In the midst of a huge WGA strike, NBC is promoting its new web show, “Coastal Dreams,” rather frequently. I’ve seen an ad for this new web series in between every other NBC show I watch on their website. These ads appear, of course, during the hit shows I watch online. Of course, they are not paying their writers for those very episodes.

You would think that NBC would at least have the courtesy to produce a decent web series for us to watch. After all, they are cutting the rest of their seasons short. Unfortunately, NBC has decided that creating terrible web content supercedes keeping any of the great content they were already hosting on their network.

A Few Reasons Why Coastal Dreams is the Worst Web Series Ever:

1. Terrible Product Placement - I am a fan of advertising and marketing and have absolutely zero problem with product placement. That being said, the beginning of Episode 3 of Coastal Dreams has to have the least subtle product placement of all time. I can only imagine that their target demographic must be the 11-13 year old crowd that will do anything for attention, including buying whatever product NBC suggests.
2. 3 Minutes, really? - I love web shows! I watch almost 90% of my media on my computer and rarely watch network television. Why bother when I can catch up later that night on the network website? But, a 3-minute show is more of an annoyance than a real web series. Especially when I have to watch almost 40-seconds worth of commercials. Coastal Dreams requires that you spend 22% of your time watching a commercial. Sure, each of Coastal Dream’s episodes end on serious cliffhangers and dramatic story elements, but you can’t deny that they are poorly written and poorly acted. I, typically, support any actor that is trying to make a living via their art, but this is not a calling card you want to show people.
3. Is NBC ripping off The ‘Bu? - After watching far more episodes than anyone ever should, I can’t help but think that this new NBC series is a bad rip off of The ‘Bu, a clever web series done by the geniuses over at The Lonely Island (coincidentally, now working for NBC). At least The ‘Bu was funny and obviously poking fun at a genre. I can’t help but think that NBC has meant for Coastal Dreams to be a “real” web series that follows the soap opera trials and tribulations of its main characters.

NBC why are you doing this to us?

Maybe I have it all wrong. Perhaps, NBC knows exactly what they are doing. After all, now that there is no new programming (due to the WGA Strike) I have been forced to watch the first 5-episodes of Coastal Dreams (I refused to watch further). And even though I couldn’t make it past the first five, I’m sure there are hundreds of thousands of 13-year olds that love the series. I can only imagine that they wish THEY could sip wine overlooking a beautiful beach. Most probably wouldn’t even care if their ex-boyfriend was out to kill them (the ridiculous Coastal Dreams plot).

I, honestly, expected NBC to put forth a little more effort in their first attempt at tackling a web series. The lack of production quality is obvious and it’s almost as if NBC is saying, “Hey you internet geeks, you’ll watch anything, so here’s some crap we came up with last week.” If NBC was serious about creating a compelling presence on the web, you would think that they might have put a little more thought into their first “web series.” Of course, I can’t really argue with them too much, they do have ALL of their other television series available online. I love that about NBC! I watch all of my NBC shows online! It’s too bad they’re not paying their writers for it.

Hopefully, NBC will change all of that soon. In the mean time, we’re all wondering what is inside that Coastal Dreams’ jewelry box?

I also found the above picture funny. It seems that Coastal Dreams couldn’t get Apple’s approval, so they just decided to put a flower in front of the Apple logo every time it was in frame. Apple loves seeing itself places. Are you telling me that Coastal Dreams is so bad that Apple passed on what was probably a free product placement?

NBC please pay your writers what they’re worth. I’m not sure how long I will remain a fan.

For future reference, Clark and Michael have given a great example of what a web series should look and feel like. If I’m not mistaken, CBS sponsored them. I think NBC should follow suit.

P.S. NBC shows I love:

1. Heroes
2. Chuck
3. 30 Rock
4. The Office
5. Friday Night Lights
6. Tonight Show with Jay Leno
7. Late Night with Conan
8. Scrubs
9. Saturday Night Live

What shows do you love on television? What shows do you think are making a buzz online? Do you watch most of your media online or through another format? Am I way off base here, or do you think that online video webisodes deserve the same attention as network shows?

If you’re a Heroes fan, you should visit this site for amazing production blogs by producer/director Greg Beeman.

Popularity: 34% [?]

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What is Flock?

According to their website:

Flock is a consumer Internet business which has developed a free, next generation web browser. The web, and the way people engage online, has evolved dramatically over the past decade. But web browsers - the application that fundamentally enables online experiences and services across ones’ connected life - have not kept pace.

Flock is focused on fundamentally evolving the browser, bringing a refreshing new approach to how people use and participate on the web and simplifying social and web-based applications by bringing them one step closer to the user and integrating them directly into the browser.

When using Flock, people can easily discover, access, create and share videos, photos, blogs, feeds and comments across social communities, media providers, and popular websites.

Meaning that it’s a cool browser that allows you to access information about your friends online from Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Flickr ALL AT ONCE! It even allows you to upload new posts to your blog without even opening a WordPress window. Media across all platforms can easily be added to a blog post, simply by right clicking (ctrl click, cause I’m a Mac guy) on it.

Flock allows you to easily sort through any users media files with ease and does not require you view such media with any particular social network. All data is pulled and displayed in the browsers built-in media player. It even appears that Flock uploads all of the imported data in real time, without having to hit reload. Ideal for twittering! Flock even acts as a feed reader and makes subscribing to blogs and tagging websites pretty simple.

Ultimately, Flock is a fun browser that incorporates the top social networking sites that I am always logged into anyhow, but streamlines them all so that you can easily jump from one to the other, or combine the data of them all at once. I’m not sure why Flock comes with Yahoo! search pre-installed. I would have much rather seen them go with the Google option. I also wish that I could access my MySpace account, but one miracle at a time.

I’ll keep you posted, but so far, I like what Flock is doing. Take a look for yourself and download the free version of Flock here.

What do you think? Does Flock make your workflow faster and easier? What other features would you like to see? What would take your browsing experience to the next level?

Happy Turkey Day!

UPDATE: After a little poking around, I found it was really easy to switch from a Yahoo! search field to a Google powered mega-browser search. Nice!

UPDATE:Wow! The Flickr uploader app inside Flock is awesome!

Blogged with Flock

Tags: flock, browser, social media all in one, jon ray, useful browser

Popularity: 32% [?]

Why are you wasting your advertising budget? Running only a television commercial is no longer a viable ad campaign strategy. No one cares about your TV commercial. Without an accompanying marketing and public relations campaign, you are throwing your advertising money out of the window. Why would you run an ad that no one talks about, when you could run an ad that promotes something the press will rave about? A good ad will promote something that is press-worthy. And when the press writes about your campaign you multiply your ad dollar considerably.

If you know anything about me, you know that I’m a big believer in creating a frenzy around your ad, marketing and PR campaign. There are too many brand messages being thrown at all of us to use traditional advertising methods. Your campaign should be designed to get people excited about something newsworthy. Then, take your ads and promote that news worthy event. Once the word is out, have your PR team get every publication to write an article about it. This is how you turn one ad dollar in to five, or ten, or twenty. Is it me, or shouldn’t this be a no brainer?

BLUE LAPIS LIGHT is a non-profit site-specific aerial dance company based in Austin, TX. Using aerial techniques along with classical, interpretive and modern dance movements, performances transcend athleticism to capture images of poetic and dreamlike beauty. In other words, coupled with beautiful light and music, these dancers JUMP OFF OF BUILDINGS AND FLY AROUND!

So, yes, they’re non-profit and you probably don’t deserve the chance to sponsor such a beautiful artistic expression, but guess what? That chance is now available and will give you the perfect reason to fire up the old PR department. Blue Lapis Light’s last event at the old abandoned Intel building in Austin, Texas was a HUGE success drawing over 10,000 spectators and drumming up a landslide of free press. Their new event, “Illumination,” is being held at the historic Seaholm Power Plant in downtown Austin. Artistic Director Sally Jacques, along with choreographers/dancers Laura Cannon and Nicole Whiteside, will transform the interior of Seaholm to create images of beauty and transcendence.

This October, Blue Lapis Light will thrill audiences with 16 performances that are inspired by Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel and highlight the natural beauty in the Seaholm Power Plant’s architecture. Each of the 16 performances are available for corporate sponsorship. Sponsors will be allowed to introduce themselves before the event and explain why they choose to help promote the arts. They will also be allowed to setup a booth or presentation outside of the event’s venue and promote their involvement in the project.

This is a great cause and a truly original form of artistic expression. Blue Lapis Light is available for performances world-wide, but their October 2007 event, “Illumination” is a great opportunity to get in on an event quickly and support the arts at a fantastic rate. Watch the video below and try to silence the cash register sounds in your head, this video is just what you needed to create a public relations frenzy and position your company as a cool, artist friendly group of people.

You can grab tickets for this event here. E.mail me about sponsoring this event, here. But, most importantly, enjoy this video and help spread the word! What artistic events are you excited about? How is your company supporting the art community? What innovative ways are you using to draw attention to your company?

And remember…this is beautiful people dancing on a 9 story building…

Popularity: 40% [?]

A few days ago I was referred to an interesting site called Justin.tv. I’m not sure what to make of it just yet. No editing. No fluff. Your life, raw, for all to see. JustinTV is very similar to the Matthew Mcconaughey movie from years back, EdTV. Of course, it’s a slightly smaller production, in that there isn’t a film crew, but rather a wireless webcam that broadcasts your life. The site functions as a broadcast network for anyone that wants to live their life out on the web for all to watch. Each person on Justin.tv wears a webcam on their head and broadcasts a live stream of their entire day (and night. Watching people sleep. Creepy). This is lifecasting.

The site was started by Justin Kan, an entrepreneur and fellow lifecaster. He and a friend got the idea one night while talking about starting a business. They thought they were having an interesting conversation that other entrepreneurs might want to hear. They had many conversations that might be of interest to other entrepreneurs. So, they started recording all of those conversations and broadcasting them live via Justin.TV. Now, there are twenty-plus other lifecasters doing the same thing. And while, I haven’t stumbled upon anyone having any conversations that I found of any real interest, it is addicting, none the less, watching someone live. Perhaps, I’m just a freak, but I can definitely see the upside for those wearing the WebCams around.

This could potentially be a great promotional tool for your business, if used correctly. For someone like me, that is constantly on different film sets, commercial shoots and other visually appealing work, I think it would provide an interesting behind-the-scenes on how my production and marketing company operates and give our clients a unique promotional tool for their music video, commercial, etc. Of course, you could only use it with clients that were open to the idea, but I think there must be some value in this type of broadcast.

The greatest feature on JustinTV, as opposed to other lifecasting web servers is that users can log and tag footage. I and most of you don’t have enough time to watch someone all day long. But, what I can do is watch clips that have been tagged throughout the day as interesting or appealing. For my own use, if I was a lifecaster, it is a cool way to go back on my life and pull up conversations, meetings or other parts of your life that you might want to write or recap later on down the road. JustinTV logs and stores the past 45 days of your life. 24 hours a day. So, if I had an interesting conversation with someone last week at 1pm, I can just login to my account and pull up that conversation, then relive it. Of course, anyone else could also pull up that conversation, which is a pretty big breach in privacy. Especially, when you’re talking about million dollar marketing ideas.

It appears that the person on JustinTV getting the most attention is Justine Ezarik, a Mac user, blogger, internet lover and new media connoisseur. Whether she is getting the most buzz because she is well-connected in the digital world, or simply because she is a cute girl and there is “a market” that goes along with that is to be determined. But, she does have some fun and interesting things in her blog. Like the giant iPhone bill she got that actually came in a box rather than an envelope.

I’m not exactly sure what JustinTV’s business model is or how they are making any money, as I don’t see many advertisements, other than the five featured channels, including a One Tree Hill broadcast. That could be because it is still in Beta format. But, according to their blog, they are shopping the idea around to different networks and actively seeking new lifecasters. It seems to me that this could easily be a place for sponsorships and product placement and maybe that’s a small portion of their monthly revenue, but if so, they aren’t doing a very good job of highlighting those products. I assume in later months, they will have significantly more “Featured Channels.”

Maybe there just isn’t enough viewership for sponsorship, yet. One thing I’ve noticed is that these lifecasters don’t every really do much. It seems that if I had a fan base watching me (or was a JustinTV producer), I’d go on a road trip, or visit the zoo, head out on the lake and water ski. But, I guess the reality is that a lot of us sit at our computer all day. That’s why network reality TV is so much tighter, because all the computer screen watching is cut out and you only see the skinny dipping. Network reality TV knows that you have to have people doing things, thus all the competitions. If JustinTV created things for their lifecasters to do on a daily basis and then put together a TV Guide of sorts, then perhaps I’d tune in more often, because I would know that such and such is going to a political rally. Or this lifecaster is hanging out with Clark Duke today.

Giving the 24/7 programming a little more structure would go a long way. iJustine went shopping yesterday, but you wouldn’t have known it unless you happened to tune in around 2pm. I’m not saying I want to watch someone go shopping (unless it’s for market research), but if she had a schedule that said, “Sunday, 2pm - Going shopping,” at least I would know that she’s going to be doing something other than giggling into her computer screen. I love you iJustine! : )

So, my question is this: Do you think broadcasting your life to the world would help or hurt your business? What would you do differently if you knew that someone was watching you at all times? Is anyone interested in how I or others spend their day? Should I be a part of the new world that is lifecasting? Justin, call me and let’s talk. (512.785.9160)

Popularity: 25% [?]

When working with clients, I am constantly sending files back and forth and usually have to setup a password protected FTP site for each client and then teach them how to use File Transfer Protocol. Box.net has a new option, though that simplifies all of these things.

Box makes it easy to get your files from anywhere you have an internet connection. Access important documents from your desktop, laptop, or even mobile phone on the go. Once you’ve uploaded your files to Box, you can also share them with anyone, or just keep them safe for as long as you want. Box even allows you to host web content for use in your blog and has a new Facebook application that allows you to access files from anywhere through your Facebook profile.

Even more, Box allows you to create RSS feeds to clients anytime you upload something. This can be an open RSS feed or password protected, but allows you to easily upload files and notify clients all in one stroke. Signing up for Box is free, but should you need added bandwidth for larger files (I use it for large video files), you can get 2GB of storage for only $25/year.

Box has also just created a new Facebook application that gives you an additional 5MB of storage for every friend that starts using the application. That means if you get 100 friends to use the application, you get 500MB of storage for free. All in all, this is a great tool for file sharing and gives you and your clients access to your files at any time, from anywhere.

Take a look. What do you think?

Popularity: 21% [?]