Call Of Duty Long Form

We’ve been on a rant the last few years pressing clients and prospects on producing long form video. Call Of Duty has produced a really nice new 2 1/2 minute piece with actor Peter Stormare (Fargo and Seinfeld) as The Replacer.

In a nice shift in tone Call Of Duty goes with funny as opposed to hyper-violent.

Again, we just don’t know why more aren’t building long-form when they seem to work so well.

Gangham Style Marketing

Gangham Style has brought in over 15 million in revenue for Korean Pop Star Psy over the last three months.  This includes: music sales, ad sales, concert tickets, tv appearances and commercials.

Anyone looking to build a spike in their marketing plan would do well to follow Psy and the K-pop studios cranking out these new stars.

The brilliant use of social and a manic, but methodical, amplification of the initial social success should be inspiring.  The K-pop have done persistent well with their Korean Stars but really did it right when they hit big with Psy.  A hit followed by a military style expansion, all in a matter of weeks.

Difficult to repeat as evidenced by the fact that Psy is the first K-pop artist to break through in the states but really solid.

Facebook’s Mobile Crisis

Great piece on CNET from Molly Wood that calls attention to Facebook’s great weakness on mobile.  Interesting and growing identification of Zuckerberg and Facebook as the last of the great web/desktop plays. Very tough to transition to that next great thing.

Microsoft never got it right with Internet

Google never got it right with Social Networks  (setting aside of course the strength of YouTube)

From here on out it’s mobile or bust.

Will they get there through acquisition? If history is any indication the answer is no.  The public pressure to deliver will force the company to pay too much attention to the existing business and not develop aggressively enough against mobile.

On the other hand, they did say no to GM and all the other marketers who’ve asked them to expand what’s possible on the platform so perhaps they have a shot.  A long shot for sure but a shot nonetheless.

IUMA relaunches

The Internet Underground Music Archive was launched in 1993.  It was created to democratize the music distribution business and give thousands of unknown bands a direct path to fans.  The concepts of: social or peer to peer influence, long-tail marketing and direct to consumer distribution were all a part of the original model.

The site was salvaged by Jason Scott (textfiles.com) and he has a nice write-up about the project.
Glad to see IUMA alive and hopefully kicking.

e.d.

The Greatest Billboard Of All Time!

 

It’s difficult to describe all the ways in which this sandwich board is brilliant.  Let’s try three:

1) It’s brutally honest.  We expect marketers to mostly hide from the truth but here’s someone being quite frank.

2) It’s funny.  We like things and people that are funny.  Putting this message on the sandwich board makes us want to hang around with the people who run this shop.  Regardless of the quality of the food.

3) The guy who wrote the review must be a bit of a douche and it probably wasn’t the sandwich that drove the review.  Somehow their willingness to put this message on the board makes us think that they must actually think their food is pretty good and that actually the jag-off who wrote it just had another issue that ticked him off.  

Since these people are so funny and we’re all so clever and appreciative of their humor we’re sure we wouldn’t be like the jerk and would actually have a great time here.  Can’t imagine there are any brands out there that wouldn’t learn a lesson in customer communication from these guys.  

John Stewart, Obama and Your Social Voice

John Stewart recently skewered the Obama team for overly friendly, overly “social-media”-voice emails.  Not only do we agree with the sentiment expressed here about these emails but want to echo that point about voice and content for all kinds of other brands in the social space.

In the first phase of social it was ok to treat all your communication with that same community-manager “up with people” voice.  Asking people their opinions on every single thing you post because you believe it will jack up the engagement numbers, or talking to communities in overly personal language and tone.  Why not.  Heck, people were downright thrilled to hear from a company so you could get away with just about anything.  But come on enough, please.

Let’s get those social voices aligned a bit more with the brand.  That community manager voice is as grating as the Obama “Hey” subject line or our personal favorite (or least favorite):  ”Let’s have dinner”

YouTube Ceiling Tile Videos Will Set You Free!

Great write-up by Baljeet Singh, the Group Product Manager at YouTube, about how people use the network.

Interesting Stat number 1: three times more people search for “How-To” videos than “Music Videos”.

Of course most people just search for the artist or song over the generic “music video” expression but the same is true for a search for what you’re trying to do over the generic expression “How-To” so the point holds.

Interesting Stat number 2: Cellume, a company that produces ceiling tile videos, has seen over a million views.  Over a million views of ceiling tile videos.

Note to client and agency looking for a viral video concept.  Are all the basic, instructional, relevant videos produced and in place on YouTube?  If they aren’t then do not bring up the V word until they are.  Now go and do likewise.

Marketing for the 99%

Bob Lefsetz, an influential music industry blogger, wrote a great post recently about music marketing for the rest of us.  He notes that while the Simon Cowell world of X Factor and Idol can power a a few artists down our throats, they don’t stick, and for real staying power you have to get your hands dirty a thousand different ways.   He calls it the DIY world.

http://bit.ly/uajzlG

This notion of the DIY world feels right for the rest of us marketers.  What we refer to as the Conspiracy of the Masses is just too strong to simply spend your way to success.  Not stunning news for all who’ve been slugging it out in the digital and social world for several years now but worth hearing again.

Old McDonald Had a Frigging Great Billboard. Again.

I realize their food is the poster child of all that’s wrong with this country but damn they do good outdoor.

This new one in Stockholm let’s you play pong on the giant board through your phone.  If you last :30 or more you get coupon for free McDonald’s treat of your choice.  They also map it to the closest store so it’s nice and immediate. It may just be me but the McDonald’s workers at the store in the video are the best looking, fittest staff I’ve ever seen.  It’s possible everyone in Stockholm is good looking and thin but any chance they are plants for the video?

McDonald’s also did this brilliant SunDial billboard.   As the sun moves across the sky it reflects down on a different McDonald’s food as the morning progresses.

What’s the relevance to social?  Seriously?

They aren’t doing these exercises because a

few thousand play pong or see the sundial.  It’s because millions see them online when people

take pictures and post them.  It’s outdoor as social content.

Good stuff from Ronald

Arianna, The New Sex Ed, and her Twitter Profile

Nice analysis from Hephzibah Anderson on how Arianna uses her femininity and Clinton-like appeal to win over new media types (as well as old).

Also an interesting assessment of how well her Twitter profile picture captures both the intelligence and feminine playfulness of Huffington perfectly.