The Week's Best Viral Videos & Video Marketing Lessons - Guitar Gimmick Edition

It was a pretty big week for online video fans, as CES 2012 kicked off and a wave of new video gadget announcements began. We also heard some big predictions from key companies at CES, like YouTube, who said that soon 90% of all web traffic will be video. But something else happened this week that maybe didn't get as much press: brands and individuals and small businesses and artists used the power of online video to reach new fans and spread their message. Let's take a look at some of the best, shall we?

Incredible Accomplishments

Online video is at its best when it amazes and surprises viewers, and that tends to happen most often when the video contains some impressive feat or accomplishment. Sometimes it's sports related. Other times, it's artistic or heartbreaking. Or sometimes it's just a band with killer vocals and five people playing the same guitar (at the same time). It's one of my favorite videos in a long time, and it kicks off our round up this week:

I did finger painting in kindergarten... but works of art did not magically appear on my canvass. What's more impressive here in this next video... the painting, or the fact that he does it with his fingers in roughly 60 seconds?

Just because you can build a skyscraper in 15 days doesn't mean you should (translation: you will not see me inside this building):

Every time I think this volleyball volley is going to end, someone makes a dig or a save and it just keeps going... and going... and going:

Tebow Time For Online Video

If you follow the NFL, Tim Tebow has been on your radar for quite some time. But now, with his recent playoff victory, he's even more ubiquitous. Which means the online video world has decided he makes a good target.

First off, we have a song called "Tim Tebow's Fire", sung to the tune of "St. Elmo's Fire"--oh, and it's written and performed by original "St. Elmo's Fire" singer John Parr

Conan Obrien chooses not to pay the exorbitant NFL licensing costs necessary to show Tim Tebow's game winning playoff touchdown... so he recreated the moment with peanuts:

NMA TV gives us a Taiwanese animation version of the Tim Tebow story:

Branded Goodness

Lots of great branded videos this week. Some stick close to advertising convention, while others step outside the branding box a bit. Way more branded videos than normal in this week's round up, so I hope you find something good you can learn from in this group.

For one of the outside-the-box brands, I give you Wimpy's Braille burgers. To help promote their Braille menues, they created "Braille burgers," using sesame seeds on the buns. Clever, memorable, and gets their message across:

It's January, so that must mean it's time for four months of tax commercials. At least Jackson Hewitt is having fun with it this year, with a series of ads showing happy customers and employees enjoying an impromptu dance to "This Is How We Do It":

Starburst grabbed over 100,000 views for what amounts to a standard television commercial--though it is kind of humorous:

At Type bookstore in Toronto, the books come out to play at night... in stop motion:

CGP Grey is back with another explanation video, this time explaning how primary elections work:

A week or two ago we praised Price Is Right for having Snoop Dog on as a celebrity guest helping contestants (and for then riding the wave of buzz once the clip went viral), and this week they're getting a little more online video love for another celebrity appearance, this time from Neil Patrick Harris:

Movie Trailers

If I had to guess based on video views alone, I'd guess the upcoming movie release, Chronicle, is going to be an opening weekend hit:

Here's a movie trailer for director Wes Anderson's new film, Moonrise Kingdom. It looks very... Wes-Anderson-y:

Everyone has friends that have kids... thankfully, they finally made a movie about it. Here's the trailer for Friends With Kids:

Grab Bag

This is a fantastic montage of some of the impressive point-of-view camerawork from AMC's Breaking Bad over its 4 seasons:

This may be the most violent movie supercut ever: the supercut of exploding heads (WARNING: video contains exploding heads of the cinematic variety... several of them):

Perhaps the perfect companion to the most violent supercut of movies ever... is a supercut of tumbleweeds:

The Sh*t Someone Says viral video trend is hopefully nearing its close--I've been tired of it for some time now. And yet... just like the way-overdone Hitler Downfall meme... every so often another one comes along that is actually pretty funny. Not original... but funny:

What happens when you combine the free spirits of burning man with a beloved Dr. Suess book? Viral video happens, that's what.

Of all the cats on the Internet, the Russian ones seem to be up to the most no good:

Professional bowling isn't generally considered to be a very dangerous sport, but apparently it's riskier than we all knew: