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Thursday, May 18, 2006

Shaving for the Clueless

This has got to be the silliest (and most entertaining) advertising idea I've seen in a long time. Thanks to Jim Del Favero for telling me about it during a meeting in Mountain View this week.
: The Philips Norelco Bodygroom all-in-one system to shave and trim body hair.
O.K. -- the interactivity does remind me somewhat of Progressive Casualty Insurance Co's .

Easily offended? Then don't go to the Philips site. To be honest, I couldn't stop laughing when the actor accompanied himself on the guitar while singing a folk song about the product and his "bleeped-out" boy parts. Obviously, this is not a tune you'd find on Billboard Magazine's charts. Parental discretion advised.

So if you're into interactive Web marketing with a ribald sense of humor, stop by the Norelco site to "drive" the virtual shaver and listen to some faux voicemail testimonials.

Monday, May 15, 2006

Buy Your Way to Fame...and Support a Good Cause

Have you ever wondered what it takes to , billed alongside the names of the Hollywood elite? Apparently, a dollar will do it these days.

If you haven't heard about it yet, here's the scoop. The 1 Second Film (2007) is "a collaborative non-profit epic that climaxes in one second of animation." The idea is to raise money for charity. You pay any amount and you automatically get a credit in the film. In essence, the film will consist of one second of animation and 90 minutes of credits rolled alongside a documentary of the making of the film. Currently, the project is in production, with a projected premier date of November 2006.

It's not a joke...it's pure genius. I heard about the project while searching on YouTube. The most entertaining part of the promo, apparently filmed at Sundance 2005, were the celebrity comments.

Comedian Tom Arnold said "Oh, God, What a great deal," in reference to the producer credit he obtained by donating $100.00. Pierce Brosnan chipped in $10.00 then referred to himself as a "sucker producer." After cobbling together a whopping $11.00 for his producer credit, Stephen Colbert said, " should put these credits in. It's as valid as most of my credits."

Just how good is this idea, from a perspective? It's probably the best WoM bonus any film could ever hope to achieve.
I think what you are doing is probably one of the most creative and inspiring ideas I've ever heard of, not to mention a noble and unselfish act in raising money for this charity. If I had a million, I would donate it, I know how hard it is to raise money for a project, and to raise money for a charity. I've sent out a mass email to about 100 people telling them about your project, so I hope you get some more donations. Congratulations on your success thus far.
- Jason Lupish, $15 Producer

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Wiki See, Wiki Do

I've been dabbling in the Wikidom a lot and someone just asked me my top tips for Wiki administration. So I'll take a shot at it. These thoughts are coming out in no particular order. Here goes...

1. Log into your Wiki every weekday and add value, even if it's just a new category to make things easier to find. You can spend 15 minutes every day or you can spend 5 hours on one long frustrating day trying to clean up the messes left behind by various users -- the choice is yours.
2. Frequently browse the "Recent Changes" page to make sure some knucklehead hasn't done something awful or stupid. If so, fix or revert the page then move on. Don't dwell on it. The contributing user will get the picture soon enough. If anonymous, lame edits become a pattern, see the next tip.
3. Minimize the acts of wise-ass egotists, inexperienced Wiki doodlers, and drive-by spammers by forcing a log-in before allowing someone to edit. Talk to your Wiki Sysop to enable this.
4. Don't sweat the small stuff. You can go crazy editing other people's prose for teensy-weensy grammatical errors, when it adds nothing to your Wiki's value. Unless your Wiki is some Doctoral Dissertation on Grammar and Punctuation and you have a very dedicated and highly skilled user base, give it a rest. Focus on more important matters, like good overall content, ease of navigation, and attracting credible contributors.
5. Spend lots of time on mastering the Wiki basics yourself before you start judging others' contributions. The only way to lead by example is to lead by example.

More thoughts later as I have the time...