The Candidate's Hidden Talents

Sure you could vote on the issues this year, but what about dance skills?

Or music skills?


But what if some big time directors made McCain's ads, could they turn his campaign around?

Ok, seriously though, whatever you do and whatever matters to you VOTE!

(videos via Denver Egotist)

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Reel Motion Media Inc., is a Video & Web Marketing company that understands how to maximize your company's exposure in the internet of tomorrow. Reel Motion has full video production capabilities and an experienced web marketing staff that will make every dollar of your budget count, even if your budget is only a dollar. Contact them today at info@reelmotioninc.com for more information on taking your company to the next level.

Obama on Campus

Barack Obama spoke to an estimated crowd of 50,000 in the historic Oval at Colorado State University this past weekend. This was the first time that I personally had the opportunity to see a presidential hopeful live and in person. His message was inspiring for me personally but what was even more inspiring was the diverse and gigantic turnout for a county that is generally considered conservative leaning. Whether you are voting for Obama or not, it would be hard to deny the success of his social media marketing campaign and the excitement for his campaign that he has been able to generate online.

His website is immaculate with an Obama blog, Obama news, Obama events, Barack TV, volunteer sign-up, contribution platform, media links, videos everywhere, find your voting station, get a free bumper sticker, and all of his policy stances in an easy to use format with juicy buttons and a slick web 2.0 look, plus you can create your own account where you can interact with other volunteers, comment and generally engage in two way communications... and then there is the Obama Everywhere campaign. The campaign has a Facebook, MySpace,Youtube, Flickr, Digg, Twitter, Eventful, LinkedIn, BlackPlanet, Faithbase, Eons, Glee, MiGente, MyBatanga, AsianAve, and DNC Party Builder accounts. They are customized, they all look sleek and they are all being used to communicate with the Obama tribe. Those connected into these networks feel empowered, feel like they are a part of something bigger and feel like they are getting the insider information. The campaign has over 110,000 followers on Twitter, 128,000 comments on their Myspace page and 2, 320,806 supporters on their Facebook page! A lot and I mean a lot of people are engaged strictly through their social media campaign.

Below is our latest Current TV piece on the event at CSU and below that is another excellent Current piece on Shepard Fairey, the artist who designed the most well known Obama caricature.

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Reel Motion Media Inc., is a Video & Web Marketing company that understands how to maximize your company's exposure in the internet of tomorrow. Reel Motion has full video production capabilities and an experienced web marketing staff that will make every dollar of your budget count, even if your budget is only a dollar. Contact them today at info@reelmotioninc.com for more information on taking your company to the next level.

Saturday Night Live - Ras Trent

This is just a reely sweet vid. "A Rastafarian melody for the Quad." Ras Trent was recently spotted on campus so I thought this might be pertinent.

Social Media Sizzles for Bacon Salt

Those of you who've been reading the blog know we're kinda big on social media around here. And sure, we could quote statistics until we're blue in the face, but is anyone actually using this whole "social media" thing to build a brand?

Enter Bacon Salt. The seasoning that's well, exactly what it sounds like: bacon flavored salt. This product, only 18 months old, is growing quickly thanks to a social media presence that began before there was even a product.

According to Adweek, Bacon Salt founders Justin Esch and Dave Lefkow began their venture creating a Myspace profile for Bacon Salt and then taking the time to search for and befriend everyone on Myspace who mentioned bacon in their profile. There were 37,000 such users.

Did it work? Indeed, orders began pouring in, exceeding their capacity to fill them. Then the Myspace attention transfered over to other sites and before they knew it Justin and Dave had a hit on their hands. But they're not the only small company to find success in social media:

Bacon Salt is not the only small company to thrive in harnessing the power of social media while larger brands stumble. And not all the small players are producing sexy products like up-and-coming musicians. Other examples include blender manufacturer Blendtec. Its "Will It Blend" video series has been a long-running hit on YouTube. Midsize brands like Zappos have also thrived, using social media channels like Twitter as a rolling focus group and customer service channel.

It seems that in the social media arena small business actuall has an advantage:

Lefkow and Esch, out of necessity, provide the personal touch. They found the more they listened and engaged with their customers -- each spends hours each week personally responding to e-mail messages and even don bacon costumes on the road to hand out samples -- the more sales they made, the more buzz they generated.

So next time you think that social media is just for big business, think again. Small businesses have the advantage with a personal touch and a message that hasn't been run through 10 lawyers before posting. It's a rare opportunity for small businesses to have an advantage like this, so make sure you're getting the most out of your web presence by working with a company that knows social media and how to apply best for your business. Your customers are waiting.



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Reel Motion Media Inc., is a Video & Web Marketing company that understands how to maximize your company's exposure in the internet of tomorrow. Reel Motion has full video production capabilities and an experienced web marketing staff that will make every dollar of your budget count, even if your budget is only a dollar. Contact them today at info@reelmotioninc.com for more information on taking your company to the next level.

Consumers want businesses on Social Media

Advertising has a long history of poking it's nose into just about everything, regardless of whether people want it there or not. Given this, you would assume that the majority of people would prefer that marketing and advertising stay out of social media. Well, you know what happens when you assume... someone has to do a study and prove you wrong.

Cone has a new study that says 60% of Americans use social media and of those, 59% interact with companies on social media. Pretty impressive numbers considering there's still a lot of people out there who consider social media a "fad." But there's more:

According to the survey, 93 percent of social media users believe a company should have a presence in social media, while an overwhelming 85 percent believe a company should not only be present but also interact with its consumers via social media. In fact, 56 percent of users feel both a stronger connection with and better served by companies when they can interact with them in a social media environment.

So 93% of Americans using social media believe that a company should have a presence in social media, yet how many businesses actually do? We've talked before about a few big corporations that leverage social media to their advantage, but what about local businesses? The great thing about social media is that it isn't something only for the big companies. In the hands of someone with experience and proper knowledge social media marketing can a cost effective boost for even the smallest local business.

Your customers are waiting for you online, isn't about time you started a conversation with them?

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Reel Motion Media Inc., is a Video & Web Marketing company that understands how to maximize your company's exposure in the internet of tomorrow. Reel Motion has full video production capabilities and an experienced web marketing staff that will make every dollar of your budget count, even if your budget is only a dollar. Contact them today at info@reelmotioninc.com for more information on taking your company to the next level.

Something Beautiful for your Friday

Take five minutes to just enjoy how stunningly beautiful this time lapse footage of Telluride is when set to the Radiohead song "Nude."

more about "Telluride Time Lapse with Radiohead", posted with vodpod

Content Based Marekting and the Coen Brothers

So you want to create an online video that will go viral. OK, so does everybody, or at least so should everybody who is looking to increase the visibility of their brand online. Many people are under the impression that the right social media campaign can make any video go viral. The reality is that the right campaign can make any good video go viral. All of the tricks in the social media hat wont pull out one white rabbit for you unless you have truly interesting, amusing, meaningful or relevant content. This is what is meant by content based marketing.

The Coen Brothers know how to create a good online video. First they make a movie with a serious A-list cast. Then they make a short piece with some of the funniest moments and confirmation that the movie truly has an A-list of A-list casts. It pretty much has everything. They come in with a reputation for producing great video. It's funny, it has attractive men, attractive women, interesting characters and is relevant because the movie it is selling is at the theaters now and won't be later. I know, I know, not everybody is the Coen Brothers, or actually nobody is the Coen Brothers, but with over a million views on their YouTube trailers alone, this video is officially viral. And it really is just an ad for the movie. They didn't even post it to YouTube, about two dozen people pirated it from the movie site and posted it for them. It just goes to show that excellent content will be seen. Content. Content. Content.

Maybe this whole post is a stretch, but I just saw this movie last week and it is so fun that I wanted to squeeze it in here somewhere. Pitt is hilarious as a hyperactive personal trainer at a suburban gym named Hardbodies. Clooney is a sex addict who builds sex toys for his online dates. Malkovich is a maligned ex-CIA employee who may or may not have a drinking problem, loses his memoir, and finds himself trapped in a blackmail /love triangle perfect for the era. Eventually the film cultivates an amusing commentary on what the CIA "really" does. Classic. Not quite Lebowski, but definitely lighter and more palatable then No Country. Some people are gonna hate it, probably because they don't understand it and per the norm with the Coen Brothers, multiple viewings will be necessary to pick up on the beautiful subtleties. Watch the trailer below and meditate on how the content drives you to the theater and to share it with your pals.

Tweet your next sale

Adpulp highlights how one bar in Portland, OR is using Twitter to publicize it's rotating beers on tap. Here's what they had to say:

Bailey's Taproom in downtown Portland has that kind of audience and they are executing a drive-to-purchase strategy perfectly. Bailey's features "20 Rotating Taps of Craft Ales and Lagers," so it's a natural for them to use Twitter to share updates. In a similar vein, thrift stores, wine and liquor stores, grocery stores or any store that offers "specials" can use Twitter to their advantage.

So this begs the question of, "Why aren't more small businesses leveraging Twitter to their advantage?" I'm sure part of it is that a lot of businesses simply aren't familiar with the wide range of social media sites out there like Twitter that they could use to reach their customers. And of course, you're not going to reach all or even most of your customers via a single service like Twitter.

But think about the advantages you would have if you took the budget you were going to spend on a small local newspaper ad and funneled it into a Twitter campaign run by a local marketing firm. Sure, more people would probably see the newspaper ad, but none of them would be able to respond to it directly. Or follow it, so that they'd be notified the next time your company had something to say. And they couldn't start a conversation with the ad like they could with you on Twitter. So even though you might be reaching fewer people (for now) Twitter might just offer you higher value because of it's interactive nature.

If you want to get interactive with us (that sounds kinda dirty) follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/reelmotionmedia

The Obama Channel

Those of you out there with Dish network can tune in to channel 73 for, you guessed it, the Obama channel. Dish network approached both campaigns about buying their own channels and Obama jumped at the opportunity. What is on the channel? A loop of various position speeches, excerpts from Obama's DNC speech and other Obama-centric video. You can see a sample of the programming below. The most interesting thing to me actually came from a quote on the Agency Spy blog:

[Dish Network]...offered Obama and McCain the same opportunity, and the Obama camp was the only one to bite. Apparently, they think paying for what they can get for free on YouTube is a good idea. Hmm.

Look at that last line again. It basically says that having your own channel on a major satellite provider is the same as using YouTube (ok, not just using YouTube, but using YouTube wisely.) To me that's not so much a knock to Obama's strategy as it is a resounding endorsement of YouTube. While financial details weren't disclosed on the Obama channel deal, it's safe to say that it's probably valued at several million dollars. And you too can get that same sort of million dollar exposure by posting for free on YouTube. If you ever needed an extra push to dive into the world of web video marketing, there it is. Now every small business in America can get big budget exposure on a shoe string budget. Of course you'll need a knowledgeable partner for the production and social media push (i.e. trying to go viral), but I'm sure you know where to find a company like that, don't you?

WWtMD? What Would the Maverick Do?

It's Friday, but don't let that fool you for a second into thinking that the Mavericks here at Reel Sweet Vids aren't working just as hard to bring you the video you need.



Maverick!



Maverick!



Maverick!



Normally I'd say something about what Mavericks Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein are for taking time away from their ad agency (Goodby, Silverstein & Partners) to make this video, but let me give you the Straight Talk instead. This is just one of so many videos this election season that people from all walks of life have taken time to make supporting their candidate. I think that says something about the passion involved on both sides during this election. I also think that underscores why it's so important to vote this year. As a half man half robot blogging machine, Blogtron5000 isn't eligible to vote, but chances are you can, and should, because it will effect you in the next four years.

Just Another Way to Sell Coke Zero?

The White Stripes saved rock'n'roll... in my humble opinion of course, which of course means very little. The guitarist from John Browns Body however did back this statement up when I was interviewing him the other day about his musical roots. He said that the grunge scene, followed by the White Stripes, saved the guitar as an instrument. The eighties killed the guitar, but the White Stripes made it cool again.

Jack White has been and will be judged on so many levels, not the least of which will and has been his resemblance to the walking dead, or in lay mans terms, a zombie, but I digress... he will be judged as the man who saved rock'n'roll with his raw and driving, all I need is a guitar and a drum kit, trademark sound. It's the kind of music that makes you feel like your in your parents garage with your two best friends, one crashing metal trashcan lids together like symbols and the other plugged into his new Bandit amp, with the distortion all the way up, bashing away at three power chords, singing without a microphone and you thinking to yourself that these guys are really talented and with the right marketing plan, they might just make it.

The problem is, that now, and with all of his success in bringing the blues and the the guitar back into the dialogue which is popular rock culture, he was tapped to write a song for the latest Bond movie - Quantum of Solace. Beyond the fact that there has been a plethora of cheesy Bond theme songs, this is quite the honor. Remember, Live and Let Die is not originally a Guns'n'Roses piano anthem - it is of course the Paul McCartney piece created for the film of the same name.

What should have been obvious to White however, is the possibility for his song, "Another Way to Die," to be co-opted and re-licensed by Sony Pictures who commissioned him to write the theme in the first place. And now we have a mediocre Jack White track featuring the always intriguing Alicia Keys, drum-roll please, in a promotion for Coke Zero, renamed Zero Zero 7. As if that isn't insidious enough, the soft drink giant released the commercial well before the release of the film and subsequently the release of its theme song, subverting our surprise at hearing the song on the big screen first. Now, to anyone who hasn't researched the topic, it looks as though Mr. White did a song for a Coke commercial (again), and well, he should've known better and history may judge him differently because if it.

Long story, so I'll sum: 007 = awesome, Jack White = saved rock'n'roll, Coke Zero = lame marketing ploy to get people across the world to drink more carbonated acid juice. Verdict: Jack White + 007 + Sony Pictures = betrayal of White's ability to maintain his non-sellout status, but White should have known better, but any Bond movie is probably better off with a song by Jack White not Gladys Knight, and I love Bond so check the video, the commercial, the trailer and decide for yourself.

Everyone is a reporter

An unfortunate reminder of several things: One, America is divided by political ideologies and we're worse off because of it. Two, misinformation is the deadliest tool in today's political arsenal. Just look at how many people are convinced that Obama is a terrorist. Three, people with video cameras are everywhere and it's pretty easy to upload to YouTube. Although it was pretty obvious the presence of cameras didn't have an effect on these people.



Tonight is the last presidential debate before the election. Be sure to tune in and stay informed about what is happening in our country. Our futures depend on it.

My Opponent Believes that all Babies Should be Punched in the Face

Did my negative headline make you more or less likely to read this post?
As you have no doubt seen, the political season is a scene of negativity (no relation to the nativity scene.) Of course, the Original Maverick has turned it up a notch:

But now, with less than a month to go and McCain losing ground in opinion polls nationally and in some of the critical battleground states in particular, the Republican has gone negative. During the week of Sept 28 through Oct. 4, "nearly 100 percent of the McCain campaign's advertisements were negative,'' the Wisconsin Advertising Project at the University of Wisconsin reports today. "During the same period, 34 percent of the Obama campaign's ads were negative.'' (Chicago Tribune)

Maybe The Maverick has good reason for all of this. A study at the University of Ohio found that:

Negative political advertising would be effective with lower income level people. They perceived negative political advertising as more informative and more believable and had more positive attitudes toward the sponsor than higher income level people.

So will this work? Can The Maverick erase Obama's lead (as much as 11 points in some national polls)? Time will tell, but for now we have the always timely Lewis Black to put it all into perspective:

Social Media: Beyond the Twits, Books and Faces

Social media, social media, social media.

It's a hot topic these days, but why aren't more businesses making use of it? Sure, a lot of big companies have blogs and facebook pages, and myspace pages, and twitter feeds and so on and so forth, but surely they can't prove it actually creates value for them, right?

Wrong.

Companies like Comcast, Dell and Kodak are using twitter to communicate directly with customers to solve their problems. Companies like Southwest, Microsoft and Apple are leveraging Facebook pages to help communicate with their fanbase about deals and new products. Naturally, one has to wonder when this sort of thinking will trickle down to the small business level. And who will be there to guide them through the process.

Small business might not be able to afford (or have the staff) to man all the fronts of the social media landscape, but perhaps they can see what tactics best leverage their business or best suit their customers. Just what are people doing online these days, here's a slide from the presentation "What is social media and why should I care?" by David Griner, a social media expert from Luckie & Co. advertising agency and author of The Social Path blog.


The businesses best suited for success in the future will be the ones that embrace the way communication will happen in the future today. Find out how Reel Motion Media can get your business moving at the speed of social media today.

Kung-Fu Election

Just when you think you've seen everything... you get on the internet for about five seconds and see something completely new. Kung-fu Election is basically Mortal Kombat meets the 2008 candidates. It's also totally awesome and actually pretty hard (Palin's hockey stick is brutal!) The detail and depth of this game is really taken to another level. And load times? Almost non-existent, which is impressive for such a detail rich game environment. Some serious time and effort was put into this and that pays off when visitors spend serious time on the site. Surprisingly (and thankfully) I'm not seeing a clear "sponsor", although the Comedy Central Indecision 2008 logo is in the upper right hand corner and there is a banner ad at the top of the page.



I think the biggest thing this underscores is the need to constantly be evolving in your content. If you want your company / cause to catch the attention of the public you can't do it in the old ways. A billboard and an ad in the newspaper aren't going to cut it anymore, even for local businesses. You need a web presence (not just a site, but a presence) and it needs to be interactive. Those B&W newspaper ads you've been running for years aren't going to cut it either (but your marketing company probably already told you that. What? They don't measure effectiveness?) Today's social environment requires solutions in mediums like video, interactive web and social media. Are you on the offensive or defensive when it comes to growing your business?

Stop and Check out this Excellent Stop Motion Video

People naturally gravitate towards things that are excellent in quality or provide an excellent value. On the web, where free content is king, you have to be good to get noticed. And that's exactly what this video is, good frickin' awesome. Amazing stop motion work from Carlos Lascano that is not only beautiful to watch, but also emotionally compelling. As we've said before, connecting on an emotional level is the hardest thing to do. Music by the awe inspiring Sigur Ros (song: Hoppipolla) whom I recently had the opportunity to see in concert. Just a perfect combination for this piece. See the behind the scenes shots on how all of this was done stop motion style (yes, everything) at Carlos' site. Take a look:


A SHORT LOVE STORY IN STOP MOTION from Carlos Lascano on Vimeo.

Simple is Hard

Every commercial / film / video worth its weight in pixels tries to make an emotional "connection" with those who view it.

Few do though.

Why is it so hard? That's the $64,000 question.

I think sometimes people just try too hard. They try to get inside the head of their subject and overthink the problem. It's easy to get caught up in all the facts you're trying to get across or the cool new equipment the director wants to try out or the awesome effects the editor wants to apply in post.

Sometimes the hardest part is keeping it simple.

That's what this Nike Football (silly Americans, not that kind of football) ad does so well. It keeps it simple. Want to get inside a player's head? Act as if the camera was the players head. Give the audience a front row seat in the player's head, literally. Of course, having Guy Ritchie direct the spot also helps to make it great, but with a concept this simple and brilliant even I could make a kick-ass spot. Ok, maybe not me, but I bet the guys over at Reel Motion Video could.

Kaufman and Hoffman in Synecdoche, NY

When two geniuses get together something good often happens. Charlie Kaufman joins forces with Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Synecdoche NY (that's si-nek-duh-kee, hear it pronounced here) which is written and directed by Kaufman. The story is just as bizarre and brilliant as Kaufman’s past masterpieces (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) as Hoffman plays Caden, a playwright who’s latest work is done in a full size mock-up of NY inside a warehouse in NY. I started to paraphrase the plot, but there's just too much going on here. Here's how IMDB describes it:

Theater director Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is mounting a new play. Fresh off of a successful production of Death of a Salesman, he has traded in the suburban blue-hairs and regional theater of Schenectady for the cultured audiences and bright footlights of Broadway. Armed with a MacArthur grant and determined to create a piece of brutal realism and honesty, something into which he can put his whole self, he gathers an ensemble cast into a warehouse in Manhattan's theater district. He directs them in a celebration of the mundane, instructing each to live out their constructed lives in a small mockup of the city outside. As the city inside the warehouse grows, Caden's own life veers wildly off the tracks...

...As the years rapidly pass, Caden buries himself deeper into his masterpiece. Populating the cast and crew with doppelgangers, he steadily blurs the line between the world of the play and that of his own deteriorating reality.

I love the fact that Synecdoche is not all that far off from the real city of Schenectady, of which both are destined to forever be mis-pronounced.

One thing for sure, my ass will be in a seat the first day this thing hits a theater near me, it opens in LA and NYC October 24th.

Tour de Fat Day 2008

The funereal of a part of car culture today. Five-7,000 bicyclists gettin' freaky on dressed up bikes, parading through town, blocking up traffic with the help of the local police. Really a cross between a critical mass rally and Halloween, the New Belgium sponsored Tour de Fat reminds us to ride our bikes when we can. And they say yes we can, in gospel stlyle choruses and the funereal procession of the proverbial Escalade life led by a dark and soulful marching band. Clank below to check out the Fort Collins version '08.

more about "Tour de Fat 08 Current TV", posted with vodpod

Reel Sweet Vids

We're newsmen with mustaches. We're late night Fort Collins. We're helping you waste time at work without having to join a social network. Or at least you only need to log in to Facebook once an hour now instead of every five minutes. We're bringing you the latest in breaking news, grituitous bikini screenshots and self promotion (yes, we post our own videos). Want your video on here? Drop us a line and if we likey we posty. Look out for Blogtron 5,000 - our intern, to blow you away with unrelated commentary and fascinating video content. Keepin it reel from the corner talk to the barber shop.

I for one can not get enough Sarah Palin bashing. So look no further and find The Daily Show daily and gayly ripping apart the simplicity of the Republican machine over the past eight years.

more about "Daily Show: Sarah Palin Won't Blink", posted with vodpod