The future really is bright, if not with a slight orange glow. Want to play the latest game? Watch the latest movie? Listen to the coolest tracks? But are too fat to nip down to the shops? Fear not, just download it straight to your computer and save more than calories! But then there’s the catch…

All but a very few of those brave new online download retailers offer their goods to non-USA citizens. iTunes music store being one thorn in my eye. But there are others. Check out the all new BitTorrent.com site, now with fancy music and video downloads. But it’s for USA folk only

I understand it’s because of rights issues and licensing. To be honest I think it’s because US companies simply don’t care too much for markets outside their homeland. To be fair, there are new download services – like musicload.de in Germany for example – outside the US of A but they only carry crappy old content and it always lacks the original language or quality.

While we are on the topic of downloading legal content (for a change), what’s up with the whole numbers anyway? AACS used stupid software to protect their goods, serves them right. It’s comparable to a careless shop owner who sleeps at his desk only to discover people freeloading on his merchandise, and complaining about it. How do you want to sue over 700,000 16 year old PFY’s across the world?

Until those large corporations realize that they are about 100 years behind the times and that we live in a truly global village, i doubt that people will stop damaging their bottom lines (no pun intended).

Simple: Close the doors! brighterComputing.com is now by invite only and services are only available to those who demand simply the best and know they will pay for it. This way both sides are happy. The customer can rely on me as a service provider and I can concentrate on serving them without distraction.

The invite only idea isn’t new but I strongly believe that if you want to make something special, it can only be available to a selected few. Although most people want “special” things they are usually just made to feel like it is, without actually getting it. So they usually don’t pay much for it either (i.e. budget airlines). Those that get the real deal, don’t ask how, why or how much – they just put their demands on the table and expect it to get done. Somehow that sounds like a much better thing to do to me, than trying to fake happiness to my customers and give them barely anything for their 99cents. I’d rather not serve them, than serve them badly.

Please feel free to comment or email me if you want real “happiness”. Otherwise, take the blue pill and never mind the rabbit hole

Snakes on a Plane, the new movie with Samuel L. Jackson, has created a lot of buzz online even before it was made. Bands like The Arctic Monkeys came to light because people on MySpace’s spread it through word of mouth by recommending them to their peers. Spencer Kelly writes that you cannot pay bloggers to push a product without loosing their credibility, which although true is not entirely correct. Many underground marketeers, especially brand strategists employ bloggers and key people in the groups the brands target. They have done so long before the Internet gave us blogs, podcasts and social networks. They are doing so carefully however, as not to destroy what they seek to build.

You simply cannot just pay someone to promote your product or brand but you can sponsor events, websites and integrate consumers into their brands definition. By empowering people to openly criticse your brand and dealing with this feedback constructively you can build strong, well respected brands with a large community following. You don’t “pay” community leaders to advertise, you just give the communities what they are interested in. Be it servers to play their games, help organise on/off-line events with them or simply create products and services they want, the way they want it.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/5304892.stm

If you are interested in the evolution of independent broadcasting on the Internet or want to find out more about this new trend, then I strongly suggest you visit these fine sites:

Video Blogging Links:

• Akimbo – Subscribe to several vlogs, in addition to its other video-on-demand programs
• VloggerCon – Video Blogger conference in New York, Minneapolis and Los Angeles
• Y! Video Blogging Group
• VlogDir – Video blog directory site
• WatchThis – Annoucements and recommendations of interesting feeds
• WikiPedia entry on vlogs
• CreativeCommons License

First of all you still need to work the good old-fashioned way by submitting to film festivals and stuffing DVDs into people’s pockets. Secondly get yourself a free website from Blogger.com and add crew and cast profiles, screenshots and anything else that is interesting to other film folks and potential fans. Then find a free or low cost film host. InternetVideoMag.com have done the hard work for you by scouring the net for suitable providers.

Be aware that those free hosts are limiting size and bandwidth/traffic, so only put a small (previews or trailer) versions online and encode it using the DivX codec for quality and compression. If you want to take things further and don’t limit yourself to size and in quality I suggest using Bit Torrent, which helps distributing big files to many people.

What you’ve got so far is a place where people can find out about you, your film and can download it. But how do you get the right audience?

This one will probably require the most work and may take some time to fine tune. I would submit my website to DMOZ.org, the world’s largest human edited directory, for starters. Then Google for message boards, websites and Usenet groups that have an interest in the content of your movie. Usenet is especially useful because it is widely used by people looking for cool new films and with the right Usenet provider (such as easynews.com) you can upload and download your stuff nicely. Most ISPs offer newsgroup access as part of their Internet access package but are quite limited.

Delirium Vault is also a nice place for people with a keen interest in Art House, Film Noir, Japanese and other indie specialities – even Silent films. Where ever you choose to go, make sure to observe the house rules and don’t just spam the sites with meaningless advertising messages! This is extremely counter productive if you want to make a good name for yourself and get people talking.

Which leads us to the main factor in promoting your film successfully: word of mouth. What most people without much Internet experience need to understand is, that the Internet is the best WOM medium there is right now, because it’s ultra fast, reaches the largest possible audience and combines delivery of goods and services.

To participate in message boards and newsgroups is one thing but you can go further by taking time identifying leading people in them that can help build your profile and promote you. This isn’t a quick thing to do and probably takes weeks or months as you first need to build trust between you and them, get them excited about what you do and give them something in return. That may be tickets, mention on your website and film credits, to getting a part in your next venture or what ever they want. Be careful here because building trust between people thousands of miles apart from each other is difficult and requires finesse. Also, if you piss them off the whole thing might backfire. But then again, this whole shebang isn’t much different to what you would do offline, just bigger, faster and probably a lot cheaper.

Once you have connections to a few selected leading people, they will start bumping up your messages. Be it a creation of a separate forum, making announcements or sticking posts so they show up on top, what ever they do it will help get people look at your site and watch your movie. Once that happens and people like it, the whole thing will take on its very own momentum. When you’ve build it, more and more people will visit, come back, discuss, spread the word and bump up your websites popularity with search engines at the same time. Which leads to more people visiting and people start wondering why they can’t see your film in their local cinema or demand high quality DVD copies.

Bingo, you are there. Now you can start talking to cinema operators and distribution companies with the backup of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people. Lobby them safe in the knowledge that you already have an audience and a product that sells. You can start recouping money by selling DVDs and other merchandise and have a strong position to negotiate distribution and other deals from.

For your next project you already have an existing base audience, your own distribution channel and people to help market your film for you. You can replicate, add and go even further this time, although how much you succeed depends entirely on you and the quality of your products of course. Good luck and let me know how things are going.

Related Links:

• http://www.blogger.com/
• http://www.internetvideomag.com/
• http://www.dmoz.org/
• http://www.google.com/
• http://groups.google.com/
• http://www.delirium-vault.tv/
• http://www.filmmakerforum.com/
• http://www.filmmakerforum.co.uk/
• http://www.raindance.co.uk/

In my humble opinion, this ad in particular and the new style of VW Golf cars have changed the brand from the old boring label to what it should have been long ago: young and cool. I’ve driven several Golfs before and always found them rather dull. Other VW cars, like the Passat, were even duller. The only exception has been the GTI range but it suffered from the dullness of the rest of the brand. So well done to VW for getting its act together and making something reliable fun.

You can download the Bit Torrent file here (Quick Time Movie, Courtesy of torrents.brighterComputing.com). You can find more opinions on the ad on Derek Meister’s blog too. If you discuss this item in your blog, please post a trackback and I’ll include it.

I just love this spot. It really makes me feel happy The tune is wicked too and carries the message, I wished they’d release it on CD (probably have now). A good example of how to change an existing brand with a simple spot and slogan. I always felt Muller was a kids thing and felt it was particularly un-exciting. However, since watching the spot I feel it’s more targeted towards me and promotes a trendy, health concious image.

Unlike the awful Nestle cereal spots at the moment, I actually feel like I should buy Muller products to help me live a better, healthier life. Strange, I know, since the spot doesn’t push any particular product at all. It doesn’t say “buy this to make you feel better because of some forumla”. This I think is the key, I don’t need to be told how the product works as long as the brand feels trustworthy and promotes the lifestyle I want to pursue. Shallow?

Living a healthier life has become trendy and people generally don’t just buy into a brand because it has certificates or says “organic”. They buy into it because it makes them feel happy and they can identify with the lifestyle promoted by it. It needs to be believable and honest. Stop bombarding me with fake testimonials and proof! Muller and TBWA\LONDON have got it spot on.

More details can be found at AdForum and on the Muller UK website, which also had a facelift to go with the new campaign. You can download the Bit Torrent file here (Quick Time Movie, Courtesy of brighterComputing.com).