Wow! Amazing, Huge, Great, Amazingly Successful, Cool, Super, Extraordinary, Really Great, Fantastic, Terrific, Magnificent, Exciting, Super, Great, Phenomenal, Awesome, Simple, Gorgeous, Breathtaking, Remarkable, Great, Wonderful, Exciting, Fascinating, Revolutionary, Awesome, Incredible, Magnificently Stupendous, Incredibly Amazing, Awesomely Revolutional.
The iPad is a dream. Got it?
We learned about the Google Demo Slam competition a few weeks ago and were psyched to dive in and create something. And, if you’ve not heard of it, Demo Slam is a Google campaign that allows people to upload a video showcasing their use of a Google product (maps, docs, etc.) in a really funny or quirky way.
We love Google products and it was hard to pick just one. But we did. We chose Google Voice, a service that allows you to mask your phone number with another (or to route your calls from a variety of different numbers to just one number) and it also helps you keep track of your voicemails and texts. Well, we posted photos of our maintenance man dressed as Santa all over the city (see attached photo) and invited people to call Santa and let him know what they would like for Christmas. Haha!
The project was intended to be an absolute joke and fit right into the Google Slam video collection, but we also figured we’d wrap it up by making someone’s wish come true. It was great. We got a week’s worth of totally goofy texts and voicemails. People phoned in and left messages asking for everything from fire trucks, rainbows, college-themed sweatpants, the Chucky series, and the list goes on. We were even going to figure out how to deliver a couple of these items in a really weird and funny way. But then, one voicemail in particular changed everything – the one below.
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The laughter subsided and we realized our campaign had turned in a completely different direction. It was no longer about goofy messages and being silly, it was about someone real. And someone who really needed our help.
We talked it over decided as a group that we wanted to help Stevie Joe. We called the Kansas City Rescue Mission to make sure he was the real deal and then we asked our staff and friends who were interested in donating money to help out. Our CEO, Teri Rogers, agreed to match whatever the staff collected as donations and all told, we ended up raising about $500 to help Stevie Joe and grant his wish to get back to his children and family.
Once we had the money, we called Stevie Joe, but his cell phone was turned off. We finally managed to reach him and made arrangements to meet him outside of the KC Rescue Mission. Of course, he was curious, yet very happy to see us. He told us about the recent turn of events in his life; how he lost his job in July, how his wife left him and how he was separated from his kids and family who were living several hours away. He wanted to go home, but he had no means to make that happen.
When we handed him the envelope with the money we’d raised in it he was ecstatic. And in shock. And so happy that he would finally be able to see his family again. Check out the video ….
Doing something creative and goofy is really fun. Doing something that changes someone’s life at a moment when they need it the most is even better. Thanks, Stevie Joe, for being a part of our lives this holiday season.
Anyone who knows me knows how much I love filmmaking – and when I find something that helps people who love it as much as I do – well, I get excited. Today’s discovery — The Rocketboom Filmmakers Program.
The Rocketboom Filmmakers Program was developed to help filmmakers by making resources more available. As anyone involved in the business of filmmaking knows, ideas are plentiful, it’s the money and resources that can be the tricky part. So, if you have some great ideas (and of course a fair amount of talent) and are interested in producing short run web series or short films, you should definitely explore Rocketboom’s program. I know my buddy Heather and I will be doing that with our web series as soon as I finish writing this blog post!
Acceptance isn’t a given, so be prepared to sell yourself to the folks at Rocketboom. But if you’re successful, their mission is to help underwrite the production costs, help you distribute and promote your work through their network and even let you use their resources and content studio as needed.
To be considered, you’ve got to email them and include the following information:
• A brief description of the short film or web series you would like to produce.
• A treatment or script for the project
• Your filmmaking background and experience
• Links to or files of previous work they can view
• Overview of previous projects
Intrigued? Like to know more? If so, check out Save The Date, a 10-part web series that was produced as part of The Rocketboom Filmmakers Program. For more information, send them an email directed to filmmakers at rocketboom.com.
And if you’re not interested in filmmaking but video journalism is your gig, Rocketboom is also looking for independent video journalists and field correspondents from all over the world to submit content. You not only can get paid for doing what you’re passionate about, but you can produce great work, maintain ownership and freedom-of-use, but use Rocketboom’s powerful platform to distribute your work (and make a name for yourself). Check them out here for an example of the kind of episodes they are looking for and connect with them by email for more info at humanwire at rocketboom.com.
Rocketboom is no flash in the pan. They’ve been around for awhile and have been earning rave reviews from a myriad of sources including AdAge, Rolling Stone and CNN, to name a few. And the Rocketboom vlog has been honored by Forbes with a Best of the Web nod. What they do at Rocketboom is awesome and really on the cutting edge of video on the web, innovative filmmaking and so many other things. – I’m so glad to have found them.
Now go make films – or a series! Just tell good stories – and get them to Rocketboom.
We spend a lot of our time focused on experience design. The goal is always to create content that engages consumers and provide experiences using video, mobile, location-based technology, digital billboards and other experiences. That those experiences be memorable is key and always what the creative team is charged with bringing to the table. That the experience design drives sales and compels people to action, is even more key.
Mobile and location-based experiences are on savvy marketers’ minds these days, as they are great at helping create buzz and compelling consumers to do something. Jimmy Choo’s Foursquare scavenger hunt during London’s fashion week is a great example of a location-based initiative that not only created a ton of buzz, but also drove sales as women ran all over London in search of the current “it” shoe.
We worked with the folks at PRNewswire to create a scavenger hunt experience based on QR codes for use at the PRSA annual conference held in Washington, DC this past week. This created not only excitement for conference attendees, but also doubled as an experience (and a competition) that served to make the event even more memorable. Additionally, it created a lot of buzz for the PRNewswire brand and, ultimately, got a lot of PR and marketing pros thinking about how they could use experience design in innovative ways for their clients.
Want to know more about how companies can use strategic media placements and a variety of new and emerging channels to engage their audiences? Join us for a FREE webinar sponsored by PRNewswire this Wednesday, October 20th, at 12 PM Central.
The panel will be moderated by Michael Pranikoff, PRNewswire’s Director of Emerging Media, and he’ll be joined by T2+Back Alley Films’ Interactive Experience Designer, Garrett Fuselier and the very smart Amy Webb of Webb Media Group.
For more information and to register, click here.
Alright, so it’s only imaginary ‘out of this world’ but new augmented reality technology is being used much more by advertisers to blur the line between the real world and the virtual world. If you’re not hip to augmented reality (or AR), blogger Nick Brucher explains that AR is “based on holding a 2D image up to a webcam and then seeing a 3D image on screen.” Advertisers initially began offering consumers AR experiences through specially designed micro sites. For example, BMW developed this site so their consumers could experience using a Z4 coupe painting a canvas in a TV spot.
AR is now being integrated into both mobile and print executions, too. Mobile applications include things like AroundMe which allows consumers to locate restaurants, bars, museum etc., wherever they are simply by holding up their smartphones and VegasReality, designed by MGM Mirage, which merges real Vegas and virtual Vegas and delivers new ways to explore hotels, restaurants etc.
Print publications are making their magazine issues more dynamic by integrating AR. In the most recent issue of UK’s Grazia – readers were not only able to read about the dynamic front woman of Florence + Machine they were also able to make her sing and dance around.
One of the most dramatic integrations we’ve seen recently is being executed by JC Penney in partnership with Heart’s Seventeen.com to create a virtual dressing room. The days where consumers have to roll the dice and gamble on a piece of clothing they’ve purchase online are, in some instances, a thing of the past. Shoppers will automatically be fitted during the live-video stream (no symbols or pieces of paper here), and motion capture technology then enables users to “try on” different clothing articles they like by simply pointing at the screen. Here’s a video on how the dressing room will work:
Demo via Nick Burcher
Innovative magazine publishers and brands are turning to AR more and more and we think it’s awesome. AR allows readers to go beyond the pages and actually interact with the content. And, especially when it comes to the fashion industry, we’re seeing more and more of the players in the industry not only creating clothes, but creating innovative web content – and consumer experiences – as well. Teri Rogers wrote about that over here, and if you’re interested (and she’s always interesting), go check it out.
Bottom line, any time you can engage consumers on a deeper level it’s a big benefit. In the context of online shopping, AR enables consumers to better visualize what an item will look like on them – and can actually enhance the shopping experience – and most, important, help close the sale.
T2 is a collection of artists who create stories and imagery for all types of media.
Back Alley Films is a daredevil production task force who creates messages across all media platforms.
