Viral Videos = Revenue?

Before last week I thought of viral videos as low quality home movies, such as Evolution of Dance and Charlie Bit My Finger. Mike and Chris proved that this could not be further from the truth. Not only does Funny or Die have a production studio that produces twenty-five original videos a month, there is a long list of celebrities waiting to get into its studio. Celebrities such as Zach Galifiankis, Mike Tyson, and Michael Cera have all showed interested in taking part in online videos. Mike pointed out numerous times that Funny or Die presents a quick and fun opportunity for upcoming and established celebrities to get free publicity. Despite the great support, some actors still see internet shorts as taboo to a Hollywood career. Another aspect that I found interesting is many of FOD’s videos incorporate product placement. Companies approach Funny or Die to create a short video using their product in a comedic fashion. As Chris pointed out, this formula works great for FOD but is ineffective for the majority of amateurs creating viral videos. The other major revenue stream for the website is advertisements. I was intrigued that Mike spent more time talking about product placement that he did about traditional forms of advertisements, which may suggest that the former is a more effective advertisement strategy.