The ads are destroying YouTube. At least this one is. It is a video ad for sustainable energy company from Spain called Acciona. Yeah, I had never heard of them either.
The video starts with this Euro-dude in a suit starting to blow up and crack apart like he’s made from plaster. Halfway through, the actual video player crack in half, and all of the surrounding parts of the site shake and fall away, while an annoying voiceover is saying something about rebirth. I don’t know, maybe it makes more sense in Spanish.
The visual effect is interesting, but feels like a gimmick since it’s already been done before to much better effect by Nintendo. A year ago, they used the same collapsing webpage motif in a video ad for Wario Land: Shake It. At least that made sense.
YouTube is corrupted.
HAHA So true
NEVER saw something like that :O
funny… this story posted a mere two after the TwitterPeek “giveaway.”
Wieden + Kennedy produced a similar effect on Vimeo for a Honda Insight ad. I think it’s pretty effective.
http://vimeo.com/4281939
We need more creativity on the Internet. Say what you?
yeah this sounds better then those annoying mouse rollover page adverts hotmail and a few others have started using recently – they make me mad!!!!!!!!!!!!
I recognized that spooky Willy Wonka music right away. Strange.
Sounds like Clint Eastwood singing at the end of Grand Torino haha.
Cool ad though. When the shards were flying over the rest of the page was a really neat effect!
As long as these sorts of ads don’t infiltrate pages that aren’t dedicated to them I think I could grow to like them
Cool, very cool. Wish there was more of these <3.
So many spammy videos on Youtube these days!
How is it ’spammy’?
I meant to say .. “Add to that, ” many spammy videos !
yeap…thats true!
youtube…sucks… no innovation.. just stood still.. waste of time… I know at least 3 companies who will eat those guys alive…
Um, YouTube is #1 and ain’t goin’ nowhere anytime soon. Any “competitor” that has cropped up over the years (Vimeo, Soapbox, Yahoo Videos, Myspace Videos, Revver, Dailymotion, etc.) hasn’t even come close to the marketshare Youtube has.
So, “nooobss”, I very much doubt your 3 companies will have any affect on YouTube and Google’s endless supply of revenue.
YouTube retains it’s spot at #1 in terms of traffic.
Vimeo is my favorite video platform. While not exactly competitive with YouTube, they have managed to create a vibrant community of pro-am content creators. On YouTube there’s too much noise. Vimeo is a great alternative and frankly a better product.
i agree. i love vimeo and vimeo videos and the entire community. remindes me of behance and much better than etsy. i’m an artist and i find that i can get even better content on vimeo than maybe even flikr, which is shocking considering that flickr has been the palce to glean lots of free content in terms of imagery. bootb is another interesting website for artists kinda like the whole trheadless movement, but i think vimeo has the meat to win it all. i just wish they’d redesign the website.
Many Spammers are using such a video sites to promote their sites includes pornography, gambling etc…
cool, I haven’t seen anything like this before. I think it’s good that youtube is experiencing with different ad versions.
The Nintendo Wario Shaking game one was cool…but you could tell instantly that THIS wasn’t a real YouTube page. Fonts were no doubt rendered on a Mac (anti-aliasing for text doesn’t look even close for Windows) and many parts of the image looked poorly compressed/muddy.
Not at all impressed.
… yes, probably it makes sense in spanish. Doh.
Before the author tries to sound cool and goes around saying “this nobodies from Spain”, he should do a quick fact check… they have 35k employees, they are one of the biggest conglomerates in Europe… and yeah, I’m not Spanish.
Eric, it’s actually not cool to flaunt your ignorance around the web like nobody’s business. You might even risk to sound a tad racist, like you did just now.
Racist?
:eyeroll:
+1
Accciona is a BIG company. A multi billions on in EUROS.
I usually like your reporting, but in this was you failed miserably, refering to a TECHNOLOGY, infrastructure, energy and water company present in 30 countries, across five continents as a nobody.
i’m decades younger than the author, much more stupid and less accomplished and even i know about acconia. this ad sounds like something they’d do.
Agree.
It would have gotten me interested. Thats all that really matters.
yes we all have to do something http://www.yout...h?v=mI4XLhY10VA
A lot of things are getting out of control on you tube.
This is leading to down it.
The dude in the video looks a bit like “The Most Interesting Man in the World” without a beard. I agree that the video doesn’t make a whole lot of sense – it’s a shame because Acciona is a pretty legit company. They are making a huge move into the US wind farm/Solar PV market – maybe this is their way of announcing themselves to us.
they did the same with final destination 3D on break dot com… was pretty neat
I hate those ads. You can’t actually close them and they’re just a waste of time to sit through.
I hate how Youtube letting ads built into video and some of them are rather long and irrelevant! So annoying!!!
Well, recently Dailymotion did have the most intrusive ad I’ve ever seen, a video running on the whole page at the front page! With a semi-transparent effect… That was horrible…
It’s part of a Spanish campaign about a “sustainability company”, Acciona. This looks like the final chapter. They started the billboards about 3 weeks ago here in Madrid, maybe more. Of what I read, they are restructuring, appointed some new people to lead the new management units. It’s all part of their strategic reorganization which also includes a new Positioning & Branding campaign (called “Plan Re_”) and the definition of the company’s Business Plan 2009-2013.
Agree. It makes sense because is the final chapter of an ads serie.
But, not always can make ads so cool, in fact, most are smelly.
Dont worry, because i will fix that problem in a few months…
Erick,
It takes you 1 minute to do some research about Acciona. It is one of the most important energy companies of the world. And, obviously, one of the most prominent and well known companies in Spain (just like Telefonica, Repsol, Zara and Banco Santander).
Be that as it may, their creativity (or the one of their outsourced creative firm) is dubious since, as you mention ut supra, the surprise is mostly inexistent if you have already seen the nintendo ad.
The annoying voice message makes a lot of sense, since this ad (as we can see at the end) is from a Renewable Energies campaign, and that’s where Re_birth, Re_blabla… Re_you name it, fits.
Anyway, confusing, repetitive ad? Maybe. Provocative and trying-to-be-original attempt? For sure.
Best,
Actually it’s quite well done. It has delivered the message with a surprisingly nice packed video.
even if it’s not the first ad the collapses, it’s still cool.
i love it! ;D
I’m spanish and actually it makes more sense if you get to know the context…
I believe none of you would have heard about Iberdrola or any of the spanish electricity companies, this is one of them…
For a year they’ve invaded us with ad’s beginning with RE_ wich in spanish would be something like DIS_…
They’re trying to start lots of alternative energies, such as wind energy, that’s quite a summary of the context…
One thing I really hate about flash these days is that most flash developers really don’t care about how CPU-intensive there creation is.
This ad doesn’t play smoothly on a 3Ghz P4 2GB. Do I really need more power for just an animation and sound?
Good point! too much spam…
This video is awesome, say what you want. It has a good message, and analysing it from a linguistic aspect, the fall of youtube, the dust, the black background reminds me of a marxian saying:
All that is solid melts into air
No matter what your opinion may be, you took all the joy out of watching this visually compelling video by giving it all away right up front. Was it absolutely necessary to ruin it for everyone by posting the image of it?
It’s been a long time since the internet made anyone say, “gee-whiz” but for me that’s exactly how I felt. You may not have thought this earned that distinction, but I did. despite having nearly ruined it, for a lot of other people as well.
The lack of profit will destroy YouTube, not ads
It doesn’t make sense because it’s in Spanish? Way to be a citizen of the world, Erick. Kudos.
awesome… got to watch it for the first time…
That ‘old’ video is just some boxer’s promo now. LAME
Eric,
Trying to diminish someone while picking on their country and a language shared by… how many million in this world? — Kind of has the opposite effect: you are embarrassing yourself. And your credibility goes down the toilet.
Chica, no le metas tanta caña al pobre Erik, que no es para tanto…
In any case. YouTube is corrupted.
Erick, definetly, you are a racist
I don’t get ads like this – I suppose they are entertaining for 13 yr old boys but for me I can’t stand having my experience interrupted so overwhelmingly. I’m immediately against whoever the ad is for (if I even stick around long enough o find out who). My mom on the other hand just thinks something terrible has gone wrong and shuts everything down. She has the right idea. The nyt does something similar where the page splits open to reveal an ad right in the middle of what you were reading at which point I close the browser.
maybe its the opposite: the ad is meant for adults and you are a kid
We should ask Mike to lay off Erick for this! JK..
Disclosure: I’m Spanish.
From the marketing-communication perspective, I think it’s a nice ad, pretty sober and at the same time appealing to some YT watchers (the young-urban, well informed, white collar or green collar crowd.)
I’m ceo and main writer for the Spanish version of *faircompanies, a site on sustainability based in Barcelona, but also US oriented (co-founder Kirsten Dirksen is a TV producer from the Bay Area and live as well in NYC, other places.) So the issues covered by companies such as Acciona are on our alley.
I like the way Erick Schonfeld covers information, and one can see he is pretty well read and eclectic, as well as more old-school-journalist-type than others (more “youngish”) on the -pretty decent- TC team. But this time he was probably too lazy, or wanted to play the “dude” with the teenagers who visit this blog. It takes 2 clicks and 1 word on a search field to find ount, via Wikipedia, that Acciona is going to play a huge role not only in the Spanish-European green energy scene, but also in the American one.
I’d recommend, next time, to take a look at some data. Iberdrola, Acciona, Gamesa, Abengoa and other Spanish green energy companies are just too important in their field to be dubbed as “some Spanish put-word-here”.
It’s not TC’s field; that should be noted as well, but not an excuse for anybody.
Well said, that ad sparked curiosity to me, so I Googled it.
Erick,
Quit whining, k thx.
Look at this, what a interesting…
U.S. Army Selects ACCIONA Solar Power to Develop Its Largest-Ever Renewables Project
http://www.reut...2009+BW20091015
* The Army Plans to Install 500 MW of Solar Power at Fort Irwin, CA, Home of Its
Largest Training Range and a NASA Communications Center.
* ACCIONA Solar Power and Clark Energy Group`s Joint Project Represents an
Investment of Approximately $2 Billion Dollars.
* The Project is Part of a Program Aimed at Improving Energy Efficiency and
Energy Security in the U.S. Armed Forces.
—–
So… Acciona is even helping PROTECT you Erick.
every good thing must end one day
the good news is it gives opportunities for the new.
Sadly the ad doesn’t live up to the expectations I had after reading this thread.
Actually I’m pretty familiar with Acciona, even here in the US. They have a lot more alt energy initiatives going on than most of their US competitors. They will displace a lot of US energy companies unless our companies pick up their game with wind and solar.
Youtube wins in video and will continue to do so because of search. Search is the key to so many areas online, especially video. Wish Yahoo would have grasped this before they gave the golden goose to Microsoft. Youtube still has the best search for video, they won’t be unseated until that changes.
Actually I think this is very well done. Sure we have seen stuff like this in the past, so what?
Also that page is specifically for Acciona, it’s not a Ad that takes over someones page So how is this a problem?
Sounds like you just have a problem with YouTube in general. It’s a FREE service!
http://www.yout...h?v=6-JQhnkfn_A
Why see ads when you can block em?
Adblock plus comes in handy.. suprised not alot of people have it, hey its up to you if you wanna see ads or not.
The funny thing is that Erick has thrown this hardball and now doesnt show up. What a coward
The guy in the video is English and I recognise him from an Irish TV show called The Clinic. He plays a plastic surgeon. I just googled him and his name is Dominic Mafham
I hope the cracking part does not also crack the comments since I usually just read the comments to see if the video is worth watching if there are ads, or if the video is particularly dull to see if some one say go to X:XX there is a good scene. Sounds rather annoying after seeing it once.
It’s interesting. Why not?