Using Online Video

Lately, we have had a lot of discussion around the agency about viral campaigns: what do you do, how do you make them "viral," how much should you spend, etc. So when we find a good one, we try to learn from it. Via my Brandweek e-newsletter today, I found the Haagen-Dazs "Help the Honey Bees" campaign. I love it. The idea is simple, fun and effective. It uses a video and a microsite to deliver the message. I am re-posting the case study as written by Brandweek, because it tells the story best:

The ChallengeIce cream stalwart Häagen-Dazs was feeling the pinch when honeybees started inexplicably disappearing, since 30 of the brand's 73 flavors use honey to contribute to their flavor. Strawberry just isn't strawberry without some honey, really. So the brand decided to adopt the issue of the shrinking bee population by launching a multiplatform campaign, via Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco. The effort is designed to raise public awareness of this honeybee deficit.The PlanA two-minute video called "Bee-Boy dance crew drops dead" was introduced in July. It features a dance crew in bee outfits, doing a "bee dance" to an instrumental hip-hop track, complete with DJ, also in a black and yellow bee outfit. It was disseminated to bloggers who tended to embrace social causes and youth efforts and was introduced in chat sites as well. After all of the dancers disappear, the viewer is directed to the helpthehoneybees.com site. The Feed Company, Los Angeles, handled the viral video aspect of the campaign.The ResultsThe video generated more than 2 million views in two weeks and drew over 3,500 comments on YouTube. More than 150 blogs featured the video and it was part of over 11,000 Web forum discussion sessions. The video maintains a 4 1/2 star rating on YouTube.

I would love to know budgets for a campaign like this. If anyone has ranges, please send them my way.Enjoy the video.