Nike’s recent ad featuring Lebron James asking “what should I do?,” was widely praised for its creative and messaging genius. Take some lemons and turn them into lemonade.
When I first heard about the advertisement, I was skeptical. But after a couple of viewings, I decided it was typical successful Nike corporate messaging: In your face, direct and memorable.
But one thing is certain these days. Any message that generates attention will also likely generate a response.
And the response Cleveland dished back to Nike and Lebron James is a killer.
Take a look:
This is even more in your face, starker and more memorable.
It may be fair to suggest that Cleveland get over it. But beyond that issue, this video is great.
And it carries a lesson for everyone in the communications industry today: Expect your creative efforts to be answered, sometimes harshly, sometimes with an even better message than your original. The creativity in the clouds is real and it is permanent.
You never get the last word anymore. There is no last word these days.
David Bernknopf spent more than 20 years at CNN, joining just prior to CNN's premiere and leaving shortly after serving as site manager at the crash site of United flight 93 in Pennsylvania after 9/11. Since then, he has worked in public relations and video production in Atlanta.
Take a look at this PSA we produced and edited for the Sierra Club starring Atlanta Falcons Fullback Ovie Mugelli.
We shot this on location in less than a day and edited and delivered it the next day.
We’d like to take all the credit, but the truth is that our partner, The Sierra Club, delivered us a great script and Ovie Mugelli was great talent; easy to work with and a total pro.
We are quite proud, though, that our skills made the production side of the equation quick, easy and affordable for all.
SplendidVid always delivers high quality, on time and on budget.
We were the primary video provider at Windpower 2010, the convention of the American Wind Energy Association. Our team had such a blast and did such a good job that we want more work like this. This is our second big convention project. If you’re surfing our site – and who isn’t? – you saw on our home page the great video we did on a short turnaround for Edelman and its biggest client eBay.
Here’s an entertaining summary of what we did at Windpower 2010.
SplendidVid also produced a fundraising video for the Wind Energy Foundation, the non-profit arm of AWEA. This baby played numerous times at the convention and at the Dallas House of Blues prior to the Elvis Costello concert.
If you’re still hanging in there, you might as well go for the trifecta. In addition to two news feeds a day and the archive we created for AWEA, we also put together a sprightly highlights reel every day. Because multi-purpose is our middle name (we had strange parents) these little gems were posted on the AWEA website and ran on dozens of monitors at the convention center.
Ted Rubenstein is an award-winning television producer with 25 years experience in storytelling, having created documentaries, series, newsmagazine segments, multi-subject multi-hour programs, and internet content.
We have spent a lot of time with clients and potential clients working on a model to solve one of their key problems.
They know they want web video on their web sites, but in this economic environment, they can’t afford to spend tens of thousands of dollars to produce a couple of videos. But they want something that look professional, and not like Aunt Minnie’s home video. Most of all, it must be affordable
Time to pat ourselves on the back, because we have come up with a solution.
By pre-producing and organizing every aspect of the shoot (from interview locations, to existing corporate video, to b-roll shoots) we can trim the time it takes to complete the shoot. We provide a clear checklist to the client to help them organize their ideas, materials and creative team prior to the shoot. Because of our unique experience and skills developed in the never ending deadline pressure of CNN, we can edit and even re-edit a video in a day or two.
Here is an example of a new video that took just a couple of days to produce, shoot and edit for Affix Music, a licenser of urban music.
Every shoot is different, so it’s not wise to list costs here. But if you contact us, I’m sure we can go over your needs and come up with a video or series of videos to match your budget.
David Bernknopf spent more than 20 years at CNN, joining just prior to CNN's premiere and leaving shortly after serving as site manager at the crash site of United flight 93 in Pennsylvania after 9/11. Since then, he has worked in public relations and video production in Atlanta.
Throughout the Tiger Woods saga, I have maintained a slightly contrarian view.
I have felt there were good reasons for Tiger to avoid the “big” network interview. Those reasons include the need for time and space to work out real issues involving his family, his life, and his businesses. I’ve thought there was more Tiger couldn’t say (at least yet) and therefore, any free form interview was likely to create more problems for him than it solved.
Was his mea culpa last week perfect? Far from it. But it seemed heartfelt and honest and I give Tiger credit for that.
The one decision I don’t understand was the decision to invite a handful of reporters and then not allow questions.
Anyone who knows the news media should have known that journalists would be up in arms about that aspect and might (as in the case of the Golf Writers Association) refuse to participate.
My advice to Tiger would have been, just hold your briefing in private and make the feed available to anyone who wanted it. All the networks would have gladly taken the feed and you would have avoided the anger over inviting reporters and then muzzling them.
The controversy was unnecessary. Companies and individuals put up their own feeds and their own videos all the time these days. Those interested then have the choice to take it or leave it. And that way, sports talk stations, newspapers columnists and network talking heads wouldn’t still be spending time arguing over the way the event was staged instead of focusing on Tiger’s words.
David Bernknopf spent more than 20 years at CNN, joining just prior to CNN's premiere and leaving shortly after serving as site manager at the crash site of United flight 93 in Pennsylvania after 9/11. Since then, he has worked in public relations and video production in Atlanta.
At SplendidVid, we offer a product called the Documentaryspot. It combines the elements of advertising, marketing, reality TV, and interesting storytelling in a way that tells your corporate story or sells your product in a true and honest format.
More and more companies have come to agree with us that your customers are often your best advertisers and that their real life stories should be used to illustrate the value of your goods and services.
Every day another major company comes on board and begins showcasing its value through this non traditional means.
Just this week, we heard from two potential clients in very different businesses who want us to help them map out a marketing/advertising campaign that uses customers describing real situations.
And, of course, we think that our decades of telling similar real true stories on CNN makes us the perfect group to produce your stories.
David Bernknopf spent more than 20 years at CNN, joining just prior to CNN's premiere and leaving shortly after serving as site manager at the crash site of United flight 93 in Pennsylvania after 9/11. Since then, he has worked in public relations and video production in Atlanta.
Every day, almost every hour, the situation grows worse for Tiger Woods, both personally and professionally.
And every day, almost every hour, another image expert or PR consultant recommends Tiger move into serious damage control mode before he loses his endorsements, his image, his money.
But since this story first broke, I’ve thought the opposite. Because I believe all PR and all reputation management must spring from truth, I can understand why Tiger has been silent.
We on the outside, still don’t know the full extent of the damage, let alone the truth. There is a strong possibility Tiger can’t listen to his critics and appear on Oprah or 60 Minutes yet because there is worse to come. At some point in the not too distant future, Team Tiger will know the full truth and can then begin working out both his personal and business issues. It’s pretty easy to call for Tiger to appear side by side with his wife on Oprah (as one expert advised today). But that likely is not even a realistic possibility at this time. My guess is that Tiger’s wife doesn’t feel like being a prop standing by her man at this stage.
Whenever Tiger is ready to comment on camera for the first time, I would recommend he make use of new media, not traditional media.
Tiger, produce your own version of 60 Minutes for now.
There might be a time for the full Oprah treatment later, but why not sit down first with a person of your choosing, someone you trust and answer the questions most people are asking.
By doing it this way, Tiger maintains control of the situation, his image, of the editing while buying time by providing the video to anyone who wants to see it on his web site or via YouTube.
Such an effort can’t appear staged or written. It has to be real. But Tiger’s first video venture doesn’t have to involve being flayed in the lion’s den of commercial TV lights. It can and should involve a controlled and tame version, the kind of thing Tiger has always sought.
David Bernknopf spent more than 20 years at CNN, joining just prior to CNN's premiere and leaving shortly after serving as site manager at the crash site of United flight 93 in Pennsylvania after 9/11. Since then, he has worked in public relations and video production in Atlanta.
Rolling Stone Magazine recently published an extraordinarily critical piece about investment banker Goldman Sachs. The article detailed a long alleged history of market manipulation and government string pulling.
Goldman Sachs obviously disagreed strongly with the premise and the story line. SplendidVid suggested to the Chairman of Goldman Sachs that part of the corporate response include producing its own video version of the company’s long history.
Unfortunately for us, our suggestion was turned down. But it got us thinking about corporate history and corporate legacy.
It’s very difficult, unless CNBC or Biography channel comes calling, for a CEO to get his or her story told in great detail these days. It’s even more difficult to get a company’s history told in a respectful and (nearly) complete way.
We’re also inspired by watching Ken Burns National Park series. It is clearly a ‘legacy’ project, although not about a corporation.
Our friends at Loop (click here) have been doing wonderful personal legacy films; beautifully produced video versions of a retiree’s life or a child’s growth.
So we’re exploring a combination of all those. Corporate legacy videos that respectfully and proudly illustrate a company’s history, growth, strengths and values.
Give us a shout if you are interested.
David Bernknopf spent more than 20 years at CNN, joining just prior to CNN's premiere and leaving shortly after serving as site manager at the crash site of United flight 93 in Pennsylvania after 9/11. Since then, he has worked in public relations and video production in Atlanta.
No matter the size of an organization, it’s populated with people. Real people, not just cogs in a faceless, unfeeling machine.
What we’ve learned from the great 20th century documentarians, like the Maysles Brothers, is that everyone has a story to tell.
Tell the story of your organization through the variety of people in it.
Let us create video profiles and video blogs for your website and get your message out in your own words.
Don’t assume you can’t afford high production value video.
SplendidVid offers creative solutions to work within any budget.
We know how to tell stories. Let us tell yours.
Ted Rubenstein is an award-winning television producer with 25 years experience in storytelling, having created documentaries, series, newsmagazine segments, multi-subject multi-hour programs, and internet content.
Every day, almost every hour, the situation grows worse for Tiger Woods, both personally and professionally.
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