A case study of ME, a mobile application that acts as an infotainment portal. This video shows how we were able to generate interest from the target audience to download and and register to use the free app, provided via Mobinil. It was a bit of a challenge because the app is mainly in Arabic and targets the masses, many of which are not easily accessible via social media,  and are not entirely comfortable with mobile applications.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In Egypt, some professionals in the field of new marketing jump to the conclusion that you can do almost anything with social media, but as Tarek Nasr argues in his blog post, we’re quite a distance from the new world. Having said that, I think this campaign showed that you can still make remarkable achievements. And it’s the people who decide.

Panda cheese came out with a successful advertising campaign that consists of about five commercials. The videos are on YouTube and have already received a couple of million views combined in a matter of a few days. In fact, they were handed awards from Cannes Lions.

And why wouldn’t they? The idea is courageous, some might even argue too bold (hence giving it even more value), and relatively unorthodox. They’re simply hilarious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6iHCFiSqIw

All five ads back-to-back

The campaign was created by Advantage Marketing & Advertising (who are understandably ecstatic with the award). Not only has the campaign snow-balled before the general YouTube crowd, it was actually featured by one of the most influential YouTube celebrities of all time, Ray William Johnson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFEOn-bw7JY

=3 reviews three viral videos, Panda’s ad is the last one

This is it! Egypt’s on the Social Media map! It’s refreshing, and indeed liberating, to see us break free from the self-imposed limits of lame, traditional marketing. It’s fantastic to conquer new territory, explore new terrains. It’s an inspiration to millions attempting to make it to the international scene.

Unfortunately, it has been brought to the attention of the social media enthusiasts in Egypt that there was a series of commercials that were released to the public as early as January of this year that consisted of many of the same elements that were showcased by the dairy producer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cr89xbl26g

You can watch the entire campaign by searching ‘Bruins Hockey Rules’ in YouTube

A coincidence? Possibly, but tough to swallow. Let’s recognize that besides the romantic music that kicks in as the crowd stares at the panda, the plot and storyboard are almost identical. Incidentally, the Bruins Hockey Rules campaign was not as viral (in terms of YouTube views, TV appearances is a different story).

If we were to assume that it was indeed very heavily influenced by the hockey team’s campaign, then it’s undoubtedly a heart-breaking drama. And it’s not solely about the ethics (or lack of) involved, it’s the crushing disappointment to many Egyptians and social media addicts throughout the entire Arab world that have long awaited the knight that would save the day, and be the change we want to see in our world. Why is it that, when we finally make it big, it has to be via borderline illegal approaches?

In all cases, let’s not take it all away from Panda and co. At least they were able to create a buzz, and perhaps spark enthusiasm to everyone around, inspiring them to express, produce, and share. Let it be but a bump on the road to web success.

For anyone developing or maintaining a website, embedding videos used to always be an issue. That was until YouTube became the undisputed leader for sharing videos, and embedding them in websites. Normally, using a free service with a recognizable appearance and a visible watermark, like YouTube, is unprofessional. However, YouTube has become so popular, that even the large corporations and professional entities display their clips using it.

YouTube is easy but limited

The reasons to YouTube’s success as a “video distributer” are due to the simplicity of the process, the familiarity with it by the regular users, and the relative flexibility in terms of size and appearance. Anyone can simply create a free YouTube account, upload a video, customize the interface by choosing the border color and display size, and then embed it into any website using the generated code. Seems like the ideal solution.

However, there are a number of disadvantages to the YouTube way of life:

1. The video is on Google’s server, and not yours: Even if their servers are rarely down, it’s always comforting to be in possession of your own content
2. Customization is limited: You have eight colors to choose from, and no say over the appearance of the border or controls
3. Somewhat rigid: In order to make any changes, you need to go back to YouTube, and re-copy and paste the code
4. Watermark and standard look: Nothing’s worse than having everything look the same. With YouTube, the watermark is very visible, and all of the players are virtually identical

Flowplayer: Open Source Flash Video Player

This is where Flowplayer comes to the rescue. Flowplayer is an open-source JavaScript library that allows you to embed videos in your website via a full customizable player. It is as easy as calling on the JavaScript file, inserting an <a> tag, and then indicating the properties that you want to define. This basically means that instead of uploading a video to YouTube and embedding the player, you can upload the .flv to your web server and the markup will look like this:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<head>
<!-- flowplayer scripts should be loaded from your servers NOT from static.flowplayer.org  -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="/js/flowplayer-3.1.2.min.js"></script>
</head>

<!-- some styling for the standalone page. this line can (or must) be removed -->
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/demos/standalone.css"/>

<!-- player container-->
<a href="http://flowplayer.org/video/flowplayer-700.flv" style="display:block;width:425px;height:300px;" id="player"></a>

<!-- this script block will install Flowplayer inside previous A tag -->
<script language="JavaScript">
flowplayer("player", "/swf/flowplayer-3.1.2.swf");
</script>

You can see the result here.

Notice that you call on the JS file in the <head>, and then you use the <a> to embed the player (you can also use <div>), and finally, some JavaScript to specify any attributes that you want to use.

Some of the features include:

• Embedding several videos in the same page without effecting performance
• Choosing the splash image that, when clicked on, starts the video
• Placing an image in the background, with a layer on top (ideal for a single “play” sign to be placed on any image)
• Embedding a playlist of videos
• A growing list of plugins to be used with the player
• Control such details as the fade in/fade out speed, cue points, and much more

Just by open-sourcing it (there’s also a commercial version), and allowing for the community to contribute with plugins on different levels means that the sky is the limit as far as embedding videos in websites is concerned. It might take a bit of time before it catches on with the regular users (who are very rarely willing to dig into the code), but for designers and developers, it should definitely be a tool to replace old-school video incorporation.

The website is very well designed and laid out, and the documentation is quite extensive, but it does seem to lack some usability. That is why when you first visit the Flowplayer website, you become confused as to what it is exactly, and how to works. After looking deeper, however, it has become clear that it is a very powerful tool with endless possibilities.

Last month, I posted a video about net neutrality that brought forward the serious threat facing our web. The battle is fierce at congress, with lobbyists pushing to virtually censor the internet and limit free access in support of the large corporations with dubious bank accounts, while the community of normal, everyday internet users are firm on their stance to defend what is every human being’s born right. Campaigns such as Save The Internet and We Are The Web have been successful in spreading awareness and fighting corruption. On a slightly more positive note, there has been further developments on various fronts allowing for home users to challenge cable and network television on the web.

When YouTube introduced the High Definition version of users’ videos through its website, it opened the way for millions of active members to provide users from all over the world with videos that they wanted to watch, in a much more pleasing quality. This meant that you were no longer sacrificing significant quality when you are viewing home videos. However, there was still very little competition with television channels and professional programming. The good news is that now, with YouTube, the HD quality just got better. At 850 x 480 px, the new HD quality videos are a real treat. Here’s a working example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Abt8aAB-Dr0

This is a video by the Improv Everywhere people, who are a New York-based group that go on the craziest missions throughout the city and beyond. It is a classic example of thinking outside the box, and taking the creativity to the next level. In simple words, it is a form of modern art, using the tools and services provided by our dear web.

The video is currently displayed in the traditional form. If you click on the actual screen to visit the YouTube page, you will see that it provides you with an HD option. Unlike the old days, clicking on that HD button will not slightly improve the quality, it will significantly up the resolution and size, consuming the width of the website. Go full screen, and you will completely forget that you are watching a low-budget video posted for free on the community-based YouTube. And that is precisely the beauty of the Internet.

YouTube’s new HD format means regular videos are viewed at semi-professional resolutions, closing in on the gap between the professional channels, and the people’s voice/images. Add on to that the advancements in the digital and video camera markets, and the falling prices, and you have just cooked up the perfect recipe that makes it a fair game. It has been evermore clear over the last couple of years that content provided by home users and everyday people has been claiming more and more interest and fame amongst the viewers world-wide.

Assuming that the net stays neutral, as it absolutely must, we are in for a ride, as the millions of channels of communication are allowing direct contact between internet users across space and time. With exquisite content, and now quality display, life only gets better for the lucky ones cruising on the information super highway.