The response to Shatner’s version of Palin’s words was so huge, that the comedic genius that is Conan O’Brien brought the former Star Trek star back on The Tonight Show to recite more of Sarah Palin’s words. But instead of a speech, William Shatner recited different tweets from Sarah Palin’s Twitter account. The result is, well, you decide:

I love Shatner! And not just because I am a Star Trek fan. He knows his speech patterns are unique and has the humility to make fun of himself as well as the subject matter. I guess this has almost nothing to do with video production or online video, it’s more about social media (twitter) than anything, and how it can sometimes shape video production. But I thought it was hilarious and wanted to share. What do you think?

NY Times article

The videos will appear on a dedicated YouTube channel, and on FedEx’s own Web site. Steve Pacheco, director of advertising at FedEx, said, “we’re still very involved in television…but digital advertising and communication is taking a bigger role in the overall plan, because we try to scale our media plan to be where our customers are.” (Source: N Y Times) But will that involvement include a future spot at the Super Bowl, doubtful considering the $3M price tag for a 30-second, one-time airing. The amount of advertising they can do online for that same amount is probably astronomical in relation. With a big brand like FedEx dipping it’s toes into the shallow end of the online video pool, does this mean other’s will follow? Overnight delivery is their bread and butter, but the results of their foray into online video advertising surely will not be determined as quickly.

 The movie was good, not life altering, but as advertised. After we finished watching Transformers, we snuck into “Up,” the latest Pixar creation, to attempt to bring the testosterone levels back down to an acceptable level to drive home. “Up” was a good movie as well. All in all, nice day at the movie theater, two movies – neither of which were the normal dismal experience.

So, later that night I asked my five year old son which movie he liked better and to my surprise – he went with “Up.” I asked him why and he said it had a better ‘series.’ So, I had to clarify what ‘series’ meant and after a little sleuthing on my end, what he meant was the ‘story.’

There’s a lesson here, folks. If a five-year old boy, who lives for the wham-boom-pow in everything, sees more value in a good story than the glitz; what does that mean for you? Well, I’ll tell you, wrap your product, brand or service around a story and you’ll win every time. Tell a story – a good one – engage your audience and watch the results. Hopefully, you’ll be as surprised as I was to my son’s choice in film. Even Megan Fox couldn’t sway him.

Why would I want to work for the man? For another production company? With rules. Unruly clients. Meetings. Punching a timeclock (I hadn’t punched a timeclock since college). And most importantly – no clear vision of creating good, entertaining content. I would never do it. It’s artistic suicide!

Well, I was wrong. I good friend of mine, Chad Crawford, asked me to join him last year, and naturally I resisted.  Until he laid out a plan that, quite honestly, shocked me. A plan of creating original content that we could own, market, and distribute. Here’s a guy that gets it (now if I only could get him to blog) and has the same goals as me. So, I joined him and his production company and am happy to tell you that our first original television show will begin airing in May, locally on My65 in Orlando and statewide on the SunSports Network. It’s a fantastic show that entertains, teaches and encourages Floridians to actively engage their state. For example in the first episode, we show viewers “how” to go surfing – where to go, how to pick the right surfboard, how to stand up on the board, etc. We also cover how to go shrimping, how to cook the shrimp you catch, how to relax on a sunset river cruise, and how to go kayaking. The exciting thing is this show is only our first endeavor into creating original content, we already have more television content, webisodes, and even documentaries on tap for future productions. Check out the intro. Let me know what you think. Enjoy.

The client loved the spots and they performed well, but wanted to build on it to include a reason for the audience to anticipate the next spot as well as motivate them to go to the website for more info, and, hopefully create a viral effect down the road. Their idea was to kill off the ‘easel guy’ at the end of every spot, a la Kenny from South Park. I personally love the idea, but don’t think it would work because it would hurt ‘easel guy’s” credibility. Springboarding off of that idea, I think we have come up with a great alternative to achieve this. Now, I don’t believe you can “plan” a viral campaign necessarily. However, you can include a lot of the things that you think might make it viral, and I think our spots will have that. But videos go viral for a ton of different reasons, and the most important is the community – your audience – whether or not they think the content is funny enough, shocking enough, relevant enough, or just plain stupid enough to send it to their friends. We will go for a little of it all – humor, shock and stupidity. Stay tuned.

Everyone did a great job to make the project a success – the client, agency, motion control rig, special fx supervisor, and the crew – they all really collaborated, worked hard, and successfully pulled off my vision for the spot.

Big props to the post-production department for pulling this off under crazy, crazy deadlines. You guys rock!

Leave comments, let me know what you think.