You Don't Have to Live Like a Refugee

Squirrel explains "what's taking so long" here on Vimeo... from Carleton Torpin on Vimeo.

In this public service message, Squirrel the Squirrel explains what's up with Vimeo's current "issues" and what to expect from the site in the coming days and weeks.

From the chatter on the Yahoo Video Blogger's Group Blip.TV seems to be having the same issues.

"Agencies Don't Get It"

AdWeek's Brian Morrissey

Reports that according to a TNS/Cymfony study that polled more than 60 marketers, Agencies don't get social media and that they only concentrate on closed media where they cam make money.

Looks like an opportunity for those of you that do get the open media and social media space.

I'd love to hear if you have any stories to share on things you have done for corporate clients that advertising agencies couldn't, wouldn't or didn't know how to do.

I See the Future

I was going to blog about some new ad technology I stumbled across yesterday but I got some other technology (that Kris Smith introduced me to) and I'm busy building out the dynamic inventory on the French Maid TV website.

So here's the short 411:

Yahoo! has the Yahoo! Self Serve Display

If you have a $5,000 minimum per month advertising budget and want a walk-through of the platform (in order to answer any questions) contact Lindell Bennett at Yahoo! Advertising.

The platform is in pilot right now so it is better to go to Lindell's team for an explanation of the platform and to make sure that it is a good fit for you.

Even though it is essentially a self-service platform Yahoo! will build out a campaign (ads, targeting, etc.) for you and help you manage/optimize it at no cost. You will only be billed for the ads that are served.

I think this type of self-service banner building at Yahoo will someday be applied to video at Yahoo! and Google much like Spot Runner's High-quality affordable television campaigns

Micro Celebrity

Pop17, a daily exploration to track, analyze and understand the new cultural phenomenon of online micro-celebrity launched today. It includes some Internet fame survey results from interviews in NYC asking people if they have heard of Robert Scoble, Homestar Runner, LisaNova, Tila Tequila, Rihanna, Perez Hilton, Tay Zonday, Chris Crocker, Smosh and Lauren Caitlin Upton.

Micro Celebrity status is a pretty funny thing. I've received many free drinks and dinners just because I have a popular online video but that only goes so far. Last year at MacWorld I hung out with Rocketboom's Andrew Baron one night and we went party hoping getting into parties and party VIP rooms until we came upon a MacWorld party where we were not on the list and they had never heard of Rocketboom or French Maid TV. We asked if it was a MacWorld party and they said. "Yes." We asked what company was sponsoring the party and they explained that it was a party for the people who put the booths together for MacWorld - They were the convention people who produced the MacWorld EXPO. Andrew and I didn't get in to that party.

Two years ago I was walking the trade show floor at the New Media EXPO with Robert Scoble and everyone was saying hello to him "left and right" until we got to a very crowded Nokia booth where they were showing a new camera phone that recorded video. Now I had met the guy from Nokia (who was from Finland) before at a Podcast Academy but Robert had not. I could tell that Robert really wanted to get his hands on that new camera phone and he introduced himself to the guy saying, "Hi, I'm Robert Scoble." The guy from Nokia introduced himself saying, "Nice to meet you." Then the Nokia guy went on to chat with other people who want to see the camera phone. Robert introduced himself again and I chimed in and explained who Robert was but it was kind of like explaining a joke to someone from another country. The Nokia guy had no idea who Robert was but he did take Robert's card and I wouldn't be surprised if Robert did end up getting one of those phones for free.

Last year at NAB I was hanging out with my best friend Ted who runs a camera company that's pretty popular in the motion picture industry and we went bar hopping in Vegas and the drinks were free because the bar tenders knew who Ted was but eventually we came to a bar where they had no idea and the drinks were pretty expensive.

Ted and I have been at the same conferences at the same time many times and in the old days when no one knew us we would go to parties together and have a blast. Now neither one of us wants to leave our circles of friends and go to the other one's parties because no one will know us there. Ted and I talk about it and how it's fun being a big fish in a little pond and how we are both having the most fun professionally that we have ever had we just wonder if the day will come when we can enjoy our "Micro Celebrity" status at the same party at the same time together.

I'm F***ing Ben Affleck on Jimmy Kimmel

In the spirit of Online Videos Jimmy Kimmel has rallied his celebrity friends including Harrison Ford, Robin Williams, Macy Gray,Joan Jett,Don Cheadle and even Brad Pitt as a Fed Ex delivery guy to get back at Sarah Silverman for her "I'm F***ing Matt Damon" video.

I look forward to having more of these play out because they are going to help online video in soooo many ways.

Incredible Product Interation

Here's some Incredible Product Integration from Apple and Pixar.

According to reelverse on YouTube"

" I was watching The Incredibles this weekend with my family and couldn't help but notice that Mr. Incredible took out that iconic envelope and a computer came out. All that was missing was the "New Soul" song.
I spent about six hours making this video, but I couldn't help but make it. I hope that Pixar and Apple don't get too upset. I'll take it down as soon as they ask.
Since many have asked. Here's how I did it:
It did take a long time to find the actual clip because I didn't want the entire movie. Once I found it, I had to look through 4 minutes of video and then cut that into about 30 seconds on a slower program because my video program wouldn't import MP4s. After I cut it to 30 seconds, I had to export it to another format that I could begin to edit and add the multiple layers. Once in my semi professional editing program, I started looking for pictures of the MacBook Air. After downloading about 15 pictures I used just one but I had to fix it because it was a partial picture. About a tenth of the book was missing from the picture. It did take me a while to make the MacBook Air look complete. Then I imported that picture in FCExpress (my editing program) and began matching the movement of the original device with the MBA. I then realized that to make it come out of the envelope I had to put another layer on top of the envelope to cover the MBA. To do that I had to take a picture of the entire scene and export that to Photoshop and delete the rest of the scene and just keep the envelope. Once I had just the envelope, I made it move with the original envelope to cover the MBA until it was released into Mr. Incredible's hand. Then I saw that the MBA covered Mr. I's thumb, so I had to do the same procedure for his thumb of taking a picture of the screen, keeping the thumb and matching the movements to the original. I had to do that with his right thumb too. Then I realized that the sound hadn't carried over from the original burn so I had to import the original sound but then realized that only part of the sound was appropriate because there was beeping and talking in it. So I had find other music to cover the parts where there was talking and that took a while. I finally put the new music towards the end of the video and then made the words appear at the end of the video with no problem. I did however have to edit the last picture of the MBA so that I kept only the MBA and not the background. All that plus many renderings and the program quitting on me one time before I saved took 6 hr."

French Maid Magic

So I've decided I try a few new things and see how they work. I've redesigned the French Maid TV website (using Apple's iWeb) and I've launched a new series on French Maid TV called French Maid Magic using Revver for the video hosting.

French Maid Magic is shorter than previous French Maid TV episodes, it's cheaper to produce and most importantly it's not sponsored.

I think I've left a lot of money on the table by not creating more episodes and I've also found that when I release a new episode I have more sponsorship inquiries come my way. So rather than spend time chasing sponsors I'm going to try and create more content that hopefully will generate income through attached online video advertising / new ads on the French Maid TV website and bring new sponsors to me.

I'm also trying a few other new things that I will let you know about as well.

Oh, I've also created an area on the site for Media Buyers

Natalie Portman's "THIGHS"

There's one sure way to get views on YouTube, have your title read:
"Natalie Portman - WITH MY THIGHS"

You can also throw in something about Scarlett Johansson and some book club about THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL but you don't really need it.

I'm not sure of the whole Movie Marketing story behind this one yet but I can see it working on getting both men and women into the theater to watch this film and maybe sell a few books as well.

Google Video Ad Solutions - AdSense for Video

New Tee Vee reports that Google has Video Ad Solutions.



I need to get my head around this today and see how this is different from what they have already been doing on YouTube.

Happy Tips

Do you have any Happy Tips you would like to share?

Cross Promotion and Integrated Advertising

In cable television there is something known as "Cross Channel Promotion." Cable Networks like CNN, MTV, ESPN, Sci-FI, etc. and Local Affiliates like Los Angeles Time Warner Cable, Glendale Charter or Orlando Bright House etc. will work together to cross promote cable channels. The cable network will create a thirty second television commercial that advertises a new product, service or show and they will leave the last five seconds of the spot clear of voice over so that the local affiliate can ad their own voice over to explain how the commercial relates to the local market. Then the local affiliate will play the spot on another cable network in an "Avail" (an advertising break that hasn't been sold.)

An example of this would be a spot that Spike TV creates to advertise a new season of Ultimate Fighter on Spike TV and the local Orlando affiliate would tag the last five seconds of the spot telling viewers what channel they can watch the new show on. Then the local affiliate will run that spot on another channel like ESPN.

Just like there is a good chance that guys who watch ESPN might be interested in watching Ultimate Fighter there is a good chance that guys who watch Rhett and Link might be interested in watching iJustine.

The new Rhett and Link video Dead iPod Song posted yesterday has iJustine in it and is a great cross promotion with an Integrated Ad for iresq.com.

Nice work guys!

Contests

I'm not a big fan of "Contests" unless you get paid to explain the rules to a contest. Then I'm all for it.

It looks like Lisa Nova, the almost winner of last year's Sketchies competition "was asked" to read the rules to this year's Sketchies II competition, presented by the all new Toyota Corolla.

According to the YouTube site, "While Lisa's dream of winning is over, enter for your chance to live the dream! This years prizes are $25,000 cash & $15,000 worth of video production gear."

I sure hope she got some green.

For Amy, Heart Adam

Used to be you could make your own Valentine's Card and you could get extra points with your date. Now people are making their own Valentine's Videos - I wonder what the point bump up will be?

Have you made a Valentine's Video?

Have you thought about selling a customized version of it?

Look out Hallmark.

Super Bowl Secret Spot

WARNING: Have a few beers before you watch the spot. Maybe even with a few friends. You will enjoy it a lot more.

So this is the "Secret Spot" that Bud produced for after the Super Bowl. To watch it I had to go to BudBowl.com and because I didn't have the secret code I had to play a game of organizing the Bud Super Bowl spots in the order they played on the Super Bowl. Then I got to watch the spot and after it was over they gave me the embed code.

I'm not sure why I'm posting this except to get traffic from advertising agency people who will find this post through search, take a look at my blog and then discover French Maid TV and realize that the French Maids are a great way to launch new products and services that appeal to 21 - 34 year old males. How was that for shameless self-promotion?

Are ads ready to become content?

Michael Estrin writes a great article for iMedia Connection that talks about Big Advertising Brands attending the Brand Summit at the Hyatt Regency in Coconut Point, Florida - including Carol Kruse, VP of interactive marketing for The Coca Cola Company who talks about the shift.

"According to Kruse, that shift (in ads becoming content) will mean increased costs and more work for independent production houses because digital often demands a slew of creatives for a single campaign. However, those costs may not be as painful as brands might think if their agencies are able to realize economic efficiencies by producing content-style ads for the web in conjunction with their traditional TV spots."

The article also points out that, "messaging will require a creative ramp-up that will force brands and agencies to invest more heavily in production..."

"Entertainment units within the agencies are getting a lot more attention, and that's helping to reshape the agency model as compelling content becomes more vital,"

iMedia also has party coverage of the event so you can check to see if your spouse has a drink in their hand or Marti Gras beads around their neck.

Truth in Online Advertising

I'm not sure if you have seen the Jawbone internet video ads or not. I just stumbled across them yesterday. While I find them entertaining I'm not sure I believe that they are really going to wipe out all the noise as advertised.

SXSW Turned Me Down

So it looks like unless something changes I won't be going to SXSW this year. I sent in a request for a blogger pass but the deadline was last Friday and they turned me down.

Denied.

Last year SXSW was very interesting. It was where I got my first exposure to Twitter and saw it in action in real time. Someone would be at a party and twitter if they had free food and drinks and then we would all go to the party that had the best selection.

I think this year's SXSW will be more exciting than last year's even if I'm not there.

Beyond Revver

If no one buys Revver and Revver can't generate enough revenue to stay in business they will go out of business and many of us like Happy Slip who have enjoyed free video hosting and rev share monetization of our videos on Revver will need to look for new video hosting.

Revver is great because I can post my videos and watch them make money. I've not yet found a site that works the same way as Revver but I have started looking.

Blip.TV is a great video hosting site that is loved by many video creators for its ease of use, quick response to problems and understanding of our community. I like Blip.TV a lot and I'm seriously considering moving there as they are in New York (Where the US advertising world is) and they are building their ad sales.

I have phone calls and emails out to other Video Hosting sites to see what they have to offer in terms of both Flash and QuickTime hosting and how to monetize both videos on my site and videos in my RSS feed.

Moving beyond the Revver issue if we are going to go it alone as video creators and take on the whole monetization thing ourselves we have several things to consider in monetizing our videos.

1. Video and Website Hosting
2. Ad Sales (Banner and Video)
4. Dynamic Video and Banner Ad Insertion
5. Stats Tracking
6. Content Management
7. Social Network

Right now to my knowledge there is not one place that provides this for content producers.

Ask A Ninja is using Federated Media for AdSales and Castfire for video hosting, dynamic ad insertion and stats. They are using a custom build Drupal content management system, Ning for their social network and I'm not sure who they are using for their website hosting.

I was ready to launch some new non sponsored videos for French Maid TV but I'm not sure I want to do that until I know that I'm going to get some money for the views.

I'm ready to post some new content but I need to rethink things first.

I'll let you know what I do.

The Power of Lonely Girl 15

Well you haven't heard much about Jessica Rose since she left LonelyGirl15 (maybe because of some strike) or LG15 as they call it and just because her character died doesn't mean the LG15 series couldn't live on. In fact LG15 looks to be doing pretty well both in view numbers and in product placement deals.

You may have used your lunch breaks to do silly things like go eat or attend meetings but while you were doing that other cool kids with high speed internet connections have been watching as the cast of LG15 has come in contact with a JUMPER . No, not those powder blue polyester costumes I used to wear at the Listen to the Land boat ride at EPCOT Center. I'm talking about the kind that are being chased by Paladins like the one Samuel L. Jackson plays in the new 20th Century Fox's movie Jumper.

So if you have some time over lunch today or you are like Liz Gannes at New Tee Vee and you get paid to watch stuff like this, have a look and enjoy jumping around the Internet. While you're doing it take a look at LG15's YouTube Numbers just be sure to watch out for the Paladins while you are jumping around.

Radio, TV, Internet and Live Event - Know your Audience

So NBC has partnered with LA Radio Station 97.1 KLSX in a promotion for the resurrection of the TV Show Night Rider. To do this they are running a contest to win tickets to the Playboy Mansion.

The cool thing is that they are using a YouTube Video with a PROMO Code at the end of the video that you need to enter and they are promoting it on the radio and on the KLSX website.

"Register to win your chance to attend the hottest party of the year - NBC's Knight Rider Launch Party on February 12th at the world-famous Playboy Mansion...

Hosted by 97.1 FREE FM, this star-studded event will feature a live 4-hour broadcast with The Adam Carolla Show and guest appearances by Danny Bonaduce and of course, the beautiful Playboy Bunnies.

Watch the Knight Rider trailer to find out the secret code - then register to win your spot at the Knight Rider Launch Party!

This television debut is powered by Knight Rider, premiering 9 P.M. February 17th on NBC, and the Mustang GT 500 KR Secret Agents here at 97.1 - The FM Talk Station."

I think this event will be a success and the word will get out about Knight Rider but I'm not sure that the people who will be tuning in to the new Knight Rider will sign up for this contest because they won't be old enough to get in to the Playboy Mansion.

KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid

They always used to tell me KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid and this video which bores me to death does just that with old comic material that we've all heard a 100 times but that doesn't stop it from climbing the charts today.

Who knows maybe it appeals to the crowd that doesn't get out much. Nonetheless this little Starbucks' product placement gem is getting some traction today.

The Best Super Bowl Ads

I was a little under whelmed with the Super Bowl Ads this year and I was really disappointed with Go Daddy except for one thing – the graphic that they put at the end of the spot: “See “Directors Cut” only at GoDaddy.com”

Not too many people are going to run out and buy more Beer or Cars today from the ads that they saw on the Super Bowl yesterday but when guys get into work away from their wives and girlfriends they are going to go to GoDaddy.com and watch the “Directors Cut” and maybe a few other Go Daddy spots and they might even register a domain or two.

If you do happen to go to GoDaddy.com today to watch the Super Bowl Commercials use the French Maid TV code (FMTV) and get 10% off your order.

As far as the best Super Bowl Ads go I’m really not sure. What were your favorites?

Repurposing Your Video

Ever think about taking video that you've shot and turning it into a local commercial that you can license around the country for small businesses to use to advertise on local cable TV?

There's even a market place for this called Spot Runner.