I harp on this time and time again: video is a powerful tool in digital content strategy.  This video shows effort.  I’m not praising or endorsing Cain-just like I don’t think this video is trying to endorse smoking; yet, still highlighting the fact that it makes him look like a hyper-cool, take-no-prisoners-maveric with other trendy made up ad-hyphenates.  I’m commenting on his campaign’s use of online video and his staff being smart enough to pay for it themselves or to get someone professionally creative paid to do it by someone else.

He posted to YouTube and linked to Facebook-techniques that should be no-brainers now-a-days.  Gary Vaynerchuck said it best though.  Sometimes a little effort is all that makes a difference, because nobody has all the answers yet and most people can’t even tell the difference.  Of course no one else needs to know that.

Just found this supplemental.

Source: facebook.com

This is the stuff of viral cuteness legend.  I’m constantly harping on professional attempts at ‘viral’ not coming through.  But that Evan Longoria vid did pretty good; and yes it is obviously fake.  Professional athletes aren’t very convincing actors.  Good thing the clip is like 45 sec otherwise he probably would have flubbed.

I think I can actually articulate why, after watching this otter clip.

Don’t get me wrong, Talking Dogs and Cats are way funnier than the scripted Looks whose Talking franchise (this just reminded me how sad the Charlie Sheen situation was before @aplusk took his job-he will always be referred to in his twitter handle in later tumbles to further emphasize how much he has taken from Sheen in meta terms[sounded way too serious, sorry]); but catching something like this without shaking the dog sh** out of the camera is hard as hell.  

Infectiousness is not created in a vacuum because it is organic (like everything social); and not everything the most important object of your life does is as cute as you think to the rest of the world-unless something is added to it (perspective, ironic audio to video, commentary [written or spoken], etc.).

(last side: this post mostly referres to individual posts not YouTube channels or any other kind of consistant posts. if kitty pics and vids are your thing on a normal basis, keep it up. i’m just saying don’t post one kitty vid on some abitrary channel and expect people to think it’s 3-way material-expounded point made by avid YouTuber Phillip Defranco)

Source: youtu.be

Click it … (Follow all the directions-You will be amazed)

Almost an hour ago …

mashable Pete Cashmore  DreamWorks Demolishes YouTube for Kung Fu Panda 2 [VIDEO] -http://on.mash.to/llCeOK
This reminds me of the TipEx pocket mouse interactive video.  The biggest difference was the ‘experience’ was limited to YouTube.  It was basically berried.  A single innovation in on one channel is waisting the money that obviously went into such a campaign; with videography, on camera talent, web development etc.
But the TipEx video was made a while ago (internet time)-like 5 or 6 months.  In that time, the example a video like this let people in promotion and people with products needing promotion see what can be done.  And the innovative people at Google reinforce the case of a marketing plan to ‘Take over’ the pages of popular content distribution channels as part of well timed promotional campaigns.

The new ‘Conan the Barbarian’ trailer looks good, but it also looks like they tried to do too much with it.  The simplicity and baseness of the original was what makes it so re-watchable for me to this day.  I don’t know if all the hollywood pomp for professionalism’s sake will make it better or burn a well done steak to a crisp (sorry for the food metaphore-i’m really hungry and steak was the manliest food I could think of).

But that’s another topic all together (to paraphrase the original):  ’pomp for professionalism’s sake.’  Over the past few years, it seems that production of video content, and all content with a professional base for that matter, has taken a turn to display what is possible in an effort to prove it’s own validity against hobbyists and weekend warriors that have an ever increasing level of technology that can help them mirror the efforts of their professional counter parts.

The pomp and showmanship involved with doing the job of a cameraman, a video editor or even a writer seems to be getting amplified to display to clients that the cost of production is justified.  The mystique of the day-to-day inner workings of most jobs has been lost, but that does not mean that we should be expected to preform back flips while holding a camera and juggling flaming chainsaws in order to prove our worth professionaly.-especially at the sake of the content.  But this has always been an issue and will always be.  Let’s hope the new Barbarian isn’t too much like the Riddick sequel or 10,000 BC.

This video is entertaining dot com (I just wanted to use that rediculous phrase in it’s proper context [in reference to things that try to be cool and contemporary, while failing at doing both for one’s self-the phrase that Toni Braxton’s sister constantly says not the video]).

But beyond that it is a good use of video elements that are becoming staples of professionally made viral attempts: a sense of humor about itself (the monkey mask=the monkey see monkey do maturing viral nature of video [expansion of the jabbawockeez idea that it is about the motion of the body not the face-will make sense later]) the use of a bed room setting with a shot from a webcam feel; the use of the dance group poreotics-last years ABDC champs (only guessing on that one, from the playful nievate, group tutting, and robotic isos-but probably); and the general sentiment of the song itself.  

And I say ‘attempt,’ because (and here comes the obligatory rant about socio-memetic implication) I hesitate to call any videos made now-a-days, by professionals to get hits for music artists, politic agendas or online sensations; viral videos.  The nomenclature doesn’t fit, not just because of the impetus behind it, but because the culture that exists in online communities is changing.

I personally don’t interact with video content that is made by professionals and say to myself,

“Self, other people must see this and share in the shock and awe I have experienced.”

But I have before and in the same thought realized that my friends have probably already seen it talked about on TV or by professional aggregates that crawl the internet looking for these sorts of things.  Point of fact: (a little over an hour ago)

mashable Pete Cashmore  Click Around & Buy Things in Devo’s Interactive Video [PREMIERE] - http://on.mash.to/hKv118

In that same vein the, president’s recent live video streams on whitehouse.gov, today even, and coming to Facebook’s new LiveStream channel tomorrow; show that even if he looses the presidency in 2012 he is setting the strategies for online engagement: speed (just came out a few hours ago- a little non-sequeter but still enhances the point of viral success), accuracy, interactiveness, a sense of humor and an understanding of the landscape.

(side: I know not that many people read my tumbles, but I just wanted to clarify a bit.  I’m not a journalist, a citizen journalist, a social media guru [if there is such a thing], or a complete video expert.  My random scribblings are just the things I come across online and in real life ‘mashed up’ in the best way that makes sense in the moment.  The links I put in my posts usually add to my stuff with other content that expounds on where my thoughts are going in the moment.  With that said …)

I just happened to be near First and Constitution NE on a freelance shoot at the supreme court building earlier today, while Mayor Gray and D.C. council members were staging a protest about the D.C. riders and the tax code that was past a couple days ago to postpone the government shut down.

I was going to post the Apple ProRes version of this file here but I had to upload a lesser quality version on my YouTube channle (that I need to use more) because Apple ProRes is ridiculously ginormous.  I’ll upload a .mov to my vimeo channel tomorrow.

All of the old media mentors I’m surrounded by on a normal basis advised me to sell this footage to a local news affiliate, but I didn’t want to go through the head ache of calling assignment editors and negotiating a price when I could be watching Stargate Universe (I know I’m a nerd-You don’t have to tell me).  

Ultimately, if I did that I would be going against the tenants of social media that I am trying to get a handle on; as convoluted and delusional as the idea of net neutrality and complete digital transparency may be.  Larger news outlets can use it if they find it in the muck and bloggers can as well (no right or left wing nut job affiliations excluded).  It’s not like I’m gonna come across an opportunity to get footage like this everyday.

This is just another political display to gain the attention of the tristate constituency in order to detract from the controversy surrounding the Gray administration.-misappropriations of funds misuse of campaign dollars (regular D.C bureaucratic ethical incongruities and power plays)

Politics is a game of wins and losses in which politicians and other office holders pulls stunts to keep people looking one way while they do what they think their job is-fulfilling the interests and expectations of whoever will do them the most good later.  It’s sad and frustrating, but true.

(side: I got tired of waiting for them to upload the video to the DCFCtv YouTube channel.  If you want to see the video this blog and this teaser video leads up to just go to the link.)

Not more than a few hours ago … (tweet-tweet)

@mashable Pete Cashmore  Death Cab for Cutie Shoots Live, Scripted, One-Take Music Video: Watch It Here - http://on.mash.to/fpNV9O

This stream had a little bit of a Kanye West at the VMA influence (suites made of Flashing Lights); the Target Kaleidoscopic Fashion Spectacular; with pangs of OK Go videos.  

It’s not that they originated the continuous shot video, but even if a YouTuber doesn’t have one of their albums they have at least seen one of their videos or heard one of their songs, whether that end-consumer knows it or not.

With corporate sponsorship of anything popular, indie music is going though it’s ‘selling out’ phase:  like Rock ‘n’ Roll (after it was “stolen” from lil’ Richard); like hip hop (after it was leased from the Simons family {I couldn’t get to the blog that Russ wrote about this incident, so I had to use this link}); and like house music (after Jersey Shore made it cool for people not tripping balls to enjoy it and Britney’s genius media team successful restarted her career by insulating her crazy-ass from the media).

Regardless of all that, this is an innovative use of streaming media and capitalizing on celebrity buzz with new virtual tools.  And I hope more creative ideas like this come to forefront so that smaller more hyper-specialized replicas can be put in place for smaller brands and organizations.

This footage of the new Green Lantern movie was released at WonderCon a couple of days ago and it actually makes me think that the first overly campy trailer released a few months ago isn’t characteristic of what the film has to offer.

And in other unexpected super hero movie news Lindsay lohan is auditioning for a part in the upcoming Superman movie.  I don’t know how I feel about her using one of my favorite cultural icons to restart her ‘serious’ acting career again and I’m not sure how I feel about the Superman reboot either.

The story is what sucked the most about the last Superman movie.  It just didn’t make sense and reached too far, while trying to pay homage to Reeves original franchise without really adding anything to it.  I guess a better story would be to give Superman his rightful place as the serious version of Team America-an unwelcome force for justice and delusional up rightness in a world that knows where he fits in as much as he does (which isn’t anywhere).

That impetus was placed solely on the shoulders of Lane in the last installment.  I’m not saying making a cool Superman movie is going to be easy, but Superman Returns was at the beginning of the wave of the superhero movie influx and now the next one has a lot to live up to with this new Green Lantern and the Batman franchise that has already over shadowed a lot of the movies that came before.

There has been a lot of news about there being a Batman reboot after the Dark Knight rises without Chris Nolan’s departure.  We’ll see what we see, but I’m sure I’ll still go see them all.

Finally people are starting to demonstrate that they understand the value of video media in online marketing campaigns and are willing to take chances on it to enhance an all encompassing online experience.  

(side: sorry for sounding like such an evangelical twit-litist, but I’m invested in normalizing the use of video as one of the obvious staples of online-offline cross promotion so that I won’t have to do freelance for the rest of my life.)

Kraft’s been trying to get in on the ‘joke’ for the past couple of months; hiring Ted Williams (YouTube’s ‘golden voice’) and trying to replicate a more controlled Old Spice video blitz on TBS a few nights ago.  

The NYT even bolstered it’s new video journalist team on today of all days a few hours ago (I wish the paywall was a joke-is the video content part of the 20 or however many views of their free content before you have to pay?):

@nytimes The New York Times  ”For tweets from journalists in the NYT video unit, follow @annderry@matthew_orr @olsentropy #FF”

April fools is kind of a lame holiday offline (playing pranks at work can lead to office drama), but a couple of good online pranks played well, in my opinion.  The above video from Google and the joke on designers (typing helvetica in the search bar makes the font on the screen comic sans).  It wasn’t that funny if you didn’t have to stare at different fonts all day to figure out which works with what theme or whatever.

The most appropriate of all was the last place that floundering momentary celebrities go before their internet fame flat lines-Funny(Today it was Friday) or Die.  The parenthesis after Funny is just in case the site goes back to normal on the day that comes after today but before Sunday.  

These guys went all out.  The address and search bars have lyrics from Rebecca Blacks single and say straight out that this is a Fools prank, just in case you couldn’t catch it from the parody vids on the home page.

Lohan, Sheen (who both also had innuendos with Kimmel, if you know what I’m saying) and even Tequila turned to comedy to lighten the mood around their own controversy to show that they have a sense of humor about themselves.

At least we all have something to laugh about even if you missed it. Fun … Fun … Fun …

Source: mail.google.com