I’m watching Olympic Team Sabre between Italy and Belarus — I still can’t figure out the rules, but it seems like a cool sport.

You should be able to find the video in the widget below:

Making a Difference around the world

One of the things I love about blogs, Youtube and other online tools is the ability to stay connected to the causes I care about. Here is a perfect example:

I won’t give to many details because its personal, but its exciting to me to stay informed of such a great effort that I have been personally involved in. I had the opportunity to visit in person Choluteca Honduras last year, so I love being able to see videos and pictures of the great progress being done.

One of these is Casa Hogar Vida whose mission is to provide options for a better future for those infected with HIV/AIDS. A 64 Acre compound has been donated and will be used to create a large, self-contained community that will include the following:

· Houses for families caring for their HIV/AIDS members.
· Homes for orphan children
· A factory to make bricks
· A clinic
· A meeting place to worship God
· A food distribution center
· A separate area for sports and recreation
· Farmland to grow fruits and vegetable

Ultimately, this is what excites me about communication and technology — bringing people together (like the two recording artists, an American mega-church, and some small church in Honduras) to make a difference in people’s lives.

Web ads clobber TV

Interesting results via NBC about video ad memorability:

Advertising in programs streamed online has a better rate of recall and is preferred by users to similar ads served on TV, according to new research from NBC.

It’s a no brainer — stop stuffing ads down consumer’s throats and make the ads more relevant — you’ll get better results.

“NBC.com’s loyal users actively navigate and curate their own experience in NBC Rewind, so there is a high level of engagement,” Peter Naylor, SVP for digital media sales at NBCU, told TV Week.

Hyundai Misses It: Campaign Geared To Hispanics

I just visited the new Hyundai Hispanic marketing website and was very disappointed. Not only was the site boring, but it took me 5 minutes to figure out the navigation — clever, but way to complicated.

The site lacks visuals, of all things! I didn’t see a single picture of a shiny new Hyundai. The copy was good, but why, oh why, would they not use images or video? I mean, buying a car is a cultural and emotional experience, and there is no better way to communicate that but through visuals. Even when checking the “design” section — nothing — No pictures, no colors, no videos.

I don’t know who LatinWorks/Austin is hiring these days, but someone there should know this! Time to move on to a fourth option…

The company has a new head of multicultural marketing and is riding its third Hispanic agency in less than three years.

I visited LatinWorks site, (beware of the urban music on their splash page…) and immediately you can see that their Flash animator has a love for words and animated lines.

Hyundai’s new Hispanic slogan is “Discover it for yourself” but all I did was read about it… They missed the opportunity to provide their customers a truly interactive discovery process through the power of the web.

I haven’t seen the TV spots, so I won’t include those in this critique, but as far as the website, not effective use of marketing dollars, if you ask me.

Using Video in Corporate Communications

Found an interesting question on LinkedIn Answers that I posted on, and I figured I would share my response here.

What are the pro’s and con’s of using embedded video on a corporate website?

I am in the process of specifying a corporate website (The company is active within the Automotive Aftermarket) and wonder if using video on the website is a good idea to present the company and its key values, possible using a human presenter. I have been searching far and wide, some use it and others don’t (rarely used in the aftermarket industry). I wonder if it is a good idea. I am keen to know others opnions and if any knows some really good websites using video.

I think there are more pro’s for this than con’s.

Depending on how big of a company you are working for (and how attractive you are to lawsuits), ADA compliance can result in increased costs or risk if you publish non-ADA compliant videos. But, the good thing is that making your online videos ADA compliant just takes some research and a little more development/production time.

Check out the latest Inc. magazine issue for some ideas on best practices with online video. http://www.inc.com/magazine/20080201/index.html There is an article on Ford modeling agency and what they did, as well as a shorter article with an case study on using video to generate newsletter subscriptions.

The key thing about video is to make sure its entertaining or interesting enough to attract some sort of audience. Don’t just put the CEO or Marketing Dir. in front of a camera if they just don’t have camera-presence. Hire a talent, or do an internal casting to find someone that is comfortable and that looks & sounds compelling on video.

Video can be a great way to communicate brand, and strengthen the company’s image. Its also a great way to possibly bring in sales leads, or as an incentive to generate e-newsletter subscriptions.

I wish more companies where using online video to communicate — both internally and externally.

John C. Maxwell: Laws of Respect, Intuition, and Magnetism

Just found a series of video clips by John C. Maxwell. Very interesting short tidbits on leadership. I think I’m going to go out and get me a copy of his revised/updated book.

Best selling author and leadership expert John C. Maxwell walks through the Laws of Respect, Intuition, and Magnetism. Taken from his completely revised and updated book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Maxwell insights are learned from his leadership successes, failures, and observations from the worlds of business, politics, sports, religions, and the military.

Connecting your organization with new media

Rob Neppell just launched a new company:

Kithbridge, Inc. was launched as an evolution of one of the blogosphere’s original and most successful blog-tracking sites, The Truth Laid Bear. While The Truth Laid Bear provides a portal and blog search engine for individual bloggers and blog-readers, Kithbridge provides customized technology, services, and strategies for businesses, political campaigns, nonprofits, and other organizations which seek to fully engage with the growing and dynamic world of the blogosphere and new media.

Kithbridge’s founder and president is Rob Neppell, known online by the pseudonym “N.Z. Bear”. In 2002, Rob created the first and still-definitive blog tracking system, The TTLB Blogosphere Ecosystem, and over the past five years has earned a reputation as one of the key innovators in the new world of weblogs and citizens’ media.

If your company is wanting to make inroads in the world of new media, Rob is your man. You can read more here.

Getting your video to go viral

Laurie Petersen posted a short article on research completed by Millward Brown on what videos go viral. They all have four common factors.

Laugh (have to be laugh-out-loud funny)

Edgy (make you a little uncomfortable)

Gripping (you can’t stop watching)

Sexual Content (surprised?)

Michelle Eule recommends IKEA’s Pig Chase if you want to get the idea.

I’m not sure that using sexual content is the best approach when doing cause-marketing or product marketing, but there are ways to remain appropriate while applying these four principles.

In The Mail: Communicating Design

I just ordered my own copy of Communicating Design, by Dan Brown. I’m trying to strengthen my skills in Usability and Information Architecture, and this book sounds like its just the thing for me.

Christian Crumlish published a review in Extra! Extra!, his company’s blog:

I probably learned the most from his discussion of concept models, because I have the least amount of experience preparing these types of documents and I’ve always found them to be somewhat intimidating. He explains how to build them up from granular bits and also helps clarify a number of different approaches to connecting the nodes in such documents. He also includes as an illustration a version of Bryce Glass’s after-the-fact Flickr user model, an instant classic of the form.

You can get your copy in the Amazon link to the left, or read more at the Communicating Design website.

New Book — Trust: The One Thing That Makes or Breaks a Leader

I bought this book about a month ago, but just picked it up this weekend. It’s by author Les T. Csorba, a former White House Advisor for Presidential Personnel and is now a Partner at Heidrick & Struggles, Inc.

So far is sounds real good. I have been reading a lot about trust in my Project Management course this semester, so I am curious to dig into it further. Should be an interesting read — I’ll make sure to come back and let you all know what I think.

In the meantime, you can get your own copy by clicking on the Amazon link on the right.