The Zapruder Film Model

Back on November 22, 1963 Abraham Zapruder filmed the assassination of JFK on his Model 414 PD Bell & Howell Zoomatic Director Series Camera and later sold the footage to Time/Life for a bunch of money (Some say $50K some say $150K) and home movie licensing was born.

This week a Lufthansa Airbus had a wingstrike due to cross winds and the footage is on global News and has become a Viral Video on the Internet. I don't know if the German guys who shot it have seen a dime.

WHO'S BEHIND THE NICHOLSON - CLINTON VIRAL VIDEO?

According to Towleroad the Jack Nicholson / Hilary Clinton Viral Video was conceived and created by "screenwriter/director John Krokidas and producer Bruce Cohen (American Beauty, Pushing Daisies, and the currently in production Harvey Milk biopic Milk)."

Allstate Girls Doing Well on TV but not on the Internet

According to Karl Greenberg of Marketing Daily RACE DRIVER KASEY KAHNE IS appearing in new ads for Allstate Insurance that extend the company's ad campaign using Kahne and a group of women--the "Allstate Girls"--who adore him unconditionally.

"With these two properties, we feel like we are aligning with one of the top teams and drivers in the sport, as well as with one of the most coveted races on the circuit. Certainly, our Allstate Girls commercials have made us one of the most visible sponsors in the sport.", says Pam Hollander who oversees Allstate's sponsorship programs.

Looks like AllState is creating some characters that can be used to market other AllState products. Interesting concept. Someone should try that on the Internet.(Maybe in French Maid costumes ;) )

The "Allstate Girls" commercials seem to be making Allstate happy with their performance on TV and the chat on the racetrack but these TV commercials don't seem to be performing to well on YouTube.

I do think Allstate could have some fun on the Internet with these characters and really generate some buzz by creating online videos that are organic to the Internet instead of just posting their TV commercials online but I don't see what's in it for the ad agency - accept maybe some awards and a little bit of glory.

That's one of the big problems for online video advertising is that it can be very effective for the advertiser but it doesn't make any money for the ad agency. Until the marketplace develops enough so that ad agencies can spend millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars worth on media we are not going to see the ad agencies create online video campaigns for major TV advertisers on a regular basis because it will eat into their TV budgets and there is no "Time Buy."

I could be wrong on this and please feel free to comment if you think I am cause I would love to see more effective integrated marketing that uses characters in online videos.

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."