Essential Facebook Live Kit

Every brand and his dog is jumping on board the Facebook live bandwagon at the moment and recently I’ve been getting a lot of questions about how to run a Facebook live session well and professionally. Aside from all the planning bits, there are a few bits of inexpensive kit you can get to up your Facebook live game considerably. Don’t fall into the trap of producing cheap looking content just because it’s cheap to produce.

With the exception of your smartphone, below are the 3 bits of essential kit to bring your production up to a decent level.

Tripod

The days of Tripod’s costing an arm and a leg are over, there are many to choose from but you can get a pretty decent one for only a few quid. This one is a pretty good entry model, or if you’re out and about the Gorilla Pod is pretty solid as a choice – this model is designed for smartphones and comes with a mount so you don’t need extra bits.

Tripod mount

Most tripods come ready to attach a DSLR, so you’ll need something to anchor your smartphone. This one literally costs a fiver and saves you from shaky frame syndrome!

Microphone

Depending on how noisy it’s going to be this may not be necessary, but you can really up the quality of the audio with a decent directional microphone. This is the more expensive of the pieces you’ll need, but arguably could also deliver the biggest increase in quality. The Rode VideoMic Go works really well, but make sure you also grab this cable for use with smartphones. If you can’t afford the VideoMic Go, this lapel mic is a good second option.

It’s not much, but even a couple of these things will up your game, and that’s a good thing for everyone.

 

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Guerilla Advertising for Secret Diary of a Call Girl

Sometimes, in marketing, someone takes a risk. Someone with whale-sized bollocks takes a risk on a beautiful and inspired idea and then someone else puts it on YouTube so other people can admire the size of this persons man seed generators. Wow! Look at how BIG they are!

Thanks to the illustrious squire, Thomas Davis, this came across my radar and I couldn’t help but give it some kudos.

There are so many things about this that I love; the way the idea generated so much earned media, the slow-burn & reveal tactics that it used, but more than anything the strategic thinking behind the execution and planning of the idea. If I was to lose my cynicism for a spot this looks like a rare case of engineering said idea by building up from the observed behaviour of their targets, rather than the reverse engineering of the ‘snap-to’ polished campaign that so often happens.

It even has undertones of commentary on voyeurism, which ties back into the concept of the show its self.

So awesome.

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Agency Wank

This tickled me greatly. Thanks @Jonstokes!

 

agency-wank

The ability to laugh at one’s self is, in my humble and 26-year old opinion, one of the most important things about being a human being in today’s world. That applies to agencies too. Whether the agencies called out in the blog here (Agency wank on tumblr – http://agencywank.tumblr.com/) see the funny side I don’t know, but I sincerely hope they do.

 

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Brands aren’t always evil

That’s tongue in cheek, of course. I don’t think brands are evil, and I don’t think that marketeers are inherently evil either. On this point I disagree with the late, great Bill Hicks (FYI, Bill, I’m not jumping off a bridge for you). I recognise that the average Joe sometimes has an issue with the commercial motivations of ‘our’ brands being above all others, and sometimes when it’s really obvious I’m kind of on the same page, but you don’t build a brand without believing in it else I’ll call you a wise man what has an obsession with sandcastles.

Lego.

Lego has a special place in my heart. Not only because as a child I used it to exercise my imagination to exhaustion, not only because I can tip out my old Lego box even now and spend hours doing the same, but I think a large part of it is from my exploration into the Lego world from a marketeers perspective. I’ve been blown away with how true they remain to their roots, to how they always seem to be up for doing different and excellent work (some of their print stuff has been sublime, and their digital stuff excellent as well), how they constantly innovate to stay relevant without losing a piece of where they came from, and most of all how they stay true to the power of imagination and how that on its own is one of the most powerful forces our mind has the ability to wield.

What happens in this video is an example of how they smash it across the board really. This, while an offline occurrence, is exactly how brands should be doing community management in my opinion. Looking for the opportunities to reward devoted fans and opening up situations where they can engage and develop those relationships is how things should be, and increasingly are done. Love it.

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Google’s ‘Zeitgeist 2012’

It’s that time of year again when we see retrospective pieces crop up here and there. Some are excellent, some are terrible, some are new and some are old cats to this business. The Google retrospective is one of my favourites.

I really love the way they used Felix and the Stratos mission as bookends to this piece. I mean that has got to be one of the most impressive feats of courage I’ve seen outside of a combat report ever. One crazy dude heads to the edge of space on his own and just jumps off. Balls bigger than my head. ‘Nuff said.

I enjoy reflecting on stuff at the end of a year. That cocktail of emotions that you dredge up and the re-firing of motivating ideas and aspirations you have when looking forward. For me it’s been an interesting one for sure. I’ve learned a lot, laughed a lot, cried some, drank probably too much if we’re honest, harvested some cool memories, and hung out with some cool people that I’m privileged to call my friends, but with that all behind I’m excited about what 2013 is going to bring and looking forward to making the most out of the opportunities that come with it.

And to our late friend Dan, we miss you buddy. Thank you for all the times we had together, hope your rocking it somewhere with fluffy white floors and real ale on tap x

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JOHN LEWIS CHRISTMAS ADVERT 2012

IM BLOGGING ABOUT THE JOHN LEWIS CHRISTMAS ADVERT OBVIOUSLY

 

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@TopShop #TrickorTweet stupidity


Whoever did this on the @TopShop feed needs their head seeing to! Spamming your .5 million followers with 25+ messages to media publications (in about a 5 minute window) with a view to getting press coverage and building links with said publications, using the medium that you use primarily to talk to your fans is sloppy work. ‘Nuff said.

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