Geo-locational services tie the link between digital and offline: Unlike a Facebook fan or Twitter follower, you actually know when a geo-location user has entered your store or other target location. All geo services rely on users "checking in" to physical locations where (depending on service) they can find other users, append data (tips, posts, pictures, etc.), find out about local happenings, and earn points. The top geo-location services include elements of game play into their offerings; savvy marketers are creating new experiences for these environments and driving foot traffic, earned media, and word-of-mouth. The top two geo-location services for marketers seem to be Gowalla and Foursquare, but others have more users and Facebook is poised to enter the fray.

How does it work? Gowalla (250k users, Austin TX based) and Foursquare (1.1mm users, NYC based) have reward systems in place whereby users earn "badges" or "pins" or titles (such as "mayor"). Badges, pins, and titles are so far not officially redeemable for anything, but business are beginning to create incentives and rewards for users to check in and earn these honors.

Current mktg. uses in Foursquare include:
--Branded badges: Earned (or “unlocked”) with a certain number of check-ins at given locations, showing a badge may result in a special gift, experience, or bragging rights.
--Rewards for Mayors: Mayors are top location visitors, and may be comped meals or allowed past the velvet rope, etc. Bragging rights are also hotly contested!
--Check-ins often prompt a special offer (discount, glass of champagne) that may be broadcast to friends (either through Foursquare or twitter/facebook/etc.)
--Somewhat random give-aways to users who check-in: gear, special invite, etc. (choose a well-known blogger for greater spread, this takes coordination).
--Foursquare allows “tips” to be included in location info, retail stores seed their locations with tips, facts, stories. They also use the “to-do” function to drive traffic to other venues or provide fashion pointers.
--The “Swarm” badge is tough to unlock...50 people need to check in simultaneously. Create an opportunity for people to earn the badge, PLUS get some sweet special.
--Lucky magazine has gone heavy into Foursquare. Are they your demo? Partner with them or a similar tuned-in property to offer promotions or sneak peaks at new gear/demos/behind-the-scenes.
--Leaderboard sponsorships: Leaderboards show top activity in a given market. In November ‘09 Pepsi sponsored the NYC leaderboard to raise $$ for a non-profit. At the time Foursquare users in NYC generated some 150k points on the leaderboard, Pepsi donated 4 cents per point to charity.
--Jimmy Choo ran a treasure hunt in London. Shoes were left at specific locations and users were sent out to find them. Finders keepers! Great press and WOM virality.
--Diesel ran a more sophisticated campaign in NYC to promote a sale at it’s flagship store: Users who checked in within a 3 block radius of the store were notified of the sale. Users who checked in at the store received a free t-shirt and were invited to participate in the Be Stupid campaign.
--Coach Men’s Store Cologne Giveaway: For opening weekend of their Men’s Store in NYC, Coach gave away free cologne ($85 value) to the first 200 customers who checked into the store. 10% of the traffic to the store that weekend came with Foursquare check-ins.
--MTV has set up “celebrity mode” Foursquare accounts that let fans know where reality stars are temporarily located. Great word-of-mouth, great turnouts.

Articles on specific campaigns run on Foursquare:
mashable.com/fashion-foursquare-diesel
mashable.com/2010/04/foursquare-jimmy-choo
mashable.com/fashion-location-based
mashable.com/foursquare-brands
http://ht.ly/1SHnH (21 case studies, Foursquare, Gowalla, Whrrl, and MyTown)
blog.foursquare.com/as-you-may-know-every-checkin-on-foursquare

Possible issue: Foursquare relies on user input for physical address locations. People game the system by entering addresses they're not actually at, thereby claiming false points/mayorships and creating user outrage. In comparison, Gowalla locations are gps based, this makes it easier to check-in, and you can't cheat on your location.

Gowalla allows virtual goods to be left or "dropped" at locations, and then picked up by others, kind of akin to virtual geocaching. Histories attach to these items (user X dropped item Z here yesterday). Branded virtual goods can be redeemed for real goods.

Possible business uses include scenarios such as: Retailer creates a virtual item and seeds it in various physical locations. It can be redeemed only on a given day. Gowalla sends out an announcement to its’ users, and then everyone goes to retailer on that day and gets the item or experience.

Like Foursquare, Gowalla offers custom event and place stamps (instead of badges) which show up in “passports”. Holders of these custom pins and stamps may show them for special treatment of some kind. Gowalla also allows brands and users to set up “trips” that guide others from one place to another. Pub crawl? City hot spots? Completing a curated trip and gathering all the stamps could earn the user gear or some other reward.
techcrunch.com/gowalla-business-models

FWIW, Foursquare seems to have more WOM virality, more discussion and updates (via twitter, Facebook) and is the darling of the SXSW crowd, but many think the Gowalla user interface is better. Both services are used almost exclusively on iphones, though android apps exist with others in the pipeline, notably for BB. If one of these services was used for a temporary event/location it would be smart to move users/the experience to a local, more permanent spot when the temporary event closes. Foursquare and the others are beginning to mine user data on behalf of brand marketers, creating a new, physical graph of customers and their movements.

Other Geo services include:

Brightkite, 2mm users:
Brightkite is less reward focused, and seems primarily geared to pure social networking, with location based photo and text posting and none of the game play of Gowalla and Foursquare. However Brightkite does offer “local promotions” and has signed up 100 plus brands to drive traffic and offer rewards in local stores: They just inked a deal for all 11,000 Starbucks locations, and have begun offering Starbuck’s badges like Foursquare. They also recently launched the nation's first augmented reality ad campaign with Best Buy: point your phone at a participating store, and receive special location-based offers. Brightkite is working with Layar, a technology which lets users see posts and comments thru their phone cameras overlaid on real world landmarks.

marketingvox.com/twitter-brightkite-push-ar-closer-to-mainstream
techcrunch.com/brightkite-2-million-users
thenextweb.com/fly-a-brightkite-into-a-starbucks-near-you

Loopt, 3mm users:
“Before there was Foursquare or Gowalla, Loopt was the original smart phone service for sharing your whereabouts with friends. The point is to let buddies know where you are so that they can join you, and to find hour-by-hour listings of all the cool stuff going on in your neck of the woods. However, while you can check in to locations, rewards are limited to coupons from nearby retailers.” Not user-editable, no game mechanics. laptopmag.com/loopt.aspx

Whrrl, ?? users:
“Whrrl is all about communities of people inspiring each other to take real-world action, and we’ve thought deeply about how to channel that for causes...At the core of Whrrl are Societies, groups of people who check in to the same kinds of places, who care about the same kinds of things. The whole experience is wrapped in an “influence” game, in which you gain points based on how successful you are at inspiring others to do your real-world recommendations. As you gain points, you level up in your Societies, and that unlocks higher-level “Social Offers” from merchants as well as special privileges in Whrrl.” Yet Whrrl lacks compelling case studies, and has changed it's business model and communications a few times in the last couple of years.
techcrunch.com/whrrl-3
blog.networksolutions.com/whrrl-increases-the-gamesmanship-of-location-based-services-by-inspiring-your-real-life-friends

MyTown, 2mm users:
Real estate based, MyTown is “like monopoly in the real world”. Check-ins at physical locations earn points which can be used to buy or improve properties (and ultimately towns). A MyTown user could “own” a given retail store, or stores. The more improvements to a piece of property you “own” the more rent (points) you make when a user checks in. While there are virtual goods exchanged by users, MyTown is more purely game based, there’s less of a social aspect: people play for the points, not for the community or for real-world rewards. It’s been called “the Farmville of location-based gaming.” See techcrunch.com/mytown-3

Facebook Geo: Massive potential, currently not available. Could launch any day or not for awhile. Much speculation as to whether Facebook Geo would play nice with other platforms or destroy them. See this AdAge article.

FYI Foursquare is hosting global MeetUps on June 16th...check it out and get involved here. Cheers!

The Brief:
In early 2009 PUMA began moving heavily into social media. Most PUMA brand pages were turned into blogs (PUMA Running, PUMA Ocean Racing, etc) and PUMA began developing presences in Facebook, Twitter and others while utilizing a range of social tools and platforms. How to make sense of this new space, properly manage communities and technologies, vet research and new partners, calculate ROI, and use the knowledge to improve programs, create value, measure performance and make sales?

coBRANDiT's Role:
Since February 2009 we have partnered with PUMA on a retainer basis to assist with program and platform development, research initiatives, and other projects related to the socialization of their business. Working out of their international office in Boston, we are continuing in this capacity through 2010. Specific projects to date include:

PUMA Football: Develop iPhone and BlackBerry mobile apps, technology and feeds. Assist with football content strategy, mobile and otherwise, surrounding African Cup of Nations and the 2010 World Cup. Get the iPhone app here.

PUMA Ocean Racing: Video distribution research & recommendations. Extensive platform set up and maintenance, including facebook, twitter, blog functions.

PUMA Running: Set up facebook page, manage Street Meet PR and limited advertising through facebook. Video production & distribution surrounding Street Meet. Develop and execute award winning Usain Bolt video distribution program (see case study here).

Ongoing research: The social media/WOM ROI question: Assigning value to fans/friends, figuring out market mix/word-of-mouth valuation methodologies, making research recommendations. Assist in vetting monitoring solutions, develop questions/analysis surrounding research results.

Monthly pull of comparative statistics for facebook, twitter, and youtube channels, competitive research. Ongoing research into ramifications of facebook platform updates and the effect on fan growth. Ongoing research and recommendations re: facebook app developers and use of dashboard management systems. Assist in vetting platform development proposals and composing strategy & budgeting docs.

PUMA Golf: Video production, tee-off party. PUMA City: Develop and populate elements of facebook page. Tretorn: Video distribution, optimization, & reporting. Sergio Rossi: Video distribution & optimization. Alexander McQueen RAW POWER: Analysis and recommendations related to video editing contest.

Research/expose "black hat" video distribution techniques (Findings were presented in our WOMMA Webinar, click here for deck).

Research/recommendations: 1) Brand presence/best practices in Orkut for S. American audience. 2) Marketing uses of mobile "Check-In" sites: Foursquare, Gowalla, etc. 3) Analysis and recommendations related to brand uses of photo sharing and archiving sites such as Flickr, Photobucket, etc.

Create blogger outreach master list by brand: Research existing resources/contacts and recommend new ones when appropriate.

We will continue to post examples of our PUMA work here in the months to come. Thank you PUMA for the opportunity to be a part of your team!

All three services rely on users "checking in" to physical locations where (depending on service) they can find other users, append data (tips, posts, pictures, etc.) and earn points. Gowalla and Foursquare have reward systems in place whereby users earn "badges" or "pins" or titles (such as "mayor"). Badges, pins, titles and points are so far not officially redeemable for anything, but business are beginning to create incentives/rewards for top users to check in. Brightkite is less reward focused, but recently launched the nation's first augmented reality ad campaign.

Current marketing uses in Foursquare include branded badges (earned with a certain # of checkins at given locations, showing badge may result in a special gift or experience) or rewards for mayors (mayors are top location visitors). In November 09 Pepsi sponsored the NYC leaderboard to raise $$ for a non-profit. Leaderboards show top activity in a given market. At the time foursquare users in NYC generated some 150,000 points on the leaderboard. Foursquare also allows TIPS to be included in location info, these tips could be sale items or other current specials. Gowalla has no such feature, though it does feature a type of virtual gifting that could be useful.

Possible issue: Foursquare relies on user input for physical address location. People game the system by entering addresses they're not actually at, thereby claiming false points/mayorships and creating user outrage. Gowalla locations are GPS based, this makes it easier to check-in, and you can't cheat on your location. It also allows virtual goods to be left or "dropped" at locations, and then picked up by others. Histories attach to these items (user x dropped item z here yesterday). Possible business uses include scenarios such as: Starbucks pays Gowalla X dollars to create a (R)ed item you can only pick up at a Starbucks on Y day. Gowalla sends out an announcement to its’ users, and then everyone goes to Starbucks.

Gowalla offers "pins" instead of Foursquare's "badges"...presumably branded pins could be produced...how would this differ from a virtual good? Pins would live with a user as long as they had their account and wouldn't be spent or dropped. Foursquare has more WOM virality, more discussion/updates via twitter for ex. and is the darling of the SXSW crowd (FWIW), but many seem to think the Gowalla user interface is better (both services are used almost exclusively on iphones, though android apps exist with others in the pipeline, notably for BB) If one of these services was used for a temporary event/location it would be smart to move users/the experience to a local, more permanent spot when the temporary event closes.

Then there's Brightkite...who recently launched the US's first AR (augmented reality) ad campaign with Best Buy. Unclear how this works within Brightkite's interface...Brightkite is working with Layar, which lets users see posts and comments thru their phone cameras overlaid on real world landmarks. Brightkite seems primarily geared to social networking, with location based photo and text posting, and none of the game play or potential marketing elements of Gowalla and Foursquare (with the exception of that AR ad play of course...)

These services tie the link between digital and offline: Unlike a Facebook fan, you actually know when a Gowalla or Foursquare user has entered your store or other target location (unless they're cheating of course...) Foursquare (and presumably Gowalla) are beginning to mine user data on behalf of brand marketers. Interesting articles on the space include:

Techcrunch: Gowalla business models
Pete Cashmore on Foursquare
Brightkite's AR solution
MarketingVOX on Brightkite and AR

Last Friday the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) awarded coBRANDiT client Daily Grommet with a 2009 Commendation of Excellence in the Corporate Media Creation category. This award recognizes our innovative use of video in Daily Grommet's social media powered e-commerce site, and is a reflection of the Grommet team's willingness to experiment with new forms of video production. From their award application:

"Video production is handled by coBRANDiT, they've proven to be wonderful partners able to adjust to our changing needs. They built us a basic in-office studio, provide professional 1 and 2 camera HD shoots on a weekly basis, got us started with Flip video cameras (plus assistance, training, and a tip sheet for new users), manage regular ooVoo video chats, and generally counsel us on content development and continuous improvement, all while handling daily editing of the content that floods in. Our videos now consist of a mix of studio content as well as material shot by our office staff, Grommet creators, and assorted family and friends. coBRANDiT sends us finished, compressed videos in the 2 formats we require and provides ongoing strategic assistance related to video distribution."

Congratulations to the Daily Grommet team, and thank you for bringing us along on the ride! Read more about our work with Daily Grommet here, or click on over and see it live at DailyGrommet.com. Watch the vid below for Daily Grommet's take on "citizen commerce":

A 2 part interview we shot at WOMMA's WOMM-U last spring: Above, Chris Pan discusses: Achieving goals via WOM | Facebook page as a voice | The engagement factor | Walls, tabs, microsites | Lenny Kravitz on Facebook | Tags | Brands with low follow rate | Quantifying business results. Part 2 is below.

In part 2 Chris talks about: Fan pages as an authentic voice | Brand fan pages by fans | Content is king | What people want to hear vs. what you want to tell them | Facebook marketing solutions | WOM is long term | WOM works best when integrated with social media.

Orkut 101: Orkut is a community platform owned by Google. They just launched a redesign today (10/29) that makes it much more Facebook-like, though currently limited to invite only so it's unclear how functions work. Every profile has the ability to promote text, photos, video. Options are pretty basic. Orkut is best known for Brazilian penetration but India is also big. Both countries are battling fb which just surpassed Orkut in India, Orkut just disabled friend exporting in an attempt to stop fb migration.

Brand mktg. in Orkut emphasizes targeted ad promotions underpinned by adsense (and brand widgets/experiences built on Google's opensocial platform, there are currently approx. 6k apps. in the directory). In Aug. 09 Orkut launched a StumbleUpon type ad promotions service whereby users vote an ad/video etc. up or down and spread it that way or not...it's called Orkut Promote (see this press release) Brands have to pay...it's not free. Best description of the system can be found here.

Other viral elements include embedded html in scrapbooks, or "scraps" which can be shared across networks (kind of like a widget). Functionality/presentation is limited. Branded communities do exist, but they pale in comparison to fb pages, for ex. see this MTV experience. If you're a big brand there are a number of rogue brand pages ("communities") you could engage, but the level of traffic/activity is often somewhat low. Beyond communities Orkut doesn't seem to offer varied advertising options similar to Facebook’s sponsored groups, social ads, pages etc.

Best practices at this point seem limited to:
1) Monitoring & engaging users on brand community pages (SOP for social media), though this will be complicated by any existing rogue pages. Can or should this be addressed? How to establish an authoritative brand voice if rogue pages exist?

2) Launching adsense programs, targeted ads, scraps widgets, custom apps. and/or Orkut Promote programs. This is simply going down the advertising road...really a similar strategy in many ways to Facebook, but with more limited options and in Portuguese. What are the ramifications of trying to poach Orkut community members and move them into Facebook?

Heidi Browning of MySpace talks about: Harness your advocates | Finding brand friends on MySpace | Hyper-targeted advertising | Advertising engagement | What is the impact of advertising in a social networking environment | Cultivation of creativity, that's what MySpace is all about | Creators and social activities | Cherry Coke example | Creating closed/private communities | Apply social learning to future campaigns | Video shot by coBRANDiT at WOMMA's WOMM-U conference, May 2009, Miami Beach, FL

What constitutes success in the world of B2B video? Is it view count? Comments? Embeds? SEO results? How do we measure engagement? This deck examines successful examples of video usage in the B2B environment, and compares B2B video with B2C. This deck was originally presented at The Conference Board, NYC, October 16, 2009. For more detail please contact Owen Mack, coBRANDiT.

We turned this vid around in 24 hours last week, with a b-roll package delivered same-day to local news outlets. From the press release:

Celebrating 80 years, Ocean Spray transformed Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots, into a sea of glimmering red cranberries for the cooperatives Patriot Place Bog. The 1,500 square foot, free-standing cranberry bog contains more than 2,000 pounds of Ocean Spray cranberries designed to recreate the beauty of a cranberry harvest.

The Patriot Place Bog kicked-off a weekend of activities with Ocean Spray's first ever Tailgating Recipe Contest judged by Ming Tsai. Three finalists were selected to compete in a head-to-head cook-off for the title of Unofficial Official Tailgate Recipe of the New England Patriots on October 15.

Find the winning recipe Grilled Bacon Apple Bites with Chunky Cranberry Spread and other game day favorites at OceanSpray.com.

Facts on FiOS: Blogger demo at Gillette Stadium, Foxborough MA. We put this piece together in 24 hours as part of Verizon's effort at FactsOnFiOS.com. Verizon invited local bloggers to Gillette Stadium to check out FiOS's advanced features, we captured the session and blogger feedback for online distribution (part of a national series of blogger demos).

Here's a compilation of the Q&A from the video distribution webinar we recently ran on behalf of WOMMA. Thanks again to all who participated, and if you have further questions don't hesitate to get in touch.

Q: Basic question: What is the optimal place for your video to reside (generally)? On your site, on YouTube, both, etc.

A: There really is no one "best place", though there may be places that drive more traffic than others based on your use of the social web. In practice, many of my clients place their vids on youtube (and perhaps a few other video sharing sites) and then embed the vid in facebook, their site/blog, etc. and then tweet about it or otherwise publicize it. Kinda depends on what you're trying to achieve with the video, and where your audience resides.

Q: Do you convert all video for IPOD downloads?

A: We do not convert video for iPods unless we believe there is a good reason to. The fact of the matter is that getting your vids set up to run in iTunes is kind of a PIA, and unless you're producing a stream of content it really makes no sense. Discovery is tougher in iTunes, so you really have to market your channel aggressively. Furthermore, iPhone users can watch on YouTube already, so they're covered. I think iPod conversion makes sense if you're making vids that really are about portability, like a city travel guide or something that people would need to have with them.

Q: Do you know of any media companies effectively using video to retain/gain audience?

A: Of the big media co's i think NBC is the leader. The example I used in the webinar is the site/content they've built around Heroes: Check it out. You've got to dig around a bit but they've got different levels of content for different levels of interest. I think this is a strategy that could work for any brand/company using video. Here's an interview on the subject we did w/ Matt Allen, the guy behind NBC's digital strategy.

Q: Is there any way to get Street Team Flip video content to download to an office a few hundred miles away?

A: There are license-able platforms available for sharing internal video on a large scale (see VidiTalk for ex.), or you could set up an FTP hub for street teams/editors to use. In practice we use yousendit.com which can be a hassle content management-wise but is fast and cheap.

Q: I'd like to some tips for shooting good video...it appeared on one of the slides.

A: If you're doing Flip vid/street team work you might be interested in our shooting tip sheet:
Check it out here, there's a download-able .pdf at the bottom of the post.

Q: If you have a video posted on YouTube, which is off your site or on a blog, how do you generate a click through to your site? (Since you can't post an actual clickable link on a youtube video). Is it simply them reading the web address on the title of the video and typing it to their browser manually?

A: Yes, if the vid is embedded in some site/location where you have no control over the related text or metadata that's about it. YouTube viewers have to see the title and then manually enter it. But if you're open to using another video sharing platform you can embed a clickable link. See Viddler for ex. Viddler allows you to insert clickable links and messages in the time line. Pretty cool feature, and returns great SEO results.

Q: Is it a good idea for businesses to accept friend requests from individuals on Youtube?

The answer depends upon whether you want to actively engage YouTube viewers in that way or not, and i would advise you to treat YouTube community members the same as any other community platform you may be engaged in (twitter, facebook, etc.) Friending people in any of these environments can help you get your message out, but it does potentially open you to spammers or worse. It's really a community management function, many companies create basic guidlines and have their PR/mktg department monitor comments and friend requests uniformly across a variety of channels.

Q: I'm looking to create a video contest, how do you suggest getting consumers to submit video, social, TV, or radio or all of the above?

A: This is a biggie for which i have no short answer besides: Make the reward good, focus your message, and be prepared to actively market the contest thru paid placements and vigorous community management/outreach. It helps if your contest/promotion is about something that has an enthusiastic, technically savvy fan base. Contests are notoriously tough to get traction with. It's usually music acts that are successful, or mass culture efforts around movies or something.

Q: My blip.tv account was deleted for "advertising." I know that this is one of the sites supported by tubemogul. Should I go back into all of my videos and remove any traces of my company's name, contact number, email, etc?

A: Different sites have different policies concerning the types of content they will support. Blip.tv is particularly focused on episodic, storytelling content and "shows", their business model depends in part upon selling video ads within a popular series. While Tubemogul supports numerous sites, not all of them are appropriate for all types of content. (Tubemogul is a service for batch uploading video to numerous sites simultaneously). I wouldn't worry about cleaning titles, etc. from your videos on other sites. There are plenty of options for free video hosting out there, if one site has a problem and you can't use it, no big deal.

Q: Are any of these "Video Widgets" open source or are they all custom/paid?

A: One good widget building solution I have used is SproutBuilder. Not really open source (or free) but it is inexpensive and very flexible. It's basically a WYSIWYG editor that allows you to build multi-functional widgets, with or without a video component. Sharing features are handled by Gigya/Wildfire, so you can buy paid placement for your widget through their network if desired.

Q: Demographic stats on YouTube (as shown in your example)...do they cost anything?

A: No, they're free. Check "Insights" related to your channel (also available from your "my videos" page), see also the "Statistics & Data" drop down under your individual videos.

Q: How do you get a video featured on YouTube or another video sharing website?

A: Each site has their own methodology for picking featured videos. Some of them are paid, some of them adhere to an algorithm (typically a mix of views/velocity/engagement), some rely on human editors. Such is the case with YouTube. YouTube has 10 people sitting in a secret bunker in an undisclosed location making decisions on what to feature. There is no way to game YouTube's featured front page vids.

That's it. More questions? Get in touch with coBRANDiT!

Related Links: Webinar Q&A Re: Video Distribution, Jeben Berg of YouTube on How to Make Your Videos Successful, Flip Video Shooting Tips for Distributed Production Teams and Novices, Matt Allen of NBC on their innovative online video approach: They give their stars Flip-type cameras for use back stage. coBRANDiT's Capabilities and Case Studies, Get In Touch With coBRANDiT.

Here's a great interview we shot at the last WOMMA event. Jeben is Google/YouTube's lead creative for cross platform solutions (he actually has a two-sided business card!) and in this vid covers partnering w/ top producers, buying search, linked multiple vids, and other tactics to get your videos out there.

We're presenting a webinar this Wednesday as part of WOMMA's ongoing series. For more deets and to register check http://tinyurl.com/wommavideo.

Video Distribution: 5 Key Elements
This webinar will be a discussion of video strategy and distribution techniques, from the basics of uploading & optimizing to outreach, promotion, measurement, and content development. Learn some tips, bring your questions, and be prepared to re-think your assumptions as we break down the components of a successful video program.

An interview we shot for WOMMA last spring: Geoff Donaker, COO of Yelp, talks about WOM and social media, the importance of joining the conversation, and why it's probably not a good idea to pay your mother-in-law for dinner. Make sure to attend WOMMA Summit '09 this November...
co-sponsored by yours truly, coBRANDiT.

A little action we shot last month. For more see PUMArunning.com or PUMA Running on facebook. coBRANDiT is assisting PUMA Running with social media content development and outreach.

Jesse James fakes his death for Spike TV?

Over the past seven years we've produced hundreds of videos for brands, agencies, and organizations of all sizes. Interviews, behind-the-scenes, research, event coverage, PR and sales: check. Live streams, mobile, HD, all sorts of distribution deals, channel optimizations & uploads...yup. Using video in Facebook, on YouTube, behind a firewall, or in some weird specialized forum known only to you and your customers? No problem. Did your street team shoot a bunch of flip video? Need help cleaning it up? Need help improving? Call us. We design and manage programs leveraging events and distributed video teams too. Our work is about real people and real products in real places: context and authentic voice are key in social media.
Check out our case studies here.

MENU OF SERVICES

1) Video Production. Professional one and two camera HD shoots with clean sound, lighting. Shooting, editing, packaging. Music direction & rights (if req’d). Event coverage, interview series, behind the scenes, how-to’s, product demos, qualitative research, pitch videos with the emphasis on voice and story.

2) Distributed Video Production Teams. Working with Flip-type video content shot by amateurs, street teams. Development, set up, and management of program, "cleaning up" amateur content with edits, titles, transitions, packaging elements. Providing guidance/shooting tips to teams to maximize quality of content.

3) Live Video, Video Chat. Live event streaming, interviews, multi-person video chat with viewer text chat alongside, moderation. Streams can be archived and edited for later use.

4) Distribution.
a) Multi-channel profile creation and uploads with optimization for discovery and SEO. If authorized we can upload to designated brand channels (Facebook, etc.)
b) High visibility placement on targeted video sharing sites and blogs. Guaranteed user-initiated views.
c) PR and outreach, channel management. Monitoring and responding to comments, friend requests, etc. Locating relevant channels and individuals and working to engage them with video content.
d) Full reporting on all of the above.

5) Street Teams, Alternative Media. Need something to happen in a number of markets simultaneously? Parties, events, product intros, street teams, flyers, wild postings, etc. with a video component.

6) Custom Applications and Code.
a) Facebook fan page modifications and apps. that enhance visibility, pass-along, and growth. Ask for details.
b) Mobile video and video sharing applications/integration.
c) Cross Platform Video Widgets and White Label Players. Highly customizable. Get your content out to 25+ social networking sites in a player with your branding and links. Guaranteed installs available.

7) Social media ad networks. Drive traffic to your video or fan pages. Deep Experience. Full reporting.

8) Consulting. Take advantage of our experience working on high profile projects for PUMA, GM, Proctor & Gamble, ADA Midwest, Boston Coach, Flying Dog Brewery, Pabst Brewing, Gyro Worldwide, Cutwater, Ogilvy PR, Weber Shandwick, WOMMA and others. Utilize our contacts and our wide network of production partners with deep experience in social media, word-of-mouth, and event marketing.

Monthly retainer for long term project management and consulting. Day rate and hourly fees for short term projects. Final prices depend on length and complexity of project, activation components, number of markets covered, and deliverables.

For more information please contact:

Owen Mack, Strategy & Development
617.823.9286 direct
owen@cobrandit.com

Download our Capabilities .pdf

Jesse and I will be shooting video at PUMA Running's Street Meet Boston this weekend. Street Meet is what you get if you drop a come-one-come-all track meet into a Jamaican street carnival, and add in international stars like Usain Bolt. Street Meet Boston is stop one on a 6 city international tour.

coBRANDiT is working closely with PUMA Running on video production, social media optimization, and community outreach surrounding Street Meet and other running initiatives.

coBRANDiT | 119 Braintree Street #516 | Boston, MA 02134 USA (map)
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Owen Mack, Chief of Strategy & Development | View Owen's profile
617-823-9286 direct | owen@cobrandit.com | facebook | twitter: @cobrandit

Jesse Buckley, Director of Production | View Jesse's profile
617-388-8165 direct | jesse@cobrandit.com | facebook | twitter: @jessebuckley

"Whether they admit it or not every team has a guy who loves to take his clothes off. PUMA's guy just happens to be bowman Casey Smith. When rounding Cape Horn, Casey promised to round in the nude. As you will see, he kept his word..."

coBRANDiT is working with PUMA Ocean Racing for the next 7 months, helping to engage audiences through social media.

Facebook has just re-designed the functionality of branded fan pages. Here's what you need to know, courtesy of Jamie Tedford's Brand Networks, Inc.

Jesse and I launched a new Twitter channel yesterday: http://twitter.com/FlipHowTo. We'll share tips, tricks, and our experiences using these cameras personally and professionally. While they have their faults, these little cameras have revolutionized video production...and make the kind of marketing Jesse and I have always dreamed of possible. If you have questions get in touch, or drop #fliphowto into a tweet and add your 2 cents! For more Flip info and a downloadable tip sheet, see this post.

The Brief:
With the return of legalized absinthe to the US market Austrian distiller Fischer Schnaps began importing Absinthe Mata Hari in late 2008. Partnering up with marketing agency the Brand Action Team, Fischer Schnaps launched a campaign to introduce this "mixable absinthe" to communities of cocktail enthusiasts in key markets. Reaching out to noted cocktail bloggers, the Brand Action Team began sponsoring drink nights at local wi-fi enabled bars: mixologists meet to develop original recipes based on Absinthe Mata Hari, and share the results via live chat. But how to publicize this activity, put faces to names, and get out the word on absinthe's return to the US? And how to give the bloggers valuable content that would highlight their original creations?

coBRANDiT's Role:
Armed with a single Flip Mino HD camera, coBRANDiT documented the January 22 drink night session at Washington DC's Tabard Inn. The resulting video introduced chat room participants, provided links to their blogs, and contextualized Absinthe Mata Hari in the cocktail scene...as well as showcasing the top drink creations. Within a few days of the event we distributed the video on a variety of platforms and sites, with the Brand Action Team handling outreach and commentary. A "basic training" component was built into the project, with the goal of seeing what could be done with simple tools...the ultimate intention is to have reps. in local markets documenting events with Flip cameras and sending raw content to coBRANDiT for editing, distribution, and optimization.

Results: As of this writing the highly targeted video has been viewed in drink blogs and forums over 2000 times.

I've recently been crawling around PermissionTV's site, trying to get a handle on what all their "SmartPlayer" is capable of...and how to make use of it. I gotta talk to these guys (and this is a good opportunity for those of us in Boston). Here's the player capabilities list from their site:

* Smart Playlists: video content presented based on targeting rules that combine viewer information (e.g., demographics, geographic location) and business objectives.
* Video Overlay: additional information may be presented during video playback such as commentary, links to additional content, options to purchase products, etc.
* Integrated Viewer Feedback: viewers may provide feedback during video playback through voting, polls, clickable graphics, etc.
* Branching: facilitates a real-time change in the content path based on previous activity or viewer action to optimize relevancy
* Hotspotting: areas within the video are highlighted for selection to trigger activities such as learning more detail or purchasing a product
* Contextual Viewer Notes: viewers may add notes directly on the video experience, creating personalized messages to share with friends
* Tag-based Viewing: videos may be tagged and re-organized to create new viewing experiences
* Ad Serving: multiple ad servers and formats may be combined within one video experience to give viewers the best - and most content relevant - advertising and presentation
* Syndication: all capabilities travel with the video on distribution to other sites, blogs and social networks including MySpace and Facebook

Thing is when I tried to embed it here the code screwed up my blog formatting...

For use by distributed production teams and novice camera operators.
Seems like these days it's all about novice teams shooting Flip videos and sending us their content for editing. Here's something Jesse and I have been working on:

Recommendations for Shooting Video With Flip-type Cameras:

Avoid backlit interviews. Try to have subjects lit from the front or side. Do not have their backs to the sun, windows, or bright lights. Natural light is preferable to other light sources.

Hold camera 30” to 48” from subject so their head and shoulders fill the viewfinder. This will also improve audio quality. Shoot with the camera close to your eye level and face.

Avoid using zoom. Instead move the camera closer or further away. Need a close-up? The Kodak Z16 has a macro-lens that will do the trick.

Be aware of how much ambient noise there is. Sudden loud noises are worse than a steady hum of activity.

Shooting where there is action behind the subject increases the interest of the composition & can enhance the story. Find a spot out of the way but in the subject’s typical environment.

Get details of the subject’s routine, things they do every day that will illustrate their character, their core values, or both. When shooting this type of content, treat the video camera like you’re taking a photograph. Hold the camera motionless on a scene for 10 seconds and let people/cars/objects move through it. If you want to follow or track motion, try to start or stop your movement with a still shot.

Shoot B-roll to illustrate detail and provide an overview of the scene. Get subjects to say/spell their names and titles so we can positively ID them later.

When interviewing someone, ask some softball questions first to get your subject comfortable. Look for an entry to a deeper discussion. Try to get them to summarize their thoughts in a sentence or two.

Have fun with the process and don't worry too much about getting it "right." Good content will compensate for technical difficulties (within reason).

Workflow and Media Management
Flip video cameras require 2 hours to charge on your computer’s USB. Each charge will last for approx. 1.5 hours of video. Plan ahead. If you have a Flip Ultra, they take 2 AA’s. Swap in some new ones and you’re good to go!

Flip video cameras hold 1 hour of video content before they need to be “emptied”. If shooting for more than an hour either have your second camera ready to go or have your laptop booted up and ready to receive video. Have a Kodak Z16 or Z18? Swap out the memory card!

The cameras are similar to accessory hard drives. When you mount the camera to your laptop’s USB the camera will appear as a hard drive. Find the video files (located in DCIM/100Video if you have a Flip) and copy them off to a designated folder and label the files with where they were shot. If using a Flip Mino HD make sure you have LOTS of storage space available. You may want to purchase an accessory hard drive for this purpose.

After transferring video files to your drive, spot check them and make sure the transfer was successful. If so, remove videos from the Flip camera by dragging the contents of “100Video” (or other) to the trash and deleting them. Now you’re ready to shoot more video.

If you wish to send video files via the web, zip the files into a folder and send via http://yousendit.com. Video files are too big to email as an attachment. HD files will take a LONG time to send via web. Cameras may also be sent in for editing via FedEx.

Files can be most readily edited in iMovie or Final Cut Pro. Buy a Mac.

Want a .pdf of this to distribute to your teams? Download here.

Prepared by Jesse Buckley and Owen Mack, coBRANDiT
Video Questions? Call 617.823.9286 or visit www.cobrandit.com. We've also launched a Flip How-To twitter channel that we'll keep updated with new insights. Join in and tell us your tips! NOTE: This page and related .pdf updated 9/19/09

New video released by coBRANDiT today: WOMM-U is a 2-day comprehensive and interactive educational experience from WOMMA. It's built around giving you the real-world knowledge you need to execute exceptional word of mouth marketing programs that are most effective in today's recession economy.

When and where?
May 13-14, 2009 at the Ritz Carlton South Beach Miami.

For more info please visit http://womma.org/wommu/

The Brief:
Narragansett Brewing Company runs an annual Father's Day tie contest wherein consumers are asked to submit tie designs to the Brewery. 15,000 examples of the winning design are given away with the purchase of a case of beer. The contest has been traditionally limited to residents of Providence, RI, but in 2009 Narragansett wished to spread word of the contest to creative communities in Boston as well.

coBRANDiT's Role:
Utilizing existing creative (a poster), coBRANDiT created a cross-platform widget that could be shared (via email or social nets) and embedded in blogs and profiles. The widget contained contest details, links to brand websites, an invitation to the contest wrap party, and a video call-to-action. (As of 7/2010 the widget is no longer supported. The video component can be seen here.)

coBRANDiT distributed both the widget and the related video, posting to 12+ social media sites and managing blogger outreach and commentary across all channels. All content was optimized for SEO with the secondary goal of improving search results for Narragansett Beer.

Results: Word got around between Boston and Providence, and 'Gansett got many entries. The winning tie was released and spawned at least one fan video...see below.

Text of a recent twitter writing binge I went on, triggered by a Jeremiah tweet and all those recent posts about the sudden glut of "social media experts":

Jeremiah's tweet: reviewing data from a recent Forester survey regarding if brands will increase or decrease social media spend during a recession. stay tuned.

I reply: @jowyang will be interesting to see your report. seems to me like mktg budgets are getting cut overall but SM budgets are going up.

all this talk http://tinyurl.com/458jm5 about the economy creating bogus SM "experts"...but there is a lot of opportunity.

let me riff on this more...economic downturn means people are losing their jobs...some of them are now social media "experts"

i've red a bunch of posts on this...checklists to make sure your social media expert isn't full-o-BS...anyway

with all these "experts" looking for work in social meda...and all the growing budgets for social media...don't you think there's a fit?

let's talk about my sense of social media budgets growing. my partner and i operate a 2 man video production house and SM consultancy.

we work for start-ups, small agencies, very big agencies, beer breweries and international brands. the last few months have been very busy.

2009 is going to be busier. we have more new business now than we ever have...and more existing clients growing programs.

how are social media programs growing? what are the driving factors that we're seeing this new year? video, of course...but also community.

community is one of those tossed around words with lots of different meanings. SEO guys often think community is a numbers game.

for a brand looking to hire someone to manage their youtube and blog comments these out of work "experts" could be perfectly competent.

and that's what needs to happen in 2009: businesses/brands "participating" in social media need to follow thru on the comments, etc.

that, plus shoot a bunch of video. ;-)

THERE! all global economic and social media problems solved.
@cobrandit http://twitter.com/cobrandit

The Brief:
Viximo is a leader in the growing market for virtual gifts, creating platforms for developing and monetizing digital goods worldwide. On January 5th 2009 Viximo released a landmark new development platform called VixML that allows talented designers to create basic iPhone applications with a minimal amount of programming knowledge. With a month to go before launch date Viximo contracted with coBRANDiT to produce an HD video that would explain the basics...and show off some of the cool things developed with VixML.

coBRANDiT's Role:
Viximo had an outline of the information that needed to be delivered...verbal and visual. We worked to streamline the content and develop a script that was then sent out to VO talent. We then shot supporting HD footage at the Viximo offices and in our studio which was edited together to create a 2 minute piece that demonstrates VixML's capabilities...and how the results look on an iPhone. The finished video is posted to YouTube HD.

Results:
Techcrunch wrote up the January 5th launch, giving VixML a great review and embedding the video. As of this writing (January 7th) the video has over 6000 views and is growing daily. The post has been linked to by numerous tech sites (many of whom have embedded the video) and has generated 36+ comments...a strong launch in a targeted community.

"coBRANDiT did an awesome job of understanding what we were trying to accomplish in the video & applying their creative energy to bring cool, innovative ideas to the table. Video they produced was very high quality & they were super responsive to all the feedback & edits that I had."
--Ted Achtem, Product Manager at Viximo, Inc.

There seems to be real push to get branded content out there via social media. But are companies following through on maintaining the community (or even just managing the comments) that then spring up? Are they developing content specifically for these communities? Seems to me that getting companies into social media is a series of incremental steps...and we should be happy with every little step taken. In this video David Armano of Critical Mass and Christine Morrison of Intuit discuss the issue. Presented in a fun little widget (aka white label video player) I put together...also pimping the next womma conference this May...Ritz Carlton South Beach, Miami. Be there.

I spent New Year's Day cruising around town documenting some of the sweet rides found on the streets here...typified by the kind of shabby chic I love. Happy New Year from coBRANDiT!

That's right: Free beer for a year if you win the 2009 Narragansett Beer tie design contest. Send a lo-res image of your design to Intern@NarragansettBeer.com by January 23, 2009 and keep your fingers crossed. Check the widget above for further deets. Click "share" and pass it on. Good luck! (Widget no longer supported as of 7/2010)

Courtesy Robert Scoble and FastCompany.tv:

"Chris Putnam, software engineer at Facebook who runs the video team, talks about its new HD video feature. He also tells me about how he got his job at Facebook, which is quite interesting because it wasn't with a traditional interview."

We are live streaming sessions from WOMMA's word-of-mouth marketing summit today and tomorrow. You can check out the stream here.
UPDATE: Archived Summit 08 content can be seen here. An example can be seen above.

The Brief:
The Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) was founded in 2004, coBRANDiT has attended every conference they have put on. In fall 2005 we approached WOMMA and offered to provide video coverage of their events with the goal of providing short, insightful interviews with key participants that could be viewed and shared by ad and marketing industry professionals. We have been working on WOMMA's behalf ever since.

coBRANDiT's role:
We have covered WOMMA events in a variety of ways including:
1) Shooting interviews with keynote speakers and panelists and rapidly preparing edited pieces for web delivery. Examples can be seen here.
2) Live streaming keynote addresses and general sessions via WOMMA's Ustream channel (access requires WOMMA membership, though an example can be seen here).
3) Mobile live streaming and party coverage using a combination of qik-enabled N95's and Flip Video cameras. For a detailed post on this type of coverage, read this.
4) We also produce and distribute overview videos used to pitch specific upcoming WOMMA events, and have built cross-platform widgets (white label video players with WOMMA links and other information, not currently live) to help spread the word.

Results:
Our WOMMA videos have accumulated over 80,000 views and have helped to demonstrate, establish and solidify WOMMA's leadership in a new industry. WOMMA video content has been featured on top marketing blogs and has led to increased online chatter, increased search visibility and improved traffic to womma.org. Here's one of our favorite WOMMA videos, featuring a massive game of Rocks/Paper/Scissors:

CLICK IMAGE TO PLAY MOVIE

I will be broadcasting live from Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba's SWOMfest '08 in Austin, October 30. Using my N95, run thru Qik.com over AT&T's 3G network into Mogulus, as seen here in player above.

Follow-Up: I turned off the live player and have instead embedded the opening minutes of SWOMfest: A Zombie Dance to MJ's Thriller, and Ben McConnell's opening remarks. Be patient...it takes 50 seconds till the zombies come out... More of our SWOMfest video content can be seen here on our qik channel and a revolving selection here on the SWOMfest mogulus channel we built.

The Brief:
In early 2008 PUMA Running began sponsoring up and coming Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt. On May 31 Bolt surprised the running world by setting a new world record in the 100m, and it was decided to create a video “blogumentary” following Bolt as he prepared for and competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. A flash based site and game was built to contain the program, but how to attract online running communities and the wider world of Olympic enthusiasts? What word-of-mouth and social media strategies could be used to involve viewers, improve SEO, and drive traffic to chasingbolt.com?

coBRANDiT’s Role:
In the space of 4 weeks we developed a multi-faceted social media outreach strategy that consisted of distribution to 15+ video sharing and social networking sites, as well as a branded Facebook application (no longer supported as of 7/2010) with a related cross-platform video widget. We optimized the videos within networks, responded to commentary, reached out to top running and olympic bloggers to gain choice placement, managed ad buys supporting the program, and ran a user-generated photo contest through the Chasing Bolt Facebook app. During the month of August, 12 videos were sent from Beijing to us for distribution and optimization, resulting in over 2 million views, a 64% increase in PUMA-related online chatter, and on August 20th the greatest number of daily uniques for any PUMA web property ever.

UPDATE: On November 14th 2008 this program received an Award of Excellence from the Society for New Communications Research.

“coBRANDiT put together a great social media campaign, the results of which exceeded our expectations. They know the space very well and are very easy to work with. I highly recommend coBRANDiT.”
-–Matt Taylor, Global Manager, PUMA Running

“coBRANDiT has been an incredible help to PUMA in areas from consumer research to digital campaign launches, always bringing fresh ideas and seeing them through to execution. Their passion and energy lifts up our entire team.”
--Ryan Eckel, Group Head, Marketing Strategy and Operations, PUMA AG

**Note: coBRANDiT has also conducted man-on-the street video research for PUMA in top markets such as Paris, London and NY; produced internal sales vids for PUMA Running; and consulted on social media and word-of-mouth programs off and on since 2004.

coBRANDiT is working with Fizz and the ADA Midwest documenting the ADA Midwest's Refuel with Chocolate Milk program. The program aims to spread awareness of chocolate milk's benefits as a recovery beverage at high school football games, track meets, and at health and fitness events throughout Ohio. The video series will be distributed in a custom player late in 2009.

"The coBRANDiT team really knows what they're doing. With work from Sixthman to Chocolate Milk they bring some great creative ideas to the table. They always deliver results and they do it within your time frame and do it with class. I highly recommend their work."
--Tyson Yirak, Director of Operations, Fizz

The Brief:
Athlete’s Performance provides training staff, facilities, and equipment to top athletes in the NFL, NBA, MLB, and many other sports. For the launch of their new consumer focused website coreperformance.com Athlete’s Performance required interview and demonstration videos shot on location with their coaching staff, as well as long-term social media video capabilities and strategic assistance.

coBRANDiT’s Role:
Working with Core Performance’s site editors, coBRANDiT shot interviews in Boston and Phoenix, creating over 40 2-3 minute HD videos in the space of about four weeks. We developed custom compression specs and delivered finished flash video ready to be uploaded to coreperformance.com’s servers ahead of schedule. As an ongoing partner to Athlete’s Performance, coBRANDiT continues to provide regular video content for coreperformance.com, and assists with strategic facilitation of social media video strategy.

“We needed storytellers experienced with video production and coBRANDiT did an excellent job. By helping us translate our needs into video presentations they really helped me sell-in to our organization just how we can use video to help out users out.”
--Sean Bohan, VP Strategy & Production at Athletes' Performance (Read more details here)

The Brief:
DailyGrommet.com is a web retailer hooked in to social media. Daily Grommet is “a place to learn about, and buy, one great product a day. Our promise to you is to offer fresh finds, and true stories, every day.” Launched in mid-October 2008, Daily Grommet emphasizes community, and stays connected to it’s audience with widgets, blog posts, twitter, and numerous social networking sites. Founders Jules Pieri and Joanne Domeniconi knew daily video would be a key storytelling component, but had no video production or distribution experience.

coBRANDiT’s Role:
Every weekday we produce a 2 minute video which features Jules and Joanne (and others) talking about their product offerings; the vids are distributed on 9+ social media video sites as well as on Grommet's homepage. We built a simple studio in the Daily Grommet offices for regular shoots, and work with Jules and Joanne to integrate manufacturer videos and their own Flip Video content. We also produced introductory and “about” videos for the site launch, and continue to offer strategic counsel relating to social media video. Watch Daily Grommet here.

“I hired coBRANDiT to produce our daily videos for www.dailygrommet.com. This was a big decision because our team had no expertise in this area and we really needed pros… coBRANDiT is delivering on all counts. They are highly dedicated, make us sound way better than we should, and really add valuable experience, creativity, and perspective to the whole project. Our video shoot day is becoming a highlight of the week… Great work!” --Jules Pieri, Founder, Daily Grommet

The Brief:
Craft brewer Flying Dog has an ambitious social media program; they aim to be the most web 2.0 savvy brewer online. The goal is to communicate with home brewers, beer drinkers, and aficionados in the environments where they live, and to create and place content in easily sharable formats. Video is a clear part of the mix.

coBRANDiT’s Role:
coBRANDiT traveled to Flying Dog HQ in Denver, CO for 2 week long taping sessions; one in the winter and one in the summer. While in Colorado we documented the brewhouse, interviewing brewery founders, the head brew master, bottlers, and other staff; the brewery Superbowl retreat in Steamboat, a road trip to Flying Dog’s original location in Aspen, and various staff interactions and brewery events. The results were edited into a year’s worth of bi-weekly video which was distributed on various sharing sites, and on a vlog we built and continue to manage. We also developed and distributed a video widget that brought the entire series to embedded locations. In addition we worked with FD marketing on how best to integrate our activities with event, advertising and packaging initiatives, tying it all together with an outreach strategy that incorporated all elements of the program.

SNCR recognized our work with the 2007 Award of Excellence in the Corporate Video category, a full case study can be seen here.

“The guys at coBRANDiT are forward thinkers. They’re constantly analyzing new and current social media technologies to present to clients and integrate into their marketing efforts. They love this stuff.” –Neal Stewart, Prime Minister of Marketing

**Note: Neal was formerly the Brand Manager for Pabst Blue Ribbon, and in that role became coBRANDiT’s first client. We produced a series of PBR neighborhood interviews for him in exchange for beer. The story was written up by Rob Walker in Inc. magazine, August 2004. That’s what put us on the map.

coBRANDiT’s Role:
We shot and delivered finished, edited videos (6-8 per roundtable) within days of the event, and in the case of cancersandcareers.org we developed a cross-platfrom widget containing videos, info pages, and links to relevant urls. Distribution was handled by MS&L.

coBRANDiT’s Role:
We sent a two-man video crew to cover the event, attending blogger dinners, press events, the show floor, and interviewing GM managers and auto industry bloggers about their take on the state of the industry and show announcements. Within two days we released 14 detailed videos on various social media sites, and built a cross-platorm video widget to allow easy sharing and embedding on relevant blogs and social networks. These videos were viewed thousands of times and resulted in increased traffic to Gmnext.

Set up a clipmarks account and easily clip web items (video, pics and text) and post them to your blog. It is so frickin' cool, I love it. It's like the "share on facebook" bookmarklet thingy for firefox. So easy. Clipmarks also provides widgets and cross-platform sharing tools galore. OK, enough.

Here's the video we just put together promoting WOMMA's Summit 2008 in November at the Rio in 'Vegas. Shot the whole thing with Flip Video cameras and my N95.

Jesse and I recently produced a set of 20+ videos for CorePerformance's site launch. We spoke with CorePerformance's professional trainers on location in Boston and Phoenix on topics such as Mindset, Nutrition, and How to do the World's Greatest Stretch. The above vid is about Snacks for the Golf Course.

Watch how the titles and logos work in these videos. I'm pretty proud of the titles and logos.

Yeah yeah, I know every video site has it's version of this...but I just came across DailyMotion's version so I thought I'd embed it. Another tool you can use to show off your social media participation...

As part of PUMA's chasingBOLT video distribution program we have developed the above video widget and a related Facebook app. on Involver's platform. (Click on the Join on Fb logo in the lower right corner of the widget.) Thanks to Rahim and the Involver team for busting ass and getting it out in short order! Involver is an interesting platform for two reasons: 1) They have a number of plug-ins that allow easy function withing the widget: email capture, quizzes, outbound links can all be set up to run within the player, and 2) this player integrates with Facebook like no other i've come across. Involver creates a custom app. with many community sharing and outreach functions that I'm hoping we'll be able to utilize...planning time is tight (we just got the whole assignment 10 days ago) but we do have a few things in store...Watch for special Usain Bolt Olympic gear and info coming through this thing!

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!

Dipity provides a nice tool for pulling together all your RSS-enabled web activities, above is one we built for ourselves. This could be a useful thing for pulling together all the content produced around an event or theme, there's lots of sharing and embed functions and different nifty ways to view the info: as a text list, a thumbnail flipper, as timeline, or as map (if you've got that kind of data).

OK, I don't quite understand this vidyup thing yet but it seems to allow site owners/managers the ability to allow their viewers/readers/users the ability to upload video to the site via YouTube. How site owners manage incoming video is not clear to me...so I've embedded it and now I'm gonna play with it. Results forthcoming.

**UPDATE 6/25/08** So here's how it works: You embed the widget above on your site and include a call to action separately: "Hey!! Upload your crazy dog videos here!!" When your readers upload a vid to their own personal YouTube channel you receive an email from VidyUp that includes the embed code. From there you just grab the code (if you like the vid) and drop it into your site (as seen below). Pretty basic...but exactly what I could have used 3 years ago when we launched the original coBRANDiT site.

I was interviewed a couple days ago by Adam Zand of Topaz Partners on his call in show Really Big Shoe. We talked a bit about how coBRANDiT got started, the importance of video quality (or lack thereof), and using video to create a feedback loop in a community. Talk Shoe is a pretty cool technology that allows people to conference live by phone, online, and/or via chat. An archive of the conversation is created and dropped into a widget like the one above (which contains my interview). I met Adam at Bryan Person's Social Media Breakfast a few weeks back; we did an impromptu utterz post on the feedback loop topic where I talked about my experience producing video on the Lynyrd Skynyrd Simpleman Cruise. Here's the utter:

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.

Jesse and I will be live vlogging portions of WOMMA's WOMM-U down in Miami May 7-9. For the next few days you can check out the action on our front page and here at a more permanent site. I'll do a more detailed post on what tools we're using soon. Hint: Mogulus, Qik, Nokia N95's and Flip Video Ultras.

We are taking the opportunity to make a PR announcement: coBRANDiT is teaming up with guerrilla marketing agency Street Attack to offer a full suite of alternative marketing services. We've built out the widget below to help spread the word. Check it out and let me know what you think! (That goes for the live vlogging too...)

From a Scott Monty Facebook post publicizing ooVoo, a video conferencing platform that looks pretty cool:

In February 2008, a group of 20 bloggers and podcasters hosted "My ooVoo Day". The participating bloggers chatted with fans via ooVoo. To thank all the bloggers hosting the chats, ooVoo donated $30,000 to the Frozen Pea Fund, a fund established to support the American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer campaign, in honor of blogger and cancer patient Susan Reynolds. Go to http://www.oovoo.com/ to download ooVoo...

Jesse and I attended Bryan Person's Social Media Breakfast in Cambridge MA this morning...fun event. I shot some N95 qik video of the 4 presenters and did a little video show and tell. Topic: getting hired via social media. Guess what? If you want to get hired in the social media jobspace, the paper resume is dead. You can see all the video posts here.

I bought a Flip Video Ultra last week and I just got it. It's pretty cool, very nice build quality, video quality, the software is all included in the camera so when you plug the thing into your usb it's all there. Sweet! Except that if you're running a 2 year old mac with 10.4, you get no audio when you try to view in quicktime. This means you can't view outside of Flip's program...no editing in iMovie or FCP. Flip includes a 3ivx codec to plug into quicktime but it doesn't solve the prob. I tried some third party plug-ins I found online (Perian.org and others) to no avail, then called Flip's help line. They told me to try Perian. I said that no good. They said there was an issue with 10.4 and they were working on a patch. I said when patch ready? They said dunno. I said so....my new toy is trash until then? They said yes, sorry. Hang up. LAME!

I've since found squared5's mpeg streamclip, which is a converter that solved all the probs, 'cept the audio is still really soft. Shame on Flip for not being up front about the problem on their site.

BLF Manifesto

Plan-B

WOM vs. Ads

CGM

Freevlog.org
And Beer.

BLF Manifesto

Plan-B

WOM vs. Ads

CGM

Freevlog.org
And Beer.

WOMMA's next conference is WOMM-U, May 8 and 9 in Miami. Here's a video we put together to help publicize the event. Pass it on! and see you there. It's also here on blip.tv and here on YouTube and a bunch of other places...

Sarah Meyers [of] daily show Pop17, a joint production with Rocketboom...
Like superstar blogger Robert Scoble who has both an edited and a live show at fastcompany.tv, Sarah two as well.

Robert uses QIK. Sarah uses Flixwagon. Both use the Nokia N95.

Beyond the live audience for these video casts, the clips are saved and archived by both services. Earlier this month, YouTube announced an API to allow streams from QIK and Flixwagon to upload directly to YouTube. Robert reported this first on QIK earlier this month. Flixwagon announced the news on it's blog a few days later.

It is the archival use of these video that is the promise of this new technology.

In addition to live uploading, Sarah explains later in this interview how the 3GP files on the Nokia can be downloaded into a editing system.

I finally got around to checking out Kyte. Impressive. I'll be playing with this once i get my N95 back. The above video is too long but sure tells a good story: Video, live video, live text and audio chat, full embedability, app. development tools for facebook etc. This is advanced stuff.

Well, I really do love ShoZu, which allows you to easily upload video from your phone to any number of different locations quick and easy....as long as your file size is less than 10mb. That is a tiny limit! It means that people running decent camera phones can only upload 20-30 seconds of material. Bummer! There's a petition on the ShoZu forums to raise the upload limit, or make it a pay service, but no answer from Shozu yet. ShoZu! Help! I can't use your service enough!

Some years ago we started a site called OBTTV dedicated to cheap uploads. We've resurrected it as a mobile platform, for the moment running on blip.tv. Upload your own mobile vids to obttv.smile@mobile.blip.tv and it'll appear. Fun eh? Here's an official announcement we ran on Qik earlier today.

Who Needs A Movie? is the most recent viral to enter my inbox. A wonderful argument for the power of web video...500k plus people have watched this thing in the last month. I wonder how many have clicked through to their site and PayPalled them a $1 CDN? (For access to more videos...even though they're all up on YouTube) These guys are probably rich now. I could learn a thing or 2 from Fred and Sharon up in Canada.

We're learning to build widgets on sprout's platform, here's an example we mocked up for a theoretical PUMA motorsport campaign. (Note: Widget no longer supported as of 7/2010) 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.

More detail from Desperate Housewives stylist Cate Adair...a project we shot for MS&L in NY. We've got it here on Viddler because we can drop url's for the sites Cate mentions right in the vid...nice! From the description:

Cate Adair, stylist for Desperate Housewives, partnered with Febreze for a roundtable discussion on spring style with top fashion and style bloggers. In this video, Cate reveals style tips for new moms, must have brands for spring, and using Febreze to care for your vintage items. This is the second in the series from the Febreze "Breath of Fresh Style" blogger roundtable discussion.

This is cool...all sorts of widgets available from freewebs, built on all sorts of platforms (Gigya, YourMinis, etc.) from the functional send to friend button (try it below) to Space Invaders (above). Yeah, they've got various pre-programmed video widgets too...

Now that I'm finally getting into mobile video I've discovered Veeker.com (though I haven't played with it yet). Veeker's front page lists these capabilities:
* Send videos and pictures from your phone to any phone
* Send videos and webcam messages from your PC to phones
* Store every video and picture you ever send or receive
* Embed a Message Widget that lets others send webcam messages to your phone
That last one's pretty nifty...see an example above. It's monetized with ads, of course. Their blog has some other examples and a video interview with some Veeker poo-bahs.

Vlogger Sarah Meyers of Pop17 on live video apps, including word from YouTube's Steve Chen that 2008 is the year for live vids on YT. Via Mashable.

Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net put together the above vid with a few of his tips for marketing in social media. Guess what? Spreading your message with social media is a full-time job. Gotta maintain all those sites and profiles...be active and insightful...and have something relevant to say. And note the AdSense ads playing out on revver...when is AdSense gonna run video ads? Anybody know?

VideoEgg continues it's leadership role when it comes to serving video advertising. Their new AdFrames offer is sweet...sweet technology and a sweet new way of charging around engagement rather than CPM. Mashable breaks it down here, here's VideoEgg's page on the offering. And watch the video above, click through to the demos. Cool cool cool!

"...Dailymotion [made an] announcement that all HD content uploaded to the video-sharing site will be automatically re-encoded for 720p HD playback."

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.

WOW. Check this live video widget broadcasting from CES. (Disabled 'cuz it's now out of date. For an example of the technology, click here.) Courtesy mashable.com and podtech.net.

Then go to this page and watch the great opening video intro'ing mogulus.com. (Too bad I can't embed it here...where are the embed tools??) Sign me up anyway...holy sh*t this site changes the game.

A pretty cool example of widget technology...looks like the video component is built on a brightcove platfrom. Plus I like Daft Punk.

coBRANDiT | 119 Braintree Street #516 | Boston, MA 02134 USA (map)
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Owen Mack, Chief of Strategy & Development | View Owen's profile
617-823-9286 direct | owen@cobrandit.com | facebook | twitter: @cobrandit

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617-388-8165 direct | jesse@cobrandit.com | facebook | twitter: @jessebuckley

Want to know more about our capabilities? Click here.

Ahh, New Year's. Better quality trash appears in the snow the next day.

First Christmas Eve flight of S. Claus detected by NORAD satellite. For more info visit NORADSanta.org.

Yeah boooy! In case you were wondering what happened to Flava Flav...he's alive and well and living in China, where he voices animatronic toys like this one found at my local grocery store.

Gonzo Imperial Porter comes off the bottling line from Josh Mishell on Vimeo. Looks pretty good don't it? But it looks better on the Vimeo site... especially if you toggle fullscreen. Hey Vimeo! Why don't your embeds look as good as the video on your site?

Elliot Yamin of American Idol fame sat down in NYC with top bloggers to discuss his role as a global ambassador for Eli Lilly's Inspired by Diabetes and other topics related to living the dream. Video by coBRANDiT, 'natch. (Note: Videos are NLA as of 7/2010)

Inspired by Diabetes is a global campaign asking people with diabetes, as well as their family, friends and health care professionals, to express how diabetes has impacted their lives — and share those stories with others around the world.

To share your story, and enter the Creative Expression competition, visit www.inspiredbydiabetes.com. You could win a trip to Italy and backstage passes to an Elliott Yamin show. Eli Lilly will also donate money to the IDF Life for a Child Program, which provides insulin and diabetes supplies to children in developing nations.

Courtesy of I Hate Young People (which I definitely recommend watching).

In this blog entry Josh Bernoff describes the POST framework he has helped develop at Forrester: People, Objectives, Strategy, Technology. This was the big idea at last October's Consumer Forum, it describes a methodology for business to approach consumers through social media. Check it out.

We're pleased to announce that our work on behalf of Flying Dog Brewery has been honored with a Society for New Communications Research Award of Excellence in the Corporate Video category. Here's a link to the case study. You might not think lo-grade video from my cell phone counts as excellence in new communication, but here it is:

Yes, the award is a huge cut glass paperweight.

I've been playing around with PageFlakes, another site generally known for startpages but with the side benefit of a pretty cool widget engine. See below and click on a vid to check out the player. Neat huh? And you can click on the little envelope logo in the upper right corner to email it or get embed codes. (OOps, this only seems to work from the pageflakes page itself...doesn't transport. Bummer.) Here's the coBRANDiT page I'm working on.

I'm playing around with utterz.com, which is a mobile blogging platform. It takes audio, pics and video from your phone and drops it into a web widget like the one above. Seems like I need a new phone though...the video above is all out of synch! I've got a not so fancy one year old LG. Hmmm. Here's Mashable's review of Utterz.

Great post from Forrester web strategist Jeremiah on Google's new OpenSocial API standard, and what it means for widgets, apps, and the continuing "death of the pageview" (Steve Rubel's term).

"Using mini-applications, companies can now efficiently extend their website experience to existing communities on popular social networks."

Read Jerimiah's post here. Read TechCrunch's breakdown here.

MEDIAPOST | Owen Mack

TWO MAJOR THEMES IN ANY discussion of online video are advertising and CGM (consumer-generated content, or whatever you want to call it). Some of the questions we're asking: What kind of ads will work best in short-form content? What should these ads look like? And, how are we as marketers going to produce the many different executions necessary for all the geographic, demographic, and use-based targeting that's just around the corner? CGM campaigns run through managed brand communities provide one coming answer.

Well-known examples of CGM ads are big splashy contests like the Superbowl Doritos spot, or failures like the Chevy Tahoe mix-your-own ad ploy. But many smart marketers today are managing (or having managed for them) communities of citizen marketers and brand loyalists, people who are interested in helping out the brands they love -- and these communities are slowly being empowered with video sharing tools. Some of this activity is behind firewalls, some is in the open, and whether you want to call it "advertising" or not, it's often enthusiastic brand content that communicates well to others.

On platforms like Ning and Kickapps, marketers are building spaces where niche audiences of brand lovers share video content about their lives, their creative endeavors, and their brands. And marketers are sharing back, releasing professionally produced insider video, setting up private events, joining the conversation and creating excitement as well as excuses for community members to post more CGM video. And unlike YouTube, marketers have control over what gets posted; though as with blogging, marketers have to have the right voice and tread lightly when it comes to censorship.

But, wait! you say. Who wants to watch a bunch of crappy home videos? Here's where mixing CGM and pro ad content and packaging comes in. Many managed communities give marketers access to the source CGM material. Are you an auto marketer with a new model on tour? Show it off first to community members in your major markets. Encourage them to shoot video and upload it to your site. Pull out the good stuff and edit it together with a clip from the lead engineer or head designer. Do this in each market, and voila! A number of different, low-budget executions you can place wherever video advertising lives. Play the San Francisco clip in San Francisco. Play the design clip for design audiences, the engineer clip for gear-heads. Maybe you luck out and something funny happened during the tour: there's your YouTube viral. This is do-able now.

I don't own a TV. I couldn't care less about the demise of high-dollar :30 spots. If I'm watching short vids on a site like BeBo or Blip.tv, I want to see relevant ads (brand content) that have a similar look and feel to what I'm watching. I want them to be made by people like me, in my city. I want those ads to be user-ac