When a video goes viral

Just how does a video make its way from a dusty, forgotten corner of YouTube to become an Internet sensation?

Increasingly, it's the result of a carefully orchestrated campaign by advertisers to drum up interest in their products.

As the Internet evolves into a broadcast medium, taking its place alongside TV and radio, marketers are finding clever ways to pitch their products in online videos.

Americans watched more than 12 billion videos over the Internet in May -- an increase of 45 percent from the year before. To cut through the clutter, advertisers hope to enlist a secret weapon: you.

Using a strategy known as viral marketing, advertisers are making videos so entertaining that people want to pass them along to their friends. Oftentimes, they don't even know it's an advertisement.

While the concept has been around for several years, it is starting to be embraced by organizations far away from the trendy ad firms on Madison Avenue, even ones as traditional as the Sonoma County Fair.

The Sonoma County Fair struck gold this year when online videos of its star attraction, an enormous toothpick sculpture of San Francisco, became an Internet fad.

"The videos certainly had a great impact. It encouraged people to come to the fair," said Marlina Harrison, public relations manager for the fair.

For the first time since 2001, attendance increased at the fair this year -- in part, because of the videos, Harrison said.

The neighboring Sonoma-Marin Fair also hit it big this year after deciding to add YouTube videos to its Web site. Its video about its well-known World's Ugliest Dog Contest garnered more than 100,000 views.

"We've always kind of had a sexy Web site," said Vicki DeArmon, marketing director for the fair. "But we decided to take it to the next level this year."

The ugly dog video was even picked up by Fox News host Bill O'Reilly on his popular show, The O'Reilly Factor, said Bob Kennedy, who produced the videos for both fairs.

"It's very hard to tell why people react to things like they do," Kennedy said. "But that video was very popular."

Videos as marketing

Disguised in these entertaining videos are subtle marketing messages -- from reminding people how cool the county fair is to showcasing a pair of sunglasses.

For instance, a video watched by more than 3.5 million people features a man in Los Angeles who has an amazing ability to catch Ray-Ban sunglasses on his face. His buddy throws the black Ray-Bans across their apartment, and he catches the sunglasses on his face. His buddy drops the Ray-Bans from a bridge, tosses them at a speeding car, launches them from a skateboard, and the glasses always land on the dude's face.

It is an incredible feat -- at least it would have been, if not for the fact that it was a staged performance intended to sell Ray-Ban sunglasses.

The company commissioned the video and then hired an online marketing firm, Feed, which specializes in generating buzz.

"The brand connection sometimes is very subtle," said Josh Warner, president of Feed. "It's very common that people don't even know they are being marketed to."

The Los-Angeles based company submits advertisers' videos to blogs and Web sites all over the world, hoping some will post the videos and their subtly hidden marketing messages. It then talks the videos up, taking an angle it hopes will push people into viewing them. One common talking point is to question who made the video.

In the Ray-Ban video, the fact it was an advertisement attracted about as much conversation as the video itself, Warner said. People began debating online who was behind the video. Ray-Ban eventually took credit for it.

"It's almost a game of revealing the video," Warner said. "It brings users into the conversation."

More than 90,000 viewers

Fair promoters created videos of attractions they thought would impress a wide base of viewers. Scott Weaver and his 9-foot-tall toothpick sculpture of San Francisco proved to be just the thing.

Two videos of his sculpture -- one produced by the fair and the other by The Press Democrat -- combined to draw more than 90,000 viewers online.

The video of Weaver's sculpture went viral. It first gathered steam when a popular Bay Area blog posted about it and linked to the video. Then one of the world's most popular blogs, Gizmodo.com, re-posted and linked to it.

Links to the videos now appear on more than 300 blogs -- from South Korea to Germany. A Japanese broadcasting firm contacted the Sonoma County Fair last week to buy the Japanese broadcast rights to its video.

Gaining notoriety

As the toothpick sculpture video took off, Weaver was caught off guard by his sudden rise in popularity.

"Oh my god, it's been amazing," he said. "I've never experienced anything like this in my life."

His phone started ringing off the hook, prompting his wife to refuse to answer the phone for awhile, he said. The calls were mostly from family and friends, but one was from Ripley's Believe It or Not. A manager at the San Francisco museum offered thousands of dollars to buy the sculpture, Weaver said. He declined to sell it -- for now.

The Bay Area blog that first gave Weaver and the fair widespread notoriety was LaughingSquid.com, which gets 30,000 to 40,000 unique visitors a day.

Jeff Bundschu, president of Sonoma-based Gundlach Bundschu Winery, had recommended the video to Laughing Squid's editorial manager.

"A friend sent me an e-mail with a link to the video. I thought it was totally awesome," Bundschu said. "And I thought it was something that Laughing Squid might like."

Scott Beale, who runs Laughing Squid, watched the video and decided to post it.

"If it's interesting to me, it might be interesting to other people with similar likes," Beale said.

They keep going and going and going

A few hours after Beale posted it, the video was picked up by Gizmodo.com, which is one of the world's most popular blogs.

"We read about it on another blog and felt it was worth posting," Gizmodo employee Adrian Covert wrote in an e-mail. "We posted on it not only because it was new and original, but because it's fun and a little weird."

The video of Weaver's sculpture will likely continue to gain momentum, Beale said. It still receives about 1,000 views a day.

"These things can totally take off and keep on going and going and going. He could end up on Letterman," Beale said.

Laughing Squid constantly screens content to keep from linking to marketing videos, Beale said. However, the buzz around some known marketing videos is enough to post them anyway, he admits.

"It's weird how many PR firms are sending this stuff to bloggers," Beale said.

As for Weaver, he hopes the notoriety helps land him a sponsorship with Elmer's Glue.

"People said it was one of the best possible sponsorships they could do. Because lots of these sculptures were glued 30 years ago, and they're still holding up," Weaver said.

You can reach Staff Writer Nathan Halverson at nathan.halverson@pressdemocrat.com or 521-5494.