OBTTV.com is now coBRANDiT.com

The changeover is now complete. (Hopefully we will not lose any of you subscribers in the move.) This vlog will no longer be posted to, please visit us at coBRANDiT. The feed has moved to http://www.cobrandit.com/blog/index.xml THANK YOU!

fashion.psfk CONVERSE

CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE
Fashion.PSFK tasked us with this investigation: Is Converse an iconic brand? Here are the results.

coBRANDiT RELAUNCH

We are relaunching coBRANDiT on a new server, and with moveable type. This vlog (OBTTV) will become inactive as we migrate over there, all that's left to do is set up the RSS feeds. CLICK HERE TO GO TO coBRANDiT.com

Portfolio Night Boston

CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH MOVIE
An overview of ihaveanidea's Portfolio Night in Boston. Thanks to all who made this happen.

Modernista!

CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE
Shane Hutton and Tim Vaccarino (mostly Shane) describe the state of the ad industry.

INTERVIEW: Kevin Moehlenkamp

CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE
Kevin Moehlenkamp, CCO of Hill Holliday, talks about being the first ad agency to go blog with it's homepage.

Portfolio Night

Last night we attended ihaveanidea's portfolio night in Boston. Portfolio night was held simultaneously in several cities accross the US and Canada, and seeks to bring together advertising professionals and students preparing to enter the field. Students get 15 minutes of face time with at least 3 senior creative directors who review their work and counsel them on the market. In Boston the event was sponsored by Modernista and included big names from that shop as well as from Hill Holliday, Arnold, Mullen, and others.

We were there with our camera documenting the evening and interviewing key players, so prepare for some new video soon. In particular we spoke with Kevin Moehlenkamp, CCO of Hill Holliday about HH's site going to blog format, and had a good session with Shane Hutton and Tim Vaccarino, Creative Directors at Modernista discussing ads in the age of consumer empowerment and what it takes to find new ideas and talent. Stay tuned!

Rolling Stone on Vlogs

Really just another story about Rocketboom... here it is. Covers selling ads in/on vlogs, rise of new media generally.

Schlitz Revival: Our time has come.

Last week AdAge wrote a bit about the possibility of a Schlitz revival. Wow. As many of you know, Schlitz is one of our prime motivators here at coBRANDiT. Our first pieces were about Schlitz. It seems that parent company Pabst is ready to start doing something with this classic brand, and we hereby offer our services. What's your Schlitz-uation? (The story in Adage requires a subscription, here's a link to mention in Brandnoise.)

NYT on Auto Marketing circa 2006

Good story covering the intro of the new Honda Fit and the way it's going to market. Hint: uses a bunch of online video. Now what if some of that video was designed to integrate customer voices? Real urban drivers? etc etc. Integrate w/ WOM programs, events. Get my drift? (Thanks to organic's three minds blog.) Oh, here's the Fit site.

Market Research: PUMA NYC

Last piece in a three city investigation of the PUMA "GO" sport shoes. Check out the kicks on the DJ...
CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE

CARS: CNG Ford Crown Victoria

While out scouting locations we stumbled across this sweet ride: A Ford Crown Vic that runs on CNG (Compressed Natural Gas). It's a state-owned police package vehicle driven by Jim Griffin, Acting Director for Mobile Maintenance, Massachusetts Dep't of Conservation and Recreation. Jim spent a few minutes with us talking about his car, the state, and CNG.
CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE

Mini Germany vlog

Pretty sweet. Mini hired vloggers to drive around E. Germany and put together a series. Fun stuff. Here's the site, here's the lead off video. (thanks to Adverblog)

Interview: Josh Hallett, Hyku

Josh Hallett of Hyku is a social media consultant whose clients include old media (The Florida Sentinel) and new (Micropersuasion.com). Here he discusses online engagement and the role blogs play. (taped at WOMMA's wombat conference)
CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE

Interview: Eric Rice

Eric Rice interviewed by Michael Geoghegan of Willnick Productions, captured at the New Communications Forum in Palo Alto earlier this month. Thoughts on the evolution of Podcasting, and why aren't more business there (here) yet?
CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE

Hollywood Reporter on YouTube

Ok, ok, I know I'm always talking about YouTube. That's 'cuz it's so great. Here's an article of interest to those who share my enthusiasm...covering topics like future plans, competition, viral video, and marketing.

Tooting own Horn: Inc. Magazine, Rob Walker

OK, this is old news but WTF? It's old enough that many of our fans don't know about it: Rob Walker's story on us in Inc. magazine, August 2004. At the time we operated under the name obtainium.tv... How far we've come.

Market Research: PUMA London

We did find people in London who liked the new shoes...but these aren't they. Working title for this piece: Negative London. Enjoy.
CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE

Desperate Schlitz-uation

Klown in the park: concluding episode. Desperate for Schlitz, our hero gets resourceful and applies some old time folklore to the hunt for watery suds.
CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE

MasterCard CGM, sorta...

MasterCard is inviting consumers to fill in the blanks as part of their newest "priceless" campaign, results to be used in national spots. Not quite the same as letting them make their own ads, but a step in the right direction. Check it out here.

Google Video vs. You Tube

From Ben McConnell at Customer Evangelists comes this nice comparison of Google Video vs. You Tube, his title being "10 reasons why You Tube is better than Google Video" It all boils down to community and ease of use... See also the Customer Evangelists breakdown of how NBC screwed up the You Tube viral effect of the SNL "Chronic of Narnia" skit. Hello? Flush your free publicity down the tube?

Market Research: PUMA Paris

We investigated attitudes and responses to a new line of sneakers in PUMA's three main markets: Paris, London, and NYC. Here's the Paris overview. (Working title: Bad Paris)
CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE

Future Marketing Summit: Piers Fawkes

We attended Alex West's Future Marketing Summit in NY last week, Feb. 23rd. In this interview Piers Fawkes of psfk.com talks about web publishing and plans for his new fashion site.
CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE
For more information on the Future Marketing Summit series, click here.

Future Marketing Summit: Alex Bogusky

Alex Bogusky of CP+B on what makes brands relevant, and his take on the future.
CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE

Future Marketing Summit: Benjamin Palmer

Benjamin Palmer of Barbarian Group makes web things such as Subservient Chicken. Here's his take on viral video.
CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW VIDEO

Future Marketing Summit: Charles Rosen

Charles Rosen, CEO of Amalgamated on brand communications.
CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE

Future Marketing Summit: Paul Woolmington

Paul Woolmington discusses moving Naked to NY, and what it means to have no vested interests.
CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE

Olympic Schlitz-uation

Olympic coverage you might have missed. Team Schlitzuation 2006.
CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE

What's Your Schlitz-uation?

A clown visits the park. Part 1: The parking lot.
CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE

VLOG 2/8/06: Dentsu-Ho

We were interviewed last fall by Kaede Seville for a story in Dentsu-Ho, the japanese AdAge. Just today we got a copy in the mail, and I have to show it to you. Context! Isn't it fun to see how others see you? Now if only I could read japanese...
CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE

CARS: Lonske 8, The Stereo Sucks

Lonske has his new $180k Bentley, and guess what? The stereo sucks. So we drive over to installers supreme Audio Video Integration (AVI) and meet the owners Ken and Safi. They're lining up some new units from Boston Acoustics that should help matters...stay tuned.
CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE

Handbrake: DVDs to iPod, etc.

Also from psfk comes this link: Handbrake. This app converts DVDs into mp4s (iPod) and/or various other mobile formats. Nice.

Podcast Article, The Guardian

Via psfk comes this Guardian article on podcasting.
"[Podcasting] is all about updating the brand and creating a buzz around content," says the head of the Association of Online Publishers, Alexandra White. "It's part of a general shift in the way people consume content from passive to more on-demand."

Budweiser Launching Vodcast Channel

From MediaPost: A-B will announce it's new direct-to-consumer video web channel with an ad during the super bowl. Content to include ads and other forms of branded entertainment, delivered to subscribers thru RSS. Old media is where you learn about new media...now who's going to produce the content?

VideoBlogging article by S. Garfield & D. Tames

This article in NE Film lays out a nice history and background of the videoblogging scene, with some ideas about where it's all going. Plus, it mentions coBRANDiT. Co-authored by Steve Garfield and David Tames, it's a good reminder to marketers looking at this space that vlogging as a practice has been developed by real people (not businesses) with real dedication and mostly selfless enthusiasm...as brands and marketers begin vlogging, it's important to recognize the communal aspects of this new media.

WOMBAT: Project Complete

We have built a more permanent home for the WOMBAT interviews, complete with short descriptions and links to interviewee's sites, books,etc. Let me know if you'd like anything else attached or built in. The site can be found here:

the word on word-of-mouth

WOMBAT: Why WOMMA?

An introduction to what makes WOMMA and WOMMA events so great.
CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE

WOMBAT: Pete's Endorsement

Pete Blackshaw making the case...
CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE

NYT covers WOMBAT conference

And they do a pretty good job... check it out. (From today's edition)

WOMBAT: Welcome to Orlando

Featuring George Silverman and Andy Sernovitz...
CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH MOVIE

WOMBAT: Paul Rand, Ketchum

CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH MOVIE

WOMBAT: Mark Kingdon, Organic

CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH MOVIE

WOMBAT: Steve Friedman, Weblogs

CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH MOVIE

WOMBAT: Bob Garfield, AdAge

CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH MOVIE

WOMBAT: Jamie Tedford, Arnold Worldwide

CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH MOVIE

WOMBAT: Laurie Weisberg, Informative

CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH MOVIE

WOMBAT: Ted Wright, Liquid Intelligence

CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH MOVIE

WOMBAT: Pete Blackshaw, Intelliseek

CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH MOVIE

WOMBAT: Douglas Atkin, Culting of Brands

CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH MOVIE
And check out Douglas's book The Culting of Brands.

WOMBAT: David Fletcher, MediaLab UK

CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE

WOMBAT: John Moore, Brand Autopsy

CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE

WOMBAT: Steve Rubel, Micropersuasion

CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH MOVIE

Now if only the content didn't stink...

BMW is vidcasting, and it's all totally corporate bs. But if they maintain a real production schedule, they'll get into some good stuff soon. Where's the ice racing? The 2002 fanatics? oh yes, it will come... I hope. CHECK IT OUT HERE

iPod Video instructions...awesome.

All you ever need to know as a new video iPod user (and what other kind is there?) Check out this awesome link from Plasticbugs. Warning! This link contains a ton of really great info. Check it out just to see the possibilities. Hook iPod into your TiVo! Download from Bit Torrent! Thanks to micropersuasion.

Nickilosh SPLAT!

NICKILOSH PABST: new material from Nickilosh.com...the return of the Pabst Blue Ninja.
(click play on the movie toolbar)

PUMA: california perception

From our series on the PUMA california (done under the name obtainium.tv in 2004). This classic shoe needed to be set up with the cred that comes from exploring abandoned property... (see infiltration.org for more on that)
CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH MOVIE

PUMA: London

From the archives...our trip to London for research into the PUMA "GO" series. This material was shot at the PUMA store in Carnaby Street our first day there, jet lag and all. Introducing Cassie, Ozzie, and Mike.
CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE

New Year, new hosting. RSS OK?

Yes, this is a test. We are now self-hosting the blog, and I'm hoping I haven't screwed up the feed. Let me know...

CARS: Lonske 7 Bentley delivery

What exactly is the true meaning of "Bentley uh?" And just how is it pronounced anyway? Part 3 on the delivery of Lonske's Flying Spur.
CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE

Firefox open source ad contest

That's right...another open source ad contest. Firefox wants to produce a high-quality TV ad touting the awesome Firefox browser experience. (Why a TV ad?) Anyway, here's the brief.

CARS: Lonske 6 Bentley con't...

Lonske picks up his new car. And the interior? Smells like victory...
CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE

CARS: Lonske 5 Bentley

A new series on Lonske's new car: the Bentley Continental Flying Spur. We're following this one all the way...delivery. Impressions. Road trips. Stereo installations. Whatnot. Stay Tuned.
CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE

Jerry Time

have you seen JerryTime? ok, i've only seen one episode, then i went to check out his call to advertisers. here it is. interesting to see how vloggers/net vid producers make their calls for sponsorship...

Virtual Anthropology

Holy smokes this is a good read. From Amsterdam's TrendWatching.

VLOG 12/01/05: Jesse speaks

An evening stroll, branding activity, and beer drinking: Interview with coBRANDiT's Jesse Buckley on the topic of why he makes documentary ads.
CLICK PICTURE TO VIEW MOVIE

How to Start Your Own Viral Agency

This is great. Spoof or not? Oh how true it all is... from adland.

San Antonio Current on Videoblogging

A neat little piece on the vlogging scene. These are critical pioneers in the online CGM video world, and if you haven't checked out videoblogging.info yet, do it.

Cingular CGM picture phone contest

From BrandNoise comes this: the results of a contest Cingular ran over the last few months. People sent in pics from their camera phones that embodied the five bars motif of the Cingular ad campaign. Some guy just won $50,000. Another example of consumers make ads...

CARS: Lonske 4

Some technical detail on the Obcon Godzilla Box installed in Lonske's trunk...and a desciption of its effects. (hint: children go into hiding) The installer Lonske keeps talking about is Kenyon Lee at AVI, Newton Mass.
CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH MOVIE

CARS: Lonske 3

part 3: Lonske introduces the soundsystem in his FX45.
CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH MOVIE

PR Week on video iPod

Sweet article in PR Week (courstesy micropersuasion):
Video iPod Whets Marketers' Appetites For New Opportunities

Key quotes:
"Michael Wiley, director of new media at early podcast adopter GM, was playing around with one at his desk when discussing the opportunities with PRWeek.com.

"GM is keenly interested in the various applications for the video-enabled iPods, and we are experimenting with various ideas." Wiley says. "We create a lot of video, and we think people would love to get their hands on portable video."

Wiley hypothesized about uses, such as behind-the-scenes footage of GM car design and manufacturing. And he says the production value doesn't even have to be too pristine.

"As long as it's at least 30-frame-per-second video and has some lighting, people would dig it," Wiley says."

yeah, that's what i'm talkin' about!

read article here

CARS: Lonske 2

Lonske on why an FX45 after a Porsche 911...it involves children. And a better sound system.
CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH MOVIE

NUTELLA courtesy Nickilosh.com

Our friends at Nickilosh.com recently made a vid about Nutella, the chocolatey spread that tastes so yummy. Now I hear Nutella is starting a WOM campaign with BzzAgent. hmmm...anybody want to contribute nutella videos to coBRANDiT? My $100 offer still stands...
CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH MOVIE

Russell Simmons: Def on Demand VOD

Russell Simmons (Def Jam, RocaWear) is launching a VOD program on Comcast tomorrow called Def on Demand, or DoD. "Technology has made it possible to present content directly to fans without the middle man...we've become the programmers."

VOD has interesting implications. It's a very web-like, opt-in medium where branded content has to play as entertainment. In effect (with time shifting, etc.) isn't all cable and broadcast now VOD?

Kevin Roberts: SISOMO

Kevin Roberts is at it again. The CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi and author of "Lovemarks" has a new term he'd like us to adopt: sisomo, short for sight, sound and motion, which are "the elements that have been accelerating the digital era for the last decade." He made the keynote presentation at Ad:Tech NY and has outlined his vision in this week's AdAge (sorry, can't find a link). This guy is a big deal. A thought leader!

He describes the current market as an "attraction economy"--for brands this means how much you are liked, how much you are loved. How much people want to opt-in to your stories, because "the vectors of the attraction economy are stories...the sisomovers of this new generation will be storytellers...the currency of the attraction economy is emotion...It's about emotion and technology. Sisimo humanizes technology. This matters because sisimo sees the world through the eyes of the consumer..." Sounds all well and good, but there's a disconnect. As P. Blackshaw points out on his blog: where's the tie-in with consumer generated media? The voices of real people? This is the natural extention of sisimo. Stories? Emotion? You get that from your customers, and it's what coBRANDiT is all about.

You Tube is pretty sweet

There are so many video content aggregators popping up that I've kinda stopped paying attention. Most of them are problematic, anyway: Google isn't fully indexing submissions (so you can't find the stuff you want to) Yahoo doesn't have tagging (searches are all by title...that stinks) Brightcove and most of the rest are all about serving ads around what you really want to watch. Ug. Just like TV. But I just found what I've been waiting for: YouTube.com

YouTube is like Flickr for video. Free account. Almost unlimited storage. Upload your vids. Tag 'em. Sort 'em. Attach a feed and embed them in you blog, or site, or what have you. Various tools for sharing, etc. And no ads! Totally opt-in. Below is a feed for cars:

This is so cool. YouTube makes it very easy to run a video content program: for ex. have people upload their vids and tag them (say "cobrandit") and then embed the feed on your site. I'm going to have to do some more thinking about this...

UPDATE: also just found Revver.com. Much the same as YouTube but serves an ad at the end of the vid clip and pays the creator via PayPal. Tags, embeds, etc.

CARS: Lonske 1

CAR: FX45 SUBJECT: Lonske. Part One of a new series featuring J. Lonske and his Infiniti FX45...the one with the ridiculous bass system in the trunk. Filmed in the parking garage above Bugaboo Creek, Watertown Mass. (Bugaboo Creek made me one of the nastiest cheeseburgers I've ever had.)

CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE

NY POST: iTunes video downloads

From the NY post, Nov 1:
"Less than three weeks after Apple Computer introduced its new video-playing iPod, the company said it has sold hungry techheads more than 1 million videos. 'This strong initial demand definitely shows that there is a healthy appetite for online video,' said Steve Lidberg, a senior research analyst at Pacific Crest Securities. 'This will likely accelerate Apple and the content owners coming together to make more content available...' Video...on the Internet also offers tantalizing possibilities for the advertising industry, Lidberg said, because the model allows advertisers to have a one-on-one relationship with consumers. [note: he got that part right] Advertisers will be able to target ads to each consumer based on personal data they have collected, Lidberg said, as well as their past purchase history." [ugh. he got that part right too...but is that a one-on-one relationship? or more of the same forced viewing, TV style?]
full story here

Jonah Bloom gets it.

The current issue of ad age features an editorial by executive editor Jonah Bloom. He gets it. Key quotes:

"There is a wealth of consumers -- particularly those under, say, 25 -- whose primary source of information, entertainment, even community is an open conversation they co-create...The ability to own and control a brand, which many marketers regard as their core job function, has surely joined mass marketing in the 'how it used to work' chapter."

He then goes on to outline various methods which include viral campaigns based on breast ogle-ing as well as quickbooks user forums, which intuit uses as a marketing tool. The power of peer-to-peer networks and co-creation! now coming to you from ad age. who woulda thunk it. full story here

Nelson's '89 Mustang

From our cars series: Nelson and his '89 Mustang. Nelson works at the local VW dealership here in Allston (Boston) but has been a Mustang fanatic for years, ever since he was a kid...but this body style only, the 25th anniversary edition. Here he describes the work he's put into it. This is another coBRANDiT theme: people who are into stuff, customization. (postscript: the car got torched last summer.)
CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH MOVIE

Trendwatching.com: TRYVERTISING

I've known about Amsterdam based Trendwatching.com for awhile, but hadn't really gone into their site. I just did. Wow. They get it. A number of the trends they are following are highly related to the ideas coBRANDiT is playing with: the rise of the creative class (Generation C), Minipreneurs (consumers who are increasingly involved with the creation, production and trading of goods, services and experiences, instead of merely consuming them), Twinsumers (taste 'twins'; fellow consumers somewhere in the world who think, react, enjoy and consume the way they do) and others. My fave though is TRYVERTISING: "A new breed of product placement in the real world, integrating your goods and services into daily life in a targeted, relevant way, so that consumers can make up their minds based on their experience, not your messages." It is tryvertising coBRANDiT seeks to capture on tape.

 Check out the full tryvertising report here.

Schlitz Chopper

Schlitz and bicylcles assembled from trash...a new unity. My apologies to those who have seen this before, we post it here for the benefit of iTunes viewers.
Officially announcing our iTunes channel: coBRANDiT.
This new channel will be an extension of our vlog, we intend to present our own documentary ads, projects, submissions, and videoblogger style commentary and insights into the world of marketing as we see it. This movie is one of the first we produced (stay tuned for our very early work...it includes gnomes) and it demonstrates a facet of what we're up to: homegrown creativity. Making use of found materials. Setting up scenarios and filming them. Brand hijacking. And enjoying Schlitz.
CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE

BusinessWeek: Big Media, Little Blogosphere

Interesting coverage on big media getting into blogs. Key quote:

"Why the push? While few blogs generate much revenue, they introduce a new, promising micromedia model. Blogs are cheap, easily updated, and can focus on a niche market with passionate followers...What's more, blogs feed word-of-mouth on the Web. Comments on blogs can provide advertisers with feedback, and they circulate quickly among readers."

full story here

Intelliseek on iPod users...

Here's why you want to be on iTunes, part 372:

"iPod users are active, influential "advertisers," according to Intelliseek study...Among the findings: iPod users are twice as likely as non-iPod/MP3 owners to have authored a blog, 2.5 times as likely to text-message on cell phones and three times as likely to download video clips and movies to a PC."

full story here

Russell Beattie is a believer

Techno-geek R. Beattie has a new iPod video. Here's some key praise:

"I couldn't resist - I got the new 30GB White iPod yesterday and it completely rocks. Apple did a great job with this gadget. Much thinner than previous iPods, super-fast syncing over USB, and the screen is *great*. Anyone who complains about the screen size is either 1) blind 2) a whining tempermental jerk 3) someone who hasn't actually seen the screen. It's beautiful...
I'm telling you right now, Video Podcasts are going to be huge. HUUUUGE... Apple has a freakin' menu item on the new iPod called 'Video Podcasts...'"

full post here courtesy wired and cult of mac

Eric Rice on iPod video

New media dude Eric Rice posts about the new iPod, and takes on the issue of 320 x 240 video:

"True, the quality wasn't what you'd see when High-def cameras are used to shoot promo videos to pimp Plasma TVs at Best Buy, but really. Who gives a fuck?... No one bitches about ringtones not being done in Dolby-frigging-surround THXomgwtfbbq-epic-orgasm-sounding bass, now do we? No. Expectation. It's a phone. Our next phone will be better. This is the lifecycle of physical (now data) media... We subscribe to brands. We subscribe to content, not format."

Well said Eric. full post here

Where does marketing fit into social media?

This is the title of a recent clickZ article by Kevin Newcomb. I was talking to he and Joe Jaffe while the interview went on...hey Kevin! What happened to my sound bites? Anyway, good topic from the BlogOn Summit. Here's the takeaway:

"The whole marketing communications process has always been completely linear. The conversation is now circular -- it's a merry-go-round that's always going on. Marketers need to figure out how to jump on and be part of the experience..."

read clickZ article here

coBRANDiT INTRODUCTION

CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE
A preview of the DVD we are preparing for BlogOn.
Email us and we'll send you a copy: cobrandit (at) obttv (dot) com.

I don't have to tell you what this means.

iPod video. wow.
the poop: apple press release
the gear: apple.com/ipod
the channel: itunes/video
the vlogs: apple video podcasting tutorial
videoblogging.info

Listenomics

Much talk in the ad/mktg/WOM world about Bob Garfield's piece in the Oct. 10 AdAge titled Listenomics--all about Open Source and how it applies to advertising/branding. Bob writes:

"If the conversation is dominated by consumers themselves...who needs ads? This raises the question of what agencies are left to do. Maybe the answer is obvious: to manage, focus, exploit, maybe even co-opt the open conversation."

Exploit? Co-opt? Jackie Huba at Church of the Customer zeroes in on the problem with ad industry thinking here. It's us vs. them language like this that is the cause of marketer's worries. Hello! If exploitation is going to be a part of the mix, it's gotta be mutual. If you actually have a copy of the relevant AdAge, take a look at the front page illustration that headlines the Garfield piece. One of the little memes attached to open-source is mutual exploitation...it's a two way street baby!

Do. Don't discuss.

Matt at theBasement.compicks up on the call to action thread started by Steve Rubel, Pete Blackshaw, and others:

"One of my favorite quotes from WOMMA (the Word of Mouth Marketing Association event held 2 weeks ago) - "Do. Don't discuss." One of my most unbelievable realizations at WOMMA - corporate America is absolutely petrified with fear of online posters. Why? I have no idea. Think about it, marketers expect us to let them ooze into every pore of our lives though television ads, product placement, print media, radio, sidewalk chalk, telephone solicitation, tattoos on the backs of our eyelids, but they won't take the time to pay us any attention when we come to them as a willing audience? WTF!"

WTF indeed. Matt is also pissed off at the marketing world discussing "actionable intelligence" and then doing nothing about it. Here's Matt's take: "I would say that if you don't act on actionable information then you are worthless." Seems to me like there's a lot of worthless marketing departments out there... (full post here)

Yahoo survey results

Search engines and friends of friends are more credible than TV ads according to a new survey by Yahoo. 81 percent of college students rated search engines as the best source of information; friends and family (e.g. friend of a friend or FOAF) were rated best by 64 percent of students, while just 34 percent said traditional media was their best source of information. (The numbers add up to more than 100 because an information source was considered "best" if students placed it in the top two boxes on a five-point scale.) This bodes well for the future growth of blogs and other alternative sources, particularly if they are written by people the individual either knows personally or feels he/she can trust. (from micropersuasion)

Web 2.0 definitions

From the Wired.com report on the sold-out Web 2.0 conference come these definitions:

Web 2.0, according to conference sponsor Tim O'Reilly, is an "architecture of participation"...based on social software where users generate content, rather than simply consume it... (check out his cool chart here)

Ross Mayfield, CEO of SocialText, had a simpler definition..."Web 1.0 was commerce. Web 2.0 is people..."

In the same story it's also interesting to note InterActiveCorp CEO Barry Diller's reaction to the idea that citizens with blogs and video editing software are major threats to the entertainment industry: "There is not that much talent in the world. There are very few people in very few closets in very few rooms that are really talented and can't get out. People with talent and expertise at making entertainment products are not going to be displaced by 1,800 people coming up with their videos that they think are going to have an appeal."

I hear what you're saying, Barry, but you really don't get it. It's not a matter of displacing the entertainment/ad industry, if by displacing you mean no further need for the current type and technical level of talent. The current industry will continue to exist, it'll just be watched less. What a narrow view of talent! The 1,800 people with videos represent the long tail, options for the many viewers who want to see something other than carefully mediated high production value gloss. These 1,800 people will also be the ones getting involved with brands they choose, instead of those chosen by the Barry Dillers of the world. (full story here)

Just downloaded Seth's new ebook on his new venture Squidoo. It's titled "Everyone is an expert" and recommends that people set themselves up a gurus ("lensmasters") in particular fields and subjects. (I'm going to be the lensmaster of my own lifestyle and then get sponsored for it!) He's built an architecture around this idea that will allow all sorts of new connectivity and profit. Sounds like web 2.0 to me: People. and commerce.

NYT on web video distribution

This article in yesterday's times goes into detail about various web distribution players...Brightcove, etc. The deal is they host your video and serve ads around it, among other things. I have mixed feelings. I'm all for web video (obviously), but IF I WANTED TO BE INTERRUPTED BY ADS I'D OWN A TV. Anyway, if you'd like to read about how web video is shaping up, for content creators as well as distributors,
here it is.

Steve Rubel: It's time to go the distance

PR blogger Steve Rubel (micropersuasion) posts about his current frustration with the marketing community: (full post here)

"...the marketing community has got 75% of social media mastery under its belt. They conceptually get its importance, how it evolves marketing from a monologue into a dialogue and the importance of listening. What they don't get is the last 25% -- how to put this into action immediately. They don't know how to...develop conversational marketing programs. This is where the money will be made."

Want to know how to do it? A system that answers the big questions? Let me lay it out for you:
1) Listen to your market. Do this with consumer insight tools like those offered by Intelliseek or Cymphony (fellow BlogOn Innovators) and with your CRM database.
2) Use this info to develop a conversational marketing program. Hire Steve Rubel. Hire a blogger who gets it. Provide feedback forums thru branded social media tools while also engaging these customers on their own terms, on their own blogs, etc.
3) Introduce new products and initiatives to these communities, openly and honestly. BzzAgent can help run and manage this. Sponsor events. Develop WOM.
4) Want scale? Here's how you let the world know about your program: Videotape the whole process. Interview key community members, evangelists, product developers, designers, marketing people, stakeholders with an eye to honesty, relevance, and style. Put it online, in videoblogs and other (potentially viral) ways. That's where coBRANDiT comes in.
5) Use the standout material in a conventional ad campaign. Cable. Broadcast. Print. Outdoor. Measure the whole thing. Return to step 1 and start over.

Bingo. A turnkey solution. I'll manage the whole thing. Who's hiring?

The debate about WOM disclosure

Ad Age published a story this week titled "Is Buzz Marketing Illegal?" and needless to say it's generated a lot of interest from the WOM world. The best commentary I've found comes from Church of the Customer's Ben McConnell. He says:

"To argue that disclosure undermines the value of buzz demonstrates a naive understanding of how word of mouth really works...A thousand companies can prove a thousand different ways that involving customers in the marketing process can and will contribute to word of mouth...What successful and effective word of mouth requires is customer involvement before, during and after product/service launches. Customers and prospects can get involved via beta tests, trials, samples, content creation, customer communities, feedback systems, customer advisory boards, backstage tours -- to name a few ideas."

Yeah, now put it all on video...
Read the full post here. It's good.

Word-of-mouth strategy

Paraphrasing of key insights from Pete Blackshaw's CGM blog: an interview with Bob Gilbreath of Bridge Worldwide:

World of Mouth and Mass Reach: The web allows mass reach of WOM activity, both short and long term. But it is the short term results that allow shareholder driven operations to buy into WOM strategies. Results now!

WOM & The Marketing Mix: With the decline of old marketing models, business are going to have to do many new marketing projects instead. WOM will be one of these projects. The key for WOM mktg agencies will be to provide a simple turnkey operation to clients.

Managing Leveraging Consumer-Generated Media: CGM is going to lighten the load on client side mktg managers. Set up a program and let the customers do the work. See the full post here.

Matt Galloway on Electronic Arts

A bit of follow-up from the recent WOMMA event (word-of-mouth vs. advertising) held in NYC... Matt Galloway of the Basement sums up the presentation made by Gaylene Nagel of Electronic Arts:
"In short, they stopped marketing to the masses and focused on the thought leaders and trend setters of their audience. Then, they didn't market to them. Instead, they played with them. Instead of interrupting their influencers lives, they enhanced them. Instead of trying to trade money for attention, they did something remarkable, they traded attention for attention. So fundamental, so brilliant. " full item here

key: TRADING ATTENTION FOR ATTENTION. With people who care enough to be involved. With people who will spread the word.

Just found PSFK.com

I just found IF.psfk.com which describes itself as "Daily inspiration for Brand Planners & Creative Thinkers." Good little bites from a global trend collaborative. ex:

"Demographics doesn't matter anymore. Saying urban once meant black or Latino. Although I grew up listening to hip-hop I now turn to different music for the mood I'm in. Yeah, I still listen to hip hop but I also need a bit of punk form time to time and even rock. You can't use demographics -- you use attitude and culture."

Karl Carter, VP of Marketing for Current TV, speaking at the Influx M-Squared Conference Sept 27 2005 San Francisco.

ATTITUDE AND CULTURE...qualitative, not quantitative information.

Corporate Blogging...

courtesy hugh@gapingvoid.com

See you at BlogOn 2005

Update on the BlogOn event Oct. 17-18 NYC: we'll be there, and we'll have a really sweet innovator display. (We have been selected to present as social media innovators). We have a business model that brings together the worlds of market research, advertising, WOM, blogging, measurement and CUSTOMERS into a new ROI friendly unity. Oh, I forgot to mention our upcoming cable distribution deals. See you there.

ps... just got this in my in box:
"I am contacting you to explore the possibility of one of your founders being a speaker at the New Communications Forum 2006, which will take place March 1-3, 2006 in Palo Alto, CA.

We are planning a session track on Advertising, and one of the proposed sessions/panels is entitled, "Ad Co-Development: Customers as Your Creative Resource." I think you could offer some valuable insight into this topic as part of a panel."

nice.

Murray: part 4 of 4

CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE
Murray tells the cactus joke. Taken all together, what does this series tell us? German engineering is incredible. Style and handling are important. The relationship between manufacturer, employees, customers, and the environment is crucial. And BMW has a reputation for attracting pricks. If I was BMW, here's what I'd do with this lesson:

The Ultimate Driving Machine statement remains on target. Stay with it, but do more to make the point. Sponsor more local driving events, autocrosses, track days, driver safety classes etc. in which BMW owners and others can learn skills and demo new models. Build a BMW hybrid. Why isn't german engineering a leader in green tech? There's a huge opportunity for a sporty/luxury hybrid. Show the BMW factory. No sweatshop there! Good benefits, clean environment. Responsible manufacturing costs $$, it's part of why the cars are expensive. Videotape all this stuff. Put it online, etc etc. Might make BMW owners seems less prickly...

Murray: part 3 of 4

CLICK ON IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE.
In which Murray talks about how if cars left piles of shit in the driveway we might do more about emissions.

Why ad agencies don't get it.

Dear Owen,
We have received your email in which you indicate your desire to submit to us certain material for our consideration for advertising for one of our clients. It is agency policy not to review any such materials.

Thank you for you interest in our agency. Have a great day.

Best,
Julie Erich
Crispin Porter Bogusky

These guys are all about BIG IDEAS. As long as they're theirs.

Nantucket

CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE
Recently we visited friends on Nantucket. Was it business or pleasure? While editing the video I made this quick cut...

Murray: part 2 of 4

CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE

BlogOn Social Media Summit, part 2

This from the blog attached the summit:
"A very cool post just showed up in my BlogOn Search Feed and I wanted to write about it because, well, I think it's cool and deserves to be noticed....No guarantees on being selected as an Innovator, but Chris will definintely give coBRANDiT serious consideration."
Sounds good to me!
ps chris: in case you haven't seen it yet, here's the page that describes the business model.

More from Clickz: Pete Lerma

In this article extolling the virtues of blogs and CGM content Pete Lerma states:
"...what if we identify 10 of the most ardent, creative fans of whatever brand we're currently working on, then ask them to come up with concepts for our next online campaign? Would these smack of more authenticity than ads created by professionals? How would you turn those ideas into professional-looking ads without losing the authenticity you're striving for? Results of a project like this could be quite interesting....It's long past time we started thinking about how we can work with our brands' customers rather than how we can simply talk at them."
Yup. Read the whole article here.

Murray: part 1 of 4

CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE
Continuing our series on people and their cars...Jesse's neighbor Murray. Murray is a classically trained pianist and an appreciator of fine German engineering. Here he describes the mechanical fuel injection system in his BMW 2002. No sensors! No computers! Just one very eccentric cam. "It's like a motor in a motor." Stay tuned for the next three episodes, in which Murray describes style and speed circa 1972, if cars could take a dump, and "the cactus joke."

and now a word from George Silverman...

Read the previous post, then read this. Also from ads. womma:
"Advertising should compliment WOM....Ads should give testimonials, stories and other WOMworthy content. Ads should stimulate customers to talk to other customers, reminding them how happy their friends will be after they get the kind of demo, for instance, that only a friend can give. So, the right kind of advertising can support the WOM and be subservient to it. No ad should ever be considered that doesn't contribute to WOM." (full post here)
Thank you George.

ads.womma.org

In case you haven't figured it out, I'm deeply into the WOM movement. I see documentary advertising as an application that unites WOM practice and conventional advertising into an integrated measurable ROI friendly whole. So imagine my excitement when I discovered the ads.womma blog just started up to promote the next womma event in NYC. All my favorite topics. All my favorite thinkers. Chief among them Pete Blackshaw, who wrote a great bit on WOM vs. Advertising. Key takeaways:

"...the overly simplified sandbox banter of WOM versus advertising is exactly that: too simple.  What we need to start thinking about is [not] how to "get rid of the old," but rather, how to optimize existing and new forms of advertising in order to maximize the conversational value and impact of WOM or consumer-generated media...The point is this: advertising and WOM feed on one another."

Right on! Also included on the blog is this cool chart comparing old school mktg with neo-mktg. It's by creating passionate users and is particularly notable for describing WOM as a space where it's "impossible to seperate development and marketing." (I say how about "impossible to seperate development and marketing and advertising?" That would be truly transparent and authentic!)

BlogOn Social Media Summit

CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE
Chris Shipley, this post is for you. Chris runs the BlogOn Social Media Summit which will be held in NYC, Oct 17-18. Want to know what's up in marketing/advertising/media in the next few months and years? This is the place, or at least one of them. I just submitted my application to be a special innovative presenter type at the conference, and I'm hoping I'll win a slot. So Chris! Sign me up! We here at coBRANDiT have a vision we've been working on for 3 years as total outsiders...and have built it into national and international clients and recognition (albeit on a very small scale...) We've been to the WOMMA events, gotten kudos from Dave Balter, Pete Blackshaw, Steve Rubel, Ben and Jackie at Church of the Customer, had numerous calls of interest from the likes of Best Buy and Volkswagen...it's time to get the word out, and your audience wants to hear it. And I'm a great speaker, too.

Parlez-Vous PUMA teaser

CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE
Documentary advertising grows in part out of commercial ethnography...aka market research. This teaser is pieced together from a project we worked on for PUMA, and what it shows is the focus on PEOPLE, not product. People are characters. They're interesting. We like to check 'em out. So find the ones who are into your brand (many of these folks are filmed in a PUMA store) and let them do the talking. Put it online, let people watch and interact, build a community, film the community, introduce your new line of sneakers to the community, film that, use it on TV, in print, etc. etc. And guess what? The whole thing costs you as much as a 30 second TV spot.

hello collegehumor.com

CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE
I just sent this piece to collegehumor.com in hopes of generating some interest. It was sent in to us by genuine college students (does bacon constitute gear?) and it's a good example of the sort of creativity we're interested in. Though maybe not documentary exactly...

Is there a problem with reality?

CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH MOVIE

I was on vacation last week, at my parents house in New Hampshire (see our vid titled BEARHOG) and I made a movie of my friend Thomas fixing his shoe with needle and thread while consuming an icy Schlitz. I was also filming our daughters (he's got 3, I've got 2) playing in the yard. Some overlap occurred. Namely, some of the best sewing with beer shots have kids in the picture, or screaming in the BG, and some of the kids playing pictures have Schlitz present. I sat down to edit and realized that this kind of reality would perhaps be forbidden by broadcast rules. Heck, you can't even show old people (much less my 2 year old) drinking beer on TV (that's defined as beverage to lips.) I wonder how these rules are going to play out online? (I know PBR wants to play it safe. They'd like to adhere to broadcast rules online.) What's the problem with reality? I guess i'm not talking about a problem with reality...just a problem legally documenting it.

UPDATE: No movie submissions yet! But we've been told some are on the way...it seems coBRANDiT has got people thinking, and as the word spreads and the idea propigates into the public domain, the response has been pretty positive.

We have recieved over 1400 page views, been picked up by numerous bloggers (chile, japan, germany, uk, usa) and fielded many questions, comments, and supporting emails. Most of the interest comes from people connected to advertising and marketing; we have not yet broken into MSM or general interest websites.

coBRANDiT official launch

This is it. The official launch of coBRANDiT, the world's first open-source agency specializing in documentary advertising and branded content. FAQ's: Why are we doing this? and WTF are we talking about, anyway?

It all started this way: My cousin Jesse and I were sitting around drinking beer. Heineken. And we were talking about how, from a mktg standpoint, Heineken was right where it wanted to be: in our 'fridge, on our table, in our hands, being drunk (er, consumed...) That being the case, any additional mktg dollars spent on us by Heineken would be wasted (er, unneccessary). So instead of spending more cash on advertising to Jesse and I, Heineken should be giving us their money directly, in exhange for which we would give them video testimony of our world and Heineken's place in it. It was (and is) our belief that a documentary of that sort would be a lot more interesting than a typical stupid ad.

Ever since that night in the winter of 2002 we have been working to figure out two things: 1) How to find more people like us, people who would like to make short brand documentaries and get free product and/or cash in exchange, and 2) How to get brands to sponsor/pay for these documentaries. No, we haven't worked out every detail of the business model, no, we're not backed by Saatchi or Arnold...but we are sure of ourselves and our ability to make it happen. Stay tuned!

(For a video history of our activities, go to the Archives (bottom right of this page) for April 20, watch episodes 1-5)

Future of Marketing

I've just become a reader of Jonathan Carson's BuzzMetrics blog "Mouthpiece." (JC is one of the WOMMA founders.) He writes good. He's been doing a series called "the future of marketing" and part 4 is a doozy. Here it is. Read it. For some reason i can't copy from it, so i'll paraphrase:
DOWN DRAMATICALLY: celebrity endorsments on TV.
UP DRAMATICALLY: "super consumer" sponsorships through which brands buy the media created by individual citizens...

Lifestyle Sponsorship

This current BusinessWeek story titled "Advertising Of, By, And For The People" is the latest in a round of interesting coverage (they did a whole thing on blogging (with a small mention of vlogging) a month or so ago). The story descibes Audi's A3 campaign and converse gallery, among others. No new news here, just more confirmation.

What this is all about (but i don't think the advertisers running these programs have realized yet) is lifestyle sponsorship. These campaigns say "Take what you like about how our product meshes with your life, and give it to us. On film or in person. We'll give you something in return." Sounds like sponsorship to me...sponsorship for being yourself. I'm waiting for the tables to turn to the point where the focus isn't on the product, but rather on the person ("consumer").

Demand for video content: Wired story

Wired posted a story today (here it is) about the high demand for short form video for web use. Lots of great points made, good links, good quotes. Here's a few that stuck out:
1) "Established media outlets have too much money invested in existing content so they are unable to pioneer new formats," said Andrew Blau, a strategist with the Global Business Network, a think tank based in Berkeley, California. "The most exciting (content) innovation is produced by people, usually with few financial resources, who have everything to gain and nothing to lose."
2) "We're moving from a text-based internet to multimedia internet," said J.D. Lasica, executive director of Ourmedia, a free site for posting video. "So video is becoming a full-blown phenomenon on the internet."
3) There's very little quality short-form video available. Outside of the music industry, movie studios and cable channels aren't in the habit of producing short videos, so there isn't much inventory. What's more, creating short formats popular on the internet isn't a talent many professional TV and film producers have developed...

Sounds good to me. What isn't being said here is WHY media companies are stockpiling video inventory...well we all know the answer to that: SO THEY CAN SELL ADS. You know, like TV. If you want free content, you've got to watch ads. Is there going to be a TiVo for web video? All the more reason for advertisers to make compelling opt-in branded content people want to watch.

positioning

There has been long and ongoing debate about "positioning" vs. "telling many stories" (whatever that idea is called). Seems like there should be room for both, but given my choice i'd lean towords many stories, perhaps many stories about positioning! Positioning example: BMW's "ultimate driving machine." Gee, there sure are alot of stories there. How about video of the BMW CCA ice racing events? or autocross? or the Williams F1 team? or asian drift fans? This post from A Clear Eye got me to thinking about this stuff:
"Positioning is pass�. Yup, you read it right. Things are simply moving too quickly. So instead of trying to occupy a unique "position," develop a unique attitude. One that will alienate half of the world and turn on the other half....Forget about trying to carve out a unique position. Instead, uniquely express that position."

over-architected

Scion. A prime case in point. I have gone to their site periodically to see what they're up to, and i just went again 'cuz i heard they had some video about customizers. if it's there, GOOD LUCK FINDING IT. There's so much info so arbitrarily titled and organized that it's a shot in the dark. Plus, it's all flash. Isn't everybody sick of flash? I don't want my screen swimming around and opening shit up every time i move the mouse. Now admittedly I am not in the demo. Scion is targeting, but it seems to me the kids these days are into DIY and hacking/customizing more than ever. Perhaps Scion should build a site that reflects that ethos...you know, a bit less commercial looking? A nice side effect would be easier navigation, which would also help the people who are really buying their cars...

Introducing CGM2

This from P. Blackshaw and ClickZ again:

"CGM is rapidly adopting the same rich-media formats we see in online advertising. This, too, needs to be understood. A few examples of CGM2, or consumer-generated multimedia:
-Moblogs, photo sharing, and tagging.
-Vlogs/personal videos.
-Podcasting.
Consumers are dictating the terms of media reach, frequency, and impact. We must stay on top of this. Increasingly, we live in a consumer-controlled surveillance society, and CGM the currency. Watch your back, Jack!"
(read the full article)
This is all nothing new to those paying attention, I'm just glad yet again that the arguement is being made. Slowly but surely corporate marketing departments will wake up! The thing that I particularly liked about this article is the phrase "consumer-controlled surveillance society," 'cuz it neatly ties in with the OBTTV logo...

Joe Jaffe on Consumer Generated Content

Joe Jaffe makes the case for corporate sponsorship/acceptance of CGM (i guess he wants a term he can own, so for him it's CGC) in this article at iMediaConnection. Exerpts:

"Consumers have found their voices....Today, through iMovie, Movie Maker, blogs, email and a host of related devices, consumers have created the ultimate network -- a network...where word of mouth meets word of mouse; a no-spin zone where authentic brands are rewarded and fake brands (and their empty promises) are punished...[and] the rise of consumer generated content has been necessitated -- or if not necessitated then certainly accelerated -- by the dearth of originality in the space from the (so-called) traditional (so-called) creative agencies."

yow! this guy is talking my language. Jaffe sums it up:

"For those marketers are still trying to get their hands around consumer generated content -- don't.
Leave it be. Let it live. And try your utmost to give it the acknowledgment, respect and credit it deserves. Every iota of consumer driven expression is a hand raise of involvement and passion (good, bad or ugly). Some of the time it will be laughing with you and other times laughing at you. Either way, it is there. It is out there. And there isn't a thing you can do about it, except to show that you and your brand are human, which means being able to laugh at yourself and not take yourself too seriously. Self deprecation and irreverence are acquired tastes. Perhaps your consumers will even help you develop a palette for them."

Amen. So the remaining question is of course: Why wouldn't companies set up a channel to gather and promote the work of their customers, and/or provide content about customer activities involving brands? How about releasing new products and initiatives to a customer network of content creators? The incentive for customers is obvious: insider status. Seems like a no-brainer to me. And think of all the money you could save from not having to pay Saatchi & Saatchi...

yeah, i know i'm sounding like a broken record with my posts...I'm just glad that every day i see evidence of the coming CGM tsunami, and that this website is my surfboard.

S. Rubel's 10 Commandments

Steve Rubel does it again...he's talking about PR, but his ideas sure are applicable to advertising (esp 3 & 6). Here's

10 Commandments for The Era of Participatory Public Relations:

1) Thou shall listen-Utilize every avenue available to you to listen actively to what your publics have to say and feed it back to the right parties.

2) Remember that all creatures great and small are holy-It doesn't matter if it's the New York Times calling on you or an individual blogger, both have power. Take them all seriously.

3) Honor thy customer-Create programs that celebrate customers and they will celebrate you.

4) Thou shall not be fake-Keep it real; don't hide behind characters and phony IDs.

5) Covet thy customers-Don't sue your fans. You will alienate them.

6) Thou shall be open and engaging-Involve your customers in the PR process. Invite them to help you develop winning ideas and become your spokespeople.

7) Thou shall embrace blogging-It's not a fad, it's here to stay. Be part of it.

8) Thou shall banish corporate speak-People want to here from you in a human voice. Don't hide behind corporate speak. It will soon sound like ye olde English.

9) Thou shall tell the truth-If you don't tell the truth, it will come out anyway.

10) Thou shall thinketh in 360 degrees-Ask not what you can do for your customer, but also what your customer can do for you.
Here's the original post.

Pennsylvania "Real people, real road trips"

It seems like the state of PA understands what we're talking about: visitPA.com has just started a thing featuring 5 or 6 roadtrippers blogging (including video!) around the state. It's unclear how or if the bloggers are compensated, but the results look pretty good (meaning the bloggers have a real voice, and link to things that relate in no way to PA. The one video i watched was pretty crummy though...) Here's an article about the program.

Calling all auto marketers! RSS video feeds req'd!

I just read P. Blackshaw's Clickz article titled "Who's Behind The Wheel Now?" in which he lays out the old story of consumer web enabled empowerment, in this case applied to the auto industry. Here's the salient point:
"The Internet is inseparable from the purchase cycle, and nearly 75 percent of consumers cite word-of-mouth recommendations as the most influential factor in their car buying discussion. Put another way, well North of $300 billion in global auto sales are influenced by the recommendations of others....Web sites should really be re-architected to meet the new demands of today's empowered consumer. With or without advertising, [consumers] naturally reach for the brand Web site, particularly in high-involvement categories like automotive. Most auto Web sites... lack the agility and flexibility we've come to love in the blog world. Few offer RSS or make it easy to find the TV spots in online formats."
ok, stay with me here. i also read Online Video Ads: Think Web, Not TV by Julian Smith in which he says: "Streaming or cached video content on a specific destination site offers the best chance of engaging interested consumers in brand messages..." and "Using video also means the same, or similar, advertising creative can be displayed online and on TV. This offers marketers...a greater consistency of brand messaging across channels."
So what do we know? Consumers go to brand websites, and consumers put a premium on recommendations from others like themselves. Online video is going to be huge and RSS will be a way to deliver it. So how long is it going to take for VW or someone (jeep has come close, but it's lame) to set up an easy to find video channel (RSS enabled) that broadcasts regular content about customers and related brand activities? Hire a crew to produce the content, get customers to submit video, and there you are. Use the stuff on TV too and save yourself a bunch of $$, plus publicize the whole program with consistent imagery.

consumer generated advertising? CGA?

We've re-worked our site again...now it's a hybrid! Technically speaking our index page is now a frameset that holds two pages side by side: the OBTTV home and this blog. If you're looking at the blog only, click here and check out the new set-up. Don't worry, this blog entry will still be visible...it's just part of our main home page now. Go ahead! Click!
The redesign required some fiddling around with the text and titles, too. Had to get rid of the redundancies. We've spent some time trying to figure out what to title the thing. What is it that we are doing here? and can it be captured in a neat phrase? These are the phrases we've been using:
commercial videoblogging/documentary advertising/homemade ads/consumer produced advertising/prosumer ads/market research/co-created ads/video ethnography/commercial ethnography/ethnographic advertising/citizen marketing/branded content/brand hijacking/consumer generated media (CGM)/viral advertising/quicktime evangelism/etc.
Any thoughts? (yes I'm prepared for you to suggest a title like "stupid crappy shit go to hell")

joey the midwife

my brother sent me this link some time ago. from the world of screwing around with advertising i present: JOEY THE MIDWIFE.com

What's your Schlitz-uation? Fishing

CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH MOVIE. (8mb)

We've always loved abandoned/underutilized environments, and have spent a lot of time exploring the ones in our 'hood. In fact it was drinking in these locales that inspired OBTTV's creation. This closed bridge and the adjacent empty factory have been a focal point for us before, so when we decided we wanted to film the trains that always go by it seemed perfect to return. We made up a fishing skit and got derailed by beer.

trainspotting in somerville, MA

CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE
ahhh, springtime in new england. this is how we relax after fishing. (this takes 30 sec to load)

anti-las vegas rant

this is funny. VIEW IT

mummies, ninjas, and nickilosh.com

CLICK IMAGE TO PLAY MOVIE
introducing nick pierce and his pal josh. they entered this mummy movie in the converse gallery video contest last winter. we heard about, interviewed them, and made our own little piece (as seen above). anyway, they have just put up their own website nickilosh.com with their own nutty stuff...prepare for world domination.

cars: Glen & Zack

CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE
Glen and Zack are VW aficianados. Mission Hill, Mass.

cars: Nelson

CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE
This is Nelson. He loves his '89 Mustang. Allston, Mass. (Note new compression courtesy 3ivx. Thank you Jay and Michael!)

McGriddle cakes

A forwarded link from dawn at agoraphone. I think Ryanne will like this: McGriddle Cakes

part 1: Our Schlitz-uation

CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE
A few summers ago my cousin Jesse and I made our own "ads" for Schlitz beer, a totally moribund brand with no marketing strategy what-so-ever. We decided to take over and make it ours.

part 2: Documentary Advertising

CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE
Then I saw an article by Rob Walker in the NY Times magazine about Pabst Blue Ribbon and all the below-the-radar marketing stuff they do. I also saw that Pabst owned Schlitz, so I called up the Pabst brand manager, showed him our Schlitz work, and he sent us out to make some short documentaries about PBR.

part 3: Inc. magazine

CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW MOVIE
The work for PBR got Rob Walker interested in what we were up to. He wrote a story on us that appeared in the August '04 issue of Inc. magazine. We printed up business cards.

part 4: Parlez-vous PUMA?

CLICK IMAGE TO PLAY MOVIE
Then we set up a meeting with PUMA. They sent us to Paris, London and NYC to get advance feedback on a line of shoes they're introducing. We laid the groundwork for an online campaign about the introduction, and helped PUMA identify regional differences in approach. The bottom line: involve your core audience with something special.

part 5: Co-creation

CLICK ON IMAGE TO PLAY MOVIE
This movie is a consumer submission; the guys who made it are pretty excited to see it online. What we're talking about now is word-of-mouth video: branded content made by and/or about consumers. Part advertising, part research, totally transparent...a whole new approach to media and content production. We've all heard about brand co-creation (haven't we?) coBRANDiT enables co-creation of the marketing/advertising itself. Think commercial ethnography, customer empowerment, videoblogs, ROI. Think media fragmentation, think opt-in. Think coBRANDiT.

how the "pros" do it.

david pogue produces a weekly online video for the NY Times, and therefor is another example of someone who has found a way to pay the bills with cheap vids. (he also has something to say and can present it well--very important.) videobloggers will find this clip he produced informative and amusing.

(thanks to ben & jackie at customer evangelists)

telling. not selling.

BTW, please don't ever lose this up-front, matter-of-fact tone. Its very easy for marketers to begin selling instead of telling, and very easy for people/consumers to spot the difference. I think what you're doing is brilliant and valuable.
-Josh

well the responses to my self-intro (to the yahoo videobloggers group) have been good, the above being one of the nicest: added benefit of a quote about telling versus selling. right on! i started working at my father's retail store when i was 11 (oh the joys of retail at christmastime) and learned early that honesty was the best policy--that means telling the pros and the cons. this is something i want OBTTV movies to do. if marketing would lighten up on the "everything is great" hard sell i wouldn't be pissed off nearly as much.

something current: tiger woods and that incredible shot he made last week (no i don't follow golf). i've described the OBTTV movies as documentary advertising: here's an example for Nike posted on jaffejuice, made by jaffe hisself. this seems to be telling, not selling.

CGM TV

That stands for Consumer Generated Media TeleVision, just in case... So i went to the womma summit last week and one of the people i specifically wanted to speak with was pete blackshaw of intelliseek. they do a lot of blog measurement and try to figure out where this whole thing is headed. "this whole thing" being Consumer Generated Media (blogs, vblogs, etc. etc.) anyway, he and his co-author coined the term CGM (as far as i know) to describe this stuff in a white paper (what the fuck is a white paper?) that must be on their site somewhere. (here it is) So jump ahead to now...in the last week i have discovered not one but two cable stations that plan to broadcast CGM a lot/exclusively: Bite TV (in canada) and Current TV (based in SF, everyone but me heard about this a year ago, apparently, 'cuz it's fronted by Al Gore) Needless to say, super interesting. Might even make me sign up for cable. Obviously my question is: so what are they going to put on there for advertising? or would they do segments on CGM advertising/branded content? Current tv has some open calls for material going all the time (they've got one up about fashion right now) so get out your camera and get to work.

this just in from rob walker:

an unbelievable find! rob walker sends this link to a story in the sf chronicle about "commercial ethnography" and the death of market research/rise of ethnographic video. there are more like us out there...but they still don't get it. this type of material should BE the advertising, rather than simply informing it. so much better. so much less fake. so much cheaper.

brand hijack manifesto

i just re-read the brand hijack manifesto in alex wipperfurth's new book of the same title. it's very good. spot on. read it now. (it's short)

confirmation from adrants

read this:"creativity, mistakes, and low cost make great viral ads"

mark burnett's bass contest

I just heard about mark burnett's contest run by bass beer. The idea i want to submit is for a reality show about advertising and product placement. one of the most interesting aspects of m. burnett's shows is the branded entertainment aspect (how home depot, etc. pays $2m to be written into the program.) of course it ties in with the whole shifting of the ad model, from ads to programming about brands (so as to avoid tivo, etc), and it is this same game that OBTTV is playing. i think there is a lot of interest in this phenomonon not just from marketers, but from consumers, and not just consumer watchdogs, but consumers who are tired of the not-so-subtle placements. I think most consumers don't mind brands in programming, but they want something that doesn't pretend they're stupid. I say expose the whole thing with a reality show.

Select as contestants a handful of amatuer video nuts. Line up brand sponsors. Tell the video nuts they are competing to make the most compelling series of 30sec shorts about the way the brands interact with/are consumed by the public. Video nuts can interview consumers, salesmen, brand managers, etc. or follow their bliss. To make it more fun and engaging, each video nut has a website to which the viewing public can submit material for use. Viewers can support the video nut they're rooting for in this way, and will be engaging the brands as well. This will all be open and obvious, and every week a panel of the brand managers (i suppose) critiques the work and dumps the worst video nut. All this is documented by the show producers, and the contestant's work is used as the show ad campaign. Here's the really cute part: the main sponsor is Apple, so the name of the show is Quicktime. Genius, or what?

martha. rem.

i don't care what anybody says, martha is great. ok, maybe her personal relationships have some issues, but she is a genius, and this apprentice thing is going to be super. i might even watch it. i saw the first 3 or 4 episodes of apprentice season 2, and found it compelling (though not enought to finish watching the series, i guess...) i wish i had applied to it, but the deadline was back in feb. oh well, there might be a season 2. i read the christopher hitchens book (Martha Inc.), and though it had it's needlessly catty bits i loved it. she has incredible foresight, and balls. (martha made programming into ads, OBTTV wants to make ads into programming.) also, i'm reading the story on rem koolhaas that's in the current new yorker (3/14/05). very inspiring, this guy has it wired. (i kinda knew that anyway, my brother used to work for him) check this out: "clients, when confronted with bold architecture, are not alive enough to want it, but strong enough to kill it." and this:" i want to inspire new curatorial strategies" rem is not afraid to push the client, to lead them. After months of studying their goals and systems, after gaining insight into the lived environment. rem and martha would make a great pair. hello mark burnett!

new site.

so we're in the middle of re-doing the site again. basically we've buried the text and made it all about the videos. (in other words, the site has come full circle.) our first site was very elemental, image based. hidden links led you into a movie page, and there were some very basic (and also hidden) text blocks that solicited clients and submissions. subsequent sites became more and more "obvious"... more text, more description, more background. why companies should sponsor us. how the media world is changing. quotes from notable marketers, etc. the movies took back seat, and appeared as text links. the sites was designed to convince clients of reality as we (and others) see it. [see our former sites here]

Then came the shift, about 2 months ago. The original 2 headed dog site is what did it. we were looking at it (for those of you who don't recall, it had 30 or 40 short homemade style goofy videos on it, as well as some games and stuff) and thinking "SHIT! this is it. someone has stolen our idea." namely, homemade videos with product placement. we started looking for brand integration in the pieces. but we weren't super worried. 2 headed dog was clearly big budget, and too secretive to be really interesting. it was trying way too hard, and it didn't take submissions. then it became MTV2, and that was the end of that. whew! we said to ourselves "now we will do what they could have done, but fucked up. and we'll do it right." debuting on April 1: our new site.

the new site is simple. movies. rate/comment/submit/contact. if you want background and chat, see history, or this blog. we don't feel the need to explain the current media world quite so much anymore. as companies move into word-of-mouth and related fields, as they hand off marketing responsibilities to consumers, the question OBTTV answers is this: who makes the images?

testing video blog

This video (click image to view) was shot for the story on us in Inc. magazine last summer, but the editing is fresh. It demonstrates our belief that commercial content should integrate a number of brands. I mean, that's how it really is, right? You wear your sneakers, you drink your beer... at least that's how consumers see it. Which is why consumers (not lame ass high dollar ad agencies) should be making commercial content.

climate change

the site is now in it's newest iteration. it's time to start making more movies, and finding more like minded souls. since jesse and i started this project (almost 3 years ago, off and on) the climate has changed. i felt like the site had to do a lot of work to sell the whole idea of co-created ads, or whatever this is we're doing. (hijacking in the nomenclature of a wipperfurth at plan-b. now it is appearing with frequency (see links at right) and we feel we are in the right place at the right time. we come from the citizen side of the equation, and say to the corporate entities HEY! all your talk about the consumer being in control, and all your worries about media frag, all your spiraling big agency costs, well we have an answer. maybe not THE answer, but an answer.

we've been "relaxing..."

haven't thought much about obtainium for a week or two. just tweaking the technical aspects in a non-rushed way. plus, jesse's been ripping out his kitchen and my wife and kids are gone to cali, so i'm building a sleeping loft for my older daughter (41/2) and doing a major house clean. plus drinking lots o' schlitz. we could be filming all these projects, i guess... but there will always be projects. this weekend we're (jesse and i and some others) going to nh to rebuild my raft/party barge currently known as the bear hog. it's basically a floating dock with an outboard motor. used for picnicing, swimming, and late night floating. a moveable feast. the new version may be christened the schlitz explorer. the local market up there sells schlitz in tall boy form only. nice.

august...

so now the story is in the august issue. this gives us a little time. the main project is to produce a sales package built around a dvd. a really sweet dvd using the material we shot on the inc. photo shoot. as well as the solution of some technical web/quicktime issues and various corporate affairs... we've changed servers, re-worked the site and hired a lawyer. yeah! a lawyer!

the site is tight.

oh yeah the site is tight. i've said it before and i'll say it again. the site is tight. we've been tweaking it bit by bit, day by day, month by month, year by year. (have you found the semi-hidden historical sites yet?) it just gets better and better. and this will continue. i can't wait to see what it looks like in a year. we still have a bunch of stuff to do before the inc story hits in three weeks or so: get hi res and lo res versions of all movies up. get one or two or three (whatever) new movies on. make a business card. figure out pricing, business shit. i could go on and on.

ok we did it

ok we did it. shot on friday afternoon. a nice day. hot. we met at jesse's work (CTV) with bruce, friend and conscripted photog. he has a good eye. jesse wanted to shoot at a nearby freight terminal where they park containers. good space. good colors. we had a nice shoot. a bit tricky getting started, trying to figure out what the fuck to do. then we started on the pbr's and things loosened up. that's a lot of what this is of course...experimentation. who knows what it is, or what to do? my visiting father in law was talking about what laurie anderson is up to these days. she has decided that what is important in art, in life, is to remain open to possibility, to surprise. she has dedicated herself to not having any goals, or rather a goal for a specific project. her "work" is walking around in europe, seeing what happens. process.

for monday...

for monday we have to burn full size copies of most of the movies to cd and we have to shoot some hi-res stills of ourselves filming (maybe at harvard stadium?) a new spot. time is tight. it's wednesday, our schedules are packed, and my father in law is coming in town on saturday night. maybe we'll film him. he's very funny. he just sent a cartoon with a gerard de nerval quote... something like "even the most obscure of beings may conceal a hidden god." the picture was of a fat guy running the pop a balloon with a dart game at a fair. the light shines nicely on the balloons. he titled the thing "summer before fascism." like i said, very funny. i should invite him to this blog! anyway, the stills have to burnt to cd, too. then the whole thing gets sent out to travis at inc. mag. we get to run the photo shoot for our own piece. too much. the new spot might be like this: we're both totally geared out: original penguin shirts, pumas, some pbr empties on hand (we wouldn't want to get stopped by the cops) and then we go hang out at harvard stadium around 10 am, or 6 pm, depending. we both have cameras and we shoot each other shooting. meanwhile, a friend takes the hi res stills. sound good? a total orgy of documentation.

Something new...

we have been interviewed by rob walker for a july 2004 story in Inc. magazine.
this should be interesting...