I have been telling my loyal readers for almost two years now how video is really important for nonprofit organizations. People want to SEE your story. They want to HEAR from the people you serve and experience the work that you do. You can’t do that in a brochure or on a static website. With the growth of YouTube, DoGooderTV and other video sharing sites, people are used to seeing video content. If you are waiting for the right time, the right budget or the right moment to start developing and using more video, you are waiting too long.
In addition to what individuals are doing online, news sites like the New York Times, CNN, and Washington Post, have invested heavily in bringing video to the web. They know that people want to see and hear and experience. Online video is the juggernaut that can’t be stopped.
The trend in online video has corresponded to a trend in advertising. Advertising dollars are shifting from broad-based media (think TV ads) to more targeted and measurable advertising online. The 8000 lb. gorilla is Adwords, Google’s platform to match text ads to search terms and websites with relevant content. This one product makes up almost all of Google’s billions of revenue and has, by itself, thrown the entire advertising industry into turmoil.
Google just announced that they are are going to begin adding video ads into search results. What does this mean? It means if someone is looking for information about helping the homeless and a great organization has a terrific 30-second spot about how they are helping — they are going to get the mindshare that will lead to more supporters, more advocates and more donors. This is a big move by Google and it means organizations must be thinking how to create compelling media and RE-USE and RE-PURPOSE the video materials they already have into short, compelling videos for use online.
That is what we are pioneering at See3 and I am more excited than ever that we are able to take our clients’ stories and create fundraising and communications’ strategies online that will bring an increasing return on the dollars invested.
Bill Clinton is busy these days trying to get back into the White House. But when I saw him speak early this summer at an evening in support of the American Jewish World Service, it was not politics on his mind. Bill Clinton — whatever you think of him — is doing great things for Africa, against HIV/AIDS, on obesity and nutrition, and helping poor communities generally.
Clinton knows very well the impact of stories. He knows that to really move people to action, you have to take big scary issues, like HIV/AIDS or health care or malaria, and make it personal. He has always done this well and this is a big part of why he was so persuasive in public office and is so persuasive now with business and government officials around the world.
I’ve included one picture that says it all. It captures the beautiful face and bright eyes of a Cambodian orphan born with HIV. Basil was ten months old when this photo was taken. His mother died when he was only one month old, and her doctor arranged for him to be taken in by New Hope for Cambodian Children, an organization that cares for HIV-positive orphans and other vulnerable children. When Basil arrived at the home, he was six weeks of age and had both HIV and tuberculosis. His doctor, a Clinton Foundation fellow, treated him for both conditions, giving Basil lifesaving pediatric AIDS medication through my foundation’s partnership with UNITAID, which funds our efforts to treat children across the globe. Basil responded well to the treatment, gained weight, and, as you can see, is now healthy. He has a chance. That’s often all one person can give another. But it can make all the difference.
Jerusalem Rocks! I used to live there and I love it, so I think so. But I am referring to a concert called Jerusalem Rocks being put on by some of my buddies. It will feature the Black Eyed Peas, Arrested Development and The Commitments. These are pretty big names to get to come to Jerusalem, even more so at the same time. So make your reservations now for the show on September 9. From their site:
Jerusalem Rocks! will bring together musicians from all over the world in support of peace and unity. Jerusalem has hundreds of thousands of students and youth, numerous universities and a total population of 725,000. The city, its population and industry strive to show the world that Jerusalem is dedicated to peace and, more, is a growing center of today’s culture and business. However, Jerusalem has not hosted a mega international musical event in many years. Jerusalem Rocks! speaks to all these issues. It is not only a gift to Jerusalem; it is a statement to the world.
When we made this recent piece for NARAL: Pro-Choice America, we needed debate footage that we could mash-up and play with. Should we have to pay a private corporation to re-use the footage of our national candidates speaking? If you were to want to grab video of President Bush speaking in order to criticize it, you would have to pay the station that ran the original story. Does that make sense?
The issue of what is Fair Use and how this specifically relates to our political life is an important one. Pressure from the right places can make a difference in the push for more openness. Responding to a complaint from the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), the Federal Trade Commission told NBC that their copyright notices were deceiving the public about the public’s right to use materials under the Fair Use doctrine.
The move drew immediate praise from CCIA President and CEO Ed Black, who said NBC’s decision “further opens the doors of the political process.
“The Internet, the great equalizer of our time, empowers people from every walk of life to make better decisions with more information,” he said in a statement. “Indeed, the political process depends on this very principle.”
Black pointed out that fair use guidelines allow others to use portions of the debates for commentary and review, but do not require the footage to be release entirely without restrictions, as the networks have agreed to do.
“Nevertheless, because the public’s fair use rights have limits, ABC and NBC are to be praised for providing the public with unrestricted use of this content, thereby ensuring that the democratic discourse will not be impeded,” he said.
As many of you know, I think the best show on TV and probably the best show ever is HBO’s The Wire. It’s great because it’s real. Last season it had a chilling look at what is happening to urban education in the face of gangs and drugs through the eyes of four middle school students. Watch it and you will never think of the problems of public school the same way.
My father told me last week that there was some traffic jam in Baltimore because they were filming the final episode. I am very sad to see it go. John from Cincinnati seems banal in comparison.
The story in the Times today talk about the person who was the inspiration for the character Omar Little. Omar is a guy who robs drug dealers. He lives on the edge in a world of violence and drugs. And somehow, he’s not a bad guy. You want him to live and to eventually find the life of peace and love and intellectual stimulation where he would seem most comfortable. The real Omar (actually, one of the people that make up the composite that is Omar) is Donnie Andrews who, after serving a long prison sentence for murder, has become one of a team of former addicts and criminals working to get kids off the streets. This is very powerful stuff.
Organizations that work with students and disasters and under served populations and almost everything else have these powerful stories of hardship and of success. They should see the power in them and dig them out and write about them and capture these people on video and in pictures and in their own words. It is these stories that make connections for people to the problems that are otherwise totally abstract. If I want to make a difference I want to make a difference for a person, not an issue. This is, of course, what we do at See3 and I sometimes feel like a broken record talking about it. But it works and it’s surprising how much the nonprofit sector still needs to hear it.
Who knew? The famous Red Cross — that symbol of of safety and rescue — is actually owned by the American company Johnson & Johnson. Before the American Red Cross was officially chartered more than 100 years ago, Johnson & Johnson was selling products using the symbol and had it registered as their corporate trademark. They have been totally fine with it being used by the American Red Cross, until now.
Seeing the headlines, “Johnson & Johnson Sues Red Cross Over Symbol” it is easy to say look at the big bad corporation going after the poor nonprofit. I am not sure that’s the case here.
The Red Cross has made a move in recent years that threaten the business interests of Johnson & Johnson by licensing the symbol to companies that make consumer medical products. The result is that you can go into your local Walgreens or CVS and see a Red Cross endorsed product competing with a similar product from Johnson & Johnson. I don’t know all of the story but it seems the company has tried to work this out without court, but the Red Cross kept moving ahead.
The Red Cross is a huge bureaucratic organization that has had its share of staff turnover and scandal in recent years. I remember them advertising to give blood after 9-11 and I was thinking… blood for who? Their move into licensing reminds me of AARP, an organization with a massive for-profit subsidiary. AARP trades off its access to the nations seniors to make a mint, in partnership with some of corporate America’s biggest companies. Mission driven or profit driven?
I can only imagine that within Johnson & Johnson there was a lot of debate about this move. Would the benefits of a suit outweigh the negative publicity? My guess is that the Red Cross had to be pretty non-responsive for J&J to go this far.
The Red Cross is an example of an organization that needs to get back to their authentic story. The story is not about misleading ads or about consumer product sales or about local chapters run amok. The authentic story is about helping people. It’s about dedicated volunteers and lives shattered and put back together. If they focused as much on getting back to this story as in creating a consumer products division, the donations will flow like never before.
On Friday I went to a social networking panel at Yearly Kos and this is the last thing I have to write up from the conference. The title of the session was “Politics 2.0 - How social networks and new media are changing politics.” On the panel we had Amy Rubin, Stephanie Taylor, Beka Economopoulos and Ruby Sinreich. I didn’t stay for the entire thing, but what I caught was good.
First up was Ruby Sinreich. Her subject was, what makes for effective social networks. Here are some notes:
1. Strong Social Ties
a. personal relationships
b. trust
c. awareness - you have to know the network exists
2. Common Story - we have to be on the same page (eg. Sorry Everybody)
3. Communication grid so people can talk to each other
eg. drinkingliberally.com which is online and offline
one-to-many. You have to have the ability to communicate.
4. Shared Resources
a. data information - eg. wikipedia
b. skills and expertise
c. money
d. space
5. Clarity of Purpose
a. do you feel like a member?
b. knowing what the network is for
After her talk she showed different types of network diagrams. According to Ruby, the mesh network is the best because it is not dependent on a single point — if one person leaves it stays together.
Amy Rubin, the Deputy Director of New Media from the John Edwards campaign then talked about their social network strategy as it related to promoting a webcast after the last debate.
My take-aways from her talk:
1. You can reach out to lots of online communities, but you need a single site that brings all the information together.
2. Meet people where they are, don’t make MySpace people come to Facebook or try to create groups that cross network platforms. Yes, it is more work, but you have to meet people where they live online.
3. Focus on influencers. Not everyone is equal, let the people who influence their friends move your message.
4. The list will grow naturally as you give people what they want where they want it. Don’t make them leave their comfort zone to do something you want them to do. List growth comes when people are interested.
5. Care2, working with them was great to seed the actions.
6. Created private leadership groups within each social network - give the people working the most something special.
The highlight of the session was Beka Economopoulos from Greenpeace. Yes, her name alone would make it a highlight.
She is an online organizer for Greenpeace. Her history is with off-line organizing and so her job is to see how we can leverage social networks and integrate web 2.0 platforms to leverage off-line results. In other words… can you use the web to get people to show up and do things in the real world.
She organizes days of action so people can participate to do bake sales or congressional visits. Greenpeace has 65,000 friends in MySpace. Getting friends is not a communications strategy — MySpace isn’t a web page it’s a network. She had a nice analogy for this. “A friend on a social network is like putting on a bumper sticker.” It’s a sign of affiliation but that’s it.
At Greenpeace, they have a team of interns who work to respond to people it pays off. Their email list is growing and they consider those friends to be an extension of their email list because they send their newsletters and alerts to them as well. So the 65,000 new eyeballs and ears are great, but they are paying close attention to how to convert those people to activists.
She then showed us an amazing case study of action against Kimberly Clark, the big paper company. Kimberly Clark makes Kleenex and they heard that Kleenex was going to be shooting a commercial in Times Square. The commercial was to have real people sit on a couch and tell the camera about their “Kleenex moment.” This makes for great TV because it is an authentic voice. Beka called this the “fetishization of the reality TV genre.” And it set them up for a fall.
Greenpeace inserted themselves into the the story. They are focused on what she called “narrative driven campaigning and culturally focused organizing.” Which is to say, paying attention to what the symbols in the culture are that are resonating and how you can insert yourself into the story and point those symbols in new a direction and with new meaning. So Beka and her merry band brought their own crew and hidden mics and inserted themselves into this commercial shoot. The goal was to educate people about the fact that Kleenex is made from virgin forests and uses no recycled content.
What’s terrific here is not only how well this worked, but how they used the product of it to create a story and training video. The idea with this video is to empower more people to take their own actions and to get people thinking that they too can become an activists. Have a look:
One thing you will notice is that it’s long for web video. She said that friends thought it was too long but it holds together to tell a story — more training video than PSA. All the people in the action are new people. The guy who did the sound bites had never done anything before, now they are all hooked. Beka then promoted this to blogs, focusing on online progressive news and environmental blogs, then promoted it to ad agency and brand people.
Her conclusion was that there is a flattening of politics with over-saturation of media and so organizations should focus their energy and resources when and where you have good content. Amen Sister!
She also said, to my great delight, that there is no such thing as virability. You have to work the communities to get critical mass. She said that on MySpace they are getting very high conversion rates and that people who were individually messaged on a bake sale had a 15% conversion rate to off-line participation and that their average is 10% conversation. That’s huge.
I am not at all optimistic about the long-term prospects of Microsoft as a company. And that is for a different post. But in terms of digital advertising, some of their folks get it. I have been writing a long time about how advertising is changing, how you the fundraiser or the marketer must adopt the new paradigm that entertains, shows instead of tells, and meets people in their communities with content that interests them — and allows them to contribute to the conversation. Here’s a cute video representation of the problem consumers have with traditional advertisers.
I went to a session on Friday at Yearly Kos about the impact of video through the 2008 election. I had meant to “live blog” the session, meaning, I was typing while sitting in it and could have published this, but live blogging doesn’t give you the chance to make sure things make sense for your readers and I was not breaking any news, so I waited until now to finish this.
The moderator of the panel was from the New Politics Institute, a progressive think tank that is tracking changes in politics from the progressive perspective.
Marcy Wheeler a blogger with FireDogLake who has moved to video blogging.
John Amato from Crooks and Liars who we are told was way ahead of his time with web video. The Vlog Father.
At the start of the session he showed the famous Johnson daisy ad.
This was really revolutionary when it ran. It is very powerful. I wonder about the “we must love each other” part. Not sure what he meant by that really.
Another point mentioned at the start of the session was that we have come along way from that ad, where everyone who saw it saw it on TV. Google’s revenue is approaching the total ad revenue from all network television.
We then saw the famous Macaca video. At one point someone asked what the real impact is of all this online video. The answer - we know a US Senate seat was lost because of it. If you haven’t seen that video, I pasted it below. The context is that an Indian-American is basically being called racial names from George Allen, who actually thought he would become the President of the United States.
Macaca video.
The campaigns are getting into the act of using web video. At the session we saw screen shots from Obama’s web video announcement, for example.
We are also seeing the parody. The best known one is probably Obama Girl.
Basically, there is a wave of video innovation going on now and it is changing politics.
There are categories of videos here. Viral Hollywood. Campaign video blogs. Event clips.
Not as much Flash animation these days. Will there be more? [I don’t think so.]
We also have TV clips that go viral.
And now we are starting to see web features — 5 to 10 minutes.
YouTube CNN Debates, for all the criticism will mark the coming of age of new media.
So here we are today. Lets go to the panel to talk about what’s next for web video.
John Amato on the phone:
“The power of video is truly amazing. With Crooks and Liars I was just getting into the blog world and when I actually saw Bill O’Reilly using right wing propaganda to frame every issue I realized the power of video through television was unique and I needed to get it online. Reading transcripts wasn’t enough. If you see them, see the spin, that would go viral and people needed to see this… ”
The most important things we will see with web video will come from individuals. People will watch the Obama Girl. It will be people at home with their video camera and an idea who can now take action on their ideas. The real power comes from us.
Julie Bergman Sender
Campaign for America’s Future wanted to kick off month long campaign around issue of obstructionist Republican Congress. She then showed us a video she said they did in one day. Staring Jason Alexander. Here it is:
[Love to hear what you think of it. Thought it had some good lines, but seemed too insider to me to have an impact on the masses.]
She also said… and these might not be exact quotes…
“In 2004 when I approached America Coming Together to do the Will Ferrell thing they looked at me like I was a Martian. It had three very clear policy points in it. The key is finding a popular culture conversation to tease out policy points.”
“I think we are in a transformational moment. As Wesley Clark said this morning, who are we? And how are we going to reinvent ourselves and return to the image of ourselves as Americans that we are not living up to.”
“[Speaking of the folks working on new media and web] there are a bunch of new thoroughbreds approaching the gate the if the old guard [of consultants] doesn’t get out of the way they will be trampled. There is a place for straightforward political messaging, biographical narrative treatments, etc. but there is also the person like Wesley Clark who talks about war… he is former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO and he is on our side. It’s about authenticity.
There is still a stranglehold from old guard. We have to throw them over. This new crew, the bloggers, the individuals, the spirit of Yearly Kos that is everywhere… I think this is the new way to look at this paradigm, it is not a vertical command center of messaging, it is horizontal and people can take leadership and then blend it all together and the ones that know this will be the ones that succeed.”
Marcy Wheeler
FireDoglake… they covered the Libby Trial and they matched and surpassed the the old media in that. “I wrote these long posts that had readership of 2,000 people or maybe 10,000 people is max readership. Too long, too detailed and too inside baseball to change the narrative or really take on AP or Washington Post. Then I would write shorter, punchier posts for outlets with higher traffic.”
The live blog from the Libby trial was getting up to 200,000 people a day. There is no way we are going to beat the speakers on Fox… so we thought we need video. After 8 hours of live blogging did 5-10 minutes of video. A lot of people got to us for the first time through video.
People who couldn’t read the live stuff — but they would start with the video then scan the live blog. It gave me an appreciation for telling the story quickly.”
“If I would do this again there should be a video component all along.”
Dan Mannat
Shows this video…
What’s going to happen in the next year? His predictions:
1. VideoRoots — tracking, archival work, the folks doing Crooks and Liars on a local level. Basically the netroots phenomenon that we see so influential moves to video.
2. Self funding videos… contribute money so we can get this on the air. Swift Boat Veterans for Truth was substantially on the web before it went to TV.
3. The Convention — how will they incorporate video? With inspiration of YouTube debate it will be interesting to see what happens with the convention.
4. Video Ad Watch - deconstructing attack ads with video. As soon as an ad goes up you will see video responses. Matter of hours before there will be video responses.
5. No candidate has done what Al Gore showed us.. the policy video. Integration of multimedia to explain policy — make it substantive - -we will see that in the next year.
6. Smear videos — honeymoon during primary, but for general gloves will be off.
Questions he has:
Will there be a YouTube general election debate? Will Commission on Presidential Debates incorporate it?
November Surprise videos.. last time we had Bin Laden…
In 2004 some effort to combat voter fraud with video. In 2008 we will see real time reporting of how long lines are on every precinct in the country. You can auto-post cell phone video to YouTube today.
The session ended with everyone agreeing that video is having and will continue to have a big impact and that the organizations that are able to teach video literacy will be the ones able to have a big impact. (Andrew Rasiej, who was in the audience called it “videacy” or something like that.)
I am here at the Yearly Kos Convention which is being held in Chicago, home of See3 Communications. For the uninitiated, Yearly Kos is a gathering of what’s called the Netroots - liberal/left bloggers who have changed the face of American politics. Kos comes from the website DailyKos, which is the top rated left/liberal blog and one of the most trafficked blogs online. Last year, the bloggers and community around the website DailyKos decided to meet in person. And because all the bloggers were coming, so came the politicians and the organizations wanting to get this community writing about these issues.
Right now I am in a session called Video for Change. Of course this is what we do here at See3. The people on the panel are all talking about hour-long or feature length documentaries. Interesting, but honestly not something that is really in the grasp of most organizations or individuals. Two of the panelists are from Robert Greenwald’s shop, Brave New Films. They do hard-hitting documentaries designed to make change - against Fox News or Wal-Mart.
I spoke at a conference with Robert Greenwald — the Make Your Documentary Matter conference from American University’s Center for Social Media. And one thing he said was that he does not believe you can make a film to be great — as in Oscar great — and make a film designed to make change. According to Greenwald, these things require different sets of choices that are not compatible.
In the session right now, Adam Chapnick from DocWorkers.com is speaking about talking to the organizations that are interested in the issue before you make the film — rather than simply making the film you want to make and then seeking an organization that can help you distribute it. In contrast, our focus at See3 is on empowering the organizations to make the films that advance their mission themselves.
Jim Gilliam is speaking now about the Wal-Mart film they did. He is saying that the research was a mix of what they got themselves and what the organizations — such as the unions — had done over time. They are talking about how the film was distributed in more than 7,000 screenings - school groups, unions, home screenings, church groups, etc.
Tracy Fleischman from Brave New Theaters is talking now about online marketing of the films. First, set up a website. She is saying that the site should be as much of a resource as possible, so people interested in the issue can use the site for research. Made short ads, had people vote on the title of the film, had people voting on different covers for the film — lots of ways to get people involved.
Adam is saying that you need to have people feel ownership — send us your videos or photos, vote on something, the more time people sign something or click the more likely they are to go the next step. He is also saying what we know from all internet marketing — create landing pages that are specific for specific types of groups and audiences.
Tracy now talking about how Brave New Films is focusing on short-form video and not the feature length pieces as they did in the past. For example, they have a site called FoxAttacks.com which is using short pieces to advocate for specific issues — for example trying to get the Nevada Democratic Party to not have a debate on Fox News.
