Los Angeles/London, June 26, 2008 - Digital marketing and media agency The Viral Factory took home a Silver Cyber Lion at last week's 55th International Advertising Festival in Cannes. Competing with top tier agencies worldwide, The Viral Factory was honored in the Viral Video category, for a hugely successful piece created for Samsung Electronics to promote the Samsung G800 Mobile Phone. In the film, stop motion animation stick figures traverse the bodies of a guy and girl falling in love, telling the story of "How We Met." Shot entirely on the G800 and produced in a user-generated content style, the entertaining piece is a "product demo" in the purest sense of the term.

In addition to the Lion, and a Yellow Pencil earlier this year, "How We Met" earned a position on the front page of YouTube and racked up total views of 10.5 million. Upon its release on YouTube, it ranked #1 most viewed globally overall, #1 most viewed entertainment globally, #1 top favorite globally, #1 most discussed entertainment globally, #6 top rated globally, #6 most linked globally. 

The awards, accolades, and statistics serve as further evidence of The Viral Factory's uncanny balance of great creative, seeding, and consumer impact. The agency's work has landed on the YouTube front page three times in 2008, delivering its clients views in the double-digit millions from YouTube alone. For the third most popular site in the world, with 150,000 videos uploaded every day, this is no small feat.

"We are thrilled by this honor," said The Viral Factory Senior Partner Don Block, in a statement. "The award for this video in particular underscores the idea that we understand what the online audience is looking for, how to develop and execute creative, how to reach the audience, and how to get them excited about brands and products."

The Silver Cyber Lion comes just as a new video from The Viral Factory, "Drag and Drop," makes its mark on viewers. The video, also for Samsung, has been on the front page of YouTube for six days over the last two weeks, accumulating over 1 million views and counting. Another recent video featured on the front page of YouTube, "Rock Song for My Mom," for Teleflora, was also created by The Viral Factory.