Man of Steel hits 10 MILLION VIEWS!!!

When I was a kid, I absolutely LOVE getting to the theater early enough to catch all the previews!  Now, I just watch them all on YouTube.  The most recent one was the second trailer for Man of Steel, the Chris-Nolan-produced Superman reboot.

Nolan-branded entertainment is popular right now, thanks to his recently-completed Batman trilogy.  This latest Superman movie trailer got to 10 MILLION views in just three days, which points to an excellent opening next June.  I know I'll be going; will you?

Click "Read More" to view the trailer and continue reading!

Never say "No" to Panda!

I'll admit that I'm ignorant of different languages, so I have NO IDEA what language they're speaking in these videos; the subtitles help, but aren't necessary, really. The moral of these commercials: buy Panda brand foods because you never want to make a panda mad; they'll make you pay for it!

Click "Read More" to watch the video.

Worst acupuncture experience EVER!

I have no idea what this ad is for, but it made me laugh pretty hard! Please post a comment below with guesses as to what it might be!

Playing with your phone on YouTube

This is a pretty funny song, but the message is clear for marketers: mobile marketing has MASSIVE potential!

Dollar Shave Club's AWESOME video is marketing GOLD!

I saw this video the other day, and it made me laugh...maybe even OUT LOUD! I actually went to their site, just to see if it was real. It IS a real company, and they do what they say they'll do: ship you one razor each month to your door. Despite being pretty funny, the video also does a good job of laying out the company's purpose and promise. The promise is one of the funniest parts: "Our blades are F*CKING great!"

Click "Read more" below to see the video, then let me know what you think by posting a comment!

This party is MANDATORY!

I 'm a big fan of best-of lists, especially when they're funny.  This one's pretty good, and I'd also like it if there was a best-of-30-Rock list.

A successful viral video

I haven't listened to the radio in a long time; mostly, I've just been listening to books non-stop.  Also, I'm not extremely active on Twitter, so I totally missed out on this gem of a music video.  It's unique, the song's catchy...and the marketing implications of this video are amazing!  Read my full post to view the video, too!

(P.S. Beware of SCAMS!)

As disaster clean-up continues around my neighborhood, I've been seeing more news vans than usual.  Unfortunately, no one has stopped to talk with me...until yesterday.  Below, I've posted the brief video.  I know it's a bit vain, but I'm fine with a little of that!

More charitable giving as marketing material

My 30-foot-tall tree fell in my front yard on
December 1st, 2011.

Last week, a barrage of unusually strong wind came whipping through the western United States.  When it whipped over the eastern mountains of the Wasatch Front, my town was the hardest hit; the gusts were over 100 miles per hour!  For those of you keeping track, that's level-two-hurricane-strength winds!

Steve Jobs had nice hair

This is Steve Jobs in January of 1984 as he introduced the world to the Macintosh computer. In his usual style, he let the images and sounds speak for themselves. Apple events have always been interesting marketing opportunities for the company; their mix of humor and technology have trained more than one generation of geeks what to expect from their computers. Enjoy!

Minor Leauge Player Falls into Marketing Gold!

Recently, a minor league outfielder facilitated a triple play with his head. His quick reaction and cool execution, despite what must have been a decent headache, could be used to promote the team and help his career. The key will be to market the incident properly.

One Man's Reaction to the Death of WebOS

This is a funny look at how one historic figure might react to the death of HP's WebOS. Watch to the end; it's pretty funny!

Google+ Gets Verified!

The Internet is a crazy place, and there are all types of even CRAZIER people using it! Verification on Google+ and other social networks for celebrities and other public figures ensures that when I try to follow my favorite movie star, I can. There's nothing worse than following someone, then finding out that it's actually a 17-year-old kid in Korea.

Sorry about the J.K. Rowling video!

I'm sorry to everyone for the J.K. Rowling video post that seems to be covering up the widgets to the right of the video. I can't seen to get it any smaller!

-MJP

A unique brand move for J.K. Rowling

Whether or not you like Harry Potter, you have to admit that this is an interesting move for the story's creator, J.K. Rowling.  She's created a new site for the world of Harry Potter, unveiled the week of June 19th, 2011.



The video reveals that it will be an interactive experience, but it's still REALLY vague as to what exactly will be going on there.  Leading up to the announcement, there were speculations as to what would be on www.pottermore.com.  It remains to be seen whether or not this brand strategy will pay off for Rowling.  In terms of e-book sales, it should be great, at least!


-MJP

For Social Media Jugglers...

Click on the title to be re-directed to one company's take on juggling social media. The most relevant point for me was the suggestion to simplify. Yes, I can try to be on as many as possible, but when the possibilities are at the expense of quality, I should stop. When I have to decide between commenting on a friend's blog post or signing up on Digg, I should forget the latter.

Post a comment about your challenges juggling social media. I'd love to hear what you think!

- MJP

Wasting time like a pro!

I just read an article on SocialMediaToday.com called, "6 Ways to Waste Your Time on Social Media." Click the title of this post to go directly to the post. It did a great job of pointing out some fairly common ways that a lot of people, including myself, waste time in the social sphere.

Axis and Allies: Part 4

The pieces are all in place and the dice are about to be thrown; this is when you choose which tactical approaches to use and how to use them. In keeping with the "Axis and Allies" theme, should you send in the infantry men (ie front-line sales force) first and follow it up with a well-placed blast (a YouTube video) to hit the correct spot?

Maybe it's more about online blogging and networking that gets the biggest bang. I don't know enough about each business in the world to say, but if you start with a strategic vision, you'll be able to see how all your pieces are working on the board, and can make tactical moves to win the game - super ROI!

If you have any other questions, or an idea for a better analogy, feel free leave a comment!

Video success is more complicated than I thought...

For anyone who works in an "online" environment, Website Magazine is a great way to get caught up on current issues. I read an article the other day called, "Getting Scene in a World of Clips," by Michelle Wicmandy. It gave me some insights into the basics of using online videos to promote products.

According to a comScore report from December 2008, the following is true of online video:
- 78.5% of online users watched video on the Internet.
- 309 minutes of online video were watched by the average viewer.
- 5.9 billion videos were watched on YouTube by 98.9 millions viewers.
- The overall average online video was 3.2 minutes long.
- Viewers on MySpace.com watched 367 million videos.
- Hulu.com's average video is 10.1 minutes long, which is higher than any of the other top 10 sites.

The article also talked about advances in SEO technology for indexing and listing video in search engine results. Some, like Blinkx, have software programs that can analyze audio to create keywords for search.

As social networking specialist at Bountiful Wi-Fi, most interesting to me was the social media aspect of online video. My job, as far as video goes, will be to write, produce and distribute company videos through as many online channels as possible. The article listed a few, and I need to learn more about each of the top 10 vehicles so I know how to use them for the benefit of the company. Any marketer who deals with anything online - or even those who should be using online channels (that's everybody, by the way) - needs to know the different ways that people can find out about their companies.

If we undestand online channels, specifically video, we can use them to our advantage to promote products and give people opportunities to interact with our brands.