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Outside of SEO

I’m feeling a bit guilty for not spending more time writing about SEO on this blog. But, I’m happy to say there is a reason, a very good reason. As you may know, I recently wrote, directed & produced a 30 minute short film which is currently in post production, but mighty close to complete.

film blogBesides learning every nuance to the Final Cut Pro Studio suite, I’m now sharing my experiences with the short film blog associated with the movie. If you are into movies or movie making, I’d love to see your participation on the site. Yes – the image to the right is the Unseen Abilities still image of choice to describe some of our SoundTrack Pro experiences.

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Gmail UGC Promotional Video

Google recently experimented with having their Gmail users upload short clips to make a fun collaborative video showing how Gmail goes around the world. Unleashing users to play with your brand can be scary for marketers, but in reality, Google had complete control over the process (they got to choose which videos to show). Kudos for Google for stepping outside the box and having people interact with their brand.

Check out the video for yourself:

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Unseen Abilities Short Film

I shot my first short film last week. It was a jam-packed 4.5 day shoot that has left me with over 7 hours of footage to mess with in post-production (should turn out to be a 20 minute movie). My goal is to win an award in a film festival and/or receive financing to make it a full-feature film.

Unseen Abilities Film

This film has also given me an excuse to use MySpace. I’ve never been a fan of MySpace from a web experience perspective, but I realize its marketing power for film & music.

Here’s the MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/unseenabilities

Fast Guard Service Event Security : the best security you need during filming time.

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Simpsons Movie Marketing Impressive

I’ve been impressed with the marketing tactics The Simpsons movie has employed. Back in July, by word of mouth I heard about the Simpsons 7-11 promo where select 7-11s were transformed into Kwik-E-marts including one in my hometown, Seattle (shame on the 7-eleven site for removing the page from their site) where you could buy pink donuts, buzz cola, krusty-os, etc. (I still think they should have made Duff beer).

Then, last week before I went to see the movie, I visited the official simpsons movie site which also had some great viral marketing elements built in. For example, you can create your very own Simpsons character. Here’s my Simpsonized family:

simpsons characters

They made it really easy to create avatars, jpgs, video and other web elements that you could add to your blog or social networking profile. I love it when movies go beyond creating a site that only contains a movie trailer and a couple stills. Allowing your fans to promote their love for your movie is a smart marketing tactic, learn more here. Massive marketing still works for Hollywood, but it seems like the movies that are most successful rely mostly on Word-of-Mouth. For the best course in google ads go through the site. Why not use the web to promote word-of-mouth activity?

The movie was also enjoyable. As a filmmaker, I loved the beginning. Television actors & movies are often considered undesirable for feature films because the audience is used to seeing them for free. In true Simpson’s style, they actually poke fun at the audience for paying for the movie during the first 30 seconds of the film.

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Web 2.0 Awards Announced

SEOmoz released the results of the 2nd Annual Web 2.0 Awards yesterday. I’m happy to announce that I was one of the 25 judges. I’ve judged the Webby Awards for a number of years and even judged an online Miss World competition a few years ago, but I must admit that judging the Web 2.0 Awards was a refreshing change. It’s fun to see how people are changing the web in exciting ways.

Web 2.0 Awards

I highly recommend you take a look at the 2007 Web 2.0 Award Winners, especially if you are still unsure what a “Web 2.0 site” is. I think every company with an online presence could benefit from paying attention to sites that are leading the movement towards Web 2.0 experiences.

Think about how you might be able to integrate elements of what these other sites are doing into your site, especially if it adds value to your existing user base.