Viral marketing news and other viral happenings in the Denver Metro and Boulder area.

This doesn’t really count as low-budget viral, but if you have a helicopter, Shaun White, a secret half-pipe hidden in the mountains of Colorado and crazy-good production equipment, you can be like Red Bull and dominate YouTube.  Oh yeah, and it helps if your poster boy blows everyone’s mind at the Olympics.

Everyone who wasn’t talking about Shaun White this week was talking about Boulder, after USA Today ranked it the happiest, healthiest city in the country. But lest you think it’s all sweetness and fluorescent light in the Gore-Tex Vortex, the Wall Street Jounal also highlighted the city in a story about the challenges of going green. RedState.com was happy to pick up the latter story, and lambast our hypocrisy and megalomaniacal government. In spite of our government, we are a happy people, though it is true we can be a bit hypocritical. But shame on the pundits for missing the best set-up ever for a “how-many-boulderites-does-it-take-to-screw-in-a-lightbulb” joke.

I came across this item just now, but only because I’ve had my head in the sand since the first video came out in 2006. Technologist/polymath David Terrar blogged this week about a series of videos created by Centennial teacher Karl Fisch and Iowa professor Scott Mcleod. The videos illustrate the massive impact evolving technology has had on, well, pretty much everything. And millions of people have watched them. I guarantee that the 4:45 seconds you spend watching the most recent video (below) will be more informative than the time you spend reading this post.

And the award for  ’Harnessing People’s Limitless Animal-Video Enthusiasm for Good‘ goes to the Humane Society of Boulder Valley. Their YouTube channel made it in to the top 100 most-viewed non-profit channels this week. I can see why, after watching this adorable video of Sydney the pit bull mix. The videos are a great way for prospective owners to get to know the dogs, and they help create awareness for the Humane Society. Overall, I’m really impressed with HSBV’s web efforts. For example, check out their Facebook page.

I’m honestly not sure how I feel about this story, but it seems worthy of mention. Two Boulder guys dropped out of “ad school”, whatever that is. Then they created a WordPress template site to showcase their talents and to crowdsource feedback, and they are offering a prize for people who submit comments. The site is graphically uninteresting, and the campaign ideas they are presenting would end up in the discard pile at most agencies. But what surprises me most is how anti-social the site is. You can’t see other people’s comments, there are no social bookmarks, and there is no information on the two dropouts. So the site ends up leaving me feeling cold and lonely, rather than part of a crowd.

And last but not least, here is a true story of viral media and the power of love. Or something like that. Colorado teen Conner Cordova has been stalking wooing Ultimate Fighting Championship ring girl Arianny Celeste via YouTube. For nearly six months, he has been trying to get her to be his date for the prom. And his relentlessness has paid off: she accepted! Check out the story on his site, MMAreligion.com. I’d hire Conner for my agency in a heartbeat over the two aforementioned dropouts. Kid’s got panache.

This is a weekly update, please comment if there are topics or items I have missed.

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