XLNTads - Connecting Brands and Creators

Archive for October, 2007

• Creative Inspiration: Common Craft

  
  Posted by Mark Schoneveld on October 31st, 2007. Categories: Creative Inspiration | No Comments »

  I absolutely love the creative genius that is The Common Craft Show. Of course, I love anything that’s simple and elegant, yet awesomely powerful. Take note, you don’t always have to have actors, a set and expensive props to make a compelling message. Common Craft is inspiring us all by making brand messages in the form of papercraft cutouts. Their videos are straight-forward, digestable and entertaining nuggets that both educate and promote brands. For example, here’s a spot they made for Google Docs:

  Awesome, right? And because it’s Halloween, how can I resit sharing this amazing vid about zombies!?

  [tags]common craft, advertising, video, messages, papercraft, google docs, branding[/tags]

  Posted in Creative Inspiration | No Comments »

• A Good Week for CGA

  
  Posted by Mark Schoneveld on October 31st, 2007. Categories: Our News | No Comments »

  Last week was a great week in Consumer Generated Advertising. First off, we were quoted in an interesting article on NewTeeVee.com, one of the leading blogs on online video. FTW! Chris Albrecht wrote about life after the big prize; what happens to the people who win big video contests after they win. Do they get more video jobs? Are they enthusiastic about the medium? Head over and check out what the Heinz Top This TV Challenge winner and the Doritos Crash the Super Bowl winner have to say.

  Also, (perhaps due to our advice, not!), Apple recruited a young fella, Nick Haley, from England to make the new iPhone commercial. Why such a young kid? Wow! Lucky kid. But it goes to show, even the world’s most respected brands can use consumer-made video advertising.

  By the way, we freakin’ love the Brazilian band CSS’s track he grabbed, I can’t imagine he had permission. If I were the band, it goes without saying they’ll be asking for a cut of the Apple love. I’m sure they’ll be handsomly rewarded. It’s a win-win!

  [tags]advertising, apple, cga, xlntads, heinz, doritos, video, iphone, css, music[/tags]

  Posted in Our News | No Comments »

• The End of TV Advertisement?

  
  Posted by Mark Schoneveld on October 25th, 2007. Categories: Our News | No Comments »

  Jackson West at NewTeeVee.com is calling (as bloggers are wont to do) for an early death to the traditional TV ad model. He points out a bunch of trends he’s spotting in the industry. Here are a few nuggets:

  …an actor friend of mine recently explained his idea for “commer-serials,” or spots that tell an episodic story from break to break during a program.

  “Advertainment,” such as Amanda Congdon’s work for DuPont (DD), is another option — a format that exists somewhere between what used to be called industrials and traditional advertising, wholly sponsored by an agency client and intended to be entertaining enough to draw viewers without the need for a popular program wrapped around it.

  Then again, the 30-second spot could live on. But if the promises of super-refined targeting come true, how can one justify putting $1 million into a single commercial spot vs. a hundred spots at $10,000 each that reach a swath of niche audiences?

  We’ll see how things transform, but one thing is sure. The landscape is changing. Fast.

  [tags]jackson west, newteevee, advertising, trends, video, online[/tags]

  Posted in Our News | No Comments »

• How to Help Video Go Viral

  
  Posted by Mark Schoneveld on October 25th, 2007. Categories: Resources | 1 Comment »

  Everyone wants their vids to go viral these days, and the good people at Tubemogul are giving away a great white paper called “Web Video Marketing - Best Practices” to help all you producers get on the viral bandwagon. Tubemogul has some awesome tools, too, so don’t forget to check out what they’re offering video producers. They say:

  “Secret Formula” - .5C + 15.M + .20T + .15P = Success

  Alright, we admit that an exact formula may be a bit over simplistic, but when it comes to deciding how to allocate time and resources on a video intended on marketing something virally, the weighting of these four components should follow closely to something like this: That’s it. Write down the formula above on a cocktail napkin and you have the code cracker for getting people to watch and forward your video. The formula above says that creating a video is a weighted function of four components:

  50% C = Content and Production - this is storyline, style lightning, production, etc.
  15% M = Metadata - the text title, keywords, descriptions, and categories that help people find your video
  20% T = Thumbnail - the packaging which draws people in when displayed on the page
  15% P = promotion - just good old fashioned marketing

  Speaking of viral, have you seen this!? What genius! Reminds me of Zack Scott’s “ChocoBana” commercial he made for us!

  
  [tags]tubemogul, video, marketing, viral, trends, tools, resources, energy drink[/tags]

  Posted in Resources | 1 Comment »

• Viral Marketing Explained

  
  Posted by Mark Schoneveld on October 23rd, 2007. Categories: Uncategorized | No Comments »

  AdPulp points out a great quote from marketing guru Seth Godin today:

  Word of mouth is a decaying function. A marketer does something and a consumer tells five or ten friends. And that’s it. It amplifies the marketing action and then fades, usually quickly. A lousy flight on United Airlines is word of mouth. A great meal at Momofuku is word of mouth.

  Viral marketing is a compounding function. A marketer does something and then a consumer tells five or ten people. Then then they tell five or ten people. And it repeats. And grows and grows. Like a virus spreading through a population. The marketer doesn’t have to actually do anything else. (They can help by making it easier for the word to spread, but in the classic examples, the marketer is out of the loop.) The Mona Lisa is an ideavirus.

  [tags]viral, seth godin, adpulp, advertising, marketing[/tags]

  Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

• Saved by the Cell Video Contest

  
  Posted by Mark Schoneveld on October 17th, 2007. Categories: Our News | No Comments »

  

  Great news! After we had so much success with the XLNT Brands commercials our awesome creators made for us, we’ve been getting great response from our brand clients. We’d like to keep the ball rolling while we’re busy signing those deals, so we’ve got a quick new assignment up.

  We’re giving $500 to the creator of the best 1- to 2-minute original video that tells a story about a love/hate relationship with cell phones and mobile wireless devices. We’ve got a very short time table on this project, so get crackin’ and upload some great videos! They’re due before MIDNIGHT on NOVEMBER 9th!

  To learn more, sign up and get the assets for this assignment, go to the Brand Page here.

  [tags]video, contest, news, xlntads, saved by the cell, advertising, cga[/tags]

  Posted in Our News | No Comments »

• Creative Inspiration: Peter Max

  
  Posted by Mark Schoneveld on October 16th, 2007. Categories: Creative Inspiration | No Comments »

  It’s been pretty hectic around XLNTads-land these days, and I’ve neglected to put up my promised weekly post ‘Creative Inspiration‘. Okay, kids, here’s something from waaaaay out there. Check out these awesome vintage commercials made by conceptual American pop artist, Peter Max back in the late 60’s and early 70’s. How’s that for some creative inspiration, huh? Awesome.

  [Thanks, ViewersLikeYou!]

  [tags]creative, inspiration, advertising, ads, video, peter max, psychedelic, art, pop[/tags]

  Posted in Creative Inspiration | No Comments »

• Al Gore Loves CGA

  
  Posted by Mark Schoneveld on October 16th, 2007. Categories: Our News | No Comments »

  

  The ConsumerGeneratedMedia blog pointed us to a speech Al Gore delivered at the 97th annual conference of the Association of National Advertisers the other day entitled “Consumer-Generated Media: The New Marketing Paradigm”. Of course, we’re interested in what he had to say.

  To quote Mr. Gore regarding consumer-generated advertising:

  “Nothing can help your brand more, in my opinion, than helping your customers help you brand your products. You keep control of your brand and how your brand is presented. But letting your customers express themselves and join the conversation about your product is empowering of them, respectful of them, and brings new creativity into the process that’s hard to get any other way.”

  You can watch the whole speech on video on AdAge. And while not everyone loved what he had to say, we think Al’s right on the money. You can read more about the conference on the New York Times here.

  [tags]al gore, xlntads, advertising, vcam, ana2007, cga, cgm, video[/tags]

  Posted in Our News | No Comments »