PUMA Running has hired coBRANDiT to help distribute video and publicize content from chasingBOLT.com. chasingBOLT is a "blogumentary series" which follows PUMA sponsored 100m world record holder Usain Bolt as he travels to Beijing to compete in the 2008 Olympics. Working with our distribution partners Pandemic Labs and Involver we'll be updating various social media video channels, widgets and apps. with new content regularly for the next month, so stay tuned!
Ok folks...a breakdown of the technologies we used to vlog from WOMM-U last week in Miami. We used two cameras: a Nokia N95 8gb and a Flip Video Ultra. The N95 is a multi-functional phone/computer often billed as competition for the iPhone. It's user interface blows by comparison but it shoots very nice video and has a few video apps. available that make it a great vlogging tool. You can shoot video to memory and then send the video (we use Shozu) to many social media video sites at once with one touch of a button. I typically send videos to a couple of youtube channels, a couple of blip.tv channels, and utterz.com though there are 20+ others i could set up. Shozu uploads are limited to a 10mb file size (though direct uploads to individual sites are not). That's why we didn't use Shozu in Miami. Instead, we live streamed via Qik.
We loaded Qik onto the N95 and set up our account online. When you open up Qik on the N95 it takes about 2 seconds to load, then you hit the button labeled "stream" and there you are, live streaming to the web with a few seconds of delay. Viewers can type in chat comments and they appear on the screen of the N95 in real time. This means if I'm talking to Joeseph Jaffe (as I did at the womma party in Miami, see photo above) viewers can ask questions which appear on my screen and I can ask Joe to respond. Joe sent out a tweet to alert his audience and we were off and running. As a side note: Qik videos can be viewed or embedded in two ways: you can embed a player which shows live video whenever you go live, or you can embed and view archived streams as individual clips (like you do on youtube). Here's the archived stream created while Joe was running my N95. I had gone to get beer...
Ok, understand so far? Good. Now it's gonna get more complex...we were also using Mogulus. Mogulus allows you to produce a 24/7 video channel that's always playing a rotation of selected video. Whenever you go live (which you can do via an N95 and qik, or via a web cam like the one built into you laptop) the live stream automatically bumps the rotation and there you are. Live. Mogulus lets you overlay branding and tickers and titles and crawls, so you can apply text and images to your live feeds (and the vids in rotation for that matter). We set up a Mogulus channel for WOMM-U at mogulus.com/womma. Mogulus is set up so that multiple producers can login from remote locations. You could run a live or near live channel from different places around the world. This just in from our team in Dakar! Pretty cool. Mogulus allows chat in the same way Qik does, and offers customized embeddable players. I'm not embedding one here because they're a pain in a blog post. They're always on! They need to be on a standalone page like this one: the coB homepage.
So far so good. But it turns out that live video is hard to produce (surprise!). Easy technically, but in terms of compelling content you've got to have your interviews and situations lined up pretty well. And to get the chat going you've got to do a little pre-publicity and then run the camera for awhile to give people a chance to respond. People aren't used to live web video. The first comments we get are usually something like "Are you really live? Say hello to me if you are." To make live video work well you've got to have pre-determined go live times and you've got to stream for 15-20 minutes minimum. AND you've got to have some good content lined up. A hot interview, a sweet scenario, a crazy event, a compelling demo. Want the easy mobility of an N95 but don't need or want to go live? Want to produce video you can actually edit? Ahhhh....Flip Video Ultra.
These $140 cameras hold an hour of flash video content and produce amazingly crisp 600x480 video with good sound. The file formats can be a little wonky (.avi) but there are easy workarounds available. The converter I use is streamclip, available from apple. Here's the Flip workflow: Put it in your pocket. When you want to shoot, pull it out, turn it on and in 3 seconds you're ready to shoot. Hit the red button and you're recording, hit it again and you stop. There's a basic digital zoom that helps in some situations, but it degrades the video quality. When you've got an hour of content, flip out the built in USB and load it on to your computer. You can load on files directly (the camera functions just like an accessory hard drive) or you can edit and compress videos right on the Flip--all the software is on the camera's drive in a nifty little program that opens up on your computer screen. The way we work is to bring the files into iMovie or Final Cut Pro and edit them down a bit and add titles and music. Then we do our own compression and throw it up on YouTube or Viddler or load it into our Mogulus stream or whatever. Here's a mix we produced this way at WOMM-U. It's not live, but pretty close if you work fast and the content can better because it's edited...but you lose the live chat functionality. Though you can chat about non-live video through Mogulus if you want to.
Part of the question here is quality vs. quantity, and is live really valuable? Depends on the situation. I can certainly think of a lot of applications for live video, but you really need to do the advanced set-up, PR, and pre-production to get it to engage people and work properly. Near live like we did with the Flip worked pretty darn well, though at an event you need to set aside time for editing or be prepared to stay up late. Need more quality? That's why we aren't throwing out our nice Sony HD camera and our wireless mics...yet.
OK, this is one of our more interesting projects...Put Lynyrd Skynyrd and 4000 fans on a Carnival Cruise in the Carribean...that's the Simpleman Cruise. This vid is footage from 2008, visit simplemancruise.com for more details (and if ya like Skynyrd, sign up for 2009). We were on the boat for 4 days interviewing passengers and band members, releasing daily video over the shipboard A/V system, and gathering material for a 12 part web series to be released through fan forums, etc. As Bostonian yankees, it was quite an experience...
We're learning to build widgets on sprout's platform, here's an example we mocked up for a theoretical PUMA motorsport campaign. Widgets to me represent the ultimate viral thing for a marketer...a perfect little tranferable package...as long as you recognize that they're worthless as a stand-alone gadget. They should be treated as the interface for a much deeper experience, and an interface that provides some usefulness & utility. Pretend you're an F1 race fan, then play around with the widget above and you'll see some of what I'm talking about. Note: PUMA produces Ferrari's team gear.
I can't emphasize enough what a game changer this is. Introducing our Mogulus channel. Right now it's running youtube vids, better quality vids to follow...See Jeremiah's post on how to run live video through mogulus using a ustream account.
Communispace launched their new site today, and we're proud to play a part: we're providing the video. For the moment it's a single intro piece (as seen above), but over the next few months we'll be adding to the collection. Stay tuned.
We visit FD co-founder Richard McIntyre at the Flying Dog Ranch, Carbondale Colorado. We hear about nude romping, cattle semen, and marijuana cultivation resulting in a 1970's bust...for tax evasion. The Road Dog tells (almost) all.
We develop and implement marketing programs that utilize social media video as a tool to open channels of communication between consumers and brands. In practice, this means working with clients and their existing partners to bring brand stories to life and to make appropriate use of the insight and content that arises. This process touches on word-of-mouth marketing, brand communities, qualitative research, and advertising. Our role then is twofold:
Consulting/Project Management:
What stories to tell, and who should tell them. How to reach out to consumers and involve them in the process of brand marketing and development, and how to get brands to “open up” to this process. How to leverage this process for maximum value using both social media technologies and traditional methods, and why video is a key component. Design and management of vlogs, feeds, social media channels, etc.
Monthly retainer or short-term day rate depending on length and scope of project.
Video Production & Distribution:
We shoot, edit, package, and distribute videos designed to authentically and credibly display brands and the place they occupy in the real world.
On location day rate depending on complexity, hourly fees for editing, etc.
For questions or sales please contact Owen Mack, Chief of Strategy & Development
Download PDF of this page plus coBRANDiT background
Flying Dog Brewery, Denver Colorado. Director of Marketing: Neal Stewart, formerly brand manager of Pabst Blue Ribbon and Rainier Beers. (Here's Rob Walker's NYT article on Pabst and Neal, June 2003, here's Rainiervision, which won various awards for integration.) In his new position at Flying Dog, Neal has gotten into video.
Back in 2003 Neal sent fledgling coBRANDiT (known then as obtainium.tv) ten cases of beer in exchange for a handful of PBR neighborhood documentaries; we've been talking about social media video ever since.
But now the time time for talk is over... Neal has hired us to ramp up Flying Dog's video productions, and to help strategize uses of web video. We're flying to Denver on Monday to hang out at the brewery, in the bars, and at a lodge in Steamboat (over Superbowl weekend) with the Flying Dog crew, camera rolling at all times. Our task? To document the characters who produce the beer and exemplify the gonzo essence of Flying Dog, and then to make interesting use of the footage.
This time we get cash, as well as beer. Flying Dog, we salute you!
We recently produced Communispace's 2006 holiday "card." Documentary style set to a soundtrack... See it here.
Here's my presentation from WOMMA's Summit 2, December 11-13 2006. Most video examples mentioned can be seen on my YouTube page (or via the links below), you may also download the presentation in pdf and ppt formats.
Viral Video and Messages: Content That Gets Forwarded
How are brands and companies using web video to reach an opt-in audience?
What are the most innovative strategic uses of social media web video?
Is viral video the best video strategy, and does video need to be viral to be effective?
How does viral video tie into CGM and WOM?
What's new in video sharing technology?
You can't make a video viral; viewers can. Viral video attempts often have a TV approach: the most number of eyeballs possible, brand attributes secondary. Marketers look at CGM viral hits and want some of that. Too often this means Paris Hilton (or similar).
More recent successes have gotten smarter, more aligned with brand:
>Shaveeverywhere.com
>Dove Evolution
>Tea-Partay (maybe not smarter, but a lot more fun)
>Ecko/StillFree
>Blendtec
Why do these videos work? Outrageous/Amusing/Character driven. The product isn’t the star...a person is. There's an increasing emphesis on personal stories, storytellers. This is seen more clearly in brand vlog efforts.
>Amanda Across America
>Ford Bold Moves
>Chasing Kimbia
>DiddyTV
This type of content is potentially viral, and designed to engage a specialized audience with backstories and insider information. To generate WOM and inexpensively release info/messaging that might not otherwise get out there.
>BMW Vodcast
>Weber Nation
>Narragansett Beer Story
>Video enabled Beer Map
And then there’s CGM brand efforts, often contests. These take the form of brand asset remixes (remember Tahoe?) and original content around a theme.
>iamnotafraidofyouandiwillbeatyourass
>Follow the Finger
>Dabble
>Tokion/Dewar's
Of particular note is Current TV's V-CAM (Viewer Created Ad Message) program. Citizen producers earn $1000 or more from sponsors such as Toyota, T-Mobile, and Sony.
There are video sharing providers out there building tools to manage these contests, and in the process are creating platforms for video-enabled brand communities.
>Jumpcut
>Vitrue
>Vive Network
>Brightcove
And there are others building more general community management platforms that integrate video:
>Street Attack/Yfon's SwitchBoard
>Crowd Factory
Companies that manage brand communities have been gathering important market insights as well as generating substantial WOM messaging. As these companies move to provide their communities with video sharing tools a lot of CGM brand videos will appear.
>Expo TV
>Biore the Blackhead Slayer
Different services, different approaches: Revver, Videoegg, Brightcove allow you to attach your ad to opt-in video content. How well the ads are matched to the video? Check out Google's video AdSense program...
If you are distributing your own vid, you’ll want to look for channels that you can control:
WebVideoZone, Blip TV.
Video Search: What do you want people to find when they type the name of your brand/product/company into a video search engine? My argument: something about how your company is supporting brand enthusiasts, listening to them, and giving them voice.
Conclusion: There's more to it than viral video. Viral video is a mass market ploy that often leads to least-common-denominator tactics. Instead, do something relevant for insiders & enthusiasts. Figure out what resonates, and what your story is. Deliver that story authentically, with real voice.
That voice may be your customer's.
UPDATE: This video took about 36 hours to reach it's intended audience...Mark Hellendrung, Narragansett's CEO. He called me to say he loved the vid (except for the "worst beer" part) and to chat about social media video. We plan to meet up soon.
Shot and edited obtainium style. Testing Blip.tv.
Fashion.psfk tasked us with this investigation: Is Converse an iconic brand? Here are the results.
An overview of ihaveanidea's Portfolio Night in Boston. Portfolio Night seeks to bring advertising students and hopefuls together with creative professionals for a night of portfolio critique and business schmoozing. Many thanks to all who participated and made this happen.
Future Marketing Summit, NYC Feb 2006: Alex Bogusky of CP+B on what makes brands relevant, and his take on the future.
Mark Kingdon of Organic talks about what makes for "exceptional experience" with brands, and also about the power of video to connect with audiences. (Organic maintains a very interesting blog called three minds which they use as a platform to experiment with new technologies and methods. Any Organic employee can post.)
Nelson and his '89 Mustang. Nelson works at the local VW dealership here in Allston (Boston) but has been a Mustang fanatic for years, ever since he was a kid...but this body style only, the 25th anniversary edition. Here he describes the work he's put into it. (postscript: the car got torched last summer.)
