This isn't really new but it's worth noting The Weinstein Company, formed last October by Miramax founders Bob and Harvey Weinstein, has embraced the whole social media/online video thing and is promoting its movies on YouTube. Deep Focus handles the account. Up now are two trailers for Lucky Number Slevin, a trailer for Clerks II and, just added, a clip that includes the first eight minutes of Lucky Number Slevin. There's no need to rely on a studio website or movie trailers in physical theaters when you can get your trailer hundreds of thousand of additional people as in the case of Clerks II which has, to date, been viewed 217,505 times. Of course just one showing of one trailer on one day across, say, 2000 theaters with 150 theater-goers gets 300,000 views but hey, they're getting 217,505 more views then they might have had they not posted the trailer on YouTube.
Carat Fusion's John Szczur tells us, "One of the most challenging holes on the PGA Tour, the 17th hole at the Wachovia Championship held at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, NC. Carat Fusion developed this flash game to promote Wachovia's sponsorship of the annual tournament as well as create a viral marketing buzz for the Wachovia brand." We tried it and aceived par. Not bad, if we say so ourselves. Give a whirl.
Perhaps finally acknowledging the pointlessness of printed (or even online) TV listing, TV Guide has jumped full force into blog land with the launch of 65 weblogs. The blogs, written by magazine and web editorial staff, focus on individual television shows, movies, soaps and just about everything else that has to do with television. This should stir things up among the already hundreds of TV focused blogs already in existence but, as many bloggers know, it's not seen as competition but rather more fuel to fire the conversation.
To accompany its wacky TV commercial, Rexona, makers of Sure deodorant have launched a football fan site to coincide with the FIFA World Cup in Germany this summer. Just like in the commercial, in which animals go crazy, the site encourages visitors to create "fanimals" or crazy football fans.Once they've created these fanimals, they can be uploaded to appear in a version of the commercial. Of course, there's prizes too. A Klaxon horn and a digital camera.
This billboard for mortgage company in Turkey has created a billboard that resembles a house. We'd call it quite a bit more interesting than your standard "Call East/West Mortgage for the lowest rates in town!" approach.
We're not sure whether this commercial reaffirms the uselessness of printed newspapers or somehow explains why a recently launched newspaper called The Baltimore Examiner is so much better than your average newspaper. The new publication is owned by Clarity Media and will publish six times per week.
Email service provider ExactTarget is sponsoring Racing for Hemophilia, an event aligned with the Indy Racing League and the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race that will raise money and awareness of bleeding and clotting disorders, like hemophilia. The program, which will benefit the National Hemophilia Foundation, was created by Bayer HealthCare the National Hemophilia Foundation, and Andretti Green Racing, Inc.The event will take place on May 28, 2006, at the 90th Indianapolis 500 and will feature the famed Andretti racing family.
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While riding the subway to work in Toronto, Jonathan Hung noticed a poster promoting the Lord of the Rings musical (who knew?) at the Prince of Wales theater. What caught Hung's attention was the poster's encouragement to fire up the bluetooth or infra-red on his phone, point it at the poster and get a free ring Lord of the Rings-themed ring tone. While Hung says the musical isn't supposed to be very goo but the ad is a lot better than all the "take one to learn how to speak any language" ads that seem to be everywhere.
AdFreak points to a new ad from Planned Parenthood Golden Gate which gleefully marries power tools, hot guys, hot girls, sexual innuendo and condoms in its latest effort to encourage suiting up prior to having sex. While we think it's right on message and effective is speaking a language its target audience understands, other uppity folk don't. The spot is airing on MTV this week.
Kansas City radio station The Rock is holding a competition in which it has asked its listeners to created and submit a TV commercial for the radio station. The winner, who will walk away with $20,000, will be announced April 21. So far, the station has received hundreds of submissions. While some will call this a coup for consumer-generated media, others might tend to conclude there's a reason us right and left coasters live where we do.
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