowdsource Project Seeks New Diabetes Answers
New Crowdsourcing Model Lets Agencies and Printing Companies Harness Crowdsourcing
The Do-First Work Ethic
How to crowdsource a girlfriend
SETI Turns To Crowd Sourcing
The Role of Crowdsourcing and Mobile in Post-Conflict Development
Beer + Crowdsourcing = Happy Customers! - crowdsourcing before crowdsourcing

Entrepreneurshi/ Business
Should You Be An Entrepreneur?
Finding Innovation in Every Corner
Nature vs Nurture and Entrepreneurship
Bootstrapping your way to success
5 thoughts for startups and small business on managing the work vs. home wrestling match
Can Entrepreneurship Change the World?
For those start-ups running their own PR
Couldn't have said it any better so I won't

Video
Top 10 Reasons to Use Online Video for Your Business
Using Viral Video to Boost Sales

Marketing
KLM comfort << cclever, clever
Dream Job: Interview with Film Graphics Designer Eric Rosenberg
Are we square? << really great way for anyone to take credit card payments on their mobile
Your Business Is Worthless if It Depends on You ]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:47:17 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/This-Week-4-Viral-Review Most weeks we see lots of music videos in the most shared lists. But this was even stronger, and was clearly dominated by two music videos, both of which were released almost at the same time. The first one was the new video for Gorillaz -Stylo, which immediately got the attention of the internet, getting 1.1 million views so far on Youtube, but it certaily has more since it's on other services like we're showing it here:


Gorillaz ft. Mos Def & Bobby Womack - Stylo Enviado por indarnb. - Ver os últimos vídeos de musica em destaque Amazing video, like we're used to coming from this band. And the other video that dominated the week is from another band that we're used to getting great views. Their career was almost launched due to a viral video, one that now has more than 60 million views on Daily Motion, and now they've done it again. With an incredible Rube Goldberg machine, they gone to the top viral video charts and got 3.4 million views in mere 3 days! If you haven't already, take a look:

Viral Marketing powered by Wooshii.com
I said they have dominated this past week but the truth is, they're still dominating it right now, and for sure will continue in the next days. Other noteworthy viral videos this week were a Pedigree ad with great slow motion and dogs catching treats. People love seeing animals, particularly cats and dogs, so being as good as it is, no wonder it has gone viral (and now we've seen virals for pretty much everything, even dog food!)

Viral Marketing powered by Wooshii.com
Finally, we have a great stop motion lego animation that started going viral yesterday. It's fan made for a competition, like most stop-motion videos it displays the great deal of effort gone into it, and shows great filmmaking. Have a look:

Viral Marketing powered by Wooshii.com
And that's it for this week. If you saw something really interesting and noteworthy going viral this week, tell us about it in the comments. Till the next week in review in virals!]]> Ricardo Fonseca Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:57:06 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/This-Week-3-Viral-Review Hi, back with another review of the week in virals.

The high school student video (A story of pretty much everything) is still strong at number two of the viral video chart, being the first the video for We are the World - Haiti. Right below it is a video that went viral for Windows Phone 7 series operating system. With the same feel as many Google virals, Microsoft scored one with 600.000 views in one week.

Viral Marketing powered by Wooshii.com
The Parision love video by Google is also still strong, going already on more than 4 million views, and a some numbers below is T-shirt war, a great stop motion video by comedy duo Rhett and Link and directed (and edited) by Youtube user and Wooshii member Mistery Guitar Man.

Viral Marketing powered by Wooshii.com

It has now 1.8 million views. Of reference is the first ever Youtube video that has been shared a lot this week. If you never seen it, don't expect something exciting!


Google Buzz videos are still hot, the mashup that unites 25 top songs of 2009 too, and to close this off we'll leave you with yet another Google video, one that has gone viral since yesterday and done by Wooshii member Jr. Canest . All in all a great week for Wooshii creatives! Take a look:

Viral Marketing powered by Wooshii.com

If you want to talk about other noteworthy viral of this past week, tell us something in the comments. Until next week!

 ]]> Ricardo Fonseca Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:11:08 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/60-Seconds-With-Chris-Lee We're back with another profile of one of our creatives. At the end of last week a somewhat strange, peculiar video started getting the attention of Vimeo users. It was a video for a Wooshii project done by member Chris Lee (and non-member Paul Storrie). So we thought of profiling Chris this week (http://wooshii.com/wwwthisischrisleecouk) and get some insight from the whole process from him. Chris is based on London, UK, and has graduated in 2009 at Central Saint Martins with BA Hons in Graphic Design: Moving Image.

How did you get started with creative things? With passion.

What's the video you created that you're most proud of? Maybe the 30 second Barnardo's ad. It started off as an entry for Kodak student commercial awards 2009, I was working with two talented guys-Tim Keeling & Minsu Song. We did alot of research and exploration into the problem that we were dealing with and I think that by the end of the project, the final concept that we developed was truly heart felt. I think the execution could be improved to really reinforce the concept. If I could shoot it again, I wouldn't shoot on 16mm film. I found it quite restrictive. Not whilst digital is indefinitely catching up.
Viral Marketing powered by Wooshii.com
What video you wish you had made? I would quite like to make something really unique and really engaging so I guess there is nothing out there quite like it...yet.

What's your creative process? erm i think i wrote a whooole lot on this in the wooshii forum but to sum it all up... Live your idea but stay analytical/critical. stay aware.

What is your dream project? At the moment, perhaps to create a music video for a song that really inspires me.

What's your favourite software for your work? Computer software is quite simply tools, thats like saying whats your favourite spanner. However, the camera has always been a good tool. Photography is important to me.

Which software/hardware doesn't exist, but you wish it would? A camera in my eye that takes photos when I blink.

Tips for making good pitches (and winning them)? Research. Know your target audience and show it. Good/clear illustration. Clarify your direction. Have a vision.

Tips for getting views? Plan exactly what you do and who exactly for.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Dead. Live for the moment!

So that's the set of questions we have been giving to out, but we all this interest in the Wooshii video, it would be cool to know some additional stuff about the project, so we gave him even more questions!
Viral Marketing powered by Wooshii.com
How did you come up with the concept? Firstly, I decided to team up with a Mr. Paul Storrie. (I had worked with him before on a low budget short called 'the meeting') We always shared a similar sense of humour and interest in bringing ideas to life. We met a number of times and really developed what we wanted to explore and why. Some crazy ideas we were close to going with. Too many infact but we kept going until we felt we had found the best idea. The concept of fishing came about as a joke at first but it was strangely appealing. The idea was aesthetic, simple and not like anything I had seen before. Nearer the end of the project, we had the idea for a whole campaign based around different techniques of catching a meeting. Our starting point was obviously our brief but it really evolved around a rather intriguing love/hate work relationship between creatives and businesses we had always been interested in. One which we had seen in many instances online. I think this blog sums it up from the creatives point of view- http://clientsfromhell.tumblr.com Also, I think that our current unemployed status was definite subconscious inspiration!

Did it change much from concept to execution? The idea didnt change at all. The narrative structure was storyboarded which remained the basic skeleton for the film. (attached to email is original storyboard) Some minor things changed. We got rid of alot of stuff.

What were the most difficulties you had shooting it? Location and actors. The production was difficult on such a small budget but this is all part of the creativity. We spent alot of time searching for the right locations. All the actors are creatives- illustrators, designers, artists etc, some recent graduates currently looking for work. This definitely brings a haunting realism to the film.

How much time did it take to shoot? The weather was a big problem. It snowed a number of times on organised shoots (There is even remains of snow and ice on the roof in the film) We would sometimes go out and get a shot we thought was missing even after starting the edit. All in all, too much time.

What was it like having this much interest on Vimeo on a work of yours? Quite exciting indeed. Alright, great stuff! We're trying to embed here the storyboard (which is awesome) and will have it here as soon as possible.


Thank you very much to Chris for taking the time to answer all these questions for making a great video for Wooshii.]]> Ricardo Fonseca Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:38:19 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/This-Week-2-Viral-Review Past is the iPad presentation (in viral content time, one week is a long time), but still in the top 5 most shared videos of the week, 3 of them are about it. The first is yet another Hitler parody - I'll spare you to it. But I'll show you a cool edit one Neil Curtis made of the iPad keynote, putting together only the (many) adjectives spoken:

Viral Marketing powered by Wooshii.com
It had 550.000 views in 4 days. A big hit this week has also been a satirical piece from english journalist and comic writer Charlie Brooker that demonstrates how to build a news report. It got huge views, with more than 1 million views in 9 days.



Another notworthy viral is a truly inspirational one, a piece of conceptual art captured on video. Here's the description of the piece: "For his installation in The Curve, Boursier-Mougenot creates a walk-though aviary for a flock of zebra finches, furnished with electric guitars and other musical instruments. As the birds go about their routine activities, perching on or feeding from the various pieces of equipment, they create a captivating, live soundscape." And here's the video, on Youtube for almost a month now, and with 400.000 views.


Viral Marketing powered by Wooshii.com

Another videos being shared a viewed a lot include some already known and older ones (in viral content time, remember!) like the Aids Graffiti one, the Mad TV iPad spoof, the Mashup by DJ Earworm of the top pop music of 2009, The Known Universe, and the Coca-Cola Happiness Machine. And, to finalize, in the week that started Lost's final season (another great topic for virals this week), I'd like to show you a video made by Wooshii members Fine Brothers, with 260.000 views in a week:



Well, that's it for this week's review in virals. There have been others but these are the ones who stood out for me. If you have any suggestions, comment away!]]> Ricardo Fonseca Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:59:06 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/60-seconds-with-eammy Hello creatives! We're back with another creative profile, this time with Eammy (http://wooshii.com/Eammy). He is an artist, animator and programmer based in Australia, and is experienced in 2D, 3D and special effects. He almost never gives away his real name. Let's get things started! Viral Marketing powered by Wooshii.com
How did you get started with creative things? I started drawing comics at school, since the learnings were boring. I gradually invented simple cartoon characters, and continually made comics, entertaining others. Then I started with Flash, where I frustatingly attempted to make awesome cartoons, although they turned out cheap. No-one will ever know of them though, since I was under a different alias at that time ;)

What's the video you created that you're most proud of? Even though it's not that impressive in graphics quality, it would have to be Virtua World. I created it in the same sense as always, that I wanted to make something epic, with voices, music, plot, and characters, and this cartoon is a pretty good achievement in my view. It took a few months to make that cartoon, and it was still frustrating. In terms of graphical achievement, the video I'm most proud of would have to be Viral Marketing - Some Facts. Viral Marketing powered by Wooshii.com
What video you wish you had made? Something AWESOME and EPIC. Don't know exactly what. I continually come up with ideas that dominate previous ideas. The cycle is endless.

What's your creative process? Somehow, I come up with a wonderful idea, that matches the resources that I have available, and then I do it. I mostly like to take shortcuts (some call it 'cheating'), and do things quicker and more effective than other people. This takes care of details faster, which is necessary, because I like to have a lot of attention to detail in my works.

What is your dream project? An epic cartoon with heaps of quality and hidden moral / metaphorical meaning. I hope to have this done by the end of the year.

What's your favourite software for your work? SONY VEGAS PRO!!!

Which software doesn't exist, but you wish it would? Highly flexible procedural graphics generation software. Something like fractals, but MORE. Also, I want Construct to work properly. Even better, I want something like Construct, but for Flash. And... how about some ray-tracing software that isn't pain-stakingly slow. I would love to know if any of these exist.

Tips for making good pitches (and winning them)? Go better than others. What I constantly remind myself is to SHATTER EXPECTATIONS. This is important. And, you have to really want to do the project. Also, skill and talent is helpful. Also, being nice to others goes a long way.

Tips for getting views? I don't care much about views. What I'm really interested in is having true fans / friends.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? I can't predict the future. What I want though is to have 'Eammy' as some sort of organization, where I can take risks and be free to do crazy experiments, and yet still be financially sustainable. I think that would be awesome. Ok! Thank you Eammy for your time to answer these questions and continue to create great stuff for us fans to watch! See Eammy's profile here http://wooshii.com/Eammy and his personal website http://www.eammy.com/]]> Ricardo Fonseca Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:34:41 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/Link-Roundup-5-Crowdsourcing-Start-Ups-Entrepreneurship-Marketing-Bootstrapping Another roundup of links and articles I have spotted on the interwebs !!
Entrepreneurship and Start-Ups

Ten Reasons 2010 Will Be the Year of the Entrepreneur
5 business pitfalls to avoid in down times
Ten Common Arrogance Traps for Startups
Top 10 Signs you’re an Accountant at a Startup
Entrepreneurship – the Failure Myth
The Simplest Secret To Business Growth
Entrepreneur trades sex for solar - growth industries -
Getting your small business started with social media
Use Social Media to Connect with Other Entrepreneurs -
5 Entrepreneurship Trends to Watch Out for in 2010 : Technology ::
Success is All in the Attitude - 12 Entrepreneurial Attributes -
10 Lessons in Entrepreneurship"
Top Ten 2010 Trends for Entrepreneurs
Startup Marketing: Tactical Tips From The Trenches
How Much Time Do You Spend Marketing in a Startup?

Viral and Marketing

Seth Godin - Random rules for ideas worth spreading
5 Ways to Share Content to Create Referrals
The 8 Elements of Contagious Ideas -
How to make a killer viral marketing video. 5 Top Tips
Viral Marketing Madness: 5 Viral Marketing Mechanisms
Top 6 Ideas for Incredible Viral Content for Social Media Marketing
Feel good guerrilla marketing


Bootstrapping

Business Bootstrapping Advantage Number 3
10 golden rules when bootstrapping your company -
Bootstrapping a startup
Bootstrapping and Debt
Portrait of a Modern-day Bootstrapper

Crowdsourcing

Creative Crowdsourcing Empowers Non-Profits to Spread the Word -
Outsourcing Benefits
Stop, collaborate and listen: knowledge management has a brand new adventure
10 Tips For Using The C-Word]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:40:57 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/This-Week-1-Viral-Review This week, on viral content, has been very much dominated with iPad videos, most of them spoofs but not all.
So let's get the not-iPad virals out of the way and then get on it.
One of them earlier this week was another "dancing inmates" Michael Jackon choreography, this time to promote the DVD release of This Is It. It got 2.2 million views in 6 days.
Viral Marketing powered by Wooshii.com
The next video is for a video for AIDS prevention awareness, and has also been shared a lot this week (gone viral since the end of last one) and in this short amount of time already got more than 3 million views (beware, NSFW).
Viral Marketing powered by Wooshii.com
Then Apple's iPad was unveiled on wednesday, and many of the videos going viral were on the subject (many fake before it, and then most spoofs).
One of them, just starting to go viral yesterday but already with 720.000 views, is the inevitable Hitler parody.

Besides the also obvious official video presentation of the iPad (also gone viral), a sketch from Mad TV from 2007, where they spoofed the iPhone coming up with a product named iPad (again, this in 2007) was shared a lot this week:
Viral Marketing powered by Wooshii.com
Finally, Wooshii member Whirled Creative have a video going viral in the past 24 hours (done for Barely Political, and with 40.000 views overnight) that mashes-up the iPad presentation and Obama's State of the Union speech. It's been featured on Gizmodo and Techcrunch.

Viral Marketing powered by Wooshii.com
And those are the highlights for this week on viral video. Check back next week for more!]]> Ricardo Fonseca Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:33:51 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/60-seconds-with-nath We're starting a regular feature here where we'll shine the spotlight on one of our creatives and get to know him a little better. Our first one is Nath Milburn (http://wooshii.com/nath). Nath has done work mainly on animation and is currently getting adegree for Broadcast Design & Motion Media at Savannah College of Art & Design.
Nath was one of our early users and many of you will know his stuff but just to give you a full encite check ou the interview below.

How did you get started with creative things? Well of course I've been drawing ever since, I used to draw trace pokemon and draw fat people during church as a little boy, but around middle school I found an animator named Dan Paladin which got me into animation which led into just doing digital illustration and all that shit. I started out making animated gifs with MS Paint before I found Adobe Flash back when it was Macromedia.
What's the video you created that you're most proud of? Shit I dunno, I like them all pretty much the same, cause I could definitely have pushed each one further. Let's brighten dark situations definitely came out the best, but I always seem to love my latest ones the most, so that'd be the one I did for you guys!

What video do you wish you had made? Dunno, haven't made it yet! I guess anything by Maxim Zhestkov, the guys work is insane.Onedreamrush / Zhestkov.com from Maxim Zhestkov on Vimeo.

What's your creative process? I would just chill, think and draw up different ideas, I always have a few pop in my head immediately. I would then storyboard it, do some test sketches, maybe some style frames, then do an animatic (if it's an animation of course) then go from there. Pretty much like anyone else, I don't do anything special or interesting that leads up to finishing my work.
What is your dream project? I don't know, help creating a cartoon series on the tv would be nice, but I've never been big into full animation, so I'd have others co-create it, but I don't really have any "big" ideas waiting to come out.
What's your favourite software for your work? Adobe Flash and After Effects are my two favorites by far. I just love the layouts of each and how they function. They do what I need.
Which software doesn't exist, but you wish it did? Controlling your hands wirelessly and being able to paint or control a screen to make art would be sweet. I'm sure they have something similar but nothing like how I want.
Tips for making good pitches (and winning them)? Have good ideas ha, but I'm sort of the worst at this. You should tell them the audience you're going after, the style you're using, the medium and means of bringing it, a styleframe would definitely be nice for them to see and how fast you can make it. You should describe your idea as best as you can, try not to keep it vague or make them fill in blanks, that's what they are paying you for.

Tips for getting views? Make cool shit
Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Living on my own.
Alright, that's it. We'd like to thank Nath for taking the time to answer this and for creating great stuff. You can also check out Nath's profile here http://wooshii.com/nath or his personal website at www.heynath.com]]> Ricardo Fonseca Wed, 27 Jan 2010 12:39:53 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/wooshii-and-music-videos
So if you get something moving through a community of fans you can quickly pick up momentum and a fan base that will pass on your musical message.

Video, (viral or other wise) gives you a great way to get your music moving through these communities.

Case in point the Ok Go video that has topped over 45 million, (that’s right million) views!






Music Videos Through Wooshii
Video sharing sites and Facebook have caused a resurgence in the need for great music videos but producing them can be a costly exercise. Wooshii can put you in touch with some outstanding creative talent (check just three examples below) and done right even the simplest video can go viral .


Hey Wooshii creatives post your wooshii profile link below if music videos is your thing














]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:05:03 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/Wow -Like-Wow

In total you guys have created content that has given rise to 30mil views !!! and that is just through YouTube and Wooshii. We are not even counting Vimeo views yet (although we will soon promise)


So here is a selection from our top 3 (plus one really cool video that Ricardo spotted)


No.1 - wooshii.com/JaredNeumark (Every body Poops)

Viral Marketing powered by Wooshii.com


No.2 wooshii.com/Whirled (Sporanos - (Classic Viral)

Viral Marketing powered by Wooshii.com


No.3 - wooshii.com/TheFineBrothers (100 Movie Spoilers)

Viral Marketing powered by Wooshii.com


And check this out for just coolness – all cgi –


Viral Marketing powered by Wooshii.com




Enjoy

Fergus]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Thu, 07 Jan 2010 13:24:10 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/starred-accounts With the crack of 2010 we can announce that starred accounts are on their way. What do they mean for those that are lucky enough to be awarded one? See below.
How do you get one? Ahh well that is to be revealed
1 Star
• Pay only 18% commission on all project winnings
• 1 Star Badge
• Displayed in featured user lists
2 Star
• Pay only 15% commission on all project winnings
• 2 Star Badge
• Displayed in featured user lists
• Invites to participate in our premium projects
3 Star
• Pay only 11% commission on all project winnings
• 3 Star Badge
• Displayed in featured user lists
• Invites to participate in our premium projects
• Features on Wooshii and associated blogs and news releases]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:08:47 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/Christmas-Top-5-Virals I spent some time and picked out 5 viral videos I like. Something to keep you occupied at work these next few days.
What are yours?

Bailey the Unknown Reindeer
Not an Ad but over 4.5 mil views…Not bad going
Viral Marketing powered by Wooshii.com


Dick in a Box
Just funny



Christmas Lights Gone Mental
This is the original. There is Guitar hero one doing the round this year but this is the best 6 mil views plus
Viral Marketing powered by Wooshii.com


12 Days of Christmas - Indian Style
Ahh racial stereotyping - 4mil views and flying
Viral Marketing powered by Wooshii.com


Bud Light at Xmas
Main stream, big budget but still funny
]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:35:21 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/Weekly-link-roundup-4-Crowdsourcing-Start-Up-Marketing-Viral-Marketing-and-Wine
Enjoy


Start-Up Marketing

Startup Marketing: Tactical Tips From The Trenches - http://bit.ly/6Fmk7u
How Much Time Do You Spend Marketing in a Startup? - http://bit.ly/8nESIw
Turning Problems into Marketing Strategies - http://bit.ly/4HctBj
PR strategies for lean startups - http://bit.ly/8TgNTH
Some nice tips for a startup’s early press releases - http://bit.ly/84NN2Z
Start-up Marketing - Milestones to Startup Success - http://bit.ly/7O9mHP

Start-Up Advice

When Bootstrapping, Leverage What you Have - http://bit.ly/7iCui6
Great interview with Mint.com CEO Aaron Patzer - http://bit.ly/8DkBQB
How much of success is luck? - http://bit.ly/6rQbfI

Viral Marketing

Some great reasons to run viral marketing campaigns - http://bit.ly/8AzHND
The 10 most innovative Viral Video Ads of 2009 - http://bit.ly/5ETDIt
Engagement Marketing: The Communications Pro of the Future - http://bit.ly/5NnUJE

Crowdsourcing

Fox crowdsources pilot choices - http://bit.ly/5JBNw3
Crowdsourcing wine choices - Adegga - http://bit.ly/8Z3thF]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:30:09 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/Viral-Marketing-Benefits Some questions pop up time after time so here are my viral marketing benefits

• Viral marketing is one of the few potentially cost-free methods for successfully promoting a business transaction.
• Viral marketing campaigns don’t have a stop date like traditional advertising. They can go on indefinitely.
• You don’t have to monitor your campaigns all the time. In traditional advertising you have to track every dollar you spend. But with viral marketing, you won’t have to monitor the dollars because you won’t be spending any.
• Your brands will start to gain a life of its own. Viral marketing is a medium that allows you to be as creative and zany as you want, without any restrictions or reservations
• Your search engine rankings will soar. Ranking on search engines is partly determined by how many links lead to your site. Every time someone embeds your video, links to you, links to your content, etc. you get brownie points with spiders and the engines they serve, like Google and Yahoo.
Of course, traditional advertising has its upside as well, but if you’re just starting out or you don’t have a lot of money to spare (or perhaps you have a niche market that can’t be targeted by traditional media), viral marketing may be the solution for you.]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:41:31 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/avoiding-group-think
What is Group Think?

“The tendency for members of a cohesive group to reach decisions without weighing all the facts, especially those contradicting the majority opinion”


Simply put if you are working with a team on a specific project there can be an underlying tendency for the group to come to decisions based on preconceptions and shared knowledge. This maybe subtle or even sub-conscious. Janis Irving coined the phrase in 1972 and described how a group can make faulty decisions because group pressures lead to a deterioration of “mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment”. In a creative environment that’s not good news. You need people to be, (dare I say it) “thinking outside the box”. Much easier to, (here it comes again) think outside the box when you actually don’t know where the box walls are.


The answer – Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is a fabulous way to avoid groupthink. You can set some boundaries to guide a huge group of creatives and then set them to work independent of your main team. Ideas Bounty (see www.ideasbounty.com ) are doing just this for entire campaigns and have recently had their model verified by brands as big as Unilever, who dropped their agency in favour of crowd sourced creativity - see here.

With viral let me quote David Meerman Scott, (author of The New Rules of Viral Marketing)


“To minimize poisonous internal groupthink, invite people from outside your organization to help. Teenagers are especially tuned in to Internet trends and viral phenomena, so you might want to recruit some to help you come up with ideas.”



That is what is so great about Wooshii. It is full of creatives from a myriad of places, cultures and careers. It allows you to tap into an enormous creative user base vastly increasing your creative output and helps to minimise internal group think.


Would love to hear your thoughts on avoiding group think. What steps do you take, if you are working in a team, to minimise its effects?]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:46:08 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/Weekly-link-roundup-3-Crowdsourcing-Bootstrapped-Marketing-Social-Media

Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourced marketing opportunity for Garfield : FLIRTing with the Crowds - http://bit.ly/5dn5vs
Crowdsourced Beer Money - http://bit.ly/53IqX0



Spreadable, Viral Media


17 People Who Created the Word of Mouth Industry - http://bit.ly/74SLoo
6 Awesome Viral Marketing Tips - http://bit.ly/8b8xbx

Social Media

3 Steps for Effectively Using Social Media For PR - http://bit.ly/4Vrt7U
3 Tools to Make Twitter Lists Even More Useful - http://bit.ly/706tWz
What Is Creative in the Age of Social Media? - http://vimeo.com/7229703
5 advanced social media marketing strategies for small businesses - http://bit.ly/5yuShi
Debt, equity and a third thing that might work better - http://bit.ly/5vZXiX
How to Break Into Advertising Creative Agencies as a Student - http://bit.ly/6sMVqc


Boostrapped Marketing

Top five benefits to startups who talk to customers - http://bit.ly/4uFIFv
NFL Guerrilla Marketing - http://bit.ly/7G7C1s
Business Bootstrapping Rule Number 10: Pay Attention to Cash Flow and Not Profitability - http://bit.ly/4s7jly

Misc

Some great Aimation in Music Videos - http://bit.ly/6VspYk
Beer Loves You - http://bit.ly/76dE9G]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Fri, 27 Nov 2009 12:46:12 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/changes-your-thoughts

So here we go. We are proposing to change the Wooshii system in a number of ways and would love your feedback before we rush headlong into something that you might not want. So here they are. If you could leave any of your comments below, (or you can email me fergus@wooshii.com)

One change has already occured. You may notice that views have started going a little haywire and that some users have shot to the top. Thats is becuase we have started including YouTube views (of videos you have created) in your view total. Soon we will look to include views from other sites too. In order to continue to recognise active Wooshii members we will also be ranking users by Wooshii activity.


So in the words of David Bowie here are our proposed Chu chu chu chu changes!


We are to build the community element of Wooshii a little more this will include
1. A forum – A place where our users can interact with each other through a system other than profile comments



2. Weekly themed competitions – i.e. this week upload a thanksgiving related viral – most viewed wins a Turkey !
3. To make the profiles list and uploaded videos more searchable and sortable
4. To class virals around views (i.e. hotting up, peaked, just starting etc)
5. To slightly alter the layout – removing some not so frequently used buttons (such as About ) to the footer
6. Displaying a user's Facebook and Twitter account on their profile so you can big them up
7. To include some leader boards – Profile with most views, most active etc
8. Pro-users - we are to start promoiting our top users to agencies and brands directly. We shall start giving users star ratings based on views and activity. We thought no stars to 3 stars. The most active and highly viewed users will be promoted to our advertsing agencies and friends. [Check out soon a report we are sponsoring on the Top 200 Unsung Creatives]



Your thoughts appreciated]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:07:11 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/Weekly-link-roundup-2-Crowdsourcing-Bootstrapped-and-Viral-Marketing


Crowdsourcing


Coffee Beans and Crowdsourcing « Jason Spector - http://bit.ly/TVHFD
'Whether it was viral or word of mouth, it was always based on the content'James Hong: - http://bit.ly/1HfGQH

Bootstrapping and Marketing


If you are building a web app you must read this - Getting Real: The Book by 37signals - http://bit.ly/XxiI2
Basic but suprising how many people forget - People buy benefits, not features -http://bit.ly/37keUz
Web entrepreneur: 'Social capital' is key
- http://bit.ly/48hzUh
How To Protect Your Brand Online - http://bit.ly/1hOc29
Business Bootstrapping Rule Number 8: Find a Mentor - http://bit.ly/3ioHrD
51 (no less !!!) Free Marketing Tips from Growth Nation - makes interesting reading - http://bit.ly/3aYlG9
Startup Marketing Advice from Balsamiq (the blog rocks almost as much as the product) - http://bit.ly/jdnrS
Ten Rules for Bootstrapping Your Business
- http://bit.ly/14wFDS
Viral Marketing
Guy Goes Viral, Gets Written Into VW's Script - http://bit.ly/3uMSAe
How Ideas Spread | what makes them go viral - http://bit.ly/3EfeWm
Social media changes everything, except the need for creativity - http://bit.ly/2jqURQ]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:36:25 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/Rory-Sutherland-Life-lessons-from-an-ad-man Sutherland makes the argument that advertising's power to alter people's perceptions can be harnessed for good rather than evil—that it could help preserve the world's limited material resources by emphasizing the perceived value of things over the "real" value. He says:
"If you want to live in a world in the future with fewer material goods, you basically have two choices: You can either live in a world which is poorer, which people in general don't like, or you can live in a world where intangible value constitutes a greater part of overall value."
Well worth the watch
Viral Marketing powered by Wooshii.com]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:04:50 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/wooshii-at-ogilvy Our friends over at Ogilvy & Mather in London invited us to be one of their exhibiting companies at an Ogilvy Digital Labs day. In all it was a great day that allowed both ourselves and host of really interesting companies to meet them, their clients as well listen to some really interesting speakers. We were in great company exhibiting next to the likes of YouTube, Spotify, Last.fm, LinkedIn and Rubber Republic, (thanks for the book guys)
Check the video below for a feel of what went on, (pity about the bad hair do at 1 minute 42 secs)
]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:27:31 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/Weekly-link-roundup-Boostrapping-Crowdsourcing-and-Spreadable-Media
Bootstrapped Business
Founders Make the Best Startup Marketing Leaders - http://bit.ly/1ymY4B
Bootstrapped Media Companies That Focus On Business Are Rising Up Through The Cracks - http://bit.ly/211EaC
How to Sell
- http://blog.bzzagent.com/?p=1314
Don't Just Sell. Inspire A Cultish Movement - http://bit.ly/4mNQT4
5 Tips for Getting More Leads from Speaking - http://bit.ly/2INeXh

Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing a Discussion on Crowdsourcing: Agency Nil,
Anomaly and Victors & Spoils http://bit.ly/4EjcWb
Crowdsourcing of graphic design goes local - http://bit.ly/JvNF3

Viral / Spreadable / Conversation Marketing
Spreadable Media: A Cure for Viral Marketing - http://bit.ly/3u67S
Will Elf Yourself Return in 2009? YES! - http://bit.ly/vSiab
5 Things I Roll My Eyes At - http://bit.ly/Tr8j8
If you want a conversation, say something interesting - http://bit.ly/A3pm2
]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:44:21 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/memes-and-sequels One way to increase your chances of your promo / advert / rich content going viral is to look to produce a sequel or meme
A sequel is exactly that. Find a viral that has already done well and follow up with your own version or a remake. A meme (in viral terms) is essentially that taken one step further i.e. many people do this and many sequels get made.
Here are a load of examples
Downfall
The first ever Downfall was a film (I know). What was the first parody? According to YouTube it was the Xbox live parody (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfkDxF2kn1I). Personally it is not my favourite so have put some others here.
What I love is that a fairly simple task of adding subtitles over a well known film created viral sensation and turned into a true meme




Caaktail

Similar things have happened with remixing film trailers (just one listed below). You’ll find hundred if you look around






iDroid
Here is a classic example. The below viral for iDroid did really well and got over 2mil views very quickly. Just today I noticed the second video. A fight back at the iDroid comes from and account called droiddont, (nothing to do with apple apparently). When I first checked it today they had 20 views. 1 hour later they were at 210 000 (not bad going)



Start wars kid
A classic initial viral with follow ups.












Yet again all these examples prove that virality is not necessarily linked to production quality. More ever it is linked to great ideas and creative people using what ever tools at their disposal.
That’s why we, (Wooshii) love it]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:10:28 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/auto-tune-it Auto-tune was a technology invented in the late 90's and used to correct the pitches of singers.

Nowadays, its use is still going on in the music business (Kanye West's latest album, for example) but lately has been a source of viral video goodness.

And why is that? Well mainly because the results of making something musically inocuous as a speech, converstation, or newsreel, and turning it to sound like music, is in most cases hilarious.

Also it elicits from you that WTF reaction, that what a strange video I'm watching reaction that will make you laugh, and want to share it with friends.

So ,one of the first cases in viral video history I remember using auto-tune was made by turning something as blant as the news into a song, in a series of very funny videos called Auto-Tune the News:




Auto-Tunes became so popular as a joke, that there's even "Iphone Apps for that". A notorious one is from notable auto-tunes user T-Pain, who has also got his own viral video:





A few days after this video became a viral hit, it was spliced up, mashed up and auto-tuned with an interview of President Obama, getting 1 million views in the process:







Then, we have a viral hit in which YouTube user melodysheep spliced together some clips from Carl Sagan Cosmos and auto-tuned them, creating a music video that got 1.1 million views in one month!







These are all great examples of what you can do with a lot creativity and without the need for great resource.

Auto-tune is can indeed a hot viral component.


Ricardo - wooshii.com/Ricardo ]]> Ricardo Fonseca Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:06:22 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/3-tools-to-help-turn-your-scripts-into-viral-adverts
Go Animate
GoAnimate.com - Interesting idea but I am yet to see anyone use it well. You can choose scenes (yes they have Star Trek and Star Wars) characters etc and animate with a load of set animations facial expressions etc. Mix this up with a load of changing camera angles and the potential is great. Like I said I couldn’t find any great examples of peoples work but here is a kind of promotional video. Seems to have potential for some novelty fun so if any one does anything good be sure to upload it to Wooshii.


Xtra Normal
XtraNormal has already featured on Wooshii (see below). The key difference between this site and GoAnimate is the speech overlay that can be applied to animations. It results in some hilarious creations and unlike the above there is no end of good examples on the site. The site runs a premium service, though you can do a fair bit with the free version.

ToonDoo
ToonDoo - This is comic stripping made easy. With a host of sets and characters preloaded intothe system creating humerous illustrations or viral ads becomes simple with the right script. Lame attempt by me below but i can see this being a serious cause of time wastage. Love it (I guess it could be used for simple storyboarding as well)





]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:05:18 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/To-Spec-Or-Not-To-Spec Well as expected we have had a sackful of responses to the launch of Wooshii. On the whole the feedback has been excellent – mostly positive and constructive. That said however there is small number of people that come through the doors with a big ‘NoSpecWork’ banner and I thought I would address this issue here.
We (Jim, Sean and I) are all creatives so we have deliberated over this issue for some time but our position is now pretty clear. I have tried to answer some of the nagging questions below. It would be great to know your thoughts!
Wooshii is spec work and I don’t do spec work?
Wooshii is not a spec work site unless you want it to be. You can pitch on Wooshii just by submitting ideas and concepts. You can upload examples or finished articles if you wish to increase your chances of success, but you don’t have to.
But that is spec work?
Well only in the sense that the more work you do the higher the chances of winning with a pitch .What makes the design industry so exceptional that we don’t have to do work before winning work? I have run and worked in many companies and I don’t know of a single instance where you don’t have to do some work in order to gain work… that is how it works. (So to speak!)
But sites like Wooshii are driving down the market…
I totally disagree. The market is changing, shifting and the cashflow is shifting with it. It is becoming more competitive but the economics are just shifting. The same amount of money exists in the system; it is now just spread differently.
But I need to live. I can’t live off what is being paid anymore.
There is no getting away from new markets and changing economies. So change your model. Markets change. Just look at the music industry. Stand still, moan and you will fail. Innovate, change, dare I say be creative and you will succeed.
I am a professional-level designer and I won’t participate in work on spec
That is fine. (Not that we draw any real distinction between you and an “amateur”. To us our users are just “creative”.)You probably have a good bunch of clients and are working with established brands. What Wooshii is all about is connecting not only professionals but also the rising stars, the new creatives, the stay at home moms, students, amateurs with people who want to tap into their talent. Our users are passionate about what they do and would do it anyway regardless of any financial reward. We want to challenge the notion that agencies and professionals hold the keys to creativity.
I am a professional-level designer, how can I work with Wooshii?
Submitting ideas is easy. Just spend say 30 minutes a day submitting some pitches to projects and see what comes back. As a professional you have a wealth of experience to draw on.
OR
Use the system as a way to increasing your creative pool. Post projects. You are still the client facing entity with editorial control.
But there is no guarantee of work from my pitches, is there?
That’s right, but when is there? If you run a business there is never any guarantee of work just because you pitched your sale, proposal or design to a buyer
We do however do everything we can to ensure that you are protected against misuse with b terms and conditions that protect both the buyer and creative.
Is Spec Work Evil? (thanks to I’m Just Creative for this)
Ask most seasoned designers or employed creatives and you will get a big meaty ‘yes’, SpecWork is evil. Ask those creatives struggling to make a living, those who have lost a job and find themselves without a personal portfolio, those just starting out or those seeking to earn a living whilst living with a illness and you are likely to get quite the opposite reply.
If you find it easy to judge those mentioned above, the ones that do participate in SpecWork as being reckless and irresponsible, then you ‘Creative Person’ need to open your eyes to the reality of the world. (see full article here)
So in a nutshell give it to me…

1. Live and let live – There are different markets for different parties
2. Markets change – Change is always difficult but embrace it or be the changing force and you will surely succeed
3. Enjoy it – If you enjoy it then the cash is just a bonus
4. “No one owns design” - Graham Smith (or for that matter creative thought). We just do it. We love it and people sometimes want to pay us to do it which is awesome!
5. One mans SpecWork is another mans pitch. Just do what you feel comfortable with. If what you are being asked to do makes you feel uncomfortable then don’t do it.
A final note:
I understand this is a hot issue for some people. At Wooshii we really have thought about both sides of this argument. But in the end it boiled down to our own belief in the principles above. We want to make Wooshii useful, engaging and fun. Along the way we might all earn some cash, meet some nice people and gain some great clients… which will be nice

Inspiration and thanks to
@rosskimbarovsky - http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1253-the-nospec-campaign-vs-crowdspring
@imjustcreative - http://imjustcreative.com/trials-and-tribulations-of-specwork-and-crowdspring/2009/10/06/
@skaw - http://jakenickell.com/2009/10/14/some-spec-work-thoughts/comment-page-1]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:55:26 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/creative-profiles wooshii.com/nath
wooshii.com/theoutsidejoke

Earn
Now that the initial teething issues are resolved we have actually dug deep and added some small budgets to the current live projects.
Viral video mash-up to attract new Wooshii members - £600 here 'Kinetic text' animation to promote viral marketing - £ 400 here Plastic's not Fantastic - £100 here Make The World Happy! - £100 here
Remember wining these projects will not only earn you £$ and € but also gain you vital views.
Ultimately these are your currency and will help you win projects in the future. At the moment you can see view wise I’m almost at the top of the list. I doubt I’ll be there for long once some good virals get moving. As every viral you produce that goes live not only gains your brand views but also your Wooshii profile.]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:01:13 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/Questions-from-creatives
"my question is about the payment system.  How does that work?  I don't see a payment system in place? "

- Non of the posting projects areas are live yet. They will be arriving next week. We just wanted to test the actual bidding process first.

"Or if I'm a creative, and someone is interested in having a video done by me, they would contact you first, and pay you, then you pay us?"

- to answer your questions
1. If a buyer would like to have a viral made
a. They set up a project http://wooshii.com/virals/get/
b. They set and pay the total budget to Wooshii
c. Creatives pitch
d. Once a winner is agreed and project completed Wooshii releases the funds to the creative
2. If a buyer then decides to seed a project
a. They set a budget
b. They set a click through rate
c Publishers publish the viral on their blog, links to it etc
d. Their account is credited with payments until the buyers budget runs out

I see, very much like 99 designs, but that's for logos.  And the creatives, know upfront how much the budget is, wooshii, just takes a cut right?  So really the customer is sold on the pitch only.  As oppose to 99, where the customer dictates how much they will pay, and creatives, produce the product upfront and is paid if the customer likes it.  But the customer also can choose not to pay anyone.
I think some pitches maybe better than others, but if the customer is sold on the pitch and the video quality is poor, well I guess the customers will already have seen videos from that creative to get an idea of the quality.  So nevermind, just answered my own question

- Yep bang on you got it
It means that
1. Creatives do not have to produce whole videos to pitch
2. Creatives who are "creative" but maybe not technical i.e. can't actually produce a flash game can still pitch in ideas and concepts
3. You can split the work i.e. Take one persons idea and then re-submit the project looking for someone to actually produce it
4. And yes reputation is everything. Unlike say 99 designs where you can only gain reputation through winning projects with Wooshii every viral of your own that you upload gains you view and so reputation. (even if not for a actual project)]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:16:35 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/wooshii-is-open That’s right… believe it or not we can finally launch beta 2.1 of Wooshii
So what’s new
About - http://wooshii.com/about/
A whole new resource section with info on what Wooshii is what viral marketing along with blogs and a whole host of FAQ’s
Browse - http://wooshii.com/virals/
Browse through uploaded viral videos and images or creatives find a project to work on
Projects come in 2 forms

Ideas - can gain reputation and cash just by submitting ideas and pitches to live projects
Productions - can gain reputation and cash just by turning ideas into finished projects

and all of you can - Create profiles, View other peoples, Post favourite virals ,Become fans of other users
Please send us any comments you have and even help us get this thing moving by tweeting #wooshii.com ]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:53:39 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/The-Significance-of-Views Views are essentially the currency of Wooshii. Virals are all about views in essence. Although different markets and demographics will have different likely success rates we feel views gives a good overriding picture of any creatives ability to create winning virals.
Creatives - build your profile
The more views have as a creative the hotter a property you are and therefore the more likely you are to win pitches, so how do you gain views. Well it’s pretty simple we record views of virals and profiles so any viral you upload to Wooshii, whether it is for a specific project or not, will gain you views.
So it is possible to build an amazing view count without ever winning a project.
In order to reward great ideas you will also gain views for viral idea projects you have won. Lets say you have won an idea project and that idea goes on to become a produced viral. Even if you do not produce the viral you will gain views at the same rate as the producer. So don’t hang around. Upload virals, gain views, win projects, create great adverts and earn.
Brands
For buyers of viral adverts it’s easy. Use views as a gauge. The more views a user has the more successful their track record is in creating winning virals. Simple huh?]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:26:04 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/Hitchcock-Story-boarding-on-the-iphone Hitchcock is designed exactly as it should be…the software takes full advantage of the iPhone’s built in camera and multitouch capabilities, and allows you to quickly and painlessly build a visual storyboard, apply movement markers and cues, and even intelligently pan/crop/zoom in the Ken Burns style to simulate dolly moves and pans.
Here’s the link http://www.cinemek.com/hitchcock/
And a review
]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:05:58 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/what-makes-a-good-viral To Quote Seth Godin
No one sends an idea unless:
a. they understand it
b. they want it to spread
c. they believe that spreading it will enhance their power (reputation, income, friendships) or their peace of mind
No one "gets" an idea unless:
a. the first impression demands further investigation
b. they already understand the foundation ideas necessary to get the new idea
c. they trust or respect the sender enough to invest the time
1: Make people feel something
The most important trick of all is to create a very strong emotion. You need to have an opinion, to express an idea with commitment and dedication. You want people to:
•    be filled with love or hate.
•    be very happy or insanely angry
•    be an idiot or a genius
•    be deeply compassionate or an egoistic bitch
You want people's blood to be pumping of excitement.
Forget neutral, trying to please everyone, supporting several target groups or any of the many ways to be unbiased. Viral marketing is 100% about emotions.
2: Do something unexpected
This one explains itself. If you want people to notice you campaign, you have to do something different - something unexpected.
Remember the bear being attacked by a man? That was unexpected - and it is one the most effective viral advertisements ever.
3: Do not try to make advertisements (that sucks)
One of the biggest mistake companies make is when they think viral marketing is just advertisements that people share - it is not. Traditional marketing is about promoting your product, showing how good it is, giving it center stage - and generally being incredibly selfish (and possibly using supermodels or movie stars). But guess what, nobody cares about you!
Viral marketing is all about a good story. When BMW put out BMW Films, the main ingredient was not the cars, but the story. Replace the car with another one, and it would still be great. When Sony made their Bravia TV ads, the product was not even seen - yet everyone remembers it.
Forget about you, your product or your company. Focus exclusively in creating a good and interesting story. Sure, you can add you product into the mix, but it must not be the most important thing.
4: Make sequels
People have just seen your campaign. They think it was interesting, unexpected and their emotions has reached a high level - you have their complete attention.
Now what do you do?
If you do like most companies you will simply do nothing... and that is a big mistake. When you got people's attention you need to act, and one the best ways of doing that is to give them more - make sequels. This can be many things;
•    It can be extra movies similar in concept to the first one - like BMW Films and Nissan did.
•    It can be a behind the scenes look
•    Bloopers
•    A blog about the process (like Nissan did)
•    Extra material, goodies etc.
•    ...or all of the above
Never leave people standing with nothing.]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:49:33 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/Why-Viral-Marketing


Viral marketing is called such because it’s ‘infectious.’ It uses one of the most effective and inexpensive marketing tools in history – the word of mouth.
Word of mouth marketing empowers the consumer. As a consequence happy, interested people will say good things about you to their peers, friends and family all of whom are likely to be your target audience.

Why viral content is the new King?

1. Social media loves viral content. If people like your viral, posts will be made on various social media sites. As your post is passed along social media networks you can expect it to be championed by various users, creating a snowball effect for the content in question. This kind of social media success has the potential to bring hundreds of new visitors and subscribers to your blog.
2. Viral content generates inbound links. As viral content is both shared and talked about this will commonly occur through links into your blog, website etc
3. It can bring streams of traffic over long periods. The best forms of viral content are timeless, and the snowball effect of such posts can roll on for long periods of time.
4. It creates buzz around your product, service or website. Viral content is great for spreading your brand throughout your niche. Your name and viral articles will seem to be turning up everywhere: in link round-ups, in social media, and so on. That kind of visibility will ensure your chosen niche begins to recognize your name.
5. It encourages engagement. Viral content is meant to be talked about.]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Fri, 18 Sep 2009 13:23:05 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/Story-Boarding So your a creative and you have a great idea for one of the projects on Wooshii.
Story boarding is a great way to get your ideas across when submitting your ideas to a given project on Wooshii.
It allows you quickly and cheaply give some meat to the bones of your idea.
Let's pretend you're making a video called Boy Loses Girl. The story is simple, involving a man getting a call from his girlfriend, leaving his apartment to drive to his girlfriend's house, talking to her and then leaving the city.
Take your script idea and read the opening scene. Now close your eyes and think about the way it ought to play on screen. What should be the first image the audience sees? Perhaps you want to open with a wide shot of the house. Maybe you think an extreme close up of the telephone will be better. Both of these shots are different; both communicate different things. But drawing them first and then looking at them in series can only help you see which one you like best. And that also saves you time when you’re shooting.
If you've decided to go with the close-up of the telephone, then you don't need to shoot the exterior of the house and vice-versa. It also saves time in editing because when it comes time to put it all together, you already know exactly how to arrange the shots. Of course, this isn't to say things won't or can't change. But the value of storyboarding is enormous nonetheless. Continue with this procedure until you've storyboarded your whole script. Now look at your drawings. Yes, that's the way you want your video to look.
Remember, storyboards can give a really good idea of how your concept will work and is an excellent way for brands and client to visualise your idea when making a decision as to which idea to award the project winnings.

Example:

 ]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:06:44 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/Introduction-to-Viral-Marketing-and-Advertising Viral marketing is an idea that spreads and an idea that while it is spreading actually helps market your business or cause. A good advertising campaign is one that engages with your audience enough for them to think "I want to pass this on". The effect is that a simple message can be passed through a demographic of peers quickly.

“Every piece of research tells us what we already know: that advocacy – recommendation from a friend – is the most powerful and credible influence on consumers. Viral marketing is a very logical extension of this principle, and increasingly, we're putting it at the core of our strategic thinking.”

DAMIAN BLACKDEN - EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT
UNIVERSAL MCCANN


Most viral campaigns won't become large-scale. Few actually achieve that status. In nature, viral infections rarely turn into plagues. They tend to be small -- yet can have a big impact on a community.
The same holds true of viral campaigns. You can have a small campaign that has a big impact in your industry or community. Total numbers alone should not determine success.
There are hundreds of successful viral campaigns happening right now that you'll never hear of. Nor will they ever be featured on major news networks, because they're focused on particular areas of interest or communities.
It's important to keep your target audience and goals in mind when designing your campaign. Is it to build brand awareness? Build quality links? Get the attention of industry journalists?
For Wooshii it is all about creating good advertising campaigns. To us this means having a viral element. That is to say that your advert adds enough value for a viewer or customer to want ot pass it on to their peers.]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Fri, 18 Sep 2009 11:28:44 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/show-us-your-favourite-viral-videos
This time we'd like you to show us examples of your favourite viral videos.

They don't have to be videos that were created or commissioned by you - they can just be something interesting that you've seen and would like to share with the Wooshii community.

To upload your videos, visit the new "My Virals" tab on the right side of your profile page.

You'll need to paste the 'embed' code from YouTube (or a similar site) in order for the video to be displayed on Wooshii.

Doing this will help both you and us.

1, Firstly, every time a video you've uploaded is viewed by a unique daily visitor, your view count will increase.

Potential clients are likely to look for creatives who have a good track record of attracting viewers, so get yourself a head start by uploading some videos!
2, Secondly, it will allow us to test our viral tracking system. This is still in development, and having some real live virals (and real live data) to play with will be a big help to us.
3, Finally, hopefully the videos will entertain and inspire all the members of the Wooshii community and give us all some creative ideas of how video can be used for viral marketing and entertainment.
If you've got any questions at all, please leave me a comment!

Many thanks as always for your help,

Fergus]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:59:00 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/wooshii-update-july-2009
We have had a little bit of a rollercoaster ride here over the past few months, not helped by an almighty hardware failure and a few panic stricken days of lost data!

Additionally, we had a few funding issues which have unfortunately resulted in quite a delay getting launched.

All that said we are now back and working at full steam. Our hardware is at the menders and our funding is now in place.

So this will mean some exciting new releases over the coming weeks as we work our asses off to bring you Wooshii as quickly as possible.

Onwards

Cheers

Fergus

http://wooshii.com/fergus]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Wed, 22 Jul 2009 19:21:22 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/creative-questionnaire-the-results-so-far
The key issue was how much our creatives would charge for certain types of work, and how long they'd take to do the work.

The answers to these questions will help us give guideline prices and timescales to brands who are looking to commission viral campaigns.

Well, we're delighted to say that a large number of you were kind enough to spend a few moments filling out the survey, and the results have been very interesting.

The results so far for each of the different type of viral campaign are:

1, Simple viral image (use your graphic design, photoshop or illustration skills to come up with a basic viral image).

91% of our creatives said they could do this work.
The average cost would be £250 GBP (approx $400 USD / 290 EURO).
The average timescale to do the work would be 2 days.

2, Basic Flash game (create from scratch a simple interactive Flash game, with no database integration).

16% of our creatives said they could do this work.
The average cost would be £500 GBP (approx $800 USD / 580 EURO).
The average timescale to do the work would be 8 days.

3, Flash game with database (create from scratch an interactive Flash game, including database integration).

11% of our creatives said they could do this work.
The average cost would be £1000 GBP (approx $1600 USD / 1160 EURO).
The average timescale to do the work would be 15 days.

4, 60 second Flash animation/movie (create from scratch a simple, non-interactive Flash animation).

43% of our creatives said they could do this work.
The average cost would be £600 GBP (approx $950 USD / 690 EURO).
The average timescale to do the work would be 5 days.

5, 60 second video edit (take an existing video clip and overlay it with new text, logos, soundtrack etc).

61% of our creatives said they could do this work.
The average cost would be £500 GBP (approx $800 USD / 580 EURO).
The average timescale to do the work would be 4 days.

6, 60 second video production (an entire 60 second video clip - storyboarded, filmed and edited from scratch).

41% of our creatives said they could do this work.
The average cost would be £4000 GBP (approx $6350 USD / 4600 EURO).
The average timescale to do the work would be 10 days.

7, 60 second 3D animation (a bespoke 3D animation - storyboarded and produced from scratch).

16% of our creatives said they could do this work.
The average cost would be £5000 GBP (approx $8000 USD / 5800 EURO).
The average timescale to do the work would be 13 days.

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We'd love to know your feedback on those figures. If you're a creative,would you be prepared to do projects for those amounts?

And if you're a brand, would you be happy to pay those prices for a viral campaign?

We're really keen to hear your thoughts - please leave a comment on this blog.

And if you haven't already filled in the survey, it's not too late, click here to access the questionnaire.]]> Wooshii Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:38:13 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/becoming-a-fan
But what does it mean to 'become a fan'? In these early stages of the site, not much! It's just a way of connecting with people who you think are interesting.

However in the longer term, as the rest of the site becomes live, building up your own fan list will eventually become a very important part of the site.

Talented creatives will build up a fan base of people who love their work; these people will be keen to be the first to know whenever their favourite creatives launch a new viral. This gives popular creatives a great distribution list that they can use to seed virals - and earn money for doing so.

Similarly for brands, building up a fan base will enable any new campaigns to be seeded in a very cost-effective way. Imagine you're a brand and you've built up 100,000 fans who can't wait to see your next campaign - you'll have a fantastic way to kick-start any future virals.

And if you're a publisher, growing a large fan list will put you in pole position to help brands and creatives to spread their messages - and in the process you'll earn a slice of their seeding budgets.

But how do you go about building your fan base? Well, we've got loads of new functionality coming soon that will help you do this.

Until then, perhaps the best way is for you to become of a fan of other people in our community. Hopefully they will then check out your profile and like it enough to reciprocate.

Please have a try of the system and let us know if you spot any bugs or have any questions about how it all works.]]> Wooshii Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:35:47 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/browsing-other-peoples-profiles
We've had a great response, with many people using their creative skills to come up with profiles that are not only interesting but look cool too.

Now we're excited to launch the next phase of the site, which allows you to browse other members' profiles.

By clicking the People button on the new top-level navigation, you'll be taken to our Community home page.

You can filter the profiles by type (ie creatives, brands and publishers) and also order them in different ways, for instance alphabetically or by the profiles that have had the most views.

Maybe you'll find some inspiration that might give you an idea of how to make your own profile even more interesting.

You also have the ability to 'become a fan' of anyone whose profile particularly catches your eye. We'll explain more about this feature in a separate blog article here.

So please feel free to have a browse around and, as always, please let us know if you have any thoughts or feedback.]]> Wooshii Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:34:49 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/the-brand-survey
It's a very quick questionnaire, aimed at helping us find out exactly what kind of viral marketing campaigns our potential customers are interested in. We're keen to find out what types of viral marketing you've done in the past (if any!), and what type of campaigns you might want to do in the future.

We're also interested to find out what kind of budget you might have to spend. Don't worry, we're not going to expect you to spend it all on Wooshii, but it will help us get a feel for whether or not viral marketing is seen as a large or small part of a company's overall marketing budget.

You don't have to fill in the survey, it's completely optional, but if you do take the time to answer the questions, it will really help us ensure that when we launch the full site, it meets the needs of our potential customers.

If you've got any comments at all about the survey, please feel free to leave them below, or email Fergus (fergus@wooshii.com) and he'll be happy to help.]]> Sean Wilson Tue, 19 May 2009 16:06:34 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/how-the-publisher-network-works - Do you have a Twitter, Facebook or any kind of social networking account?
- Do you have a group of friends and contacts who you email regularly?

If your answer to any of those is "Yes", then you are a 'publisher', even if you didn't realise it!

As a publisher you can earn revenue by publishing or linking to Wooshii viral campaigns.

For instance - you might embed an interesting or relevant video clip into your blog, and get paid for people viewing it or clicking on it.

Or - you might send out a 'tweet' linking to a funny viral campaign, or share an amusing link with your Facebook friends. Again, you get paid for everyone who clicks through.

Once you're part of the publishing network, you'll be able to get you own unique embed/link codes for each viral campaign on Wooshii.

So if you spot a viral you think your visitors, friends or contacts might be interested in, you can share it with them and get paid for doing so!

And the beauty is, if they forward your unique link code around, you'll get paid for anyone else who clicks it too.

There's no obligation at all to publish anything unless you like it, so there's nothing to lose by joining the network.

Click here to get started by adding a website or blog

Click here to get started by adding your Twitter account

Click here to get started by connecting to your Facebook profile]]> Fergus Dyer-Smith Thu, 14 May 2009 17:10:45 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/the-wooshii-creative-questionnaire
The client wants the work doing at the cheapest possible rate, and the creative wants to earn a decent wage. What we'd like our system to do is take the stress out of this aspect of pitching for work.

The creatives need a clear idea of the client's budget before they start submitting ideas. After all, there's no point in a creative coming up with a stunning idea for a 5 minute video extravaganza if the client's only got a budget of $50.

But as we've been working on the site and speaking to brands, the general feeling is that many companies simply don't know what sort of budget they need for viral marketing.

How much should they set aside for a video clip? What would a Flash game cost? And how long will it take to make them?

These are the questions that the brands are asking, and we need to be able to give them some rough figures. We need the brands to feel confident that if they set aside a certain budget, they'll be able to get what they're looking for.

And that's why we need the help of our creatives to fill in this questionnaire.

We'd love to get your thoughts on how much you would charge for certain projects, and how long they'd take.

This will help in two ways; firstly, the brands will get an idea of costs and timescales, and secondly the creatives will know that they're going to get projects with a decent budget.

The questionnaire should only take a few minutes to complete and your answers won't be shown to anyone or displayed on the site.

Don't worry, you won't have to stick to those prices when bidding on projects! It's just an initial exercise to help us get some rough figures. Please try to be realistic - if the figures are too high, brands might be put off from posting projects.

If you've got any comments at all about the questionnaire, please feel free to leave them below, or email Fergus (fergus@wooshii.com) and he'll be happy to help.]]> James Black Thu, 14 May 2009 12:21:56 +0100 http://wooshii.com/blog/welcome-to-the-wooshii-developer-blog
The site needs to work well for everyone, and that's why it's important that we get, and listen to, all the feedback we can.

We've only got a small development team - three people: James, Fergus and Sean - and we're not backed by millions of pounds of funding... although if you've got a few thousand lying around, drop us a line and we'll send you the business plan! ;-)

The only way we're going to make this site successful is by listening to what our users think.

Since we started the pre-registration process for Wooshii a month or so ago, we've been overwhelmed by the amount of feedback we've had from the people who signed up.

Most of it has been incredibly positive, but we're also especially grateful to all the people who have taken the time to point out bugs or come up with suggestions of improvements.

That's why we're now launching this blog, so we can keep you all posted with the latest developments and get your input and feedback about what we're doing.

We've started with articles about a few of the new features - the creative questionnaire, the brand survey and the Publisher Network.

Feel free to leave us comments, questions and suggestions... they're greatly appreciated.]]> Wooshii Wed, 13 May 2009 16:23:49 +0100