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Guess Who Just Released A Great Tilt-Shift Video?

admin — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:03:38 +0000

Nice and clean. Great music. No over the top branding. Makes me want to go to the park. Nice work, Disney folks.

My Love/Hate Relationship With Advertising

admin — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:39:30 +0000

On a recent trip home I had the unfortunate experience of watching some of our local provider’s 800+ cable channels. The lineup is so dreadful that I can no longer imagine watching TV without a DVR so that I can record only the shows I want and zip through all the commercials. I realize now that television has become, and maybe has always been, an advertisement delivery platform with the shows serving as merely filler. Broadcasters must be absolutely desperate for revenue. I think I might finally be ready to hook up my computer to our TV, or drop $100 on a Roku box with a Netflix subscription, and be done with cable altogether.

I have spent the last 6 months without a TV here in Europe and I love the solitude. I find I am much more productive and my senses appreciate the fact that they are no longer bombarded by the jarring audio and staccato imagery of today’s TV commercials. Unfortunately, while I can avoid TV ads I am still intermittently subjected to online advertising.

They are trying – “GM learned via monitoring blogs and web postings that there was quite a positive reaction to the spot, she said. The marketer hasn’t determined exactly how long the spot will continue to air.” -Via AdAge

Due to issues with Firefox 3.5 I recently moved to Apple’s Safari at which point I ran headlong into a slew of web ads. The front page of my hometown paper was running an ad for a big box store which was so large it actually swallowed the full screen. On a different site the ads had taken over control of the page and constantly forced me to the top of the page where the ad was located. I also found that I was once again subjected to video ads that seemed to kill the speed of the entire page while they promoted stuff I would never buy. I immediately reinstalled Firefox and activated the Adblock Plus add-on. I refuse to subject myself to poorly executed, low quality advertising.

The Firefox Adblock Plus add-on is without a doubt a web workers best friend. I have been using it for years and appreciate the fact that it has kept me safe from literally billions of dollars in advertising. I have no idea what I missed but I do know that I am perfectly happy not owning whatever it is they wanted me to buy. Of course I like to be reminded now and then about new technologies, services, etc but I like to search them out on trusted blogs and occasionally useful websites. Even on those sites I have no interest in seeing their paid ads – I let the writers do the advertising.

When the big guns are hosting events with the title “Is the advertising model dead?” you know you’ve got a problem. Via Guy Kawasaki at OpenForum

I certainly appreciate good advertising but I can’t stand advertising that is poorly made, poorly presented and that oversaturates the environment. Aside from there being too many ads filling the ad space there is also a problem with the rubber not meeting the road. In my opinion most ad campaigns oversell a lackluster product and almost never provide a forum where the company can then say, “You know what? We blew it. We sold you a crappy product and we are sorry.” Blogs provide that ability as do a number of other new/social/interactive media tools.

I know that a lot of time and effort is put into creating great TV spots, print ads, etc. and the artists used to produce the content are of the highest caliber (I have been lucky enough to have worked on some very large ad campaigns) it just seems that traditional advertising has become more of an irritant rather than a panacea. Gone are the days of “Hey, I need that!” They have been replaced by the “Oh no, not another commercial.” lifestyle that we are forced to live 24/7. For the businesses that are trying to promote what they feel is a great product mainstream advertising has started to become a liability rather than an asset.

Advertisers, talk to people. Put yourself out there but doesn’t mean when you Twitter constantly apologizing for some little screw up. Have some character and speak with the voice that you would talk to your family with. Take ownership of what you say and be proud of your product.The challenge now is for you to become more human than your competitors. Blogs are a great way to do this especially with media that is not too high brow. Create videos that show your company’s humanity (sort of like the GE commercial up top) and use images that show your business in an balanced light.

Don’t worry about the ratings. Be the nice guy/gal at the party that is clutching his/her drink a bit too tight. People will gravitate to you. I don’t agree with Eric Bradlow of the the Wharton School’s Interactive Media Initiative when he says that the idea that ‘content is king’ is a myth. If you don’t have great content no one is going to want to link to your site no matter how much you pitch them. Talk about issues that are trending, speak with authority, say what everyone is thinking but is too nervous to say and always, always, always give something to your readers and they will do the work for you.

U2 – I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight from David OReilly on Vimeo.

A few months ago Boing Boing featured the David O’Reilly video you see above. I don’t know if U2 commissioned the piece but so far they haven’t asked it be pulled for copyright reasons. I remember hearing the song before I read that post but ever since I saw the video I turn the radio up every time it plays. The fact that David O’Reilly took the time to create a video for a U2 song that Boing Boing ultimately wrote about is what made me want to buy that song. Once I get my iTunes issue sorted out I’ll be adding it to my collection. Rather than forcing your product on people with more traditional advertising start talking to them about it and let them decide its fate. Odds are if you what you say is true and your product is good it will take on a life of its own and you’ll be able to sit back and watch it take off.

Am I advocating the use of a blog to sell your product? Absolutely. Believe it or not people want a place where they can go and listen to a voice they trust talk to them about a product and what it can do for them. If you give their senses a rest and stop spending so much on all that noisy advertising they actually start to be able to hear what you have to say. And once they have heard you out be sure that you then take the time to listen and, more importantly, respond. If you are a popular brand this could mean a mountain of work but it could also mean a very healthy return over an extended period of time. Even if your message is not a smash hit straight out of the gate it is better to be the brand that people seek out rather than the one they try to avoid. If you are still not sold just remember this: I can easily block an ad on a page but not the content.

NetVibes Themes Publishing – Upping The Content Ante

admin — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 22:02:19 +0000

TechCrunch has a new post, NetVibes Gets Into Website Design, on the NetVibes Themes Publishing tool which enables users to create their own branded themes.

You can watch the video above to get an idea of what’s possible. Unfortunately, it is set to that hipster/IKEA music.

No related posts.

MSNBC Automates The Generation Of Meta Tags

admin — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:40:18 +0000

The president of MSNBC, Charles Tillinghast, discusses new technology with Beet.tv which automatically generates transcripts from video footage and then pulls meta tags from those transcripts. It looks like they are using technology from Nexidia to process the footage and generate the tags.

Making the generation of meta tags a nearly effortless task brings us one step closer to the fluid integration of content. Web tools like Apture and Zemanta could certainly benefit from this streamlining of the tagging process.

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Go Ahead, Embed This Post!

admin — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:09:54 +0000

I am glad to see that news sites are figuring out how to promote their material. Silicon Alley Insider has done a nice job of making its material available to readers. I am a big fan of anything that makes our jobs as bloggers easier.

Apture is another step in the right direction. The only drawback for both of these services is that the content can look/is slightly canned but if they can work toward blurring the lines they should be in great shape.

Media Bundling – Putting Apture To The Test With TCHO

admin — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 20:34:26 +0000

I think Apture is a great idea for several reasons. The first is that it makes generating a post dead simple and thankfully you are not locked into using only Apture recommendations. The ability to embed videos, upload files, and link to just about any content gives you the freedom to customize the content to better suit your audience.

The other advantage of using a tool like Apture is that it allows you to bundle media. All content is pulled around one center which always stays above the fold and the variety of content you have to chose from is impressive. While I would like to see more content along the lines of Vimeo, Flickr slideshows, etc the embed option makes this not such a critical issue.

Media bundling, if done well, could make generating traditional blog posts a thing of the past especially if Apture enables the option to pull from you own media library. What I think Apture should do is allow us to generate text boxes on the fly so that we can dynamically link content with text.

I chose TCHO because it is a very hip boutique chocolate company located near where I used to work in San Francisco. I figured they’d have a wide variety of media available and thankfully they did. Apture not only shows you what is available, it also shows you what is not available, so you need to pick your subjects wisely.

My final comment is that Apture needs to put some serious effort into overhauling their look. They need to look a lot less YouTube and much more Vimeo. A little more sex appeal would suit them well.

Foodtease

admin — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 15:13:20 +0000

Foodtease is my new favorite site. David and Nicole are two Canadians who have relocated to Laredo, Texas and now spend their spare time cooking and filming some of the most bizarre and delicious looking food you have ever seen.

They shoot most of their stuff at home using a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1 and host their videos on Blip.tv.

They recently traveled to Germany and Greece where filmed just about every meal they ate. They are both charming, photogenic and wildly entertaining.

If a company like Williams-Sonoma, Cuisinart, KitchenAid wanted to get creative with their advertising they could sponsor Foodtease so that David and Nicole could spend their time cooking more great food and producing more great content.

Please check out their great looking site and watch more of their videos.

One Of The Best Ways To Market A Restaurant In New York City