I would love to say I was impressed by the winners and the runners up in the C4 Viral awards but sadly most were ideas that I've seen before elsewhere in different guises for example the Bush Bashing interactive viral and the Camel film. I did enjoy a couple of the typical 'here is what everybody knows about it but no one has visiualised it yet' executions such as Camden's signage. Some of the more original ideas in the viral arena that I liked but never made it to the competition were the work done on Peperami Noodles and the viral launch of the the XBOX 360 both had thought and innovation to the extent that you wonder whether the marketing message stacked up to the creative. For example the XBOX 360 site had coded messages in Latin that you couldn't see with the naked eye - you had to zoom in to see them then translate into English. When the countdown secret site stopped the suspense it was merely a competition to win some prizes put up by XBOX hardly original on their part just imagine if the marketing message/prize was as innovative as the viral .
Looking at the winners of the competition though the same ingredients for success in the viral executions remain unchanged: Sex, Humour, Controvesy and Firsts - not many surprises there as most just relied on the first two sex and humor. Would have loved to see more controversial stuff and a first or two. Overall I think it is great that there are now 'Viral Oscars' where digital creatives can showcase their work. Well done Channel Four.
