We Are Organized Chaos

Pantural 3D Reel – That Sh– is Tight…

Ford Shelby vs. Chevy Camaro vs. Jeep vs. VAZ 2107 vs. Apache Helicopter, the title says it all.

YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHD8Xf5Rnvo

Big Warm Up – Homeless Coat Drive Taps the Power of Interactive Video

Received an email from the Land’s End Shop at SEARS the other day. Can’t recall what compelled me to open what I normally classify as spam. In any case, it survived the big finger delete keystroke. After opening the BigWarmUp link in the email I was greeted with a mildly entertaining yet touching video. The video cleverly showcased the life of one red coat:

The coat’s Christmas reveal, to mom sewing her son’s name on the label, to its final resting place several years later. Lonely and forgotten it rests on the coat rack, second string to the latest fashion. Cut to a homeless center, exiting the building the red coat rests on the back of a man in need. Just behind, a homeless woman follows; she looks down at the label on her coat. My name was printed in black ink just like mom used to do.

Admittedly this is not the most technologically advanced or complex interactive video and it didn’t need to be. Advertisers and marketers, take note. It was the association and personalization that got me thinking about all those boxes in the rafters. What the heck am I hanging onto my old digs for anyway? It did what interactive video can do best for advertisers; it kept me engaged in the message and gave me the ability to take action when struck with the opportunity.

Interactive video screams entertainment, but for advertisers and marketers its power has scarcely been revealed. From personalization, to story driven reveals, to augmented reality, to a simple interactive link that lets you share or purchase the item advertised, interactive video provides a loaded brush to engage the consumer. It delivers the ability to capture and share of the moment interest, taking brands one step closer to the ROI Holy Grail.

Check out the Boston area campaign here http://www.bigwarmup.com/. If you are not from Boston you can still donate coat in your local area. Happy Holiday’s

Pre-Roll Is DEAD!

As viewership of online video continues to rise, so does the buzz on the effectiveness of pre-roll. Is pre-roll really dead? In my opinion, no, but the traditional presentation of pre-roll is.

A few weeks back I was out in New York at the Streaming Media East conference and a good chunk of the dialogue was surrounded by the question: “How do you monetize online video content?” What transpired was a debate between the old school media hawks and the new school media progressive cats. Stuck in the middle of the debate were the vultures with one concern, you want it, you got the cash, we can do it.

The hawks were fighting for standardization in ad formats, tired of having to publish to thirty different online ad formats while demanding that audiences should watch their ads. After all, that is what is paying for the content. One marketing manager was feeling rather vaklempt and blurted out, “Online broadcasts are not free. It costs me a million dollars and you will watch my ad.” Seemingly, the hawks were a little out of touch with the online generation. The progressive cats had no answers to solve the great riddle of pre-roll. They fully understood and embraced the reality that standardization to three or four online ad formats was hovering around a zero percent likelihood. They also acknowledged with enthusiasm that college kids who have never paid a dime for cable would most likely not jump at the chance to open up their wallet once they entered the workforce.

Now, throw in the fact that most early adopters and the rest of the Gen XYZ 2.1 crowds are interacting with multiple social network platforms at any given moment and grew up multitasking as the norm. I’ve got the latest episode of 24 streaming, a conversation with three friends running on Facebook, a couple of Tweets to respond to, a mobile RPG game I have to check in on, a HD trailer in queue, a review I want to read on a restaurant for a client dinner, a few stocks I need to research, all while sucking on my pacifier. Do you really think the online generation is going to be placated with pre-roll when so many stimulating options that fulfill their direct needs are at their fingertips? It’s that time again in the stream for another commercial break. Click to another tab. Enjoy something that interests you, wait for the audio to change, you just killed two birds with one stone.

What about shortening pre-roll? Is 10 or 15 seconds really enough time to do something else? Yes, remember the online generation is quickly becoming masters at multitasking. The first time through the ad, all good, I’ll pay attention for 10 or 15. When I’m dished the same ad over and over again I’m off the before the ad starts. Watch an episode of Heroes on Hulu and you’ll catch my drift.

In order for advertisers to avoid wasting their client’s dollar, pre-roll needs to evolve. Engage the viewer with a solid interactive strategy; making their time spent rewarding, while interacting with the brand. Instead of giving viewers the same commercial over and over, engage them with a sponsored challenge or quiz relating to the show, a real time community poll that questions what will happen next, or a sponsored challenge between you and your friends using Facebook Connect. Now, every commercial doesn’t have to be a quiz, a challenge, or a poll, but what has to happen is advertisers need to provide value or viewers just tune out and move on to the next order of business. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen this one 15 second spot while watching Heroes on Hulu. A guy runs out his house with a trash bag full of money and throws it in the garbage truck. I actually got a laugh the first couple of times over the way the guy runs. The problem is I can’t remember what it was for, Citibank, Capital One, wait a minute, actually I think it was for a mobile company. Hmmmm…

On the upside, some video ad serving companies such as LiveRail, videoplaza, and Tremor Media are making changes to combat the failure of online video pre-roll. Tremor offered up decision based pre-roll with vChoice, and videoplaza included iRoll and frequency capping with Monetizer. iRoll is a short teaser clip that rolls up to the top of the video player, leaving the decision to watch more if interested, in the viewer’s hands. Frequency capping is an advertiser opt in service that reduces the times an individual viewer will see a given ad to once every 24 hours.

I don’t believe either company has solved the riddle but I applaud them for taking a step forward. The sooner the advertising and media execs accept the fact that the traditional television-advertising model is out of power-ups and embrace the online generation’s needs with interactive strategy, the sooner the answers that are right in front of them will become clear.

LIVE from E3 – Interactive Streaming Video Broadcast

On my way to E3. Should be in the door between 12 and 1 pm pacific. My partners and I will be broadcasting live via our iPhones and Qik. I’ll be buzzing around capturing everything from Project Natal to Dante’s Inferno to Halo 3: ODST as long as my battery life and network provides. You can watch my live feeds here or head on over to my Qik homepage at http://qik.com/bigboots to interact and make me be your subservient broadcaster. Follow me via twitter @Bigboots to catch my broadcast start time.

Emotional Commercials that Put the Fist on the Button

There is not much in Advertising, TV or Cinema that makes me cry besides a jackass who is cruel to animals. I am a little bit of an adrenaline junkie and a tad rough around the edges, but I am definitely not afraid to cry. The truth is, when the heartstrings need to be pulled, a lot of story tellers fall short either by regurgitating the tried and true method, or failing to establish the characters so we can identify with them… so we actually care about what happens to them. “Wow, that explosion just wiped out all those people, cool effects” versus “That son of a… why did they have to kill the innocent dog? If that was my dog I would…”

So, are you ready to cry? Here is a series of Thai Insurance Commercials that lubricated my tear ducts. It’s not character development that gets ya. It is their ability to speak to all the curve balls life throws at each and every one of us, something all of us can identify with. Enjoy, I’m going to go chop some wood.

“Daddy”

“My Girl”

“Marry Me”

“I want more time”

“Mae Toi”

“Grandma”

Google Chrome Short Films

Google rocks the launch of their Chrome browser with 11 Short Films on YouTube. The shorts highlight the browser’s features with a unique interpretive presentation that captures the attention of the Internet generation. They are fine examples of a smart and stimulating way to educate and entertain.

Check out the 11 Google Chrome shorts here.

Webcams Aren’t Just For Porn Anymore – Trunk Club, Revolutionizing The Way Men Buy Clothes

If you are style challenged or just don’t have the time, I present to you the Trunk Club. Personally it’s hard for me to find the time to shop for clothes, let alone wanting to deal with traffic and navigating through malls or promenades. I’m more of a tee shirt and shorts guy or a what ever is in my closet mix and match guy. When I have an event or a client meeting I either resort to what I have or I run out and do a 5-minute shopping drive-by. That is why when I heard of the Trunk Club I was excited at the prospect of someone taking care of my wardrobe hassles and freeing up time.

The Trunk Club provides you with a personal clothing expert that will recommend, find and deliver your wardrobe needs based on your style. First you apply, then you connect with your personal Trunk Club Expert via webcam. You share your jive with your expert and off they go to make you top dog in whatever it is you are into. No hassles, they ship the hand picked clothing to you and whatever you don’t like you ship back. Of course, you pay for what you keep.

If you don’t have the coin to hire a personal assistant, using webcams to simplify your shopping experience is a great idea. Considering the rise in do-it-yourselfers in our current depression, I’m curious as to how well this service will do. If they tap the right market I’m sure they will reach the light on the other side of the storm. Time is money…

A word to the wise, this is not a full endorsement of the service. I applied yesterday, 4/28. In turn I was notified that I would be contacted within 24hrs. As of yet, no one has contacted me. I’ll keep you posted as to how my webcam shopping experience goes in a future post.

I can recommend one thing to the guys reading this post, if you have one of the following apparel items in the pictures below, the Trunk Club is definitely for you.

Jack Link’s Brings Us A Customizable Living Sasquatch in 3D

Augmented reality has made its move into the wild. From its inception to now we have seen 3D environments come to life with the GE Smart Grid and when interactive baseball players jump out of Topps cards. Today, Jack Link’s gives us the customizable Living Sasquatch.

On the Jack Link’s Living Sasquatch site you can customize emotions, actions and attacks. Just drag your selection from the player content bin, drop it on the timeline and you’re on your way to creating your personal 3D augmented reality Sasquatch. You can even add speech bubbles to ring your friend’s goat. Have him drop a groove or be your drinking partner; whatever floats your boat. If you don’t have a web cam, check out the user submitted gallery.

Terry Richardson Puts Cool Into Lacoste

Where did the alligator go? Many moons ago the rage amongst my peers was all about Lacoste. The 80’s, the summer of preteen love, the summer I wiped out on my friends moped in front of my crush wearing a new Lacoste sweater. Ahhh… Jackass comes to mind. Never did get the girl.

In the 80’s, Lacoste was at the top of the food chain amongst the mall rats – but the brand’s inability to market to changing trends led it down a path that left it stuck in the Preppy Handbook.

Well, there is hope. It is the year of change, after all. The new “Lacoste Red” website uses a combination of interactive video and sick beats to bring it back into the realm of cool. Shot by Terry Richardson on what appears to be the Red One; the site starts you off with full screen slow motion footage that reveals the essence of free spirit. Energetic, effortless motion brought to life with vibes that make you want to move while speaking to its core message of modern style. I’m not going to dust off my glow sticks, but my feet are tapping.

Besides the tight transitions, footage and music, the site adorns a variety of community sharing features: an iPhone app, and the obligatory wallpaper and screensaver downloads. The site also features a mini-game based on the ever so popular Guitar Hero. Choose the style you want to play with and off you go on a keyboard-tapping extravaganza. Not an original concept, in fact a little tired, but speaks to the demo nonetheless.

With lots to interact with, ultimately it is the transitions, video and music that elevate the brand into the now. Muffy, I might replace that sweater after all.

World Builder – Dreaming Up NextGen Technology

Shot in a day, two years of post… that is dedication.

With advancements in technology like augmented reality and Pranav Mistry’s “Sixth Sense,” is the Star Trek “Halo Deck” really that far off?

Bruce Branit’s award winning short, World Builder.

World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.