Archive for the 'Video' Category

Seven Brains

Published by shaunb July 9th, 2008 in Australia, Video and Advertising. 1 Comment

The Clemenger Group wants the very best students knocking down its door. To do this the 
Seven Brains graduate program came to life. The brain collector who lives deep in the bowels of the Clemenger building is on an obsessive search for the 7 best student brains to fill the 7 graduate spots for 2009. The website just recently launched is based around opening titles of a film. The navigation of the site is scattered throughout the video with rollover hot- spots giving the site a stark eery feeling to fit in with the overall idea of the brain collector.

Seven Brains

NetXmas “Give it to someone special”

Published by admin December 18th, 2007 in NetX, Video and Advertising. 1 Comment

Yes, it’s the silly season – and it doesn’t get much sillier than this.
For all your support and friendship during 2007, we’d like to express our sincere appreciation through song.

NetXmas - give it to someone special

We only ask for one small favour in return – your patience. There are megabytes of love coming your way, which could, depending on the size of your chimney, take a few minutes to download. So please, get comfortable, have a Merry NetXmas and give it to someone special:
Watch and listen to our NetXmas

For everybody who enjoys a look behind the scenes:Have a peek at our elaborate set and the no-expenses-spared filming. When you see it, it is hard to feel worried about Hollywood’s writers strike.

Interviews from the Forrester Consumer Forum - free content in a widget

Published by davidk October 29th, 2007 in Social Media, Blogs, Video and Consumer Generated. 0 Comments

Cobrandit interviewed some recent Forrestor conference attendees about topics like content distribution, social media, video and other types of online engagement techniques. And as David Armano points out, this widget itself is an example of how content owners should be considering distribution - set your content free!

Get this widget!

Tomato in Sydney - John Warwicker opens Tokyo Type Director Exhibition at UTS

Published by admin August 15th, 2007 in Video and Advertising. 3 Comments

John Warwicker from Tomato

In conjunction with the impressive Tokyo Type Directors exhibition opening last night at UTS gallery, John Warwicker who had curated the selection, shared some of his/Tomato’s work. It as intriguing to learn that some of their trademark light-reflection designs are made 100% in camera with the simplest devices (”Look Ma, no Flame or Maya anywhere!”).

During John’s show and tell, it also became apparent that hiring Tomato for a branding exercise is equal to branding your own company’s with their (Tomato’s) brand. Their cult status allows them to not compromise on approach or output. I imagine a marketing/brand person is either so independent in their choice of “agency” (I know they are not an agency in the conventional sense) or he/she justifies the end result by saying “I don’t know what your problem is, it’s a Tomato!”.

Playstation Network: The Loyalty Catalyst

Published by davidk May 15th, 2007 in Social Media, Gaming, Virtual Worlds, Video and Consumer Generated. 0 Comments

psn_upgrade_425px_evan.jpg

Recently at the Online Game Developers Conference in Seattle, Sony discussed it’s intentions for better extending the consumer relationship and commercial opportunities it has via connected PS3 and PSPs. Currently Playstation 3 owners are able to play online and download a small array of digital content. But Sony has ambitious plans to capitalize on it’s loungeroom presence via a new range of upcoming digital services.

In the near future, Sony will be looking to fill up the PS3’s 60Gb hard drive with full-length video on demand offerings such as movies, television and music. Some of this will integrate with its 3D community space, Home, where users can share media with friends within their own apartment spaces.

SCEA’s director of third-party developer relations, Michael Shorrock, also talked about how the Playstation Network could be seen as an experimental space for new business models. When asked if pavillions within Home would need to be leased or purchased by developers, he said that Sony are looking to “foster activity and flexibility”. This is encouraging for other non-gaming brands looking to be involved. A FMCG brand might be able to run an event launch, shared with a media owner or create an original video or music content offering. Shorrock also talks about providing conduits for people to contribute conten, but so far the specification for Home has been more focussed on business to consumer-type features.

With loungeroom (PS3) and wireless (PSP) distribution coming together, Sony nearly has all the enabling pieces of the puzzle in place. Now the services that overlay this connectivity just need to be captivating enough for people to turn away from their traditional consumption habits. But when you stand back and look at the possibilities of blending gaming, media, advertising and commerce, the ecosystem might actually provide some compelling reasons for engagement.

Source: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=13901

Citizen-created commercials

Published by davidk May 3rd, 2007 in Video, Advertising and Consumer Generated. 2 Comments

The past 12-18 months have seen our digital airwaves awash with brands asking consumers to remix or create their commerical. These campaigns don’t typically garner thousands of responses but do get talked about. Is there a new way to measure the success of this stuff on some kind of ‘return on enagement’ level? Clearly a fraction of the people who watch a commerical will put any effort into creating one (see Brad Horowitz’s famous pyramid for “Creators, Synthesizers and Consumers”).

The Church of the Customer blog (great name huh?) breaks down a few recent examples including:

Intuit’s Tax Rap Contest with Vanilla Ice
Southwest Airlines’ Wanna Get Away Video Contest
H&R Block’s “Me & My Super Sweet Refund Video Contest

.. and annoints the Converse Gallery as the benchmark for such contests. I wonder if consumers will tire of this kind of campaign mechanic. In certain parts of the blogosphere there is an ongoing discussion about the value that people provide consumer-generated content sites with only 15kb of fame in return. Or do (some) people simply love a challenge? Of course if you work in the creative or production industry you might expect to get more than a competition prize for responding to a brief, but that’s another discussion :) Brands used to say “watch my ad!” and we’ve begun to find that rude. Is it more polite to say “make my ad!” ?

Mobile TV interview with Adnews

Published by admin April 26th, 2007 in Mobile and Video. 1 Comment

I was shooting some answers back to Adnews about Mobile TV and thought I would also share them here on the St Edmonds Lab blog.

Enjoy, Tim.

Do you think mobile TV will be popular in Australia?
Australians like anyone else experience idle time, waiting periods or plain uninspired boredom. Their mobile phone has become a life tool, a companion that is always on and always near. So why sholdn’t they want to use it for passive enjoyment such as watching mobile TV?

Do you think people want to watch TV on such a small screen?
I have seen teenagers listening to cheap handsets blaring badly compressed MP3s. It is amzing what lack of media quality people do put up with, as long as it fits their current mood and situation. Obviously whole cricket matches are unlikely to become hits on the phone screen. High-end handsets Koreans and Japanese enjoy today will add to the fidelity of the experience but haven’t arrived here yet.

What do you think networks will have to offer to make the technology popular? What do you think is the potential for advertising on such platforms?

First, TelCos shouldn’t act like content producers but rather open their gates for others to deliver the most popular format. TV production companies or sport executives will say that their established TV brands (familiar from the big screen) will reel in the viewers. This can be true for reality programming, catch up summaries or content that is complemetary. But why shouldn’t a talk-back show or a 24/7 format of “Hot or Not” video-self portraits prove to be the Aussie hit? On top of delivering sizzling bits that people are ready to watch anytime, networks should intertwine the content with relevant ads and a stable m-commerce application. This would allow consumers to act on Mobile TV content via their 3G connection, be that by uploading, voting or buying. These applications will build a critical commercial audience that the networks/TelCos can profit from.

Is price a key factor?
Absolutely yes. Look at how people don’t make video calls because of cost. Voice calls will become ever cheaper and therefore decrease in profitability for the networks. But that doesn’t mean flocks of consumers will be happy to compensate by paying more for mobile TV, an offer they might suspect to be nothing more than a shrunk telly. The investment for a compatible handset has to be made first and ideally this would include a free TV package.

How long do you think it will take for such technologies to be in Australia?
That depends on the politics of many parties. Handset producers, carriers, regulators, content providers and advertisers have to work together to turn mobile TV into part of an attractive mobile experience.

What would it take for it to become mainstream?
One easy-to-understand satisfying mobile experience, the SMS of mobile video so to say.

Intel Ultra Mobile PC interfaces of the future

Published by davidk April 16th, 2007 in Mobile, Locative Media, Video, Convergence and Experiential. 0 Comments

Now and then it’s good to remind ourselves that the tried and true ways we interact with connected services, are actually always evolving. I find these future vision-type presentations interesting both from the perspectives of interface design and also emerging habits and usage. The Intel UMPC video below shows a range of different devices taking advantage of the new version of their mobile computing platform due to be announced this week. I think ambient devices, like the bracelets worn in the clip, are going to increasingly be part of our lives in different forms. This is an extension of the idea that your information, identity and content might be stored in one place but accessed and interpretted differently depending on your context (eg. a new email might make your bracelet glow while it knows you’re away from your PC, or do nothing if you’re sitting in front of it).

Take a look: http://www.youtube.com/v/HrzeiUvDZog

MTV Gets Conversational

Published by davidk March 19th, 2007 in Video, Convergence, Consumer Generated and Strategy. 0 Comments

A recent announcement by MTV demonstrates the impact online video outposts (you know the one we’re talking about..) have had on it’s once hipper-than-though brand.

Despite already having more than 150 sites, MTV has said it plans to develop thousands of niche experiences that will allow viewers to aggregate around favourite franchises and slice ‘n’ dice TV content on their own terms. This is already happening online but the concept of permitting, or even driving it, is an interesting move for a broadcaster. Of course, Viacom has been hit harder than most with it’s key audience members being the first to adopt newer connected services. On the surface MTV’s response is at least encouraging as it shows a willingness to experiment with alternative distribution strategies, including the recently announced deal with P2P TV darling, Joost.

The Reuters article linked below suggests MTV’s brand might be diluted by developing these niche experiences but we would suggest that the ‘do nothing’ alternative would be more risky. In fact, by reaching out into targeted, relevant online locales, MTV’s individual shows have the opportunity reach and engage greater total audience numbers, and drive better value for specific advertising partners. The key here will be the company’s willingness to watch, measure and change direction if (when?) some of these environments don’t get traction with it’s audience.

MTV Networks embraces Web chaos (MSNBC)

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