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How NOT to run a UGC contest on YouTube.
As reported by the NY Times, and getting picked up all around the blogging world, Malibu Rum ran a contest soliciting user-generated content on YouTube, and completely botched it.
Botched it so bad, that someone created a video about it.
If you catch me at any upcoming conferences, you’ll probably be seeing this in one of my presentations or hearing me mention it as an example of what not to do.
Agencies, take notice. Advertisers pay attention. Please.
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The Hollywood Reporter: “Deep Focus is Hot”.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Deep Focus is a hot agency. The article looks into the ways movie marketers like legend Gordon Paddison at New Line Cinema (full disclosure: client, but a legend anyway) are evolving the ways they reach and impact their audiences online.
The staples of movie marketing — poster and trailer design — have been around for a hundred years and have been distilled over time to something of a science. By contrast, online marketing of films is more akin to the Wild West. Over the past seven or so years, the small group of thought leaders in the field — such as Sony’s Dwight Caines, New Line’s Gordon Paddison and Paramount’s Amy Powell — have been free to try just about anything, and their mandate is pretty much to break new ground with each campaign.
Hats off to Dwight, Gordon, and Amy for fighting the good fight. 3.6% of media dollars going to the internet is just not enough for these films, but that number has steadily grown over the years. They are the ones affecting those changes internally. But I will add, that the further those media dollars go to creating experiences for audiences (and I don’t mean websites) with banner ads only being a small portion of what is actually done to support these films, the better we all will be as an industry.
At Deep Focus, we’re proud to lead the charge — and change — in this industry. And proud of the folks “on the inside” that make what we do possible. Having been there myself, I know just how big of a challenge it is.
(On a side note, not only is Deep Focus creative featured in the article [Live Free or Die Hard] but we have an ad running on the page for HBO’s Flight of the Conchords. Great placement, media team :)]
Donaton Lets ‘em Have It.
Scott Donaton, Publisher of Advertising Age, frankly discusses what he learned when he moderated a panel at Cannes last week. The panel featured:
Andrew Robertson - President, Chief Executive Officer, BBDO;
David Droga - Creative Chairman, droga5;
Jeff Goodby - Co-chairman, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners;
Daniel Morel - Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, Wunderman;
And here’s what Scott had to say:
Here’s what we learned at the high-powered Cannes Debate panel on agency reinvention, which I moderated during last week’s International Advertising Festival: next to nothing.
Here’s what that means: The ad business has a bigger problem than it realizes. Because its leaders refuse to share real learnings and best practices, or to discuss the frustrations they face in reinventing their legacy businesses, there’s little chance of harnessing their collective wisdom to benefit the industry. Which means each player within it has to keep trying to figure it out on their own. That’s a shame.
Scott’s right. We’re all in this together. My fear, though, is that the (perceived) leaders in the ad industry really don’t know best practices in this rapidly changing environment.
The real leaders in this industry are the ones that are out there doing the real innovative work with brands that you may not have ever heard of (yet). With properties you’ve never visited (yet). Using technologies you’ve never interfaced with (yet). At agencies that barely register on a top 50 list (yet).
Sure, they may, at some point lose their corporate independence — but they are the ones who will hopefully rise through the ranks of the larger, more established agencies. The ones that are supposed to be advising clients on the best way to spend their billions of dollars, and will change everything.
All we need is just a little patience. Oooooo a little patience.
Reviews Highlight iPhone’s “iSsues”
From Engadget (click to read the rest of the post…it’s good.):
* The mobile version of OS X or whatever it is the iPhone runs takes up 700MB of the device’s capacity. Damn son!
* There’s no way to cut, copy, or paste text! WHOA! Big, big mistake.
* No A2DP support. That, friends, is such a huge bummer right there.
* Sorry, music can’t be used as a ringtone — even if it’s just a raw MP3. No additional ringtones will be sold at launch.
* On a PC the iPhone syncs with Outlook for calendars AND addresses! Noice.
* It supports Exchange in some capacity, according to Walt, but he doesn’t exactly say how.
* Pogue again confirms document file reading — but not editing — for PDF, Word, and Excel (only).
* Adobe Flash support is officially out. It’s just not in the browser. Neither is there any other kind of embedded video support. Sorry everybody, that’s that.
* It will take snaps, but won’t record video. How can Apple love YouTube as much as it does and not realize cellphone-shot movies make up a sizeable chunk of the crazy crap you find on there?
More insight at Engadget.
Video: WSJ’s Mossberg Reviews the iPhone
A (to be expected) positive review of Apple’s iPhone from Walt Mossberg @ the Wall Street Journal.
Rubel: The Future of PR is Participation, Not Pitching
Blogger extraordinaire Steve Rubel says that unless PR firms participate in the conversation, rather than just trying to pitch new ones, the discipline will die.
Unfortunately, the biz is not evolving quickly enough. Many in PR seem to be treating Web 2.0 as simply an extension of the traditional media - another venue for buzz. They are pumping thousands of email pitches into the community every day. I know because I receive hundreds of these emails every day, as do many other bloggers I have spoken to over the last several weeks. Some are good, most are not. And many are getting fed up.
Bravo, Steve.
If any of you has ever had a PR-focused conversation with me, you know I’ve been saying this for years.
The “T” in WTF.
The tech industry has had some REALLY bad promotional videos in its days. Apparently, CTOs have the worst senses of humor ever.
From this:
to this:
Well, Hitachi wants to change all that. Just when you think you’re watching the worst one yet, in walks the one man who can make it the best one EVER!!!
Deep Focus has performed a thorough analysis of the variables in this video, and we have determined that this does, in fact, follow the classic 100% successfully-proven formula of:
The Odds on the iPhone Failing.
Nothing is ever really culturally important until it has a betting line.
Well, you can now consider the iPhone officially culturally important.
As reported by LiveScience, BetUS.com has given the odds on the iPhone’s failure:
* Consumers are reported camping out waiting for an iPhone—3/1 (IS: it’s already happened)
* Initial iPhones get recalled—30/1 (IS: I wouldn’t really be surprised if there was a partial recall. I was a victim of a faulty early Xbox 360)
* iPhone sells at least 12 Million units in 2008—5/6 (IS: 10 million is apple’s goal.)
* Apple’s stock jumps at least 10% in value in regards to the price on 6/30/07—1/2 (IS: Bet it will, just because.)
* Consumers pay at least three times the original price ($1,500) on ebay—2/1 (IS: Oh yes, it will happen.)
* The screen breaks/cracks like Apple’s first-generation nano (iPod)—150/1 (IS: Apple’s always had display issues. Odds are, it will continue here.)
* There are mass reports of the battery life being less than the promised 8 hours—10/1 (IS: Of course this will happen.)
* Someone is trampled while trying to get an iPhone—20/1 (IS: Maybe not a trampling, but someone will hurt someone else.)
* iPhone spontaneously combusts—150/1 (IS: It would be cooler if the “Mac guy” combusted, but hey, the odds are probably the same of that happening.)
Unicast Crashes my Firefox Browser.
Anyone else having a similar experience when they visit AdFreak using Firefox 2.0.0.4?
Behold. Indiana Jones.
So this is not about interactive marketing, but other things get me excited too. Like this, the first glimpse of Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones in next year’s final(?) installment of the franchise.
