• by Steve Smith , Staff Writer @popeyesm, September 15, 2010

Why bother trying to win the viral ad video lottery with an effort that is most likely to gather a few thousand YouTube views when there are plenty of consistent viral winners available to be leveraged? That was one of Revision3 CEO Jim Louderback's points when I spoke to him last week on the topic of viral success. Jim tossed a firecracker into the hype-fest over viral ads that seems to have come out of the famous Old Spice Responses series over the summer. A column in Advertising Age waxed skeptical over advertisers chasing the viral monkey. Jim actually isn't opposed to all attempts at viral success. "You can do it. It just doesn't have to be the only focus." The form lacks predictability and even result, he argues. And there just are better and more reliably productive ways for marketers to spend their time and money.

Of course Jim comes at this from the perspective of a Webisodic video producer who has done an excellent job of integrating sponsors with regular programming and especially their hosts. But he also suggests that brands could just as well replicate his model by using the viral wonders that are performing consistently. "Take a look at the top 100 people on YouTube," he says. "They have a direct connection with audiences. Their comment to view ratio is really high. A brand can go in there.

And increasingly they are. As we have seen in recent months some brands are partnering with YouTube celebrities as contest judges and as traffic drivers to a brand's own video. But the offbeat rock group Weezer's master plan is among the more inspired we have seen. The band is appearing almost out of the blue in some of the most popular user-gen videos. Fred? Weezer joined him in a comedy skit.. Onision's Danger? He (??) doesn't know a single song but loves Weezer. Ray It Ain't So? Weezer appears as a video question/comment of the day asking what is the best name for a band one can think of.

This is a different sort of takeover advertising. The best thing about the integrations is that they are truly integrated in most cases. Weezer makes Danger looks like a silly fool. Weezer plays along with Fred's fantasy of becoming a rock star. Weezer is just a three-second cameo video correspondent on Ray's show. Each execution is discrete and different and generally in the spirit of the YouTube celeb's core identity.

And as has now become almost obligatory in this age of media hyper-self-consciousness, we also ge a making of video from Weezer going behind the scenes of this "Weezer YouTube Invasion." We're all media insiders now.