A pick of the most creative YouTube Stunts

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Every month, over 800 million unique users watch 3 billion hours of video content on YouTube.  In 2011, YouTube had more than 1 trillion views – which is the equivalent of around 140 views for every person on earth! More and more brands are integrating video into their online marketing strategy and creating weird and wonderful, innovative and interesting videos to raise brand awareness and create shareable content.

Some of the incredible stunts and campaigns that are being communicated via YouTube, from creating an invisible car to filling a cinema full of hairy bikers, some of the best extraordinary marketing stunts and advertisements I found on YouTube are below:

Carlsberg (Belgium) – Bikers in the Cinema

Carlsberg filled a cinema in Belgium with 148 hairy bikers leaving only two empty seats directly in the middle of the cinema. They then filmed innocent couples that were confronted with the packed cinema

Tic Tac (France) – The Worst Breath in the World

Tic Tac France filmed this flash mob video with a difference. The video shows actors asking passers-by for directions. When they respond everyone around them faints. Eventually it becomes clear that the problem is bad breath…

Improv Everywhere.com
Part of a series created for the Guggenheim Museam exhibition ‘Stillspotting NYC’ – The Sleeper Car

Improv Everywhere is a prank collective based in New York city that causes chaos and joy in public places. They have been executing several ‘missions’ across New York City from a ‘No Pants Subway Ride’ to ‘Car Alarm Symphony’.  The Sleeper Car video shows a New York subway carriage being turned into a ‘Sleeper Car’ with three beds in it, allowing New Yorkers to sleep during their commute home.

TNT (Belgium) – A Dramatic Surprise on a quiet square

TNT is a TV channel in Belgium. To launch the new channel TNT placed a large red button in a square in Belgium town with a sign that read ‘Push to add drama’ and waited to see the results.

Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra – Surprise on the Metro

The Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra in conjunction with Radio Klassisk surprised passengers on the metro by performing on a metro carriage.

Mercedes (Germany) – Invisible Mercedes

To promote the production of Mercedes first fuel cell powered car (which would have an ‘invisible’ effect on the environment by producing only water vapour and heat as emissions), Mercedes turned one side of a B-Class hatchback invisible by covering it in $263,000 worth of flexible LED mats.

Not all You Tube stunts are comical however with some brands using You Tube to shock audiences and tackle hard hitting issues. Here are a few recent examples.

VW – A Crash Course to Shine

Utilising make up tutorial ‘NikkieTutorials.com’, VW give a ‘crash’ course in applying make up.

Refuge – ‘Don’t Cover Up’ Campaign for Refuge, with Lauren Luke

The famous You Tube make up tutorial star fronted a video to raise awareness for the domestic violence charity Refuge. The ‘Don’t cover it up’ campaign was aimed at encouraging women to speak out and report domestic violence.

YouTube have found that 100 million people take a social action on YouTube (likes, shares, comments etc every week).  More than 50% of videos on YouTube have been rated or include comments from the community.

Have you seen any extraordinary YouTube stunts recently you can share?