Alec

McNayr

Saw this quick report from Daisy Whitney, who spins viral videos “tricking” the audience as a positive tactic for advertisers.

Tricking your customers can add to the mystique of your product or brand, but it’s important to not overstep your boundaries. While people like to uncover a mystery, they don’t like to be the butt of a corporate joke.

The video mentions a viral video by Parrot, which manufactures hands-free Bluetooth cell devices, where a kid records his drivers ed sessions while he talks on the phone. With 485,000 views on YouTube, this video did a ton better than the other Parrot vs. Quail Parrot-backed viral campaign I mentioned at SSM a while back.

The latest Batman movie comes out tomorrow: “The Dark Knight.”

Surely this isn’t news to you. If so, where you been?

Aside from all the great buzz being hyped about this movie, there’s been some great viral online marketing done. First, there was Why So Serious, then Commit Your Friend, and then live events covered by MTV interns (Hollywood and New York).

One thing caught my eye: a trailer recut into what it would look like if The Joker’s After-Effects-competent henchmen got a hold of it.

Ledger aside, it’s a chilling effect on the dark nature of the character and the movie. And to think, someone might say, “Hey, they’re ruining the scenes! They’re literally drawing on what WB spent millions of dollars to shoot and create!”

Let’s learn a lesson from the biggest blockbuster hit of 2008 (yes, bigger than Iron Man): no footage (and no brand) is too precious to not take a chance at telling a compelling story.

If you have trustworthy people with video-editing skills, let them mash up some footage. Let them experiment with your brand in their eyes. After all, they’re already brand ambassadors to their circle. Why not give them some slack on the leash. You might find viral gold.

The Groundlings hosted a Q&A with Will Ferrell last night. I had third-row tickets at the WGA Theater in Beverly Hills. About 200 people in attendance (including both Will’s dad and mom: Will’s dad was in the first row… his mom the 15th).

My Groundlings improv teacher Roy Jenkins (and star of of our ABC “pilot-ish” Assemblymen’s show-within-a-show) interviewed Will. Some observations:

• Will Ferrell answered half the questions seriously and half in an endless array of improvisational tangents. 100% hilarious.
• Will is very heartfelt, and was truly engaging and unpretentious.
• He talked about how nobody believed in Anchorman, even as he was making it.
• He worked at an auction house for three months… after being cast on SNL (but before officially starting work).
• My wife says to me, upon leaving, “Can we be friends with him when we’re rich and famous?” I answered yes.
• Roy Jenkins is just as funny as Will (and perhaps quicker on his feet!), but is not as famous or rich. What gives? Life and entertainment is not fair.

I don’t know what to make of that last one, except to continue to work hard and be honest in my work as a writer, producer, and entertainer. I may never be Will Ferrell, but with enough time, I can be more Alec McNayr…

• David Hasselhoff
• Ask A Ninja
• Good Charlotte
• Spill.com Movie Reviews
• Independent Comedy Network

What do they have in common?

They all use Ning.com to host a private social network on their sites.  They give their fans an opportunity to upload photos, make comments, and engage as a part of the brand experience.

The best part?  Ning is free.

Why wouldn’t you create a ning social network?  Barack Obama and my University want to keep their social networks close, so as to tie data back to their main databases, which makes sense.

In any case, shouldn’t you be creating a social experience for your customers or prospects?  Aren’t they expecting it?  I mean, if The ‘Hoff is doing it…

My mom has no idea what 3G mobile technology means.

But she knows that the Apple iPhone 3G comes out tomorrow.  The buzz is on her lips, and everyone’s lips.

My personal measure of marketable buzz is: if my parents are talking about it, it’s big.

How does Apple consistently generate such big buzz?  How does any company or movie or product or restaurant or web service generate it, and how do they measurably turn it into revenue?

Being in the viral video business, I have a vested interest in creating tactics for generating buzz about my videos and media, be it for marketing clients or for personal entertainment projects. Here are the characteristics of buzz:

#1 Buzz is Real, But Fleeting

Screenwriter John August and Ask A Ninja’s Kent Nichols have been downplaying the importance of film festival buzz on their blogs.

From Kent:
“I view awards [and film festival wins] as a karmic thumbs up that I’m going in the right direction. Nothing more, nothing less.”

I agree with them in that buzz alone does not create a career, or even a job, but it can generate a first step into a different world.  Once in that world, of course, you need to back it up with talent, training, and hard work.

#2 Buzz is Triangulation

Buzz is hearing about something from multiple channels on multiple levels. Media, social, and personal.

Iron Man was a perfect example of a buzz-worthy summer blockbuster movie.  The industry said it was good.  The commercials made it look good.  The reviews were good.  All that is standard mass marketing, however.  Those media outlets can be bought. The most important component to buzz can’t be bought…

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Attended a networking event last night at BlankSpaces, hosted by Originate Labs and Mixergy. They even hosted Twitter-based interviews with author and tech journalist Sarah Lacy.

I’ve been heading to things like this on the online entertainment side for a few years now, but haven’t been to a tech-related event since my days working for Jupiter Media Metrix in 2000/01. Back then, I was fresh out of college, no idea what I was doing, and catching the tail end of the dotcom boom (and bust).

It certainly was exciting back then, and it was just as exciting last night. A room full of ambitious people invigorates me. Do you like networking? Does it scare you? It did me back in my younger days, but now the pressure is off: I don’t have to shine in that room. I can just be me.

It’s always funny who you meet at things like that:

• I saw Tim Street, who just wrapped an advertisement/video episode for mDialog, a video startup that has commissioned a series from me and Bob.
• I ran into a girl that recognized me from welcoming people at church.
• I briefly saw Jason Nazar, whom I interviewed for a Pepperdine Law video two years ago, and now runs docstoc.com, a web site devoted to sharing documents (“a YouTube for documents,” I think I’ve heard him say).

Jason even offered to buy Sarah Lacy’s book for the first 25 people who mention docstoc.com on their blog, and I hope I qualify.  But more than just a cheap mention, I’ll take it one step further.  I checked out the site and found it to be an immediate help in two areas:

1. I searched for “online video marketing plan” and found some nice resources for developing my methodology for online video marketing, including doing some specific SEO on video metadata.
2. I am hosting a seminar on resume-building at church later this month, and found some great examples of resumes from all kinds of industries.

Check out docstoc for yourself, and, more importantly, go to where people are in your area of business.  It makes it all worthwhile.