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While the jury is still out on how they are going to leverage the social media space, they do have a Facebook Fan Page and a Twitter account set up. So they are taking steps in the right direction. But, will they actively work with the community and make this more then a simple video series? That is what I’m curious to find out.

I do love that Saturn is worked into the story line as the main characters husband runs a dealership and of course she drives one in the episode. They get the plug in for the new Hybrid (which I didn’t know about till I watched this and now it is on my personal radar) without making it an annoying product placement.

The playful and flirty nature of it is one that is also smart. Obviously they are going after the mom market with this series and keeping it a nice mix of types of moms as well.

I’m curious to see where it goes, but so far it got my attention and has me watching for more. Of course they seem to have forgotten any sort of subscribe feature which is a huge mistake on their part. Depending on me to remember to go back and see if there is a new episode is a major miss for them and I hope they fix it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg2MukcqbdE

AMEN Gary! Amen!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTPrLka-HWA

Of course, the first thing I did this morning was send “him” an e-mail to see what would happen.

As I guessed, I got an auto responder with some nice thank you text and link to their campaign website where I could learn more about their phones if I wanted to.

I’ll give whoever came up with this campaign credit for grabbing my attention and being smart enough to set up the auto response. But, what I’m hoping I get to do is give them praise if he actually ever answers the e-mail. I put in an invitation for him to come on Managing the Gray for an interview about this new approach to get a conversation started with consumers. Hopefully it goes better then the invitation I put over a year ago to politicians and none took me up on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyHu9-IUB4k

That is exactly what my good friend Mitch Joel did in his video showing why he loves his Sony Vaio.

He talks a lot about his grandfather and how close they were. I can relate to this as my Grandfather Chapman and I were extremely close. When he died it was not a good time in my life and I felt like I had lost a best friend. My Dad and I often discuss how much he would have loved everything that I’m doing and the tools that we get to play with these days. If your curious I know I get my photography genes from him. I have fond memories of being in his home made dark room as a kid watching photos come to life.

But, what Abrams was also talking about is the concept of mystery boxes and how they can be found everywhere. Seems he has had a box that he bought years ago at a magic shop and has never opened because he loves the mystery of not knowing what is inside.

This got me thinking that to a lot of people and companies new media must seem like a mystery box full of wonder. They read the articles, hear the ranting and raving, but they still don’t fully understand what is inside. What happens when someone opens that box without a guide or a firmer understanding? Should you open up the box or preserve some of the mystery.

I’m not sure of the answer, but as I ride along on the train this is where my mind goes. Pondering the fact that if I asked every person in this cabin of the train about various technologies we take for granted if they would have heard of them or not. I think too often we assume everyone knows what podcasting, micro-blogging and search engine optimization. But, the truth is to most all of the fun things we find on the new media playground are still nothing more then a mystery box.

Part of my goals for 2008 is to speak to more people who don’t know this space. I guess I’m hoping to open the box for more people. I like the sound of that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEoWndXBrgw

Really looking forward to today because of a room full of new people. That always excites me. Plus, “New Media” Jim will be there and I’ve wanted to meet him for quite some time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9HffehZKTY

At the end of the day if you want a video to be popular make it fun and entertaining. My only problem with this video is that it is five minutes long and thus requires quite a level of commitment from the casual web surfer. It could be culled down to a tight 2 minute piece that I think would make it even better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs_xnyJtWEc

Simple Spark made the video and is a site listing every company in the video. I hadn’t heard of them before today either. Guess I have some browsing and playing to do.

Anyone got a favorite out of the 5,000?

Earlier this week I was shown a BETA of VeZoom which looks pretty cool.

I put in some searches for words that I knew there was content out there for (some of which I had made) and I was curious if it would actually find it and surprisingly it did quite well at pulling back results. I like that I can set up alerts and such to find tags of information I’m interested in. I didn’t see an RSS feed for this, but it might be there. It should be there!

Maybe I like it because they kept the vowels and didn’t do anything silly with that. I’ll be happy when that trend is over.

I’m going to play around with this some more, but wanted to let you know about it since the best way to test is to have more people check it out and play with it.

Anyway, today he has a post talking about some of the top viral videos. He even went so far as to embed them in the post so I got entertained as well as informed. Although it was interesting that I had only seen three of the ten posted. Makes me wonder who was watching them and where I was that I totally missed them. *grin*

But, the point that he made that I wanted to back up and second is that no one should ever set out to “make a viral video” as that is doomed for failure or more importantly shouldn’t be the outset. Creating quality content that connects with a viewer as well as causes them to share that content is what I wish more people would focus on.

Sure, we can all hope that a video will go viral. Who wouldn’t want that type of success? We’d all want it and so would our clients. But, it shouldn’t ever be the measure of success in my mind. Focus on the content, the story, the message you are trying to get out. If people connect with it then it’ll spread and remember it that is important as well.

An example for me is that I had never heard about Agent Provocateur lingerie until I saw a post months ago on Shake Well Before Use (another blog that I highly recommend although it is quite different as you’ll see). I hadn’t thought much about it till today when Jeremiah shared a video from them with Kylie Minogue in it that for obvious reasons went viral. The minute I watched the video I remembered the blog post and thought, “Hmm…I’ve got to check out this company” and proceeded to go to their website. That is SO much more powerful then someone just saying “oh cute video” and sharing it. Does, the video make a connection with the viewer? Does it have the ability to turn them into potential customers that are now aware of your brand?

Think about it and let me know your thoughts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ifg368OIZw

Thanks for being a friend Ron and for sharing this.

As computer processors get faster and the tools get easier to use I believe we are going to see more of this. With built in tool inside of Second Life I’ve seen even more of it lately. Crayon even has a little trailer for our island that we had someone put together for us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icGPYk_swps

Today I saw this new piece of machinima released from the team behind the Silverscreen island as a wrap up for the press event that they held for the movie 300. Full disclosure that crayon was involved a bit behind the scenes on this event, but had nothing to do with this video. I found it this morning while going through Bloglines.

What I like about this is that it’s not just straight up footage from the event. It is very nicely mixed up with a comic book theme and intercut with some footage from the movie. Overall it provides a very nice presentation that gives you a feel for the event but also drives home that it was more then just a press event. The shots at the end showcasing the island are more powerful then some of the other shots. I think I would have mixed those in or moved them up front so that people don’t miss them.

I look forward to seeing more companies and individuals mixing the mediums to take machinima to the next level.

Links mentioned in the video:

• Beach Walks Episode #427
• Chris Brogan
• Boundary Waters Trip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE

Sort of sums it up and says it all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbesu6UNjEM

I wonder if anyone had a “talking to” after this. They sure should have.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPcs0TvkYzg

There are some other great entrants and I hope Dove takes them all and uses them somewhere because THIS is what it’s all about. Getting the people who love and use your product to talk about it and promote it.

Update: I just finished watching ALL of the videos and saw another familiar face that I know! Congrats to PodChick for also making the Top 10!! WooHoo! I know some damn cool women!

Any questions?

I’m already very impressed and I can see huge potential from this. I’m very curious where they are thinking of taking it from here because I can already see some very good marketing angles, ties into lots of other technology and an almost take over of my desktop if they were to add some features.

This is certainly going to be a shift in the way I consume content. The fact that this is so young and already so powerful excites all the senses.

Stay tuned. I am!

If you go to CrownTown.TV you’ll see a whole site dedicated around the Budweiser Select logo. The concept is that each of the points on the crown is actually a character. These are definitely targetting their demographic of upscale urbanites.

Below is the “hot tub” episode that caught my attention on YouTube a few moments ago. I found these very well done with a good level of creativity and just enough crudeness to be funny without “crossing the line.” I wonder if they’ll be making toned downed versions for television or better yet THIS could be a fun video podcast.

If they were smart they’d be doing some social media outreach TO podcaster and bloggers that would be more then willing to talk and promote this. I bet they haven’t done so and are hoping it’ll go viral. Who knows….
A bit of a warning that these are PG-13 in nature.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvQZSCeCCr8

But based on conversations I’ve had with different people and then reading the news this morning about Abbey Corps I’m convinced that we are going to see a huge influx of new video content in the coming year.

This isn’t about podcasting, it’s about content that people will consume, be entertained by, shocked by and share with their friends. The good old “have you seen ________” will continue and people will stop caring if it was on television, the web, phone, iPod or virtual world. The point will be that they SAW it.

What I’m interested in seeing is how all these networks (both traditional and new) handle it. How they make themselves stand out from the others. What is going to make someone go to their computer to watch something as opposed to flopping down on the couch and watching? What about when the lines between where the content is actually coming from completly blur? What then?

I’d say that the rules have changed, but right now there are no rules. If you think there are some then you need to really stop and think about it, because there really isn’t and th ones you might think are in place are made of silly putty and thus we can all change them whenever we want.

I’m excited.

And I will say right up front that I am not well enough versed in the coffee trade to know how I personally feel about this issue. I don’t know enough of the facts to form an opinion. I’m just captivated by the level of professionalism and directness without attacking in this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N5wzr5xeWI

Now what would be truly amazing is if someone from Starbucks actually posts a video response to this directly through YouTube. Good or bad, change of policy or continuation of the current it would be the way I personally would recommend they react to it. Use the medium that it was given to them in.

Tip of the coffee mug to BusinessWeek’s Blogspotting for the tip. They mentioned a video of an official defending the actions but I can’t find it either so who knows.

Interesting times we live in.

You can watch the video here.

I like their editing style and camera work. I’m sure it freaks out some people to have a camera man moving around you constantly throughout the Q&A, but from all the work with Foo I just kept thinking “wow I wonder what this is going to look like.”

I will say that I think it’s one of the less then stellar interviews I’ve ever given. Not sure why, but something about it bugs me. My own worse critic right? *grin*

Google buying YouTube this week as huge news. I won’t call it GoogTube or GooTube, for me I’m going to gall it gTube. It has a certain ring to it.

YouTube was easily the hottest property out there waiting to be scooped up. Facebook is now at the top of the pile in my opinion. I’m sure there are already discussions happening. It’ll be interesting to see what they accept for an offer when the time comes.

What I think people need to start looking at is that this world is not about podcasting, about social networks, about who has the biggest and coolest plot of land in Second Life. It still all boils down to the creation and consumption of content.

A couple of weeks ago Yahoo announced buying Jumpcut which was a huge move. It didn’t get much play because most people had not heard of them, but guess what? They had some pretty slick stuff. They were allowing people to upload video to the web and edit it on line! That is powerful.

You know what business model I think is a huge one and if someone creates it they will elevate this world we live in to a new level? Both Yahoo and Google seem to be moving in this direction from different angles. Other companies have pieces of this as well so perhaps someone is already going down this path.

I want to see a company that gives you massive storage so that you can upload video, audio, photos, text and everything else and have it right there at your fingertips. Then there needs to be an online version of a program such as CastBlaster for audio and something along the lines of Jumpcut or iMovie online as well for video.

Make it super easy for anyone to take content and edit it together as desired. Doesn’t have to have all the flashes and transitions. The basics will do. Allow them to do this online from anywhere in the world.

Then give them a mechanism to publish this to the net and then share it with the world. Make it mind numbing simple for anyone with a Blog/podcast/whatever to take that content and share it appropriately. Link, embed, share.

It IS all about the content. Forget the platform and the delivery mechanism. Those will always change and grow and prosper. People will always want to tell their stories their way. Give them the power to do this. Make it easy for the kid in the middle of the city to talk about what he’s going through or the girl in Europe who just wants to meet boys.

Lower the barriers to create and share the voices and images of the world and you’ve created something extremely powerful.

Who is going to do it first? I’m not going to guess, but I hope there is more then one in the end. It’s going to be fun to watch.

If you are trying to give someone an introduction to Second Life there are two great videos that I would now point people to.

1. NMC’s “Seriously Engaging”
2. Text 100’s “PR Video”

Either of these give a very good peek in world without having to have someone go in themselves.

Trust me that there is nothing better then having someone try out Second Life to really get the feel for it, but a video is easier for a room full of people or when you just don’t have the time to learn the interface and give it a full whirl.

I’m getting a lot of calls and e-mails asking me if I’ll come into companies and give them a tour. I’m very happy to play Second Life Consultant for anyone out there. Just drop me a line.

If you have not seen this video podcast yet, be warned it’s a bit raw and direct. But, that is what I love about it! No punches pulled so you are liable to hear some “naughty” words and more then once laugh out loud wherever you are watching it.

I was watching his thoughts on terrorism (more “naughty” words & phrases) a few days back while riding on the train and everyone around me couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me because I was laughing and cheering at the same time.

zefrank IS new media. He’s got a voice. He’s got an outlet. He’s got my attention.