ouroboros

Lego Bricks It

NYT's Andrew Newman reported today that Lego prohibited the makers of the Spinal Tap "Unwigged and Unplugged" tour DVD from using a two-year-old stop-motion animation video of "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You" (below) created by Coleman Hickey that they had been using on their tour.

And why was this piece of content disallowed?

"We love that our fans are so passionate and so creative with our products,” said Julie Stern, a spokeswoman for Lego Systems, the United States division of the Lego Group, a Danish company founded in the 1930s. “But it had some inappropriate language, and the tone wasn’t appropriate for our target audience of kids 6 to 12."

Cluephone, Julie - 6 to 12 year olds aren't the only ones who love Lego products.  Nor are they the ones, typically who BUY it.  Their parents do.  The same parents, probably dads, who love Spinal Tap.  And loved Lego.  And would have loved to see this little mashup - maybe as much as the Spinal Tap guys themselves, who worked it into their stage show for their recent tour.

Lego is making a classic error.  They don't own their brand anymore.  More than anyone, they should know that - they've been giving their brand to their fans to play with for years, in the shapes of those little bricks and every other shape they make.  And we have played with them - making things Lego never dreamed up, including an entire genre on YouTube of stop motion animation.

Which is of course where my five-year old got his first intro to animation.  through legos.  on YouTube.  Unfortunately it was watching this classic:

When other brands would KILL to get the kind of mashup Lego was just handed (Lego + stop motion + YouTube + SpinalTap Tour + DVD) rolled into a compilation DVD as a free ad for their product to adoring fans, why did Lego kill the fun?

“YouTube is a less commercial use,” Ms. Stern said. “But when you get into a more commercial use, that’s when we have to look into the fact that we are a trademarked brand, and we really have to control the use of our brand, and our brand values.”

Darn, Julie. 

You can't control your brand anymore. 

You can choose who to spotlight though - and Coleman Hickey LOVED you. 

Loved you enough to take the time to build a movie using your product.  So what did the now sixteen-year-old Mr. Hickey have to say about the silliness?

“In a way I’m disappointed that it won’t be forever memorialized in a DVD.  It’s not like I was going to get any money for it, but it’s too bad. Lego has the right to do that, but it’s unfortunate that they don’t have a little more of a sense of humor.”

You nailed it, Coleman.

Play Her Off, Keyboard Cat

Another reason to love the web. 

Piping hot video memes, from BrotatoChip via cairomedina.com:

Manzai

well of course.

YouTube 'Interactive' Videos

At the suggestion of Andy Tress, YouTube-ist extraordinaire, I just finished Barack/Paper/Scissors, Level 8.

  

[proof]

This BenandEric.com collaboration joins a growing list of "interactive video/choose-your-own-adventure" style clickable/annotated videos, including marketer efforts like Samsung's Follow Your Instinct and now Halo Wars Machinima Interactive Video Experience M.I.V.E.).  Gotta tell you - I like the BPS better...try out the footrace...

No ETA on when YouTube will enable external linking from YouTube videos...

W+K...Inspires

Some of our work can be inspiring.  And sometimes that inspiration can breed...'imitation'.   The W+K London blog reports some similarities between their Lurpak work and work done by Batey Ads of Singapore. And if you remember this bit W+K did for Nike's 'Girl Effect':

...it's fun to watch BBDO's new Starbucks "get out the vote" effort.

Though hard to catch on first viewing, if you watch closely, you may notice stylistic similarities.   At least it's for a good cause. 

Unlike the 'Girl Effect' effort, however, offering folks an incentive to vote those is actually apparently felony, however well-intentioned, so Starbucks today altered the offer:

"To ensure we are in compliance with election law, we are extending our offer to all customers who request a tall brewed coffee," Starbucks spokeswoman Diana Fullerton wrote in an e-mail. "We're pleased to honor our commitment to communities on this important election day."

Participatory Global Viral Video - how many more 2.0 words can you fit in and still have a failed marketing strategy?

Viral viral viral.  If you read my blog, you know I hate the term.  It isn't a term anyone agrees on, other than "viral marketing agencies" who are trying to sell it like special sauce.  For the most part, that sauce is brown, lumpy and unpredictable, like the "gravy" you get at Applebee's.  Marketers like the concept of 'viral', because to them it means "cheap media" (make a video, or app, or whatever, and distribution is FREE!), or it lets them say they "get social media" to whoever is checking off the boxes on their annual evaluation form.  But nothing is viral that PEOPLE DON'T LIKE, and figuring out WHAT PEOPLE WILL LIKE is a game everyone can play, but few play well.  Which is why most advertising SUCKS.

We've had some good hits - the Kobe jumps Aston + snakes, the FIFA Street 3 spot, etc., but it is, to a degree, a gamble.  Like a good date.

So a video folks are talking about is this one for Stride gum, found by Melissa Sconyers on the NY Nokia Search team.

It's worth a look for two reasons: (1) it shows the power of participatory community, which is actually more interesting than the concept OR the execution, and (2) it shows how jumping onto a popular video may or may not be right for a brand.  At the end of this video, do you get that this is actually a marketing vehicle for Stride gum?  I didn't.  And I knew it before I watched, then I even clicked through to Matt's site, looking for a logo or brand mention (the logo is there, at the bottom of the page, looking very Dad at the disco). 



The story of the video as Matt tells it:
He has friend shoot video of him dancing badly in Hanoi.  Stride gum sends him around the world to do the dance in a wide variety of places (normal "YouTube-viral-type-web-2.0-3.0" thing).  But AFTER that video was made and posted, people sent him their own.  And that gave him an idea.  He re-pitched Stride with a new idea.  He traveled the world again, inviting those people to join him.  Participatory viral goes global.

Read more here:
http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/about.shtml (the website is sponsored by Stride)

And please practice safe viral.

Is Canoe the Cable Industry's Maginot Line?

The eBay TV ad auction marketplace died a quiet death.  The only real surprise was that this DOA defensive action's demise even warranted a story.  As I recall, this "coalition of the billing" was created to try to keep Google out of broadcaster knickers (Google was at the time looking for broadcasters to partner with to test their own auction-based TV model, and no-one wanted them mucking around in the special sauce.  eBay was easier.  Less threatening.  And uncompetitive).  With no real mandate, poor funding, lackluster participation and an agenda driven by fear, not innovation, I'm honestly surprised it lasted this long.  Did they finally go through all the stationary they had printed up?  Run out of creamers and call it a day? 

Next up: Canoe.  As in 'up the creek without a paddle'.  The cable industry sees Canoe as "[their] solution to the growing amount of ad dollars flowing to the Web."  David Verklin (ex-Aegis/Carat) had this to say:

"We will have all of this new data and features that can prove to clients that people are actually watching the ads."

Darn.  He could have said a lot of things.  Things like "I'm excited to examine how we can continue to improve our value proposition and provide real value for our customers and marketers?" or "Advertisers need to create more compelling viewer engagement experiences and we're here to help them make sense of the opportunities", or "Brands needs to serve their brand communities more effectively in an era of infinite choice", or "Cable and broadcast still command massive audiences and we are seeking new more creative ways to leverage those effectively for advertisers and respectfully for viewers?".   Naaaah.

TV (cable and broadcast) isn't going away.  Not by a long shot.  Among other things, it's getting smarter and more interactive.  Does the cable industry really need an industry group stuffed with folks not incented to innovate OR collaborate?  Heck - I was a sales guy once.  Damned if I'd have given over my best inventory - the stuff I could count on to help me hit my numbers - to a 'consortium' for the 'good of the industry'.

"Something that may concern programmers -- and damp enthusiasm: Because targeted advertising theoretically offers more bang for the marketing buck, advertisers may end up reducing their overall cable spend."

Unless there's more here than meets the eye (and there may be), Canoe, like the eBay SNAFU, strikes me as another Maginot line for an industry in need of forward motion.  Canoe may last - but not in this incarnation, and not with this roster of participants. 

Good Tech, Bad tech

Two interesting "videos":

The first - a music video made from Mac screen captures. Wondering how to demonstrate dull product functionality in a compelling, entertaining way? Microsoft's agency's job just got harder:

You know those voicemails when a friend's mobile phone dials you on its own from their bag or pocket and you get to listen in to rustling fabric and unintelligible talkbits for fifteen minutes? Imagine if it was from your brother while he was in a firefight in Afghanistan. And the last thing you here before your machine cuts off is "incoming RPG".

Yahoo!/TNT pop Hyperdunk

Wieden + Kennedy's Kobe Hyperdunk video for Nike has been getting nice pickup (judging by views and parodies), and today, Yahoo's homepage led with the TNT's riff by Eddie and Kenny.  Sweeeet.

My "better" sucks.

"Anything you can do I can do better" video site "Strutta" has just launched with a crappy experience and a  poor user interface, but even better, it's pre-loaded with video chum.  Online video competitions have been going on in the YouTube "comments" section for a while, and the feel there is a hell of a lot more organic.

Look - video smackdown works for me conceptually, but "Strutta" feels like a crappy idea pitch to an advertiser or VC ('kids LOVE voting and online videos - we'll make a site and [fill in the blank big brand marketers] will knock down our door to get at our coveted advertising segment!"), not a compelling proposition for normal folks.  This has "startup and cashout" written all over it.  Meh.

Mashable popped this, and mentions "I Beat You" as another entrant in the field.  The problem is, frankly, I don't see folks giving a flying hoot.  Neither site motivates me to spend my time and effort to populate a content-empty wasteland for these jokers to sell ads against.  Waa Waaaah.  And btw, I remember when Mashable busted chops and took names - what's with the objective reporting of the latest crappy 2.0 me-too?

Case Study 1: Why "Brand Management" isn't...

Once you put it out there, it belongs to the world.  See if you can spot the subtle difference between the first and second vids.

CareerBuilder.com video pop

Nice pop from adrants about our CareerBuilder videos...http://tinyurl.com/253voe

Yahoo Live - Sick Sick Sick

Neevel Knievel Freestylin'

Who needs an agency when anyone can get these kinds of production values now?

Ride with the Shei'Meka 'Cart Cam' - Get Immersed

You may know agency star and local media phenom Shei'Meka Newmann as one of the coolest human beings alive.  Now experience an agency moment with her as she brings the immersive cam tech to life.

Just hit 'play'.  BUT DON'T JUST WATCH IT - put your mouse on the video as it plays, click and drag it any direction to change what you are looking at.  And look for Jelly's cameo at :54 seconds.  J-Lowe and Brianna show up at 1:54 or so. 

The Immersive 'DoDeca' camera is a sick little piece of tech (pictured below) that looks like the Star Wars light sabre practice 'droid - at least that's the 'cleanest' reference I could make.

"Stretch out with your feelings, W+K".

 

The DoDeca camera gathers visual info spherically (via like 12 simultaneously recording lenses) + audially (via four directional mikes and remote booms).  Net - you shoot a linear narrative, but viewers can change what they look at at any time.  im360 studios is the Portland (!) crew that has the tech and the editing hardware and software to bring this to life.  They call it "spherical storytelling".

No-one is EVER off camera.  You can aim people down a path, but they can (by clicking on the screen and dragging in any direction) LOOK WHEREVER THE HELL THEY WANT.  Or focus on the bits of dialog they like.   Here's another look:

And when you are ready to really blow our mind, get this:

"[Immersive has] done a test with a professor at Emerson College, who has floating notes with QTVR still images.  Our full motion video is now playing within one of the nodes.  Basically, your Avatar steps inside the node; if you switch to MouseView, it’s full screen immersion; or, back out and your Avatar can hang with other Avatars and chat in a real-world video environment.

You can import the spherical worldviews into virtual environments. 

That sounds technical.  It's mind altering.  If you have a Second Life character (Stop snickering) click this link. In the SL interface, click the 'play media' button, and prepare to have your mind blown.

Chris Bosh, CD?

Chris Bosh of the Raptors busted it all out to drum All-Star votes.  Show me the creative department that would have pitched this idea, and I'll show you a pissed off client with their account in review.  And the NBA All-Star logo on the tail - did that usage go through the league's offices?  If a broken link shows up below, you'll know they finally caught it. But seriously folks - put your hands together for a player with some serious gumption.  Gosh darn it, kudos to Bosh for seriously rocking a solid piece.

WIll it win at Cannes?  No, but I'd rather this than "apply directly to your head". or...Bam, below, which were intentionally and unironically inflicted on the American public.

 

You da Mann

The NYT had an interesting piece on top level film directors doing advertising.  They listed a host of top names W+K has worked with, including Ridley Scott and Michael Mann (director of W+K's recent Nike 'Leave Nothing' spot).  Two quotes that popped for me:

"As the internet becomes the medium, normal TV programming will be streamed with commercials.  How are you going to arrest attention?" - Director Michael Mann

"These days, however, there are new reasons for people with boldface names to make ads:  to keep up in a multimedia world where the ability to master various platforms is at a premium and where consumers are as likely to see [directors'] work on YouTube or Tivo as at the multiplex"

Storytellers are learning the new tools of the trade.

Dove's Onslaught

Latest of Dove's self-esteem pieces, entitled "Onslaught". Interesting note on "Evolution" - apparently it started out as a mood reel created by one of Unilever's agency to facilitate brainstorming on 'self esteem', and instead won the gold for film at Cannes.

Radical Transparency - Pt 2 - Myanmar

The outcome of the Myanmar uprising remains to be seen.  But the visual immediacy of the government's brutality has been exponentially magnified by Myanmar's networked citizens.

As we argue about the marketing implications of mobility, and question whether 'consumers' will adopt this or that technology, we find in Myanmar a people fighting for their rights and their lives with the tools at their disposal.  A kingdom historically hidden from the world by distance, ignorance or complacency is dragged to center stage by mobile phones, blogs and email.  But it's not about the devices themselves - it's about that to which they connect:  the web.  The world.  The visibility of Burmese atrocities stems from the advent of networked culture.  The power of near-instantaneous global distribution of images, video, text.  And ideas.

There are three billion mobile devices in the world now, projected to grow to 5 billion by 2010 - and the majority of growth is expected in "emerging markets".  Some of those regions have been saddled with oppressive regimes.  What will the influx of mass connectivity do to them? 

Think on this one for a moment:  Could we have ignored Darfur as long as we have if its people documented attacks by the Janjaweed and government troops with cameraphones?

Picturephoning.com has been covering this well - here are some highlights from the story from Myanmar junta can’t murder in darkness:

"...if democratic forces do prevail over the military junta, the victory will owe something to today’s extraordinary communications networks. If the junta ultimately prevails by force, the same technology will have indelibly exposed its depravity to the civilized world.

...the regime won’t be able to cut Myanmar off from the world. It will never be able to confiscate every cell phone. And while it has shut down the country’s Internet service providers, foreign companies and embassies can stay on the Web via satellite.

Some of history’s greatest crimes against humanity, including the Holocaust and the Turkish genocide of Armenians, were committed in darkness. Whatever the Burmese junta does, it will have to do in the harsh light of international scrutiny. Myanmar’s democracy movement has a precious ally – instant, speed-of-light communications – that past victims of brutal dictatorships couldn’t have dreamed of."

From distributed technology has emerged the phenomenon of connectivity - of network and networked culture. 

In the world of instant global intimacy, it's a gunshot in Asia, not a butterfly flapping its wings, that can cause a hurricane around the world.

Why Japan is the Greatest Country in the World

[Thank you, Chean!]

Upload to Download: The future of Video?

A university consortium has developed software named "Tribbler", a peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing service focused on video (like Joost).  What makes this one unique is how it puts the "sharing" back in "file sharing" - you earn credit to download content by uploading your own content.  Folks can also band together to share download opportunities and to increase download speeds.  No more "leeching" and "freeloading" - the terms used to refer to folks who suck down good content and provide nothing to the network in return.

According to the New Scientist article:

"David Parkes of Harvard University believes peer-to-peer will eventually replace existing methods of distributing video, including television...the BBC's iPlayer is built on top of a peer-to-peer network. These programs often prevent leeching by forcing users to upload constantly, which can be a problem for those who may be charged extra for using extra bandwidth.

"It is clear that in the future there will be a greater variety and volume of media to consume, requiring different ways of distributing it," says David Hutchison, who works on alternative methods of media distribution at Lancaster University, UK."            

Hype calling, Line 1

LG plans to release a new phone that let's you upload your videos to Youtube.  I guess its a nice PR pop for them, except that you CAN'T YOU ALREADY DO THAT WITH ANY PHONE THAT SHOOTS VIDEO?  wah wah waaaah. 

10 online video advertising vehicles

Attached below is a post I shamelessly ripped off from the guys over at Mashable that gives a solid overview of the lead dogs in the online video advertising business:

"While YouTube’s announcement that they will start including ads in video comes as little surprise, there are already dozens of companies vying for a piece of the video advertising industry, which is expected to grow to $2.9 billion by 2010 according to eMarketer.  Here is a look at 10 of the top players in the market, ranging from startups to some of the Web’s biggest companies. 

BrightRoll offers both pre-roll (meaning ads before a video plays) and mid-roll (ads that take place between segments of a video) advertising and places ads based on contextual, behavioral and demographic targeting. To determine content, BrightRoll looks at information like tags and keyword profiles, while using data for its publishers from ComScore to create demographic-based campaigns. The company claims to be the fastest growing video advertising company with more than 800 million ads served.

YouTube’s approach to video advertising closely mirrors that of VideoEgg, who powers video uploads for major publishers like Bebo and AOL. VideoEgg uses what they call a “ticker” that shows a promotional banner within the video that can be clicked if a user wants to learn more about the product or service being advertised. In the example below, an ad is shown for the film SuperBad that when clicked shows a trailer for the movie. Ads are sold through the eggnetwork, a collection of VideoEgg’s largest publishers serving more than 15 million videos per day. The format is less-intrusive than pre-roll advertising since it doesn’t delay the actual video from running and is optional for the user.

AOL’s online advertising network, Advertising.com, now offers pre-roll video as well as in-banner video (video ads that display in conventional banner ad sizes such as 728×90). In-banner ads seem to be growing more common on content-heavy sites replacing traditional graphic-based banner ads. Most in-banner ads require a user to click them in order to play, but some more invasive ads start automatically. In the example below, a video ad is displayed in an article on investment site TheStreet.com.
http://video.advertising.com

Roo is a resource for web sites looking for video content, video producers distributing content, and advertisers that want to advertise via video. This works by Roo licensing video content and selling advertising across their network of sites that host it. Unlike several of its competitors, Roo gives web publishers control over the advertising, allowing you to sell your own ads in addition to those sold by Roo. Through its content channels (such as sports, music, etc.), Roo targets pre-roll advertising based on user interests and demographics.

ClipSyndicate is a video network comprising of web publishers, video content producers, and advertisers. Like Roo, ClipSyndicate licenses video content from a variety of sources and distributes it via a network of web sites. Web publishers then have the option to pay a fee to host videos and sell their own ads, or can do opt for a revenue share on the ads that ClipSyndicate sells for them. At this time, ClipSyndicate ads consist primarily of 15-second pre-roll video ads.

The massively funded BrightCove operates the BrightCove Syndication Marketplace which connects video producers, content web sites, and advertisers. The company offers several different advertising formats, including combined video commercial and banner ad, video overlay (a small ad that appears while the video is playing; similar to VideoEgg), or player takeover, where the sponsor’s ad occupies the entire video player and can either be clicked or skipped.

Broadband Enterprises is another online video network consisting of producers, publishers, and advertisers. The company claims more than 450 publishers including Fox News and Warner Brothers that deliver over 400 million monthly video streams. It appears the majority of the ads Broadband Enterprises sell are of the pre-roll variety.

The largest remaining independent ad network, ValueClick’s video ad program is currently in beta. ValueClick’s “In-stream” product displays pre and post-roll video ads, while also offering in-banner ads to place ads in traditional banner slots. In the example below, a post-roll ad for TaxBrain is shown, while the web site also makes use of ValueClick’s traditional banner network by placing a 728×90 TaxBrain ad at the top of the page.

AdBrite, which operates a marketplace for a wide variety of online advertising including text, banners, and in-line ads (those ads that turn words on a page into ads) recently launched InVideo, its own video player and ad network. The ads show up in “split screen” format so you can continue watching your video as the ad is displayed. InVideo also allows you to place your own watermark into the videos, a nice feature for branding your video content.

Adap.tv places a variety of ads through the video watching experience. While allowing you to have pre and post-roll video ads, adap.tv also attempts to analyze the content of the video to provide relevant text ads while the video is playing. In the example below, the video hosts are talking about the movie “The Prestige” and a text ad promoting the DVD is shown. ScanScout offers a similar technology.

Danielle Pak found a good summary of players over on TechCrunch, too.

Retailers Web videos try to lure teens. Oh c'mon. Really?

Today's Oregonian featured a syndicated article by Ylan Q. Mui on retailers using web video to push product.  There's a lot of huff puff and smoke about the wonders of online video and retailers leveraging new opportunities (online video is NEW?) blah blah blah.  What popped for me was the cautionary WalMart tale (is there any other?) nestled at the end of the piece. 

Walmart built a Facebook group and application to "help college students outfit their dorm rooms".  The effort included a personality test to determine your decorating style.  For god's sake, do I give a crap what "style" I have as determined by WALMART?  AAAAAAAcccckkk.  That sound you here is me retching.

But their Facebook effort has a 'wall' feature that allows people to post comments.  Walmart's comments, rather than extolling the virtues of a test meant to silo me into a purchasing funnel, mostly deal with their "treatment of employees and whether the retailing chain should be unionized".  Sweeeeeeeeeet.

Bedazzle that, Sucka.

Quick is Deadly

AdWeek popped our iTV campaign for Nike, citing the "most ambitious push in that medium to date".  Yep, pretty interesting stuff.  We will push this thing a hell of a lot farther, but it's a great tipoff.   Most interesting is the blend - of media, of creative, of interactive technology.

"We've gotten to the point where all media needs to be interactive," said Joe Staples, associate creative director on the Nike account at Wieden.

From the article:

 

"...the campaign include[s] more than 20 minutes of interactive content...[from a US persepctive] Nike's push into the space is seen as historic in its comprehensiveness."

"This is certainly the most sophisticated interactive-TV campaign that the U.S. has ever seen," said Michele Bogdan, senior VP-marketing at Ensequence, which helped Nike's agencies, Wieden & Kennedy and R/GA, produce this effort. "Nike has taken this to a whole new level."

The campaign, which also includes substantial print and internet components, features athletes in Nike's endorser stable who tend to rely as much on quickness as they do upon size, speed or power, according to Mr. Staples. They include, in addition to Mr. Tomlinson, basketball's Steve Nash, runner Lauren Fleshman, Olympic sprinters Asafa Powell and Sanya Richards and tennis player Rafael Nadal, all of whom wear Zoom shoes -- said to be more reactive due to their close-to-the-ground construction -- to train.

"Everybody knows what speed is and what power is," said Mr. Staples. "Quickness wins the game."