Randy Pausch passed away yesterday. His inspirational talk The Last Lecture is based on an ongoing series of lectures where top academics are basically asked, "What wisdom would you impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance?" Prior to this presentation, Pausch was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. I hope my Last Lecture can be just one tenth as inspirational as this....
I'm normally fairly good with people's birthday yet I missed a friend's yesterday. I only discovered it today when I opened my diary and realised the reason I forgot is because she doesn't have a Facebook account. I've come to rely on this tool but also many other aspects of social media. It hasn't just given me more channels to communicate but has now become a main source of information and entertainment. The way I contact people and stay in touch with them has changed with Facebook. The way I watch my favourite television shows has changed with YouTube, which has also opened up infinite hours of UGC. Similarly, the radio is streamed via podcasts. The daily read of a newspaper has changed with my RSS Subscriptions where I choose what I want to read. Interestingly, these changes are all free. No wonder Generation Y is so reliant on social media....
Be sure to check out Marketing Today where Peter, Jules, Simon and myself discuss The Perfect Viral in Episode #64. During this discussion a point was raised regarding the effective use of preview images on YouTube. Generally a hot female or a cleavage shot tended to give your video a higher view count. I also learnt, that this preview image is selected from the exact middle of your video. Now take a look at Episode #1 of a fairly quirky series called Zeroes...
Weezer debuted their music video for Pork and Beans on Youtube yesterday. Half a million hits already and here's why...
Last post on the Logies, promise. It's not often that Youtube lets me down. But this time, I can't find a single example of what I want to talk about so I'll have to describe it the best I can. Basically, when an award is announced the winner arrives on stage and makes a quick thank you speech. During this, they often hold their trophy and move their arm up and down, almost raising their prize above their head. This year, I noticed the TV Week logo cleverly placed on the bottom of each trophy whereas previously I cannot remember seeing it there. This sneaky addition placed their logo on screen at least ten times more that night. A clever way to integrate your brand and get some screen time. Too bad the logo is such an eye sore. ...
Or is it? In what was set to be a very creative campaign Sprite's Thirst For Truth was launched a month ago. Appearing as a cross between the Chaser's War On Everything and Hamish and Andy, Truth Hunters AJ and Nicos aim these three minute videos at 16 to 24 year olds in an attempt to uncover "unspoken, brutal honest truths". The campaign has your usual vitals; a Facebook page, YouTube channel, blog and more but it seems the campaign hasn't quite received the attention they wanted. A contest asking for user submissions of people videoing their own Truths didn't receive a single entry. Promotions were run through billboards, bus sides and a cinema spot, yet $500 and a free trip to Sydney went unnoticed. Even after a month, I only heard about this campaign through someone at Naked Communications. It raises the question, does new media require old media? Can you successfully market a campaign digitally without a traditional launch? Perhaps in two years things will be different but at least here in Australia and now in the present a thirty second spot would have benefited this campaign greatly....
Today is the 7th of November, or rather 7/11. 7-Eleven has capitalised on this with National 7-Eleven Day. Simply go into your local store and say "Happy 7-Eleven Day" to receive your free slurpee.I think this is a really creative campaign that should work well for them, particularly if they run something like this every year. Its targeted well to their market and I believe there should be a good turn out.There's also good use of their Facebook Event which seems to have gained a lot of popularity with over 40,000 people expressing interest. Unfortunately, it seems they've almost hidden away their promotional videos on the official website, with none of these posted on YouTube.I know I'll be heading down for my free slurpee, will you?...
