Well, for a slight change of pace, a couple of things I saw this week on Whedonesque that I am compelled to share.
Mattel surely won’t approve of Firefly Barbies but I know at least one person who is probably assembling supplies to create her own Jayne doll.
And for the best review I have seen of the film, check out A guy, a cat, a fish and a movie. There’s also a direct link to the wmv file here.
Cross posted on Backstage at Sundance
Well, Sundance opened with “Friends with Money” and closed with “Alpha Dog.” There has to be a message in there somewhere – perhaps more than one. 
The awards were given last night – FilmBlab has the list and all the corporate sponsors and beautiful people are packing up and going home. Returning Park City to the residents, skiers and boarders that normally make up the winter population.
It was nice to see so many films by and about women: the afore-mentioned “Friends with Money,” “Stephanie Daley,” and “Come Early Morning” among them. And to hear about films like “Little Miss Sunshine” that almost didn’t get made…. and then hit big. I’m also looking forward to “Thank You For Smoking,” the uncut version.
Now that the film festival is over, the work on the HP Charity Auction to benefit Habitat for Humanity begins in earnest. My job, as I’ve mentioned before, is to reach out to the online fan bases of the celebrities who participated. They are, after all, pretty likely to want to bid on a signed poster and autographed photo printer of their favorite star.
UPDATE: Here’s the complete list as of January 29th.
Jennifer Aniston (pictured with Catherine Keener)
Jessica Biel
Nick Cassavettes (“Alpha Dog” group photo) **Updated**
Nick Cave
Toni Collette
Matt Dillon
Aaron Eckhart
Ben Foster (“Alpha Dog” group photo) **Updated**
Gina Gershon
Al Gore
Daryl Hannah
Josh Hartnett
Emile Hirsch (“Alpha Dog” group photo) **Updated**
Terrence Howard
Catherine Keener (pictured with Jennifer Aniston)
Lucy Liu
William H. Macy
Joel Madden of Good Charlotte
Guy Pearce
Laura Prepon
Michael Rapaport
Kevin Smith
Amber Tamblyn
Justin Timberlake (“Alpha Dog” group photo) **Updated**
Wilmer Valderrama
Rufus Wainwright
John Waters
Anton Yelchin (“Alpha Dog” group photo) **Updated**
The Beastie Boys
The Police: Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers (photo only)
The eBay auction starts February 6th. You can see thumbnails of most of the portraits on the WireImage site , and by the time the auction begins, you’ll be able to see images of the signed posters and printers on the auction site. We’ll also be posting some of the images on Backstage at Sundance.
So, check it out, and pass the word!
Tags: Blogs, Blogging, Charity, Sundance
One of the things that happens when you have a time-sensitive project like the HP Sundance blog …. You end up blogging there a lot, and “at home” not at all. And a lot of interesting stuff has been piling up in my bloglines for “when I get around to it.”
So here’s the first issue that caught my attention when I wasn’t perusing WireImage for pictures of Jennifer Aniston, Wilmer Valderrama, Amber Tamblyn and Josh Hartnett for posts about the stars in the celebrity auction.
Todd at Topaz Partners and Amy Gahran of Contentious have been discussing whether press releases (and the newswires) are really required to meet SEC disclosure requirements for public companies.
The Topaz post that indexes a series of posts on the topic: Blog series: Press releases, public companies and blogs .
Amy’s post on same: Disclosure, Press Releases, and Life Support: Can We Pull that Plug After All?
So far, their conclusion is that yes, the wires are still probably the safest bet for a public company to guarantee compliance for material disclosures, but they seem to be moving to an argument that the form of the press release could change and the company would still be in compliance.
Here are some of my thoughts on the subject.
There are a lot of gray lines when you get going and that’s why corporate communication directors at public companies (a job I have had more than a few times) have a tendency to treat everything with the same process as material news. It is safer, and in the total scheme of things, the fee for a release on pr newswire or business wire is WAY cheaper than the fines and damage to reputation of the firm if you’re wrong.
So, in order to really explore new methods for the dissemination of non-material news, we need a bit more clarity here. Until then, public companies are a bit stuck.
It is important that it be well written but as far as reaching the media, the word gets out because you contact the right people with the information with the right “pitch.” And because you provide access to newsmakers, fact sheets, photos and other back-up materials that flesh out the story.
I think we are asking an awful lot if we jettison the press release, and begin subjecting media to multiple different formats that make it harder to understand what is going on. And for some things (financials), the format is pretty well defined. For good reason. Creative approaches are generally frowned upon when it comes to financial results.
Bottom line: we need a standard format for organizing the news. The press release works okay for me so I am in no hurry to replace it. But that doesn’t mean that it is the only thing I do to reach media (and other audiences) for clients.
When an announcement is definitely NOT material, it makes sense to use a blog to start getting the word out. That’s exactly what we’ve been doing with the stars in the HP charity auction I’m working on right now. A press release about the auction went out before Sundance started, and a PR person is doing her magic at Sundance. But we’re officially announcing each participant on the blog. Another press release won’t go out until the very end of the festival summarizing everything we’ve already announced on Backstage at Sundance.
But the blog is not sufficient in and of itself. We’re still using regular PR outreach. And we still have to reach out to fans, which is a process of online research and individual emails to fan sites and blogs to let them know that their favorite celebrity’s signed photo is in the auction. And of course, remember when you reach out to bloggers and Web sites, you had better target your audience. Know that they’ll likely be interested in what you are sending, or it’s just spam.
It is the sum of the activity, not any one activity, no matter how cool, that gets the result.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to more of their discussion. Check it out, and join in.
Tags: Blogs, Blogging, Charity, Sundance, PR, Public Relations, Marketing
HP’s Backstage at Sundance blog is progressing nicely. The bloggers are doing a great job sharing their experiences at the festival. And I am having a blast pulling WireImage pictures to accompany our posts about stars who’ve agreed to participate in the charity auction.
For me, the fact that we are announcing who is participating in the auction on the blog is pretty much the most exciting thing about the blog.
Yes, you read that right: HP is using a blog as a primary method to disseminate news. Now, granted, not news related to its core business, and definitely news well suited to online outreach. And we are also doing PR outreach in the traditional fashion. But there won’t be a traditional press release about the auction participants until the festival is over, whereas we are releasing the names of the stars on the blog as they join.
Bottom line, in my opinion, it is a very positive step forward when a big company “gets it” in any fashion, large or small.
And the blog is about more than the auction; the HP employees who are its principal writers are on the ground in Park City as volunteers and staff for HP’s many activities throughout the festival. They are blogging about being there, who they meet, where they eat. And so on…
I particularly wanted to alert my readers to the auction. Of course, some of the stars are very well known like Jennifer Aniston and The Police (!) and their pics will probably sell for a lot (or at least they will if I do my job!). But some are less well known, if equally talented, and it is possible to get a cool picture and a cool printer for a decent price that also benefits charity. What could be better than that! Last time, I bid on (and won) the picture and HP printer signed by Alan Cumming. We love the printer and the picture is going in my son’s room (Alan Cumming was in X-Men 2.)
Check it out. Tell them I sent you
As some of you know, last fall, I helped HP promote a charity auction of celebrity signed photos and printers from the Toronto Film Festival.
Well, we’re back
HP is a presenting sponsor at the Sundance Film Festival, which opened today, and is doing the auction again, this time to benefit Habitat for Humanity.
As a sponsor, HP has a lot of activity at the festival – from providing the technology backbone to the entire festival, as well as all the festival “printables” (posters, signs, and so forth) to a pretty neat consumer promotion where attendees can win HP digital photography gear. Plus of course, the HP Portrait Studio produced by WireImage, where all the celebrities come to get their portraits done.
As part of the overall Sundance effort, HP decided to do a blog. With all the staff and volunteers on the ground in Park City, we had all the makings of a cool blog: stuff going on and people there to write about it.
So, Backstage at Sundance was born:
The Backstage at Sundance blog is your backstage pass to what’s happening at Sundance. HP is a presenting sponsor at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, and a group of HP employees have agreed to blog all about it. So those of us who can’t be there will feel like we are! Everything from what’s happening on the streets of Park City to interviews with the stars coming into the WireImage Portrait Studio, to film reviews, to a backstage look at the HP technology that’s powering the festival. It will all be here! Plus, the blog will have the first look at the celebrity photos that will be available in our charity auction on eBay in February.
I helped HP with the blog’s editorial development including helping them clarify the overall objectives of the blog, training the bloggers (most of them new to the medium) on general blogging principles, giving them some general guidance on what “blog what you experience” means, identifying “beats” such as film reviews and Portrait Studio reports, and generally supporting the writer-volunteers. I also am blogging for them (from a distance unfortunately) during the festival and auction, mostly about things I find on the ‘net about Sundance.
Our hope was that the bloggers’ excitement at being at Sundance would permeate their writing, and from initial reports, I know it will. I spoke to one of the bloggers this morning and she was jazzed! She had arrived in Park City last night, and already had about four blog posts in her head from people she had met everywhere from the airport to the shuttle to the restaurant at dinner!! She just needed to get online and write the posts!!
And that’s the key – real people will be blogging from Sundance all about their experiences. HP products may be mentioned, but the bloggers have been told that there is absolutely no requirement to ever mention a product. It fits what you want to write, go for it. It doesn’t, that’s fine too. A fun, entertaining blog will enhance the HP brand far more than a bunch of posts about products.
Some of the things we blog you may be able to read elsewhere. And some you won’t. For example, the PortraitStudio is not open to the public; Backstage at Sundance is the only place you’ll be able to get behind the scenes. As well as get a first look at which celebrity portraits will be in the auction.
And for me, that is one of the key parts of the blog. I will again be doing the fan outreach for the charity auction once we know which celebrities have agreed to participate. Having an active blog really helps set the stage.
So: if you are interested in the Sundance Film Festival or think you might want to bid in a charity auction to benefit Habitat for Humanity, please check out Backstage at Sundance !!!
Tags: Blogs, Blogging, Charity, Sundance
A new friend sent me a very very funny Web 2.0 link… but before you click, please read the warning:
I think this is funny. BUT: It also has strong language and descriptive imagery. Some may find it offensive. It is probably not work-safe and my former employer’s software likely would have blocked it. If you take this Web 2.0 stuff really seriously, you definitely won’t like it.
You have been warned.
Forget about A-lists, Web 2.0 and all of that jazz. Here’s what we did today:
View from mid-trail, Mt.Wachusett
My son Douglas learning to ski
Take a break… it makes all the difference in the world.
Thanks for all the comments on my A-list bloggers post. I’m going to wrap up my comments here in this new entry. Then I’m moving on.
First, as I have said before, I don’t actually care about the A-list too terribly much. I think it is a bit silly, and have mostly been trying to ignore the whole thing.
However, I have a personal, deeply held belief that if you make it to the top (the top of whatever, mind you, not just blogs) you have a responsibility to your constituents/audience — the ones that helped you get (and keep you) there. Like it or not (and most do), you stand for something and you have to make it count. Perhaps that makes me an idealist. Oh well.
In the case of blogging, I think it means keeping your listening ears on, and the lines of communication open. Especially if you are a communications professional. Yes, it’s a lot of work responding to tons of email, which is why it is always smart to be careful what you wish for.
And I wholeheartedly agree that asking for links is bad practice. The person sending the email has an equal responsibility to provide good information that will be of interest to the recipient.
But don’t shut people down. And regardless of the intent, that is how Steve’s post came across.
It is because Micro Persuasion has such a huge audience — it is often a "first stop" for new bloggers — that I posted. And I’m glad that Steve posted today that he is open to receiving emails. Shows he is listening, and that is a very good thing.
And on a far more humourous note, Hugh over at gapingvoid has neatly summarized this whole conversation in a new cartoon. Just my .02, but I think that should be one of the next t-shirts. I’ll put my order in today if you’ll do it!
For a change of pace (no A-list or Web 2.0 here) I thought I’d share what I did this weekend to avoid the NFL Playoffs.
Understand a couple of things: my husband is a HUGE football fan. All football. He was raised in Pittsburgh and we now live outside Boston. I on the other hand, just don’t get it. I much prefer hockey and basketball. I will watch the Super Bowl, for the ads as much as anything, but all the games leading up to it? YAWN!
So, Saturday night I took my mom out to dinner at Number 9 Park and then to see Little Women at the Boston Opera House. The play was very good, although I agree with the Boston Globe reviewer who said that none of the songs was a break-out hit (I’d link to the review online but the Globe.com site is so hard to navigate, I can’t find it). And you needed to know the story; without the knowledge from the Louisa May Alcott book or at minimum one of the movies, it would be hard to follow. Good news of course is that most girls in the US read Little Women as a matter of course, and this was definitely a "chick play."
Sunday: Brokeback Mountain finally made it to the local theatre, and away I went. If you haven’t seen it yet, GO!!!! It was one of the best films I have seen in years.
One thing that occurred to me after seeing both of these: the folks that adapted Little Women took a pretty fat book and condensed it to about 2-1/2 hours. And the folks that adapted the short story by Annie Proulx took a slim story and made it into a film just about as long. Luckily, neither seemed too long
Next week, I’ll be taking my son to see Chronicles of Narnia.
I’m glad to know that I’m not the only one confused/concerned (previous posts 1 and 2) about the term Web 2.0.
Tris Hussey points to an exchange between Jeneane Sessum (for) and Halley Suitt (against), and comes down on the for side.
If I have to pick, I’m still against. And not so much against the ideas as I am the hype potential.
It’s not that I don’t understand the concepts that are being included under the Web 2.0 term. Or even disagree that many of the changes in the online world that have and are occuring as a result of "social media" are as revolutionary as they are evolutionary.
I just have an inherent dislike of labels. I also see too much old-style jockeying for position, influence and prestige (A-list anyone?) to believe that companies won’t use this label to hype products that really aren’t revolutionary or even evolutionary. Things have changed, but not as much as (yes) the hype would have us believe.
